Spartan Ops Graphic Novel, final update!

Posted on 03/19/2013 by Sal

I’ve finished everything but the front cover. This is proving more difficult than I had thought it would be though as I want the cover to knock your socks off. Once I get this done, the graphic novel will be complete and I’ll post up the link and contest article.

Whew, I’ve put in a ridiculous amount of hours on this series. The final page count is 300 pages. No, it’s not a coincidence that it’s 300, same as the amount of Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae. I’m hoping for a season two, but I am glad for a break for the moment.

Hopefully, this gets done today! Stay Tuned!!!

-Sal

Spartan Ops Season one Graphic Novel update.

Posted on 03/18/2013 by Sal

It’s been a BUSY weekend here at HFFL. Work is progressing on the complete season one graphic novel. I’m about 95% of the way done (literally, not just pulling that number out of thin air). Sunday’s HFFL community Playdate did cut into the time I could have spent working on the Graphic Novel, however, I wanted to have that time with friends and fans alike. To which, I do want to thank all of those who came out for the playdate. I had some great fun, especially being GREEN!

Back to the Graphic Novel and contest for a minute. The contest as stated before is for blog subscribers only. You need to register here to be eligible for the prize packet of McFarlane series 2 Avatar figures. While normal retail would be around $30 for the set, since they are blind packaging, not to mention there are two rare ones within the eight made for this series, you’d be hard pressed to pull all eight in on shot. The Gold Master Chief and Warthog prop from the first series of Avatar figs from McFarlane are hard to find. The Gold Master Chief goes for around $17-20 on eBay, while the Warthog isn’t even listed as of this writing. Suffice to say the Gold ODST and Banshee will also be hard to come by and for cheap, let along FREE. Again, this is the chance to win the whole set of eight minifigures and prop vehicle.

To win, you will need to download the Spartan Ops season one graphic novel. From there, you will need to identify how many NEW pages I put in the graphic novel versus the original ten comic books. As well, you will need to identify which pages they are by page number.

For example, the cover will be all new, so that would be one page and page one per description. Another example would be (and this is NOT the correct answer)

5 new pages – page numbers 1, 7, 30, 35, 60

The above is how I’d like for you to format your answer for the contest. To enter, you must reply to the official contest article that I will be posting soon. It will be labeled as the official contest article, so it won’t be hard to miss. Shipping for the prize packet is at the winner’s expense. If you are under 18 years of age you must have written permission to enter. (I will need to see a hand written note (can be sent as a scan by e-mail) by your parent or guardian giving permission to enter. Over 18 no note needed, LOL. (Well, unless you want to…)

Any questions, please either reply to this article or e-mail me at: [email protected]

-Sal

Spartan Ops Season One High Res PDF coming soon! and Contest to go with it…

Posted on 03/15/2013 by Sal

Now that all 10 episodes of season one are out and I’ve made the comic books for each, I’m now making a graphic novel of all ten comics. The final result will be about 300 (yes three-hundred) pages long. Needless to say the file size is going to be “ginormous.”

I have to finish compiling all the pages as well as create a new cover for the full season graphic novel. I hope to have this completed over the weekend, if not by Monday. The file will be as a PDF. Again, it will be HUGE. I’m talking nearly 200mb possibly.

This file will be of better quality than the individual comics I’ve released as those were only 72dpi per page. The new file will be 200dpi per page. I could push it to 300dpi, but that would make the file size that much more massive…

So stay tuned to HaloFanForLife.com over the weekend. There will be a contest associated with the file. (So yes, you’ll need to download it) The prize will be…

A complete set of McFarlane series 2 Avatar figures! (Yes, with the Banshee AND Gold ODST included.)

Only blog subscribers will be eligible for this prize packet. So if you want a shot at this, you’ve got to register! Twitter followers and Facebook subscribers, register on the blog. Responses to the contest via Twitter and/or Facebook are not eligible to win.

More info on the graphic novel and contest VERY SOON!

-Sal

Spartan Ops Episode 10: EXODUS comic book

Posted on 03/11/2013 by Sal

We’ve come to the end of Spartan Ops season one. Infinity is locked with Requiem, Jul is sending it crashing into the local star. Halsey is whisked away by a Promethean Knight and Jul M’dama. And Halsey wants something…what is it? Read til the end to find out.

Also, please pay special attention to the last four pages. Included in those four pages are the full credits for the CG vids, my thanks to you all, and a special announcement on my new Machinima project.

What do you think about this episode? The comic book itself? DId you like the whole series?

Please reply below or tweet me @HaloFanForLife.

-Sal

Spartan Ops Episode 9: KEY comic book

Posted on 03/02/2013 by Sal

Palmer goes after Halsey, Laskey sends Majestic to save Halsey, Halsey get a KEY piece of Forerunner technology. All this and more in “Spartan Ops episode 9: Key” the comic book. (Click thumbnails to make bigger.)

What do you think about this episode? The comic book itself? Please reply below or tweet me @HaloFanForLife.

-Sal

Sweet! I got a mention on Halo.Bungie.org!

Posted on 02/24/2013 by Sal

HBO as it’s known for short (no not the cable station) posted a link on their site regarding the Podcasts I’ve been doing with Podtacular and I got a mention in the article!

This is quite an honor as HBO is one of if not the oldest Halo fan site around.

Thanks!
-Sal

Is Halsey’s revenge comment legit from Spartan Ops episode 10?

Posted on 02/20/2013 by Sal

Is Halsey’s revenge comment real?

I’d say partially. I think she’d have no compunction about taking out Palmer who tried to kill her. It’s obvious those two have issues with each other.

But the UNSC (read Humanity) though? No.

She did NOT create the Spartan project to save humanity. She created it to quell the insurgency by outer colony rebels. It just so happened that the Covenant came along at that time and the Spartans were redeployed to take on this newer more dangerous threat. So she doesn’t have an issue with humans being killed. But it has to be for what she considers the right reasons.

The Librarian chose Halsey. Why? It’s plainly obvious Halsey is the most brilliant mind at that point in time of humanity. She created Cortana who was unique among AIs. Let’s not forget Cortana while in the Forerunner system met the Librarian. Likely the Librarian looked at all the information Cortana had and was able to asses who best to give the Janus key to, that being Halsey.

I can’t see Halsey being out to kill humans this time around, again with exception to Palmer possibly. I’m positive she’s just playing Jul M’dama like she has countless other persons in her life. She’s a master at that.

As for her arm? I’m betting she makes a robotic arm for herself. Who knows, she may even make a whole robotic body or a suit of armor for herself? Is that idea outlandish? No so more that super soldiers of the future battling aliens. So it’s completely possible within the realm of the Halo universe.

-Sal

Spartan Ops Vs Firefight

Posted on 02/20/2013 by Sal

I just posted this response on Halo Waypoint to another forum users argument that Spartan Ops wasn’t quality and wasn’t as good as Firefight.

Let’s pit Spartan Ops versus Firefight (mind you this comes from someone who LOVED Firefight as well). Ask any of my friends I gamed with in Reach and they’ll tell you I played Firefight to death.

Spartan Ops vs. Firefight

• CG vids of Spartan Ops / Firefight-No full quality CG, just in-game cutscenes
• Spartan Ops Maps 15 at launch/ Halo Reach FF maps 10 (over a more than 2 year span)
• Varied missions using different vehicles to achieve goals. Scorpion, Mantis, Warthog, Gausshog, Rockethog, Wraith, Banshee, Ghost / Rare uses of anything but chaingun/rocket warthog, ghost or wraith
• Varied missions with ability to pick better weapons from the map to achieve goals (ie Sniper Alley with Snipers/Beam Rifles)
• Furthering canon / Firefight had NOTHING to do with canon. Just the same battles on the same maps with no rhyme or reason. At least with SpOps you have a goal/objective in mind other than just killing AI.
• RvB easter eggs / FF-RvB who?
• 50 missions / FF-10 maps with a select few gametypes all pretty much the same, just different enemies. Other than Generator Defense, it was all slayer, and I didn’t know ANYONE who played GenDef regularly if at all.
• The BIG one: SpOps season 1 FREE / FF-DLC cost money and we only got a paltry 2-3 maps of the total 10. Again we got FIFTEEN maps (which some were more like campaign LEVELS) for FREE.

These are all facts. Not something made up. So they can’t be denied.

Even if SpOps was created to keep people playing for the first 3-months, I see NOTHING wrong with that. A gaming devs SHOULD look to keep people playing at least that long if not MUCH longer. It brings them more credibility too. Beyond that though, I really think SpOps was also made to give we fans a new experience within Halo. It really is like another whole campaign.

If you added up all the time spent playing each of the 10 videos and 50 missions even just ONE time through, you’d have clearly 6-7 hours of gameplay. A short campaign yes, but a campaign none the less. Spartan Ops is free. Well season one anyway, and I’d GLADLY pay for a Season two. Considering Requiem has been destroyed, 343 would HAVE to make all new maps for season 2. Firefight in Reach came with about 6-7 FF maps at launch? Easily less than half of what SpOps gave us. And then only did we get maybe 3 more FF maps in Reach over the course of the next two years. And you know there isn’t going to be anything else new added for Reach.

Even if SpOps is done at Season one (which I hope it’s NOT), it has FAR exceeded what Firefight was in Reach and ODST.

End copy/paste

I think the only thing I miss from Firefight is in ODST’s FF you could play on and on and on as long as you had lives left. But then again, it would get boring after a 3 hour sessions of just ONE game of firefight. So I really don’t mind the shorter missions. There are certainly some that give me that classic Firefight feel to them. I also enjoy having real objectives to complete though, versus just slaying waves upon waves of Covies.

-Sal

Spartan Ops Episode 10 Epilogue video

Posted on 02/19/2013 by Sal

Okay, if you haven’t watched the opening vid, do yourself a favor and watch it first. Also, at the least play the last chapter of Episode 10 before watching the conclusion video. Is it necessary? No, but it does help explain more of what is happening in the conclusion video.

Whew…I really had hoped we’d see Requiem last longer. And Halsey… I don’t think she’s completely out for revenge. Well, maybe against Palmer. I think she’s playing Jul M’dama still. How about her losing an arm too? The problem though is that she was shot above that point, so it should have been taken at the shoulder. Now if the gunshot was in her bicep or lower arm it would have made sense. Ah well. Still, I look forward to her dealing with that. She’s sure to make a robotic arm. It’s Halsey afterall.

Spartan ops Episode 10 vid

Posted on 02/19/2013 by Sal

I would have posted this yesterday. However, I was getting asked to play the chapters all day. I played them each at least 4-5 times. Whew!

-Sal

Fan Made Spartan Ops trailer

Posted on 02/19/2013 by Sal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoXg6BUqgco

Blog subscriber “thegunslinger” sent me the above link for his fan-made Spartan Ops trailer. What do you think? I like it. If that doesn’t get you pumped for a season two…

-Sal