Category Archives: Halo 4

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New York Comicon, then HFFL experience. Part 4: TGIF

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While I had intended to get to the convention early on Friday, sleep dictated otherwise. And I needed it. I was extremely sore from all of the walking around the day prior.

My friends picked me and another bud up from the hotel and we took the train in from Ronkonkoma, New York (on Long Island) into Manhattan.

On the train I shot this (well actually one of my friends held the cam, while I talked):

So we get to the Convention with no incident. I head up the the Mega Bloks booth. Hey, there’s a rendering of the UNSC Mantis. Too bad the photo didn’t come out so well…

I knew my friend “Sparky” of Mega Brands loved Castle Greyskull, so I sought out a convention exclusive Skeletor letter opener and gave it to him:

I did a little walking around. Saw some good cosplay. (I’ll be posting all of my cosplay pics in another article later).

I got some Mega Bloks stickers from the folks at the booth.

Sadly only 2 of them made it through the trip…

Okay here is one cosplay. It’s Salvator from Borderlands 2. I was going to do this for the release date of the game, but didn’t get my costume done in time.

Oh and there was this guy…not sure who he’s supposed to be, LOL.

I didn’t really do a ton the rest of the day. Just milled about, took cosplay pics and rested when needed.

Got back on the train around 7:30pm. These three fellows are some of the guys I hung with the whole weekend.

Jon “Cross”; Andrew “Blue”; Mike “Sam” All three are part of my gaming group “Rated Mature”

As in the caption, they’re fellows from my gaming group. ratedmature.NET (If you go to .com, I’m NOT responsible. You’ve been warned)

We got back and went to Jon and Andrew’s house where their parents were waiting with Chili. (Something that I came to regret the next day…)

Next, Part 5: A Comedy of Errors

New York Comicon, then HFFL experience. Part 3: The Thursday War.

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Comicon, finally!

At this point it was about 10am. Not many people there yet and the con doesn’t officially start until 3pm. So I sat here in the lobby for 5 more hours…

I did have one 343 sighting. I ran into Sotaro Tojima (Sound Editor Extraodinaire!). I introduce myself and thank him graciously for his work on Halo 4 and can’t wait to talk with him again at the after party.

I run into “Mister Chief.”

I’m lucky enough to get into the right line that I’m in the Halo booth immediately after the con opens!

They were giving away this awesome shirt to the first 100 players:

Hmm, I may or may not have an extra one of these…if so, you may want to stay tuned for a contest that could possibly happen to win this, possibly…

Oh, I should make note that I got to play Slayer on Ragnarok. And hells yeah, I played with the Mantis! In it I destroyed another Mantis, a Banshee, 2 ghosts, and about 15 spartans. Yeah, it just KICKS THAT MUCH ASS! I never even noticed that the Scorpion was missing. Believe me, you won’t either. The Mantis moves fast. Much faster than the Scorpion. It’s dexterous. You can turn in it much easier than the tank. It won’t topple over when hit with heavy firepower. It won’t trip up if it goes over a cliff. It just falls straight down. Something to think about while using during gameplay. Does this vehicle get my approval? Um, Does a bear sh…er nevermind. HELL YEAH it does. I’m excited to play with this again!!!!!!

I’m a HUGE Iron Man fan, so when I saw this display I had to take a pic. (It’s actually two pics merged together as I didn’t have room to get it all in one shot.) The pathways were freakin’ narrow.

It’s only Thursday and I wanted to take it easy since I still had two more days of Convention to enjoy. So I hit the only other booth I really wanted to see that day. Mega Bloks! (Sorry for the fuzzy pics on some, sigh…)

Now here’s the thing…the Forward Unto Dawn set was supposed to have a blue Storm Elite now it has a Gold Elite General? I think that was a mistaken figure put up. But I’ll ask.

Interior work stations.

Cryo Tube bay

Fully stocked armory!

The cryo bay in the FuD set can also be purchased separately, though not with a light up Cortana.

Grr, my only shot of the Mega Bloks Mantis didn’t take well, but here it is anyway:

Believe me folks, that set is AWESOME! Some very cool unique parts. I got to “play” with it for a little bit.

I got to build something on the Mega Bloks build wall, so I chose my logo (albeit in the wrong colors and the colors I needed weren’t available):

I decided to hit one more booth. The Square Enix booth and found these:

These look great. Much better than the Reach figures. Chief (Halo 4 version) is available next year. I’m not collecting this line, but I WILL get Master Chief.

After this I meet up with a friend for a bit then head off to the hotel on Long Island that I’ll be staying at and so ends the first day of Comicon for me.

 

New York Comicon, then HFFL experience. Part 1 “The Ramp UP”

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Okay, so what is Comicon? Most of you know that it’s a huge “festival” of people from around the world that gather to buy comics, cosplay, check out new TV shows and/or movies via panels usually with celebrities and so on. However, it’s so much more than that. The people…my gawd, the people.

I’ve only been to smaller “Cons” to this point, though I had an idea of what New York Comicon (NYCC) might be. Well let me tell you folks, I was floored. I had heard the weekend might draw 100,000 people. Um yeah…I think it did.

Let’s just say that when walking the convention floor it was practically “nut to butt” (a saying heard often in Navy Bootcamp). So many people you couldn’t help but bump into them. I made it worse by constantly having my backpack on and walking around with a large folding fabric mesh chair. I touched and was touched by more people this weekend then likely in the rest of my life combined! (Liberally use of sanitary gel was used repeatedly over the weekend due to this, LOL)

Hmm, so wait a minute, how did this all come about anyway? Glad you asked. I’m a huge fan of Halo Mega Bloks and knew they would have a booth at NYCC so I had something to look forward to besides the rest of the usual convention type stuff. I also figured on 343 being there with Halo 4 to try out and I was right. I follow several of the 343ers on Twitter and through their posts and/or conversations I had with them found out that indeed they were going to be there with the most anticipated game of the year, Halo 4.

I happen to be honored to know one of the high-up folks at Mega Brands (parent company of Mega Bloks) and he had something special planned, a LAN party. Woot, playing LAN at Comicon! I was excited. I happened to mention the LAN, but not the specifics to one of the 343ers and bam, things really started to change. Behind closed doors both Mega and 343 hatched a plan to have a shared Halo LAN/Afterparty. Yours truly was invited by both to come to the event. That by the way is an honor I do not and will NEVER take for granted (something I think any other Halo fan should keep in mind if they have been or ever will be invited to participate in). Much more about this later though.

So I started planning on going to Comicon. I got a 4-day pass figuring I wan’t sure what I wanted to do the whole time, so this would give me more time and options available. As the days got closer to NYCC excitement grew and I was heavy with anticipation…

Stay tuned for following parts of the story to see how the whole weekend unfolded. Believe me, you are going to enjoy, laugh, be appalled, and laugh again…

-Sal

Back from New York Comicon!

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Okay folks I have LOTS to discuss. I’ve got to write it all up. Here’s what you can expect over the course of the next two days:

• My “diary” of events of the trip. This will be a series of articles that will be more than just Halo related. It hopefully will read more like a story of my trip.
• Summary of New York Comicon. Think of this as the “Cliff Notes” version of above that pertains to the Con itself with more Halo highlights.
• Halo specific related convention news.
• A VERY Special Halo LAN/after party with pics and some great news about Halo 4 and Halo Mega Bloks.
• Thank you articles for those who helped me along the way during the con.
• Cosplay people! (Pics)

Beyond the convention stuff, I’m also going to squeeze in a multipart review of Forward Unto Dawn episode two, much like I did for the first episode. To follow in a day or two will be the unofficial Graphic Novel for episode two as well.

As I said, LOTS to do, so be patient please and I’ll get to blogging all this stuff momentarily.

-Sal

Halo 4 Forge Maps Overview!

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In this vid we get up close and personal with the three Forge environments: Erosion, Impact, and Ravine.

Erosion is an underground cave area. Within that is a large enclosed UNSC structure that houses the Griffball arena.

Impact is a space map set on asteroids. The main one houses a cylindrical UNSC base that you can build out from. There is a smaller asteroid you can use for smaller gametypes, like double team. Between those two are a series of smaller asteroid that look like they would be used as stepping stones between the main two.

Ravine was the first one revealed months ago, though the name was not given at the time. On this map you can build in two main area, plus a smaller third are. There is a large Forerunner structure to build within and away from. Across the ravine is a grassy area with some high cliffs above. What’s cool is that the ravine between can be built into. I imagine some really cool maps in that are with vertical combat being the name of the game, so-to-speak.

Brought to you by Gamespot.

I’d break these down further, but I’m getting ready for New York Comicon. In the meantime, enjoy the video and let your minds run wild with imagination of what possibilities lie ahead in Halo 4’s Forge!

-Sal

Halo 4 Live-action trailer “Scanned.”

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The full trailer called “Scanned”, showing a little bit more of the story of Master Chief, will make its debut during Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on October 18.

David Fincher of Fight Club fame is executive producing it, while Tim Miller of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is directing it.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to direct the Halo 4 launch trailer in creative partnership with 343 Industries and David Fincher,” said Miller. He adds, “Our goal is to deliver a blockbuster, Hollywood-quality trailer that raises the bar for the award-winning legacy of live-action Halo storytelling and gets fans stoked for the return of Master Chief.”

“Halo is one of the most iconic sci-fi universes, with a depth that allows for amazingly cinematic and emotionally riveting stories. The chance to tell a story that explores never-before-seen facets of Master Chief’s journey is an honor.”

Woot woot, I’m excited to see this. first we have Forward unto Dawn setting up the backstory of Tom Lasky and his relationship to Master Chief, now we get a 2-minute trailer as well!

-Sal

Exclusive Halo 4 Forge Mode Details from Gamespot.

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Thanks to @pete_the_duck on twitter for the link.

Wow, SO much to see here.

First we get the name of one of the three forge areas: Impact.
As well we find out the name of one of the pre-built forge maps: Relay.

I’m SUPER happy to hear each forge area has it’s own palette of items specific to it. The snap to (magnets) feature will make building quick, as well as copying objects.

Though this video only goes over one of the three areas, it shows enough that we have a lot of control over how we forge a map.

Thanks 343 for developing a superior Forge. Better than anything we’ve had prior!

-Sal (HFFL)

Halo 4 just 4 weeks away!

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This time 4 Tuesdays away, I’ll be knee deep into the Halo 4 campaign. Hmm, or maybe multiplayer by then???

Regardless, we’ll all be enjoying Halo 4 in it’s fully realized beautiful, artistic, well designed form. No more secrets, no more waiting.

Everything will be revealed!

I can feel the excitement building! Can you?

-Sal (HFFL)

Forward Unto Dawn, Episode 1: Review Part 6 TO BED. (SPOILERS)

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Spoilers abound in this review, not just for the show, but for Halo 4 as well. You’ve been warned.

In part six (and the final part) of my review of episode 1, I take a look at the end of a long day for Hastati Squad and Cadet Lasky.

A one-point perspective shot of the cleared out hallway of the barracks.

Shutting down for the night.

Lasky sitting at his table as his day is about to set.

A sparsely decorated (or would one say “Spartan”) barracks room, Lasky sits down for bed.

This is the only shot I touched up in Photoshop so it was more clearly visable. The text reads:

Through Knowledge, Victory
Thorugh Unity, Peace, Honor, Valor, Allegiance. Today
Tomorrow, Forever, Together
We Rise. Together We Prevail.
Forward Unto Dawn
From Earth, For Earth. Honor
Valor, Allegiance, Excellence
Today. Tomorrow. Forever.
Together We Rise. Together We
Prevail. Forward Unto Dawn.
From Earth, For Earth. Honor
Valor, Allegiance, Excellence

The italicized text is shown, but is a repeat of previous lines and it’s assumed it repeats more text in the engraving.

Lasky’s game of chess awaits it’s next move by his brother.

Something appears on the screen. What is this?

Wait, now the screen is clear? What is happening?

A small light dot appears in the sky.

It’s dropping in fast!

It’s broken through the clouds!!

It’s turned red. Is that my spider-sense tingling?

Is it changing direction?

OMG it is!

What or who could this be?

Stay tuned next week for episode 2!

If you’ve enjoyed my reviews and analyzing of any parts of Forward Unto Dawn Episode 1, please feel free to reply. I’d love to read your thoughts on the review as well as the episode in general.

-Sal

Forward Unto Dawn, Episode 1: Review Part 5 BARRACKS LIFE. (SPOILERS)

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Spoilers abound in this review, not just for the show, but for Halo 4 as well. You’ve been warned.

In part five of my review of episode 1, I take a look at the barracks life of Hastati squad.

Cadets walk the halls of the barracks. The fact that the three cadets are in slightly different attire denotes varying degrees of readiness, another subtle detail that some may not have picked up on.

Chyler Silva checking out the latest new reports. I LOVE the graphics here. Man, why can’t we have this in real life now?

“Innie” bastards! Read the report now that you’ve got it in one screenshot.

Another “Innie” report. Seems Silva wants to stay up to date on the Insurrectionists.

Tchakova holding onto a precious doll from her childhood. Could be the only thing left she has from it.

Cadet Sullivan looks at video of fighting the Insurrectionists. Classified! Hmm, I wouldn’t think cadets would have access to this information. Is he a hacker? Hmm, Oni officer in the making!

Wait, are these two roommates? Well, gender equality certainly HAS taken a step forward in the future. This is something that would not be tolerated in today’s military. Well at least not in bootcamp.

Um, OUCH. Okay, I can’t do this. I wonder if he had a spotter just outside of camera view?

Cadet Chen’s father seems displeased with his combat performance. This reflects badly on him due to Lasky’s errors on the field. That’s something that may come back to haunt him (Lasky) later.

Chen practicing martial arts of some type?

Lasky looking at his holoscreen. Okay, I’m SO jelly! Look how those floors are so shiny! Hmm, there’s the number “7” again.

Lasky checking to be sure he is not being disturbed or looked at.

Is this how the internet will look in the future?

Scrolling through vids of his ODST brother.

“Hey little bro”

Now THAT’S a tat! I wonder how long it’s going to take for someone to actually get this done on them? And how long it will take for it to show up on halowaypoint.com?

For once we actually see Lasky smile. It’s the first time we get a glimpse of happiness. It also shows that he has a good relationship with his brother, despite the distance apart.

Whoops, interupted. Lasky asks Silva if she believes in anything. She redirects the question back to him.

He says he does…well, at last he believes in not taking bad orders. This shot shows a strong side of Lasky. Again a glimpse into what he one day will become.

Silva leave Lasky alone in his room. Dark tones really help to elevate the mood of depression it seems Lasky is struggling with. That he isn’t fully convinced of what the UNSC is doing with the Insurrectionist is only starting to be revealed. his being apart from his brother and mother just adds to his despair. That’s good character building there.

Playing chess with bullet shells. Hmm, a novelty.

Lasky thinks of his first move, while yet another freezer burn is in clear view. What has cryo sleep done to Lasky?

Next up part six the final article in the review of Forward Unto Dawn, episode one. TO BED.

-Sal