Monthly Archives: September 2012

Reminder HFFL’s One-Year Anniversary coming soon, with contests and prizes.

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Here are a few of the prizes to be won:

Halo Mega Bloks single pack minifigures
Halo McFarlane Avatar figures
Halo McFarlane Steel Spartan Armor pack (Comes with Gungnir spartan and 4 other different sets of armor to mix and match as you see fit.)

As stated before, the contest will be comprised of trivia questions. All of the answers can be found on my blog. Some answers may be buried deep, so you’ll have to check the HFFL archives for the answers.

Contest is limited to U.S. and Canada only. (Sorry folks, shipping is very high overseas, unless you’re willing to pay for it)

Must be 18 to enter, or have parents written permission (to me by e-mail) to enter. You must be registered on the blog to qualify to enter the trivia contest.

Winners will need to provide a shipping address for prizes.

Look for the HFFL Trivia contest within the week leading up to the Anniversary. There will also be 1 question each on my Twitter feed as well as Facebook page. You must be a follower/subscriber on those pages to enter.

-Sal (HFFL)

Official XBOX Magazine HALO Edition!

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Here’s the cover for the mag that you MUST OWN! It’s packed with 96 pages of Halo goodness.

Just check out the table of contents for some insight into the issue:

Hoop Dreams is a short article talks about the Halo rings, where the inspiration came from and their purpose.
Inspired is another short article that showcases a piece of artwork of Requiem.
Halo 4 is the first article with some real “meat” in it. Here you’ll read about where Chief left off at the end of Halo 3 and what happens at the beginning of Halo 4. This is broken down into a few smaller articles. The Re-Mastered portion of the article highlights changes made to Chief’s armor for Halo 4 with a two-page spread. Multiplayer is discussed as well as changes to other aspects of Halo, with a nod to Grunts. A discussion about Cortana’s growing rampancy is an important part of the article that shouldn’t be missed. Lastly in the section is a brief portion about Neil Davidge the new composer for Halo 4.
Halo Series Timeline is great look at some key events starting with Precursors and Forerunners all the way up to the beginning of Halo 4.
The Cortana article is a short writeup about everyone’s favorite blue AI. Ditto for the Master Chief article. The Covenant article is a four page spread of some of the key Covenant races as well as the Flood and Forerunners.
The Guns of Halo is a list article detailed the mag’s 25 greatest ways to slay in Halo. I’m not fond of these types of articles as I always disagree with the order of the list and invariably something is always left off the list that I would have chosen instead. Still, it’s a nice read.
Best Maps is just that an article of what the mag’s writers feel are the best maps. Another list type article. I had to disagree with a lot of the article. Not to mention they also list 5 maps that are the worst. Three on that list I happen to like. So really, it’s up to your own personal tastes as to what’s the best and worse in Halo maps.
Origins of Halo is a short history of the behind the scenes of the game and how it came about with Bungie. Some good concept images are shown and compared with the final in-game result.
Frank O’Conner speaks is a Q&A article with Frank talking about his feelings towards the Halo franchise and his history with it, Bungie, and now 343 Industries.
Size Matters, much like the size chart that I posted a week or so ago, is a series of charts showing scale between beings/weapons, small and large ships and huge ships, Halo and the Ark. Unfortunately these are all in Black and White, so no detailing (unlike my chart…)
One of the more fun articles is Easter Eggs. This article goes down the list of Easter Eggs found in each of the games. It’s a nice condensed way to find all of them if you haven’t seen them before and in a way a stroll down memory lane for those of us who have.
Rare Merchandise is almost a list-like article. While not ranking them, the article talks about some Halo merchandise. Yes, there are some rare items, however some others listed are hardly rare and can be found for cheap. Still, I highly recommend reading this article to give you a brief look at some cool collectibles.
The Halo Effect talks about the impact the Halo franchise has had on gaming, development, and even human culture in general. Great article.
Finally the Best Cameos article gives you a glimpse at some Halo references, be they in-game or not.

That’s a WHOLE LOT of Halo goodness packed in 96 pages and all for $10. This mag is SURE to be a collectible. Even if you’re not into buying magazines (which I’m not), this is one time I highly suggest making an exception.

-Sal (HFFL)

HaloFanForLife’s one year anniversary coming up. Contest and Prizes…

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While my original first post on September 25, 2011 has been deleted, it’s still the day I first ventured into the blogging world with HaloFanForLife.com.

To celebrate this day, I’ll be having a contest and some prizes. Stay tuned for the “when/what/how” and so on.

I will give one hint to the contest…TRIVIA (of HaloFanForLife.com).

I look forward to your participation!

-Sal (HFFL)

Halo 4 Promethean AIs and Weapons!

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Revealed through Gameinformer, the following images show some new Promethean AI classes as well as what is known, and new and formerly shown weapons. Enjoy

First the AIs:

The Promethean Knights are slightly strange looking and definitely give off an “alien” vibe. Still bi-pedal, but with 4 arms, they look strong. That huge hunchback seems a little out of place, though as you progress through the shots of the different variants you see how this changes. The Lancers have wings (Red Bull anyone? LOL). Commanders got some distinctive coloring and the Battlewagon those awesome hard light spikes.

Even the crawlers get upgraded. Though it doesn’t really say what the difference is between the regular crawler and the Snipe version, the Snipe looks more menacing. The Alpha Crawler without a doubt is already my favorite as I really like those spikes.

Maybe I just like spikes coming out of enemies. Hunters from the Covenant are among my favorite and yep, they have spikes too.

And now for the weapons:

These weapons have a familiarity about them even with their alien looking design. The Binary Rifle is particularly sleek as is the Light Rifle. The Scattershot looks like it can pack a hefty punch.

While these are all a changing of the guard so to speak from Covenant to Prometheans as the main adversary, I can honestly say I’m ready for the change. The enemies look great and the weapons are extremely cool looking!

I can’t wait to get my hands on the toy versions of these!!!

-Sal (HFFL)

Halo 4 Oddball, Griffball, CTF gameplay!

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IGN has released 3 videos of these three games.

Halo 4 Updates Grifball and Oddball

Oddball is amazing now. You get to throw the ball. I can definitely foresee some type of Football variant gametype coming from this, or better yet, RUBGY! The assassinations in Oddball are sick! Huge uppercuts.

Griffball also features ball passing. As well you can hammer pass the ball by smacking the hammer down on/near the ball. The only thing that seemed a little off was that there is a lot of rocking back and forth of the camera to simulate your running. I think that should be tailored down a bit. But until I actually play the game, I can’t say for sure how much this will actually affect my game play.

CTF has a nice change of pace with the flag carrier being able to also use a weapon while running the flag. Yes, that can currently be done in some types of Flag games in Reach, but it’s not the default mode. Also, you run nearly as fast as you would normally while holding the flag. The coolest thing I saw was being able to assassinate while holding the flag for a “Flagsassination.”

So after checking out these three vids, what do you think of the gameplay?

I’m excited for it. I keep saying, November 6 just can’t come soon enough.

-HFFL

Halo 4 ViDoc: A Hero Awakens

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This is a good 10 minute ViDoc of some more of the making of Halo 4, with specifics on Cortana and Chief’s relationship as well as Chief’s humanity. I quite enjoyed it.

-HFFL

Halo 4 War Games footage: New map “Exile”

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It’s been described as a cross between Blood Gulch and Sidewinder. I think it looks amazing! In the vid we get to see a “Flagsassination.” I love the animation of this.

Also, it’s been confirmed that you can not drop the flag once you have it, but that you can shoot while holding it. I suspect the reasoning behind this is to keep people from flag juggling. No matter to me. Being able to shoot while holding the flag seems like a good trade off.

Exile looks to be a good BTB style map. Note the Scorpion in the video. I’m looking forward to exploring this map and seeing what can be done with it in Forge. I’m betting it’s going to be a racing map for some forgers.

Sadly, I was not correct in my guess that the next map revealed would start with an “O” to spell out Halo for the maps revealed.  Instead they spell HALE. Ah well, missed opportunity. LOL.

-HFFL

The Magic of Halo (video and screenshots) discussion.

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Here’s the video.

Now for some screenshots:

My favorite Halo developer, Vic Deleon (you can find him on Twitter):

Besides following him on Twitter, I’ve had the privilege to game with him a few times.

I love this shiny logo:

Here’s a bit of the script for Halo 4 (subject to change):

A good shot of how motion capture is done:

Two Concept to In-game shots:
Cryo Tube Hall:

This really looks amazing. Both the concept and finished product have great detail. That finished shot nearly gives me chills with how cold it looks.

A hallway, presumably on the Forward Unto Dawn or Infinity.

Again, both concept and finished shot are great. I kinda wish they’d have left the windows in.

The new styled Warthog in action:

Now who isn’t going to be shooting for those gas cans on the back end???

A Jackal with a new style helmet:

What I like about this helmet is that it looks enough like the traditional Jackals we’re used to.

I think this Grunt’s about to get it…

Ol’ Flipyap is going to be disintegrated by a Promethean Knight.

Commander Thomas Lasky and Captain Del Rio:


The two top officers of the UNSC Infinity. Expect a lot of interaction with Lasky. Not only with the live action series, but within Spartan Ops as well.

The new look of Cortana has really grown on me:

A more feminine jaw. Ah, who am I kidding, nearly all blue sci-fi chicks are hot…LOL.

A “Didact Dog” (A variant on the crawler):

I REALLY prefer this version over the regular crawler. I wonder if they are all like this and can transform from one stage to the other?

And finally a Pelican in flight:

I added some color in this shot to punch it up a bit. Man, I can’t wait to play this campaign!

For these scenes and SO much more, click that link at the top of the article for the video.

-Sal