Monthly Archives: June 2012

Interview with Norway’s Halo SUPER fan Maria Masuimi.

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This fan interview is the first in what I hope is a long string of fan interviews. If you have a favorite Halo super fan you’d like to see me interview please comment below or send me an e-mail to [email protected]

For my first interview I had the pleasure of asking the beautiful and talented Maria Masuimi several Halo related questions that any Halo fan can relate to. Maria is a 25 year old Halo gamer living in Oslo, Norway, who works in public administration. She’s known on Twitter ( @MariaMasuimi ) and has been featured on HaloWaypoint.com. Her pic is the last (but not least) in that article.

Here’s a pic of her, used with permission (and fellas, please don’t gawk, it’s rude…):

HaloFanForLife (HFFL): When did you first become a Halo fan?
Maria Masuimi (MM): I recall trying Halo a decade ago, but I wasn’t truly captured by Halo until Halo 3 came around. I’ve played a lot of FPS’ in my life and never really had it has my favourite genre, but Halo kind of changed that for me.

HFFL: What about Halo made you a fan in the first place?
MM: It’s a very social game while being highly competitive with its mulitplayer and once you get into the “science” of that in all its details it’s not really an easy game to play. I think those two reasons makes the series appeal to a large number of people, including me. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it started, but I think a big part of the reason was that it was one of my first experiences with real memorable FPS co-op gameplay on a console.
Initially I mostly played campaign and it was just so fun being able to do missions with a full team and go through the struggles together with someone. But with time I got more and more into the multiplayer aspect, and that is ultimately the part that has kept me constantly coming back for more all these years.
Halo was also a nice shift of phase from the realistic military-themed shooters. I guess I have limits for how much camo fabric my eyes can take. And also, honestly, with age, a teeny-tiny percentage of me has started to slightly feel the sensation of “wrong” as I shoot realistic-looking people in FPS’. In Halo you don’t shoot something as similar looking to PEOPLE per se, which leaves that whole sensation out “you know this is wrong” of the picture. And it’s also nice to have superhuman strength and not be as bound by physical laws.

HFFL: How many Halo achievements have you completed?
MM:
• Halo CE: Anniversary?
I had quite some issues with insane lag in Anniversary. I’ve only completed 11 out of 44.
• Halo 3?
I have 45 of 79. I was a bit of a shitty player back in H3. (HFFL-I hear ya, so was I)
• Halo Wars?
I haven’t played it.
• Halo 3 ODST?
I had huge lag issues in ODST as well, but got 23 of 47.
• Halo Reach?
I have 62 of 69. Originally I would have had all achievements except for one (A Monument to all your sins), but then some new ones were added with Anniversary, and I haven’t had time to attempt all of the new ones yet.

HFFL: Which game in the Halo franchise is your favorite and why?
MM: That is so hard to answer, because I don’t have one favourite, more like favourite parts of each game. I think it stands between Halo 3 and Halo ODST. Gaming, to me, is very tightly connected with good memories. With Halo 3, I just have so many good (and frustrating) memories of trying to get through the game on all difficulties. It is the first game I recall actually playing a game for 10 hours straight till the sun came up. The ODST campaign, although I didn’t like it at first, grew on me. This might sound odd but I just get this really cosy feeling from playing ODST, it’s just so friggin cosy! Too bad about the heavy lag on co-op runs.

HFFL: What is your favorite Multiplayer game type and why? (ie., Team Slayer, FFA, BTB, Infection, etc.)
MM: I guess I’m a sucker for the simplest type of Multiplayer action, which is Slayer. I’ve never been a fan of objectives. In Reach my favourite slayer type was Squad Slayer, because it didn’t have the annoying Armor Lock, while having 10 players and 75 kills to win. I whined for a week when they removed it, before moving on to favouring Anniversary Big Team Battle instead.
In my perfect world we’d play slayer on smaller maps with more players, I thrive in chaotic carnage mayhem, because everyone has less control of what’s happening and so the traditional dynamics of team play gets somewhat distorted and less effective, so who wins is somewhat up in the air. I’m not really good at solid team play, tho I like playing in a team for the socialness of it.

HFFL: Favorite Weapon from any of the Halo games and why?
MM: My favourite weapon used to be the BR, but the DMR has suddenly become more and more desirable over time. Take away bloom, and it’s awesome. I just like how it fires single shots and the recticle makes for better precision (once bloom is out of the way).

HFFL: What are you most excited about for Halo 4?
MM: The campaign, actually. I try to avoid Halo 4 news as much as I can so that when I actually play it, most things will be new and exciting to me and hopefully surprise me. I’m also curious about Spartan Ops, and how abilities will affect multiplayer gameplay. Especially forerunner vision has potential to become a huge multiplayer headache. However, I won’t really critisize it until I’ve tried it. It might feel completely different when playing and might contribute to us having to adapt to new playstyles and ways of doing things. Which could suck, but it could also be awesome. Time will tell.

HFFL: What do you think about the changes 343 is making to Halo?
MM: I think there’s been a lot of skepticism from the community and the professional gaming community especially, which is only natural I suppose, but at times it seems people are so scared of and reluctant to change that their skepticism is crippling to game development itself.
Games evolve, it’s just what happens. It has to happen. A game released in 2012 should not feel and play as if it was released in 2001. I think if a game can’t be allowed to evolve, then what’s the point of making a new one? I think we need to learn and adapt to possibly be playing Halo in a new/different way than we have been so far.

HFFL: Where are you pre-ordering Halo 4 from?
MM: I kinda like the Rapture skin from Best Buy, so I’m thinking I might pre-order from there.

HFFL: Which Halo achievement has been your favourite or most frustrating one obtaining?
MM: Without a doubt “If They Came To Hear Me Beg” from Halo Reach. I jumped that Elite a total of 72 times before getting a perfect assassination and “survived a fall that would have been fatal.”
(HFFL – OMG, I HATED that one. You’re lucky it only took you  72 times. It took me upwards of 400 tries. Several of them I even assassinated that stinkin’ elite but it didn’t count. PLEASE 343, do not make an achievement like this. Most frustrating indeed)

HFFL: You’ve been fortunate to be featured in the Halo Bulletin with Halo illustrations. How did you feel when you found out about that?
MM: I’ve been just as excited each time, heart beating out of my chest! It is so admirable how 343 Industries make effort to truly embrace the Halo community, showing some love to both the new and the old!

Here’s the pic featured on HaloWaypoint, followed by a few others from Maria’s Twitter feed:

HFFL: Any shout outs or links you’d like to give?
MM: A shout out to everyone’s favourite Community Manager, Jessica “bs angel” Shea, just for being amazing. And my buddy Dan “Greenskull” Hammill who just partnered up with IGN (www.youtube.com/user/ReadyUpLive). Andrew Cook who makes awesome Halo weapon replicas (http://www.youtube.com/user/DaFrontlineTrooper).
(HFFL – I’ve had the pleasure of gaming with both bs Angel and Greenskull myself. Jessica laughs a lot. Several “That’s what she said,” jokes were made during one of those gaming sessions. Greenskull has a great site in ReadyUpLive and was recently honored with an in-game Halo 4 shout-out having to do with the hometown he’s from. Andrew has some AMAZING props. I’d love to commission him to make one for me.)

HFFL: Thanks Maria. It’s been a real treat to interview you and you have the distinction of being my first Halo Super Fan interview, here on HaloFanForLife.com.

And with that the interview came to a close. I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed the interview itself.

Again, if you’d like to see a specific Halo super fan interviewed, please comment or e-mail me who you’d like to see and I’ll try my best to get an interview with them.

-HFFL

UNSC Mammoth acronym???

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The new vehicle in Halo 4, the UNSC Mammoth, could have an acronym. I came up with this a couple of weeks ago in various iterations and finally decided on this version the best for what M.A.M.M.O.T.H. could stand for.

Mechanized Assault Mobile Mission Operations Transport Headquarters

Here’s a pic of that vehicle as a reminder:

What do you folks think? Have an acronym for this vehicle? Let’s hear it. Post a comment below.

-HFFL

Halo 4 marketplace up and running. (Sort of)

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Follow the link and go to the full site for a really cool interactive menu:

Halo 4 Marketplace

Here is a partial screencap of that menu:

The monitors on the right and left have gifs running on them. Watch them for the Didact’s symbol to appear on them. In the middle you can choose from the lower portion:

Weapons/Characters/Environments/Vehicles/Armor

Above each of those are the various components you can view further. I chose Cortana to display as she makes the most sense as a Hologram.

Now, you may note this graphic is dark and it is when you view it on the page. However, I took this image into Photoshop and lightened up the background to show more of the detail. Here is what I got:

I understand that the focus of the menu is the middle, but dang, I wish they’d have shown it the way I lightened up as. It shows just how much more work went into the menu.

Go pay a visit there and post a comment here on what you think about the menu. More may be likely to come through that link, so I’d suggest bookmarking it.

-HFFL

HaloWaypoint bulletin 6-28-12

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Halo Weekly Bulletin

Okay, I don’t want to be negative here, so let me just point out one thing in the bulletins that I wish just weren’t mentioned.

The stupid food references. Why must we know about 343’s gorging lunches? Okay, they may deserve those lunches for their hard work. I won’t begrudge them that. But why do WE need to know about it? Please, this is a Halo bulletin. Let’s stick to that please.

Okay, enough of that. Moving on.

Super Crunch time: In the bulletin it’s talked about that development is ramping up even further. Campaign is playable though still needs polishing. Spartan Ops is in a similar state as are the first 10 multiplayer maps. Hmm, I’m just a little worried here. They’ve been working on this for three years now. It really is indeed super crunch time. I would have thought by now that all the multiplayer maps would have been done. Campaign as well. I hope the date doesn’t get pushed back. If so, 343 would suffer a huge debacle over that. I have faith in them though.

The live action “Forward Unto Dawn” series is done shooting. Now to editing. A clip of it will show at SDCC this year.

At this point I’m going to copy the next part of the bulletin which discusses the multiplayer map: Longbow

 

NAME: LONGBOW
LOCATION: Northern regions of the planet Concord.
DESCRIPTION: Located in the northern polar region of the planet Concord, the frigid climate and unique gravitational conditions provide an optimal perch for Longbow Station’s channel-based mass drivers. Before the Covenant War, the UEG launched deep space monitoring relays from here in an effort to study far-flung star systems.

Longbow
From Sidewinder to Containment to Snowbound to Avalanche, Halo has a long multiplayer map history speckled with various virtual snow-filled expanses. That history continues into Halo 4 with Longbow.

The goal of Longbow was to create a playspace that showcases one of our new (and unannounced) game modes. Early in development, we considered several options, including making it something like a big Arecibo-type telescope built into a valley.

We experimented with having extremes of Fire and Ice on opposite sides, but ultimately decided a glacier theme fit better with the spectrum of themes from other maps. The look and feel really took off from there to be distinctive and atmospheric.

We wanted a big engineering effort that connected to the war or the resources needed for the UNSC, so when looking at the designers’ initial idea for the map from the top, we began thinking of a Y-shape or loop shape that accommodated this single big machine—a magnetic launcher that works on similar principles as a MAC Cannon. It was an interesting case of trying to make a symmetrical map area feel natural and almost accidental, while still telling an epic sci-fi story.


Brand spankin’ new Longbow screenshot 1!


Brand spankin’ new Longbow screenshot 2!


Brand spankin’ new Longbow screenshot 3!

We then had to develop solid visual markers so the players could understand where they were. Each side is a very similar plan and path, but distinct enough to get a peripheral sense of being in a distinct “zone” in the map.

At one point, we flipped the direction of the entire map. The center building of the launch facility moved north to be a better landmark, pointing the launcher’s arms out over the ocean. It’s much cooler to look at, and better for the players’ orientation.

Longbow supports both infantry and vehicle play. On foot, players will notice it’s mostly a mid-to-long range map with pockets of close range combat in and around the base structures. However, there are plenty of vehicles (currently Warthogs, Mongooses, and Ghosts) and routes through the map that will make fans of vehicular combat happy. /end copy/paste

I have to say I’m VERY happy about this map. I’ve enjoyed the snow related maps thus far. Snowbound was fun and Avalanche was just a blast to play in BTB (especially for warthog drivers such as myself). It was a real shame that there wasn’t a dedicate snow map in Reach.

Next is some info about the first ever Rooster Teeth Expo (RTX). July 7-8, 500 East Cesar Chavez, Austin TX. 343 will be there showing multiplayer and some small new announcements.

Back to Comicon (and a copy/paste of this section)

Comic-Con International
Comic-Con International 2012 will take place July 12-15 at the San Diego Convention Center (111 West Harbor Dr., San Diego, CA). We’re excited to announce that Halo 4 will be playable on the floor, and we’ll also be presenting the following panels, the first of which will feature the premiere of the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn trailer. Additionally, you’ll have a chance to receive special prizes at the booth and meet the creative visionaries behind Halo 4 and Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn during special signing events!

Thursday, July 12, 4:45pm – 5:45pm
The Fiction of Halo 4
Room 6BCF, San Diego Convention Center
Halo 4 heralds the return of one of gaming’s most iconic heroes, the Master Chief, in a new, epic sci-fi saga. Expanding and enriching the narrative, 343 Industries, with very special guests, will share how the development of stories across the Greg Bear Forerunner saga, the Karen Traviss Kilo-Five trilogy, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, Halo 4 Campaign and Halo Infinity Multiplayer have become connective tissue for Halo 4. Don’t miss the exciting premiere of the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn trailer as well as Q&A with our special guests!

Panelists: Brian Reed (Franchise Writer, 343 Industries), Armando Troisi (Narrative Director, 343 Industries), Brien Goodrich (Cinematic Director, 343 Industries), and Forward Unto Dawn’s director, cinematic director and writers (to be announced) Moderated by: Frank O’Connor (Franchise Development Director, 343 Industries)

Saturday, July 14, 3:15pm – 4:15pm
Halo 4: A New Campaign and Halo Infinity Multiplayer
Room 6DE, San Diego Convention Center
Halo 4 marks the beginning of a new saga in the blockbuster franchise that has shaped entertainment history and defined a generation of gamers. Developed by 343 Industries, get a glimpse at how they have taken Halo 4 in new directions, introducing an ancient threat and the Master Chief’s greatest challenge, as well as an innovative and fresh new take on multiplayer in War Games and Spartan Ops.

Panelists: Kiki Wolfkill (Executive Producer, 343 Industries), Josh Holmes (Creative Director, 343 Industries), Frank O’Connor (Franchise Development Director, 343 Industries), Chris Haluke (Lead Designer, 343 Industries), and others to be announced soon Moderated by: David Ellis (Spartan Ops Designer, 343 Industries)

Don’t miss this opportunity to get hands-on with Halo 4, and stay tuned for more details as the event gets closer. /end copy/paste

Next a custom Challenge is set and the weekend Super Jackpot revealed. Sorry if it seems I’m a little lazy on that part. Being an Inheritor in Reach (since LAST July) it becomes increasingly unneeded for me to attempt these challenges. I’m already sitting on more than 36 million credits with nothing to spend them on and earn between 12-15K on average credits a game…On that note, I wish 343 would have made at least a couple new armor variants that were high prices for those of us who hit Inheritor. (By the time you reach that rank and if you’ve purchased everything else in the armory you will already be sitting on more than 10 million credits. Ah well…

And that’s the end of the bulletin and this article. I hope you folks enjoyed the shortened version here. Let me know by leaving a comment below.

-HFFL

New pic of Mega Bloks UNSC Infinity.

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MEGA Brands recently went to 343 industries and showed them this beauty of a set.

If you go back to my estimation of size just a few articles ago ( Mega Bloks UNSC Infinity possible size??? ) it’s looks like I was pretty well on target, with exception to the tail fins, now seen in the photo above. Also of note is that the forward outer bricks may be removable. Note in the pic you can now see some of the interior of the set in the front sections where as the boxed pic doesn’t show that.

Look toward the rear of the craft (left middle of picture) and you can see what looks like a docking port for spaceships (the blue-ish blok area). Hmm, is that a mini Cortana in the person’s hand? The size of this ship is awesome. There are tons of “greeblies” or small pieces on the set that really help to accentuate the detail of it. I can’t wait to get this set and spend hours of fun building it!!!

One last thing to see in the photo, that isn’t this ship…look at the monitors in the background. Folks, that’s the main menu of Halo 4 you’re seeing there. A pic of this has already been leaked. Now having seen it in this photo, it fairly well confirms that pic.

Beyond this info, Brad from MEGA Brands on the MEGA Bloks fan page on Facebook stated this was the first in a series of  the new “Signature Series” line.

Here’s the pic of that for proof:

Are you folks excited for this set?? (Please feel free to leave a comment below)

Halo “Return of Master Chief” print, exclusive to San Diego ComicCon 2012

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I got this link from my bud, VadrRx, over at SpartanSwag.com.

It’s a new print of Master Chief and is exclusive to ComicCon this year. It’s a bit pricey at $89 EACH.

Halo “Return of Master Chief”

Info from the link:

“Return of Master Chief”
Comic-Con 2012 exclusive
50 piece edition
$89.00
limit 1 per customer

  • Halo 4 concept art by Gabriel Garza
  • Giclee print on watercolour paper
  • 13″ x 19″ (paper size)

This piece is for Comic-Con ATTENDEE pre-order for pickup only beginning Monday June 25th and ending Wednesday July 4th.  Orders must be picked up at our booth (#5629) at the San Diego Comic-Con.  Orders not picked up will be refunded and will not be shipped.  Please bring your receipt to the booth when picking up.  If you wish to have a friend pick up for you, that is not a problem, just make sure your friend has your receipt. Non-Attendee pre-orders will begin on Wednesday July 11th.

Payment is processed at the time the order is placed.  Residents of California will be charged sales tax.

…end copy/paste

So wow, only 50 made. Plus you have to be at ComicCon to get it. Pretty safe to say I won’t be able to get one. 🙁

Still, it’s a nice print. I guess I’ll just have to be happy enough with the .jpg file. 🙂

-HFFL

NEW Halo 4 info!

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I got this info via SpartanSwag.com (my friend VaderRx’s blog) who got that from www.littleenglishhaloblog.com. Credit goes to “FlawlessCowboy” over at the previously mentioned blog for the original info.

So here we have 11 slides to discuss.

This slide is basically a greeting to the rest of the info. Not much new here, though I like the use of the term “UNSC Infinity Training Program” near the top of the slide.

A little bit of textual history about the Halo franchise. Again, nothing really new yet.

Here’s a nice timeline shot of the Halo titles over the years.

So now we start to get to the good stuff. Okay so we know Halo 4 will be darker. Chief having to make some “very” difficult decisions? Oooh, now that sounds intriguing.

New nemesis? The Didact we presume. New Race? The Forerunner. Can Chief still trust an apparently rampant Cortana?

More Immersion? Hmm, not really explained here what that is, but I’m looking forward to discovering that.

Now HERE is what we were waiting for. 10 NEW weapons! We’ve already seen the Forerunner Light rifle and scattershot, the UNSC Rail Gun and Sticky pistol. Hmm, what else? 2 new vehicles? What could these be? A Forerunner War Sphinx? The UNSC Mammoth? That Mech we keep seeing? Or are they something else?

Here is the veiled “perks” system. (Which I’m totally fine with, BTW.) What really catches my eye in this slide is the “improved support to create, organize and track groups.” Hmm, Clans are coming back? I hope so. I belong to a gaming group (Rated Mature) and would love to set this up for the group.

Now about War Games. 10 maps to start. Cool. We’ve seen Haven, Adrift, and Longbow.

Now here is the REAL meat of the article. Spartan Ops. The first 10 weeks will be free. I thought this would be more though. Hmm, maybe will all the positive response from E3, 343 decided to draw back on how long/how much Spartan Ops would be and for free. Still, 10 weeks is a good start.  They (343) estimate that this first season will be approximately up to 12 hours of additional gameplay. Good. It is akin to a second campaign. Though I suspect some of the footage will be reused in some way. We’ll have to wait to see that though.

and finally…

Closing remarks to get the customers amped up to pre-order/buy the game.

Not a TON of new info, but what is there is welcome indeed.

-HFFL

Discussion regarding a quit ban in Halo 4

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The following is my response to a discussion on HaloWaypoint about a possible quit ban in Halo 4…

Instead of a straight ban for quitting here is what I propose: If points are used for experience, you loose 1 point per quit game. ALSO, you would lose 1/10th of 1 percent of your total credits earn. This way it’s not so bad when you start the game out, but as you earn a lot more credits and rank up you’d loose a lot more for quitting.

One way I look at this regarding quitting out of team games is that if YOU choose to go into a team game as a random yourself, then you have to consider that you may be matched up with horrible teammates. So the choice was yours. This is one reason why I won’t go into a team game as a random. I belong to a good gaming group that we have enough people on to have a team, be that a team of 4, 5, 6, or 8. Only “team” game I would go into as a random is multiteam. In that I mostly go for kills, so I’m not worried about how good or bad my teammates are.

Qutting out of a FFA or Rumblepit game should definitely cost you more, IMO. There you absolutely know it’s all on you to do well. Agreed on lag being an issue and causing games to be unpleasureable to play. One way to slightly get around that is to set your matchmaking to search for “good connection” AND “same language.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had bad lag due to the other team being from a different nation. Seems the worst with Mexico, then Australia and France. (not a knock on those folks, just that the connections aren’t even.

I definitely don’t want to see a quit ban though. As others have stated that only punishes people from playing a game they would otherwise love to play. Once in awhile, a quit really become necessary, be it lag, bad teammates, connection lost due to weather, or having to take a dump during a game…lol.

Seriously though, unless someone is a prolific quitter of games, the occasional quit shouldn’t mar someone’s record. As I stated at first, lose an XP point and some credits (above those credits lost for the game itself you quit out of).

Now, one way to stave off people rage quitting due to being pwned, is to have a fair matchmaking system that matches you up against gamers of like skill levels. That’s the biggest challenge. One the Reach never seems to quite do right.

Mega Bloks UNSC Infinity possible size???

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I took this image into Adobe Illustrator to add the color dots that represent the “studs” of the bloks. Then I put it in Photoshop to fix the box’s perspective.

Here’s the original: 

Here is the fixed perspective with color studs:

Now for the “math.” Each dot represents a “stud” on the top of the bloks. Each fifth dot is a different color to make it easier to count. The height is calculated by plate size, not studs. (I didn’t show the control tower dots near the top right in this graphic)

Red+Yellow length of studs I counted at 85 approximately.
Blue+Green length of studs I counted at 21 approximately.
Orange+Purple height of plates I counted at 48 approximately.

I measured the length of studs. Each 2 stud blok measures 1.5cm. Each plate is 3mm high (not including the stud at the top)

So that means each distance is:
Length 85 studs=67cm=26.375 inches (inches are rounded up)
Width 21 studs=16.5cm=6.5 inches (inches are rounded up)
Height 48 plates high=16cm=6.3 inches (inches are rounded up)

Folks, this is a BIG set!. Also, bare in mind we can’t see all the bloks near the aft end of the set, so it could be even longer.

So again to put it in perspective:
Over 2 feet long by more than a half foot wide, by half foot tall(again approximate)

Mega Bloks UNSC Infinity!!!

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I got this pic from Spartanbloks.com.

The article and box art on SpartanBloks incorrectly titles it the Forward on to Dawn. As we know that ship (correctly names as the Forward Unto Dawn) is actually a MUCH smaller UNSC Frigate. The ship in this pic is clearly much closer to the UNSC Infinity. Compare it with this pic below:

The UNSC Infinity:

Here is the Forward Unto Dawn (not Forward on to Dawn):

Now, someone said to me it’s the Spirit of Fire. However, compare that ship with the Mega Bloks one:

Spirit of Fire:

You can clearly see the Mega Bloks ship is not the Spirit of Fire either. The fore section is much pointier and has a much lower section in the front.

The closest design the MEGA pic comes to is the UNSC Infinity. That makes total sense too as it’s THE ship of Halo 4.

Though, this box art says it’s a prototype. In a way I hope it is as the design isn’t quite right. Still, were it to remain unchanged, I’d still buy it as it just looks plain AWESOME!

Look at the bottom right corner of the box art and you can see that the top comes off. Likely that is to display a play area within the ship.

Finished product or not, I’m EXCITED about this set. I’ve been talking with a representative from Mega Brands for many months now about having a large starship line. Starting it off with the Infinity really sets it up nicely. We can only hope this ship DOES come to retail. Then maybe we’ll get ships like the Spirit of Fire, Forward Unto Dawn, Long Night of Solace and other various UNSC and Covenant capital class starships.

Here’s hoping this isn’t a hoax either. I’d be really bummed.

More McFarlane Halo Micro Ops pics!

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More official pics have been released by McFarlane. Click each to make bigger.

These are all the small card sets. IIRC, these will sell for around $6. If so, that is a GREAT price for these.

I’ll only want one set of the Drop Pods. The Banshee and Warthog/Mongoose sets I’ll look to get two of. The Ghost/Turret set I’d like to get 4 of.

Now if the price is around $10, well, I’ll have to adjust what I want then. They will still be at least one of each though.

Revised UNSC Infinity ship comparison pic.

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You’ve seen the pic before. Now I’ve added the Pillar of Autumn to the pic and some text for easy reference. (Click to make bigger)

Since there as of yet are no officially released side shots of the Infinity, I had to alter the perspective slightly to one of the official Infinity images to make it fit. Once there is an official pic, I’ll switch out the one above.

The Evolution of the Master Chief armor for XBOX Live Avatars

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For several years now we’ve been able to outfit our avatars with a myriad of costumes and clothing to our desire. Halo came a little late to the party, but it came with a lot of goodies. Here is a brief look at Master Chief’s armor as it came out for the Avatar Marketplace.

The the left you see a mutliplayer Master Chief. For whatever reason XBL decided to go with silver visors instead of the regular gold. Would have made more sense to go with gold, IMO. In the middle is Master Chief from Halo CE: Anniversary. Finally to date, we have the Halo 4 version.

As you can see with each iteration, the armor has changed significantly. I like each version for different reason. The left (other than the visor color) is what I’ve known the longest. The middle harkens back to the original and that helmet looks “meaner.” The right is the new look. The armor is darker in color, so too the visor. I’m more and more liking the new armor.

Now here’s hoping the McFarlane makes each as avatar mini-figures like they are with some of the other Halo related stuff.

-HFFL