Category Archives: General Blog Info

HFFL’s first ever LAN Party! Details!!

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To commemorate HFFL’s 2 year anniversary in September I will be holding Halofanforlife.com’s first ever LAN party. The date is Saturday, September 14. It will be a 3 hour event, from 5-8pm. This will be a Halo 4 LAN, though we may also play Halo Reach.

The cost is $15 per person. This will include pizza and a drink as well as use of the gaming equipment. I will also be holding a FFA tournament within this LAN for prizes. Prizes TBD. (More on that soon.)

The location will be at Game On Party Planners LLC. They are located at:
1105 Rochester Road
Pittsburgh, PA
15237
(Across from Sir Pizza, behind Fischer)

We will be STREAMING the LAN, specifically the FFA tournament within on Twitch. Link for that to come shortly.

For more information of the gaming center please check out: http://gameonpartyplanners.com/

If you plan on attending, I will need a few things:

• E-mail me at sal@halofanforlife.com with your intention to come to the event.
• You must be 21 years of age. ID will be checked. If you don’t have ID you will not be allowed in.
• Payment must be in cash at the event location.

Since this is a 21 and over event, you are permitted to bring alcohol, however you MUST sign a waiver absolving both the gaming center and myself from any alcohol related actions. This is mandatory. If you don’t/won’t sign it, then please do not attend. Neither the business nor myself can afford a lawsuit, which I hope you all understand.

I do ask that if you say you’re going to come, PLEASE make certain that you do. I need to give the gaming center a clear specific number of attendees no later than 8/23. So you do have time to plan for this.

If you have ANY questions, comments, or concerns regarding this event, PLEASE dont’ hesitate to contact me. Either reply below or send me an e-mail. Pass the word and let’s make this a successful first ever HFFL LAN!

P.S. I’ll be bringing along some of my Halo Mega Bloks customs and sets to view. This will be the FIRST time outside of my family that anyone will see these.

Sets I’m planning on bringing are:
• Forward unto Dawn
You can see the build and review of it here:
Part 1 Unboxing and Sorting
Part 2 Aft Body Section and Base
Part 3 Aft Roof
Part 4 Front Section
Part 5 Front Roof
Part 6 Stickers, Final Assembly and Extra Parts, OH MY!

I may bring more official Mega Bloks sets. If you have a request to see a specific one, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Customs I’m bringing are:
• CSO Cruiser as seen here.
• CCS Cruiser (both Big and Small versions)

-Sal

HFFL’s first ever Halo LAN coming soon…

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to find out that I have several people on my friends list that are local to me (Southwestern, Pennsylvania). Through gaming/talking with them, there’s been discussion of having a LAN party. (LAN=Local Access Network)

So…I’m looking into it. This is in the very earliest of stages at the moment. So I’m not sure of the when, where, how much, etc., this will be. While I’d like to host this at my house, I am a little concerned about privacy. With this in mind, I’m going to look at either business who hosts LANs, or renting a hall for a LAN. Cost to come would be determined on how many are coming, how much it would cost for a LAN business to set this up, cost of a hall to rent, etc. I’m trying to make this as inexpensive as possible for everyone’s sake

There is a lot to figure out with this. First how many people are going to be there. Of my friends list there are six folks within 10 miles of me. A couple more people are about an hour away.

If you are in the southwestern portion of PA or would be willing to drive to Pittsburgh for the HFFL Halo LAN, (if out of the local area) let me know. I’d like to get a rough idea to start of how many people might attend. This will let me know what kind of business/hall to plan on. From there, I will contact every interested gamer to ask about a date they’d prefer. One thing is for certain, this will be on a Saturday. It may roll over to Sunday, again, if there is enough participation.

Now, depending on the LAN business I contact, we may need to bring TVs, XBOX’s, copy of Halo games, etc. Again, that is something that will be determined a little bit later.

Coming back to the date of this, I’d like to have it either the weekend of Aug 24 or 31. I know that’s only a month away, however, that’s why this is more of a local thing. I don’t expect people to fly in from other parts of the country (though you’re welcome to, but you’ll have to pay for your own travel and lodging). If not either of those weekends, then some time in September as that is HFFL’s second anniversary. No later though as I don’t want people to have to travel in the cold to get here.

Okay, so with the very basics out there, who might be interested in coming to the first ever HFFL LAN?

I may have prizes, though I can’t guarantee that. I will try though.

This LAN is for 21 years of age and older. NO exceptions, even with a parent. Sorry, kids, this is an adult outing here. Consumption of alcohol likely will take place and I will NOT have anyone younger attend. I will not put myself at risk of a child drinking illegally. (You will need to confirm your age before hand and I WILL be checking IDs.) As well, there will likely be cussing going on and I won’t contribute that to minors. Apologies to those 18-20. While I’d like to have you come to the LAN, the potential risk to me (read above) legally outweighs anything else. Thanks for understanding.

If you are 21 or over, please reply either to this article OR e-mail me at: sal@halofanforlife.com

-Sal

Special shout out to a devoted fan and friend!

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I want to publicly thank Sal DiPietro. (Yes, another “Sal”) In the past few weeks he’s lent me his copy of Silentium, gave me a copy each of the Halo 4 OST Vol2 and Forward Unto Dawn OST, as well as made a generous donation to the blog. He happens to be a local fellow to, so I had the pleasure of meeting him in person at a Barnes and Noble where we sat down for coffee and chatted about Halo for almost two hours.

Sal, my man, I’m afraid you’ve made a friend for life…

Thanks for all your support of HFFL and being a good friend these past few weeks and I look forward to our continuing friendship!

-Sal <–the HFFL one LOL

Ooohhh, VERY exciting article coming tomorrow (or Wednesday). A HFFL EXCLUSIVE Interview!

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If you heard me on a recent Podtacular podcast then you know what I’m talking about. If not, then you’re in for a real surprise and treat. I’m not going to let it out again though….So if you want to know what the article is going to be, you’ll just have to check back!

This is an EXCLUSIVE to HaloFanForLife.com. (So if you see it on any other sites out there, please let me know.) I did all the work for this, so it would be appreciated if it wasn’t stolen by others to promote their sites…

-Sal

Just added a Paypal Donation option to the blog—> on the sidebar —> (on home page)

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Hello folks. I’ve been running the blog for almost two years now and have only ever once asked for donations in the past. I’m going on 28 months of unemployment, so I really could use your help. To ensure HaloFanForLife.com stays put on the net, I’d appreciate any donation you can send. All monies donated will go to paying for the site, upgrading the blog, and any other item needed to create the content you see here on HaloFanForLife.com

It’s not mandatory and NEVER will be. I’ll never make this a partitioned site where the more you donate the more you see. That’s kind of douchéy in my opinion. All the content you see here now as well as all the content to come in the future will always be free. It’s up to you if you like what you’ve seen and/or read to decide if you want to donate.

I appreciate your support of the blog so far as subscribers, tweeps and facebook followers. Were I gainfully employed, I would NOT have the donation tab to the right. When I DO become employed again, I’ll take the tab off. 

With respect and humility,
-Sal Salerno
Owner/Blogger
HaloFanForLife.com

Why Don Mattrick left XBOX to go to Zynga.

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Former boss of XBOX, Don Mattrick, left Microsoft shortly after E3 bringing people to believe that his departure was related to the bad press coming from both the XBOX One reveal and the poor showing at E3.

NOT SO.

In fact he planned to jump ship to Zynga for sometime to become their new CEO. It started back in 2010 when he tried to buy Zynga to boost XBOX’x line with social games. It didn’t work out, but he did become friends with Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, for who he replaced TODAY. Talks about moving to Zynga presumeably happened in March.

With pay and perks, Mattrick could earn as much as $19 million in his first year.

Hmm, so NOW can we put to rest that Mattrick didn’t give a SH!# about the XBOX One? No wonder he made ridiculous statements about sticking to the 360 if you don’t have internet connection. Honestly, if I were Microsoft, I’d slap him with a multi-million dollar suit. It was plainly obvious to me a simple gamer that Mattrick could have cared less the damage he was doing to Microsoft, knowing he was leaving.

-Sal

Happy Bungie Day 7/7!

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Though they are no longer in the business of making Halo games, we still need to be thankful for Bungie’s creation of and longstanding role as caretaker of the franchise. Many gamers are planning a “Populate Halo 3 day” or “Populate Reach Day” today in honor of Bungie.

Hmm, I might just pop in my Halo 3 disc and play on The Pit to reacquaint myself, in response to the great news coming out of RTX yesterday with regards to the Champion Bundle pack.

In other news for 7/7, though it’s not Halo related it’s still Space stuff and cool, none the less. Mars rover “Opportunity” hit’s it’s 10 year mission mark today. It was only expected to last 3 months on Mars. Way to go SCIENCE!

-Sal

HFFL has new Facebook and Twitter Header graphics.

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I was inspired by to make new headers for both HFFL’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Both are similar in design, with the Facebook one being done first. I may revise it to also include the Halo characters as are in the twitter header.

For now here they are, unfettered by either website’s text overlapping on them. Let me know what you think of each:

New Facebook Header:

HFFL Facebook Banner v3

and the new Twitter header:

HFFL TWITTER Banner

-Sal

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans.

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Today is the United States “birthday” in a sense. We mark this day as our independence from Great Britain, though it has come to mean so much more as the years progress.

Please think of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that you can enjoy the freedoms you have today.

For those who plan on protesting today, be it for the recent NSA exposures or other government related reasons, please remember to be safe and assemble peacefully.

I plan on gaming some and relaxing. Having found out yesterday I have a herniated disc means I can’t do much of anything today anyway… So I guess I’ll watch the fireworks on tv tonight.

Whatever your plans are, have fun AND be responsible in that fun. If you are going to drink alcohol, please don’t drink and drive.

-Sal

XBOX Leader Don Mattrick leaving to go to Zynga!

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Well, it’s official, Don Mattrick didn’t give a flying frak. That’s why it seemed he was so smug during the XBOX One reveal. His words of “If you don’t have Internet, then the XBOX One isn’t for you, ” now have even more meaning. He was basically saying, “Screw you consumers, I’m outta here in a few weeks. You deal with this crap.”

I try not to name call on this blog, but this guy is a complete douche. I KNEW there was just something wrong with him and the way he was presenting the XBOX One.

Now I wonder though, is his move to Zynga coming BECAUSE of how he handled the XBOX One release, or was he already on his way out and just didn’t give a frak?

Either way, I’m GLAD to see him go. Maybe now XBOX can get back on track!

Source Link!!!
Another Source Link!

-Sal