Guess who’s back, back again!

It’s been a little over three years since I last posted here on my blog.
First let me explain why.

The biggest and initial reason at the start was I was very disappointed at Halo Infinite’s release date being push back a year. This upset me so much that I felt 343 had failed us and at that time chose to not support them by not blogging.
I realize now that that was a mistake and that I should have continued to blog. Be that to vent my frustration, that were shared by others, or to continue posting whatever news and reviews I came across.
Then I got a new job with the government. That kept me pretty busy, that by the time I came home, I was pretty exhausted.
I then got Covid in July 2022. This led me to develop “Long Covid”. It’s a neurological disorder. The effects of which have greatly reduced my capacity for working long hours. I get massive migraines, vertigo, and fatigued all the time.
I started to miss work about two weeks after getting Covid, from this. This condition proceeded to get worse and I was calling off sick 2 days or so a week.
Here in the U.S. we have what’s called FMLA. That is the “Family Medical Leave Act”. It means that my employer could not fire me for missing work due to this condition. However, there is a time limit on that. Unfortunately, I had exhausted that time after 6 months.
While both my Supervisor and District Manager didn’t want to let me go, as I was their best employee, since this was a government job, they had to follow the rules.
Instead of being fired, I chose to resign. This means that should I miraculously recover, I could go back to work there. It’s unlikely though as my condition has worsened.

I am now no longer able to work a full time job. Even part time would be near impossible as my condition flairs up at irregular intervals that I can not predict when I would be healthy enough to work. Beyond walking with me usual cane, I now on occasion have to use a walker. This for stability when the vertigo is affecting me particularly hard.

In any event, over the ensuing months, I found myself gradually playing less and less Halo because my cognitive function for playing multiplayer slowed and I was becoming bad at the game.
Enter Firefight. This game mode has been a god send to me! I don’t have to solo queue in MP and can easily slay aliens.
My gaming time shot was up in December and I have been climbing the ranks in Halo Infinite quickly.

This led me to the decision to start posting here on the blog again. Though I’ve been active on twitter and instagram these past years I always was drawn back to wanting to post on my blog again.
Now that I have a renewed passion for Halo, I’m going to give this a go again.
I will say that due to my neurological condition, I won’t likely post as often. Maybe once or twice a week at best. This is mostly because I become extremely tired and get migraines when in front of a computer screens (gaming aside, thankfully! Whew).

So this all means, HaloFanForLife has become my “job”. I set my own hours and work when I can.

I hope you all will rejoin the HFFL community. I have some things planned for the “HaloFanForLife” identity. Beyond blogging, I’ve been streaming a lot lately. Please follow me there at twitch.tv/halofanforlife.

Thanks for reading this post and lets all help grow a positive Halo community together!

-Sal

Halo Toy Review: Mattel Halo 12 inch Promethean Soldier

Technical Specifications:
Articulation:
• Ball Joint Head
• Ball Joint Shoulders
• Hinge/Swivel Joint Elbows
• Swivel Joint Hands
• Ball Joint Hips
• Hinge Joint Knees
Accessories: Suppressor
Cost: $8-10 (US)
Availability: Mass Retail I got mine from Wal Mart for $8.44 US before tax.

And on with the pics! (Click pics to make BIGGER)
Mattel’s 12 inch Halo figure series showcases each in a tall slender box with the top half of the figure showing through a window. On the back several of the other figures in the series are shown.

Continue reading

Halo Toy Review: Mega Bloks Cobra Clash

MB grey logo  

Mega Bloks Cobra Clash

Technical Specifications:
Build Time: Sorting pieces 30 minutes; Build time2 1/2 hours. Your time may vary.
Set Piece Count: 648
Minifigures: Spartan Copperhead (Teal), UNSC Marine full visor Halo 4 style (Arctic), Storm Elite (Bronze), Grunt minor (Bronze)
Accessories: Saw, Sniper (Arctic), Energy Sword, Plasma Pistol
Special Features: Turret swivels on Cobra, Wheels spin, Retractable/Removable stablizing legs for Cobra, forward wheel armor parts pivot down, pilot hatch opens/closes; Covie turn spins 360
Cost: $60 US at first mass release to retail, give or take a couple of dollars, depending on store

And on with the pics! (Click pics to make BIGGER) Continue reading

7.15.16 Halo 5 HOTFIX!

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint:

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It’s been just a few short weeks since we dropped Warzone Firefight, Halo 5’s latest and largest free content release. In that time, the community has banded together to battle round after round of alien enemy, taking the fight to Covenant and Promethean opponents alike. Back at the 343 mothership, we’ve been carefully monitoring your feedback and play data in order to continue evolving and improving your Halo 5 experience.

In that vein, earlier today we flipped the switch on a hotfix to improve your experience in both Warzone Firefight as well as on Tidal, our brand new Forge canvas. Let’s take a quick look at what’s been improved with this hotfix update. Continue reading

Canon Fodder: Buzz Generating

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint: 

BY GRIMBROTHER ONE
ISSUE 80

Welcome friends, and thanks for joining us for another edition of Canon Fodder. Last week, we highlighted some heavy-hitting fiction features that spanned both our Halo Wars 2 announce at E3 2016, as well as our upcoming free content release for Halo 5: Guardians. That content release of course, is the beefy and beautiful Warzone Firefight update, which releases on June 29, and will undoubtedly become a favorite of this particular feature’s regular readers. Earlier this week, our friends at Polygon gave the world their first glimpse of the all new Grunt Goblin and UNSC Wasp. We’ll be taking another look at them today here, but with – as one would expect – a fiction-focused lens, along with a few other cool aspects of the upcoming additions to the Halo universe sandbox. Let’s get started!
AV-49 WASP
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Small VTOL attack craft have been a staple of the UNSC’s military inventory for centuries due to their maneuverability and lack of developed infrastructure on many worlds. Using powerful ducted fan engines pioneered on the AV-30 for lift, the AV-49 Wasp is surprisingly nimble for its level of armor protection and armament, and can reach mission areas quickly with the use of air-cooled vectored-thrust fusion thrusters in forward flight.  Continue reading

Canon Fodder: Journalistic Integrity

This is a reblog from HaloWaypoint: 

BY GRIMBROTHER ONEISSUE 73

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Welcome back aboard the lore bus, Fodder folk. Last week, we hit on an eclectic menagerie of scattered story snippets, taking a detailed visual look at some Halo 5: Guardians armiger aesthetics, highlighting tabletop recaps, musing about Mega Bloks in motion, and more. This week however, we’re taking a bit more of a focused approach, and taking some time to remember. As many of you know, the Memories of Reach content release for Halo 5: Guardians is fast approaching, and with it, many memories of our own surrounding time spent on one of humanity’s most important 26th-century strongholds. Continue reading

A Closer Look: Ghosts of Meridian REQs

Now that the (blurred) image of the Ghosts of Meridian REQs has been released, let’s take a closer look at what we’re getting. (Click graphics to make bigger)

We start with the maps. We’ve got a glimpse of Skirmish at Darkstar. The blurred image to the right is the new Multiplayer map. Tried as I might, I couldn’t ‘unfilter’ that part of the image to see what the map is called or what it looks like. 4-16 Maps
So the only clue we have to go on is if it relates to the name of the update. There are a few places within the campaign that could work as a multiplayer map. We know 343 isn’t keen on giving us campaign exact areas as MP maps. However, the ares I think that could be used or at least heavily taken from are, 1) the area where the ONI Prowler has landed; 2) any number of the glassed areas that have buildings, vehicles; 3) the base where we do the walk through mission; 4) the first outside area, just after we’ve come out of the base. That area is HUGE and would be an excellent MP map, IMO. Continue reading

Halo Livestream: Hammer Storm

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint:

HALO LIVESTREAM logo

Join us live from 343 Industries, as we reveal an exclusive first-look at Halo 5: Guardians’ February content update: Hammer Storm – featuring new modes, new REQ’s, and some fan favorites. Streaming live Tuesday, February 23 at 6pm EST/3pm PST on Twitch.tv/halo, YouTube, and Halo Channel.

Canon Fodder: Needle Me This

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint:

BY GRIMBROTHER ONEISSUE 62

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How goes, my legion of lore? Thanks as always for joining us for our weekly fiction feature! Last issue, we took a closer look at some of the details that went into creating Cortana’s enhanced aesthetics, as well as teasing a cool new cross-over between the Halo and Killer Instinctfranchises. I know a lot of you are excited to hear more a certain killer kaidon, and trust me, we can’t wait to share!  Continue reading

The Pit remake in Halo 5 (It’s AWESOME!)

Gah…I can’t find who made this! (If any of you know, PLEASE forward me the info so I can give proper credit…

Halo Forge fans have long been pumping out some great maps. With Halo 5’s Forge, you can do a lot more than ever before. Below you will see many screenshots of a fantastic remake of The Pit. I personally hope this makes it into playlist rotation at some point. Other than specific texturing, I don’t think 343 could do much better…

The Pit Remake H5G Blue Snipe Continue reading

Halo 5: Guardians Seasons Explained

This is a reblog from HaloWaypoint: 

h5seasons-bff6f42192a94ac18ef7635d6b4af0dcThe Cartographer’s Gift update for Halo 5 brings with it the arrival of Seasons. Seasons are a new competitive feature for Arena which will give you a chance to continually challenge yourself in ranked playlists, and also prove that you’ve improved your game since the last Season. The January 2016 Season will begin today, with the Cartographer’s Gift update, and end on January 31, which will make the first season a little over a month long. Moving forward, we’re going to keep an eye on feedback regarding season length.

Now that the season has begun, all of your Pre-Season ranks are still viewable on your Halo Waypoint Service Record, and all CSRs for ranked playlists have been reset, giving you a chance to place in each of these playlists again. At the end of each Season, those who qualified in at least one playlist (by playing 10 placement matches in any ranked playlist) will earn an exclusive seasonal pack reward emblem, only available that Season.

Additionally, social playlists are now available, including Big Team Battle and Holiday Social, the latter of which includes a variety of Slayer and Snipers variants at launch. Over time, we’ll be expanding the social mode offering as new modes come online, and incredible community-created content surfaces. And lastly, before we forget, Doubles is back as a ranked playlist, and will be available through the holidays.

We’ll see you online!

The 2016 HFFL event official name and logo reveal!

Okay folks, here is yet another article to show you all that I’m 100% committed to making a Halo fan convention happen. This is the official name of the convention as well as the logo.

SpartanCom

Spartan Com logo

I went with ‘COM’ instead of ‘CON’ for a couple of reasons. First, SpartanCon was taken…

So thinking quickly, I know that the military shortened jargon for the word ‘Command’ in ‘Com’. You can even find this in several Halo references as well. Also, since we now have Spartan Companies in Halo 5, I though ‘Com’ could also reference ‘Company’.

The logo is a nod to Master Chief’s visor with the ‘O’ in Com a nod to a Halo ring.

I’ve already set up Twitter, and Facebook pages for the convention. Also, I have two e-mails associated with the convention. The first is [email protected] and the other, [email protected]. The HaloFanForLife e-mail is the more official one, though I’ll check the yahoo one as well.

I have the website already secured as SpartanCom.Org. I’m currently building that. When it’s ready to launch you’ll see the first post about it HERE!

So another cog is put into place!

What do you think of the logo and name??

Oh and if you’re on twitter and/or Facebook, please give each a follow and like! Much appreciated!!

-Sal