Author Archives: Sal

About Sal

I’ve got tons of experience with Halo gaming and collecting. I feel I have something to offer to the greater Halo fan community. Posts along the way will be about tips and tricks in the games as well as collecting and many more Halo related things. I’ll also repost interesting articles from the official site, Halowaypoint.com, or from fellow Halo fan sites. As I continue this blog, I hope to help gamers who want advice on the games, as well as any collectors with regards to where to find collectibles as well as deals, coupons and so on. You can also follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/HaloFanForLife or Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/halofanforlife11. Welcome to my blog and I hope you’ll come back again and again. -Sal

Halo Waypoint Bulletin for 1-9-13

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http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2013/01/09/The-Halo-Bulletin-1913.aspx

The first half of the bulletin has Frank O’Conner talking about his belief that the team at 343 has done a great job and will do even better for the next game. He acknowledges that there are issues with the current game, though stops short of saying they will fix the better part of those issues.

The second half of the bulletin has BS Angel writing about what is to come in the next few weeks.

Spartan Ops of course returns in less that two weeks. Also, we finally get Griffball!!! As well as Doubles in rotational playlists. (Man, I hope these stay.)

For those who’s specializations are locked, you will now be granted two new specializations each week for the next three weeks starting on or about 1/21. Good news for those abroad.

BS Angel also states the need to be more present and up front about news and getting it out there in more venues to the fans.

A decent read. Yet, I think a good many of us were expecting a bit more, namely fixes to the game itself. Granted much of 343 was out for the holidays. Okay folks, no excuses now, get crackin’! LOL

-Sal

Spartan Ops, Mission by Mission: Episode 1 “Departure”, Mission 3 “The Challenge” (or SpOps 1-3)

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Episode 1 “Departure”, Mission 3 The Challenge

Map: Fortress
Objectives: Destroy Jammer, turn off jamming arrays, turn off main power.

Recommended Loadout: Since there are a fair amount of Crawlers you combat during this mission, I recommend using a BR. It’s a powerful scoped weapon. However, the main reason I recommend it for this level is for it’s 3-shot burst. You only need put one shot into the head of a crawler and it will go down. So dont’ waste your energy on a DMR where you have to be more precise. Use the BR and give yourself 3 shots to hit them. For your secondary weapon it’s your choice. AR is perfectly acceptable here, as is the Carbine. Bear in mind though, that you’ll likely have to switch out weapons at some point for more ammo. So pick up those dead crawlers suppressors! I use Jet pack heavily on this map as it makes it much easier and quicker to get to objectives, especially given the objective atop the center tall tower.

Walkthrough:

Okay so as you see, I’ve added different color arrows to the paths I normally take. This is to show divergent paths that I typically take during this mission. Start off following the green path. Along the way you destroy the jammer (point 1). You can pick up a rocket launcher along they way. Do it. It will help clear out those crawlers easily. From there, jet pack up to the mid-level of the tower and wait for the next two objectives to activate. Keep in mind that Watchers will spawn intermittently during this mission. As with ANY Spartan Ops mission, it is imperative to take them out. While they themselves do not pose a huge threat to you in gunfire, it’s their ability to spawn Forerunner Turrets and in other missions, respawn Knights that can cause you serious problems. So take them out!
At this point you can choose which one you go for first. This is where I show the divergent paths. You can take the red path to point 2 then point 3, or, the dark blue path to point 3, then point 2. It doesn’t matter which. If you’re playing co-op, then have a teammate go to the opposite one you went to, to shut them both down quicker.
From here, go to the top of the tower to power it down. Pick of any remaining Prometheans and wait for your evac point. Before going straight to it, if you want to get some real fire power, go to the base of the main tower, opposite of the ramp (in the pic it’s the weapon cache at the south point of the main tower). There you will find an Incineration cannon. This is extremely helpful as you will face a small horde of crawlers. The cannon can take out several easily in one shot. You can still easily defeat the crawlers without the cannon. That just makes it easier. Follow the light blue path to your evac point, kill off any remaining crawlers and watchers and wait for extraction.

Commendations you can work on with this mission: There are certainly plenty of crawlers to kill here as well as well as watchers. However, there are missions in later episodes that offer far more crawlers to kill. You’re choice, but I’d choose those other missions over this one to kill crawlers, just for the shear numbers.

Mission Stats:

As you can see I diversify my weapons usage here. I make heavy use of my initial loadout weapons. Then as my ammo is depleted I switch to those power weapons as mentioned above and snag a suppressor.

Again, this mission is good for Crawlers and Watchers. But if you want more in one mission, then you can by-pass this one. Still, it’s a good mission to replay if just for the pure firefight enjoyment of it.

-Sal

HaloFanForLife’s first ever Charity Tournament update RULES and more INFO.

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Okay folks here are the rules and other info for the tournament, same applied to both 4v4 and 2v2 tournaments unless otherwise specified:

• Players must use a legitimate gamertag, no guests will be accepted, no exceptions.
• Tournaments are best of three, single elimination.
• Your team is allowed no more than 10 minutes late time from the time posted for your match. If you fail to show up as a full team, you are immediately disqualified (no half teams going into matches, for example).
• Payment to enter tournament must be sent by whomever is designated the team leader. The person will also be the team leader in the competition.
• If interested in submitting your team/payment, contact me at sal@halofanforlife.com and I will then give you the paypal e-mail address to send payment to. Paypal is the only form of payment I will receive.
• Entries into the competition can be taken up to February 9, 2013 at noon Easter time.
• While I can’t enforce this, I ask that you all be on good behavior. Remember you are representing yourself, your team, this competition and keep in mind that the charity if for kids. To that end, please refrain from using any improper language in lobbies and games. And please no t-bagging. Again, I can’t enforce that, but it is very much appreciated if you don’t do those things.
• The maps to be played on will be available on my fileshare sometime during January 26. They will be labeled as:
–  HFFL 4v4 slayer
–  HFFL 4v4 CTF
–  HFFL 4v4 Oddball
–  HFFL 4v4 Regicide
–  HFFL 2v2 slayer
–  HFFL 2v2 CTF
–  HFFL 2v2 Oddball
–  HFFL 2v2 Regicide
Be sure to download both the map and gametype for each.
• Do not look to exploit maps. I will be in the game lobbies to start and will load the maps from my fileshare. Anyone caught cheating will disqualify their team from competition. Each match must be save in the team leader’s fileshare so I can review them if there are any objections. Let’s keep this to a minimum here folks, this is to be a friendly competition to raise awareness and money for charity.
• Tournament schedule will be posted on the blog the Friday, 2/15/13 before the tournament starts.
• The 2v2 tournament will start at 3pm the Saturday of the tournament weekend 2/16/13.
• The 4v4 tournament will start at 3pm the Sunday of the tournament weekend 2/17/13.
• Be sure that your team is available for the rest of the day as I’m not sure how long it may take to get through the tournament.
• As matches conclude, I will update the tournament bracket so that each team knows who they will be facing off against in the next tier should they win.
• In the event of a ties, the team to FIRST get to the tied amount will win.
– For example if a slayer match goes 480-480, the team to get to 480 first will win. This can be verified through HaloWaypoint.com. As well for objective matches if a game goes 2-2 CTF, the team that captures the flag for the second time FIRST would win. Should Oddball be a tie, the team that reaches the final tying score first would win.
So in this respect it is VERY important that you go for the win as fast as you can, as a tie may not go in your favor.

If there is anything I missed, PLEASE reply or shoot me an e-mail sal@halofanforlife.com.

I want to make sure all relative questions are answered.

-Sal

Halo Mega Bloks series 6 minifigs!

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I love collecting these little minfigs. This particular wave brings more translucent figures to market. In particular is a lime green translucent elite. I can’t be certain, but I think someone at Mega Bloks made that with me in mind as I LOVE lime green AND translucent figures.

So without further ado, here are the figures from this wave.

The front of the minifig packet:

 

Here’s the insert that shows all the figs, minus the “secret” translucent figs:

What I like about this wave of figures is that there is something in it for every kid/collector. You’ve got army builders in the Marine, Jackals, Grunts and even that very cool shade of Blue elite. You’ve also got several Spartans, of which the always cool Grenadier version and now the Mark V [b] version, only previously available in the Countdown set (which cost $100). Like wise there are those awesome translucent figures if you like the hunt for rare minifigs.

Kudos to Mega Bloks for yet another fun wave to collect. Hopefully I can find some more Jackals. I need a few squads of them…

-Sal

HFFL partners with Podtacular to bring you Spartan Ops the Podcast.

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Last night I recorded the first in a series of podcasts with POD Dust Storm from Podtacular regarding the episodes of Spartan Ops. During the podcasts we talk about the CG vids/storyline and go over each of the missions briefly as well as a short stat report.

Here’s the link to the Podcast.

Halo 4 Spartan Ops: Departure

And don’t forget that you can also follow the HFFL specific portion of this partnership through my “Mission by Mission” articles for a further more detailed look at each of the missions through gameplay.

Here are the first two articles in that series:

Spartan Ops, Mission by Mission: Episode 1 “Departure”, Mission 1 “Land Grab” (or SpOps 1-1)

Spartan Ops, Mission by Mission: Episode 1 “Departure”, Mission 2 “Sniper Alley” (or SpOps 1-2)

-Sal

HaloFanForLife’s first ever Charity Tournament!

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Hello there folks and thanks for taking the time to check out this very important article.

I’ve been wanting to hold a charity event for some time now. With some recent happenings behind me, I feel I can now give my full attention to doing this. I’d like to announce HaloFanForLife.com’s first ever charity tournament.

I’ve selected Autism Speaks.

You may have heard of Autism, but what is it really? Well check out this link to find out specifically what Autism is. I’ve selected this charity for two reasons. One as a person who suffers from depression and anxiety myself, I found that while not the same, I have similar attributes as those with Autism. Certainly when I was a kid the symptoms of Autism applied a lot to me. But I won’t go into detail there. Also, a friend of mine I highly respect, Andrew Sparkes, Vice President Kids & Collector Brands at Mega Brands, through Mega Brands has donated to this charity as well. So what better way to honor a person I truly admire and respect than to donate to the same charity he supports?

Mega Brands is a licensee of Halo toys and develops the awesome Halo Mega Bloks building sets that I review here on the site.

Okay, so how about the tournament info you ask? Glad you asked, here’s the details at present.

There will be two tournaments.
• 4v4 single elimination
• 2v2 single elimination

Games played will be on custom maps, a couple of which I’ve created (don’t worry, I take great pains to create good maps that work).

Depending on the number of entries will depend on the gametypes played.

First round will be slayer.
Second round, CTF
Third round, Oddball
Fourth round, Team Regicide

That’s if there are enough teams to dictate the need for that many rounds. If there is a need for more rounds (wouldn’t that be awesome) those will be slotted in.

As for prizes, I’m still determining that. At the moment it looks to be a take of the money raised, though truthfully, I’d love to give away prizes instead and give all the money to Autism Speaks. However, at present, I’m not able to grant prizes, unless there is a prize donor that comes forth. So if it comes to monetary prizes, 1st place will receive 20% of the take in monies raised and second place 5%  (for each specific tourney).

No guests are allowed to enter. Each player must have a verifiable gamertag.

[UPDATE] (Date changed to a week later as I forgot that I’ll be in New York covering New York Toy Fair the weekend of February 9…) The Tournament will start on the weekend of February 16, 2013. So there is plenty of time to get your team together.  If interested in signing up for the tournament, please e-mail me at sal@halofanforlife.com.

Custom maps to be played on will be available to download from my fileshare: HaloFanForLife1 on the weekend of January 26, so you’ll have three weeks in which to practice on those maps.

I’ll have the rules in detail for the tournaments soon. In the meantime, please pass the word around and let’s raise awareness and funds for Autism Speaks!

UPDATE: Rules and more info now posted below!

Okay folks here are the rules and other info for the tournament, same applied to both 4v4 and 2v2 tournaments unless otherwise specified:

• Players must use a legitimate gamertag, no guests will be accepted, no exceptions.
• Tournaments are best of three, single elimination.
• Your team is allowed no more than 10 minutes late time from the time posted for your match. If you fail to show up as a full team, you are immediately disqualified (no half teams going into matches, for example).
• Payment to enter tournament must be sent by whomever is designated the team leader. The person will also be the team leader in the competition.
• If interested in submitting your team/payment, contact me at sal@halofanforlife.com and I will then give you the paypal e-mail address to send payment to. Paypal is the only form of payment I will receive.
• Entries into the competition can be taken up to February 9, 2013 at noon Easter time.
• While I can’t enforce this, I ask that you all be on good behavior. Remember you are representing yourself, your team, this competition and keep in mind that the charity if for kids. To that end, please refrain from using any improper language in lobbies and games. And please no t-bagging. Again, I can’t enforce that, but it is very much appreciated if you don’t do those things.
• The maps to be played on will be available on my fileshare sometime during January 26. They will be labeled as:
–  HFFL 4v4 slayer
–  HFFL 4v4 CTF
–  HFFL 4v4 Oddball
–  HFFL 4v4 Regicide
–  HFFL 2v2 slayer
–  HFFL 2v2 CTF
–  HFFL 2v2 Oddball
–  HFFL 2v2 Regicide
Be sure to download both the map and gametype for each.
• Do not look to exploit maps. I will be in the game lobbies to start and will load the maps from my fileshare. Anyone caught cheating will disqualify their team from competition. Each match must be save in the team leader’s fileshare so I can review them if there are any objections. Let’s keep this to a minimum here folks, this is to be a friendly competition to raise awareness and money for charity.
• Tournament schedule will be posted on the blog the Friday, 2/15/13 before the tournament starts.
• The 2v2 tournament will start at 3pm the Saturday of the tournament weekend 2/16/13.
• The 4v4 tournament will start at 3pm the Sunday of the tournament weekend 2/17/13.
• Be sure that your team is available for the rest of the day as I’m not sure how long it may take to get through the tournament.
• As matches conclude, I will update the tournament bracket so that each team knows who they will be facing off against in the next tier should they win.
• In the event of a ties, the team to FIRST get to the tied amount will win.
– For example if a slayer match goes 480-480, the team to get to 480 first will win. This can be verified through HaloWaypoint.com. As well for objective matches if a game goes 2-2 CTF, the team that captures the flag for the second time FIRST would win. Should Oddball be a tie, the team that reaches the final tying score first would win.

So in this respect it is VERY important that you go for the win as fast as you can, as a tie may not go in your favor.

If there is anything I missed, PLEASE reply or shoot me an e-mail sal@halofanforlife.com.

I want to make sure all relative questions are answered.

-Sal

Would you like HFFL to have a gaming group?

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Several subscribers to the blog have shown an interest in there being a HFFL group. I’d like to get some feedback on that idea. Would you be interested in joining the group if I created it?

Before I start developing this group, I’d first like to just gauge interest. Please take a minute if you will and think on it and answer these basic questions:

Would I join the HFFL gaming group?
Would I adhere to the rules of the group?
Do I have the time to be an active member of the group?

Yep, just three simple questions so far.

What I’m seeking for in members are those that are really interested in joining a group, that will follow the rules as I lay them out, and will be active. How much activity in the group, I can determine later. For now, I’d be looking for people who would game at least 2 nights a week with other HFFL members and post a response at least twice a month here on the blog. When I get a forum up and running, I’d want more participation than just responding to articles on the blog.

This group would be a PG-13 rated group. So no hate words in games (for instance “gay” and words similar in nature). No racial slurs, and so on. Cussing I would want to keep to a minimum if possible. Yes, we all get frustrated in games and let slip the occasional cuss word. I do it, so I won’t expect others not to.

The point is, I want this possible group to be respectful of others. We’re here to game, not to trash talk or be immature (well to a point, LOL).

Now the other part of this is how we would approach gaming itself. While I LOVE to win, for me anymore, it’s not the end all be all of gaming with a group. I want to have FUN. That is the key for me. So long as everyone is giving the earnest in trying to win, I’m fine if we lose, as long as we’re having fun gaming together.

Being a skilled gamer will NOT be a requirement to be a member. It helps the group overall yes, but it will never be the crux of being a member.

Alright so there are the basics. Please give it a thought and reply. You can reply to this article OR e-mail me at sal@ halofanforlife.com.

One main requirement would be that you have to be a subscriber to the blog as well. That’s free folks and takes literally a minute to sign up.

-Sal