There have been a few sightings of Halo cosplay at PAX.

Master Chief is there (all be it a bit shorter than usual).

From @NinjaRTB‘s twitter feed.

Vic DeLeon of 343 is hamming it up with two Spartans.

From @vicdeleon‘s twitter feed

And the ever adorable Mini-Chief:

From @The_DrMouse‘s twitter feed

From @bsangel‘s twitter feed

From @LairdSVF‘s twitter feed

This week’s bulletin starts off with talk of the Champions Bundle pack. Specifically five of the medals you can earn by playing Ricochet.

 Goal Defense: Kill an enemy ball carrier within 25m of your goal without them scoring.

 Ball Clear: Throw a ball 40m away from your own goal.

 Goal Keeper: Kill 5 enemies while defending the goal.

 Rejection: Intercept a throw within 25m of your goal.

 Fast Break: Scoring a goal within 15 seconds of a ball set without a turnover.

HFFL: I have to say, I can’t wait for this gametype. I’m so excited for it, that I’m thinking about starting up a Ricochet League.

Next up the weekly news on the Halo 4 Global Championship.
Three of the four finalists from week one have been confirmed. These are:
garigraiko39
T15 Carnopy
xStr8 Sick

There has been some delay in confirming weeks 2 and 3 as 343 continues their investigation into network manipulation and boosting. I’m VERY glad to hear this!

Here are week 4’s current top 4 as of 8.7.13 at 4:20pm:

No surprise at the top spot there. Naded is a pro-player. I can’t see him being taken out of the running this week. It’s his spot to lose at this point.

We next move on to the Matchmaking Playlist Update. The bulletin goes on to list the settings for the final online weekly competition for the Halo 4 GC. Listings show Legendary Rumble and Legendary Rumble BR.

Spartan Ops Matchmaking missions are as follows:
Mission 4, Episode 1: Hairy Call
Mission 4, Episode 3: Random Transport
Mission 5, Episode 3: Everything Has Gone Wrong
Mission 5, Episode 4: The Cauldron Base
Mission 5, Episode 5: Spartan Thorne

Lastly, 343 will be removing “Sarge’s Lab” from the Girfball map rotation as the map undergoes some lighting optimization. A refreshed version (and more) will be included the next time we update the playlist.

In further Halo 4 GC news, we have the gamescom qualifier.

Text taken directly from HaloWaypoint:
Gamescom, the world’s largest trade fair and event for interactive games in Cologne, Germany will be the last chance to qualify for a spot in the Halo 4 Global Championship finals. We can’t wait to check out the competition in Germany and are now able to share some details with you. 

The Gamescom Halo 4 Global Championship Qualifier will be taking place from August 22nd – August 24th (Thursday – Saturday) and each day will be an individual tournament, meaning that competitors need not make a weekend-long commitment in order to participate. Due to the size and format of Gamescom, the tournament will be walk-up only. Arrive early each day if you’d like to get a spot in the competition, as we cannot guarantee anyone a spot. For the same reasons, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will be able to compete (that would be awesome but may also take several months) and estimate that we will be able to accommodate at least 1,500 competitors over the course of the weekend. 

The game types that will be featured at Gamescom are identical to the ones used at RTX, and the map rotation will be Haven, Skyline and Onyx. We’ll have additional details regarding the format of the show in the near future. If you’re looking to compete, head to the Xbox booth on Thursday morning to get in line. If you’ll be at the show, we’ll see you there and are looking forward to see who of Europe’s finest will earn a trip to the finals in Seattle the following weekend!

Finally, the Screenshot Spotlight this week. It’s all about the Monitor.

To read the whole bulletin go check out the official site here!

Well, in light of that quick correct answer, I think I’ll post the second question:
(This if for Hazop Armor Forest Skin)

At what retailer was this code a pre-order for and what two main armor  colors were shown with the pre-order promotion. Must get both parts of the question right to win code.

Again, you must be a registered member of the blog to answer. Reply below to answer.

-Sal

An XBOX Live friend of mine who went to PAX East won this incredible Gaems Halo UNSC Vanguard Personal Gaming Environment.

Not only did he win the set, but it is COVERED with autographs from folks who work at 343.

I’m not to proud to say I’m pretty jealous of him. LOL.

The gaming set is normally priced at around $350. With those signatures, it’s “priceless,” as Mick said. I have to agree.

Dang my “unemployedness“…

-Sal

Sparth, the awesome concept artist at 343 tweeted the following link of A.J. Trajan’s Halo 4 concept art. Some amazing stuff there.

Here are the concept art pieces you can find there (click to make bigger and see more of the pics):

This is some fantastic work.

I’d love to see a complete concept art of Halo 4 book out there to buy. So many great pieces by various artists.

-Sal

First one is easy enough. Cumulative not in one game.
Second  one is going to take some time commitment.

I gave out a limited edition poster I created at my local Gamestop’s midnight release. Only 75 printed total. These are slightly different than the one posted below. (They did not have the Didact symbol on them.) Note you can see this version in a much smaller form to the right—>>>

Feel free to download this and print as you wish or link it elsewhere. If you do link it, PLEASE be courteous and credit me as the designer. Please credit as:

Composition by Sal Salerno, of HaloFanForLife.com

You can get an even larger (hi-res) version here:
Halo 4 HFFL release poster

Please let me know what you think of it!

Again enjoy!

-Sal

Earlier I posted Tuesday would be my last night of playing Halo Reach. I had some good games with my gaming group buds. The best for last.

I got a perfection!

Thanks to all of those folks I’ve gamed with in Halo Reach over the past two years+. It’s been fun, now it’s time for Halo 4!!!

Also, stay tuned for some great stuff coming out of New York Comicon. I’ll be live tweeting all weekend from the convention floor!

-Sal

On Friday I brought to you my 6-part review of the first episode of “Forward Unto Dawn.”

I’ve taken that quite a step further and made a graphic novel of the first episode. Using the screenshots I took as well as typing out some the dialog, I added Photoshop effects as well as laid out the project in InDesign.

Feel free to download this as it’s FREE. If you repost this anywhere, PLEASE give me credit as: Designed by Sal Salerno of HaloFanForLife.com
And please link back to my original post here.

Please let me know what you think of the graphic novel, as I’ll be doing one for each of the six episodes.

Without further ado:

This was a labor of love. I really enjoyed making this. Again, if you have any comments, please feel free to respond here, on Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail me at: sal@halofanforlife.com

-Sal (HFFL)

Is it just me or do the Halo 4 flood look like the Chatterer Cenobite from the “Hellraiser” movie series?

Compare:

This by no means is a complaint either. I think it’s AWESOME! I have my new nickname for the Halo 4 Flood. Chatterer!

-Sal