The Spirit of Fire Podcast for 9.29.13

Posted on 09/30/2013 by Sal

This week, we welcome back Zach who wasn’t able to make it to last week’s podcast. He has a special segment in this week’s podcast where he discusses pro Halo players swithcing to Call of Duty for money. I’m splitting the podcast into two parts. There is a specific reason for this.

While the first part is our usual ‘Week in Halo’ portion and includes as well Zach’s topic of discussion being Halo pro players switching to Call of Duty for money, it’s the second part that is much more ‘controversial’.

In the second part of the podcast I go off on tangents regarding my displeasure with 343’s handling of the Halo franchise. It starts with me finding out theater HAS been encoded into Halo 4 all along and that 343 basically lied to us about it not being in the game (they just hid it from us). Thankfully a Halo 4 modder found this though. From there though, I go into detail about what I feel 343 did WRONG in Halo 4. Specifically things like unnecessary aesthetic/visual changes, audio changes, long established storylines, etc.

BE FOREWARNED, there is some ‘colorful’ language in the second portion. It’s one of the reasons I split the podcast into two sections. More importantly though, I wanted to give 343 the opportunity to listen to that portion I feel which expresses what MANY Halo fans, certainly those of us who had been with the franchise for a LONG time, feel about Halo 4 and how it’s deviated so far off course from what made Halo, HALO. BS ANgel tweeted that she wanted to know what we though 343 did right and wrong, so Jessica (BS Angel) here is my reply to that. (Next week, we’ll discuss what 343 did right.

I know that I’m likely not going to be on 343s ‘Christmas’ list per say after this recording, but that doesn’t concern me at all. If I wanted to be a yes man to 343, I could easily say all the ‘good’ things or the things they WANT to hear, versus what they NEED to hear. And yeah, I might have benefitted from that by being invited to events and such, but again, those of you who have followed me for some time know, I’m NOT that guy.

Like all of you am a consumer. We bought into this game thinking 343 understood what Halo was. What we got at launch proved very differently and it’s taken the full length of time since launch for 343 to catch up to where the game should have been on release date. In fact, I think they still have a way to go.

Okay, I could go on and on in written format. However, instead just repeating everything that was said in the podcast, I may as well just let you all listen in, right?

So here’s the first part. Again this is the tame news portion that has the week in Halo, and then the important pro player discussion of some of them switching to Call of Duty from Halo for money reasons.

Click the arrow to play below:

SoF 9-29-13 Week in Halo-Pro Players portion

Or right click the following to download. SoF 9-29-13 Week in Halo-Pro Players portion

The following is the second part. Again, I will warn you that it contains language I would not allow in replies on the site here. So if you’re under 18, PLEASE either do NOT listen to it or get permission first.

Click the arrow to play below:

SoF 9-29-13 Cover Band portion

Or right click the following to download. SoF 9-29-13 Cover Band portion

And PLEASE, give me some feedback on this. Whether or not you agree with me on what I said, I want to hear what you all are thinking as well.

On the second part, I do want to add that I want 343 to understand what I meant by saying they are a cover band or stewards of Halo. We all know Bungie isn’t coming back to Halo. So it’s not like 343 is holding something in place until Bungie returns. However that also does not mean 343 should ‘change the kingdom’. Halo has long been established and many of the changes 343 made, especially those aesthetic ones were done to make Halo their one and to separate it from Bungie’s Halo. As you’ll hear in that portion of the podcast, I’m VERY much against that. I went through this sort of discontinuity with Star Wars, a franchise I supported for 35 years. I absolutely hated having to explain to other not-so-hard core fans about the issues with continuity. I do NOT want to go through that again and with Halo.

It most definitely should not be on the fans to get the Halo universe straight or explain away things that seem out of place. 343 you have a DUTY to ADHERE to what came before. While some SLIGHT visual changes can be made to what has been established to show better computer power or that you as well can design good aesthetics, to completely change aspects of the game that have been long established is a disservice to the community that you hope will remain with you as it had also supported Bungie for it’s 10 year run on Halo.

You had the perfect opportunity to steer the boat back into the right direction. However you chose to go FURTHER off course and took Halo in even different directions that take away from the core of what Halo is. If you need for me or others to spell that out in words specifically detailing what we mean, then that is a testament that shows we the community that you in fact do NOT understand what Halo is and what it means to we fans (and CONSUMERS).

You have had your one and only pass. Halo 5 (or whatever you decide the next Halo game will be call in the series) MUST be a success that far surpasses anything done previously.

To do this you MUST consider other successes. You MUST consider giving yourselves enough time to FULLY develop the game and NOT take shortcuts. We WILL wait. Providing the game we get at launch is something well worth waiting for. Just take a look at what RockStar did with GTA V as an example of it’s fans being patient and rewarding the developer. There is NO way you can compete with a Billion dollar selling game, even if on multi-platforms. SO please do not try to spin words to say otherwise.

Core gameplay MUST return. Social and Ranked playlist MUST return. Theater MUST return. Core playlists and game types MUST return, whether you or Bungie created them. By trying to cut out much of what Bungie established in Halo, you ARE shooting yourselves in the foot as well as SHI….ing on the Halo community. If you think we fans feel entitled, well YES WE DO. If it were NOT for we fans buying into this game for MANY games prior to what you inherited, Halo would not have continued to exist.

You MUST do better to do right by the Halo community. We by word of mouth, via the net, social media, face to face and otherwise will take care of the rest. Put out a HIGH quality game that adheres to established core mechanics, while providing new things (in separate playlists) will put you squarely in the right mindset of Halo fans. Refuse to acknowledge that for the next game and continue with your ignorance of such or your rock star attitudes and “we know better than you” thinking and you will kill this franchise.

Okay, I had to get some of that off my chest folks….

-Sal

Theater for Campaign? IT DOES EXIST!

Posted on 09/29/2013 by Sal

Now mind you a modder found out how to do this. But come on, if they can do it, why can’t 343 just give us a flipping patch for this and allow us to use theater fro Campaign. While they’re at it, Spartan Ops too?

It’s not that they can’t. It’s that they WON’T. You may or may not remember this, but some time ago when questioned about why theater wouldn’t be available for campaign, it was stated (and I’m paraphrasing here) that theater would break the illusion of the campaign.

Okay, I’m going to call BULLSH…..on that. Previous Halo titles had theater for campaign. Did those of us who used it mind if we broke out of the map or saw how Bungie made the illusion of depth for instance? I have to say overwhelmingly NO. In fact, most of us ENJOYED braking out of maps and/or seeing how Bungie created certain things. Same would be said of 343 IF they allowed us to have theater.

I’m not mad at the person who modded the game to figure out how to use theater for campaign. I’m POed at 343 for this. CLEARLY it’s possible, yet they REFUSE to give it to us.

You know, with the population of Halo 4 down as far as it is, it could REALLY use a breath of fresh air like this. It would make replaying the campaign have even MORE meaning to it.

Personally I could rack up HUNDREDS of hours in theater alone taking screenshots or clips. I wouldn’t care at all if I saw that something was done in low-res outside of the map but in the context of the campaign it looks fine. REALLY, it wouldn’t bother me at all. Most campaigns take this kind of shortcut. It’s fine 343.

I’ve gotten out of ALL of the multiplayer maps. Am I mad or disillusioned by the shortcuts 343 made with those? Not at all.

So COME ON 343! Give us THEATER!!!! Like I said earlier, not just for campaign either. Do this for Spartan Ops too and you will DEFINITELY see a jump in people playing that portion of the game…you abandoned… Speaking for myself, you folks KNOW I’m doing a web series based off of Majestic and Crimson squads. I could make that series THAT MUCH BETTER if you enabled theater for Spartan Ops.

I want to thank halo.bungie.org for tweeting this out. Here’s a link to their post on this video.

Here’s what one of their forum posters had to say about this:
I think if you are in the theatre mode, then you are already outside the bounds of needing to keep immersion. I am 100% ok with noticing that the massive structure out in the distance is really a miniature while in theatre mode for example, since I’m not really playing the game. In a sense, there’s no way to ruin the theatre experience with tricks since there’s no ‘experience’ to speak of in theatre mode.

THAT I TOTALLY AGREE WITH!

What’s funny about this is that several of the MODS that have come to light have been turning into in-game functions. Want examples? Mini-Slayer and Race are two of them. Assault has come to light and I’d venture a guess we’ll see this in matchmaking.

So how about not making us wait any longer 343 and flipping that switch to give us theater? (Or a patch or whatever else is required)

Readers, you’ll forgive me for the use of CAPS throughout this article, but DAMN…It’s one way I can express my frustration with 343/Microsoft for NOT giving this to us at launch.

-Sal

A better look at the new Didact figure from McFarlane Toys

Posted on 09/27/2013 by Sal

Here’s the Didact without his helmet. I’m SO glad McFarlane has given US the choice of showing the Didact with his helmet off or as seen below, off.

The Didact is GINORMOUS in comparison to Master Chief!

Here are the armor and weapon skins that you will get should you buy the Didact figure.

Mine is on the way! I’ll review it when it comes in!!

-Sal

Meet Jul ‘Mdama

Posted on 09/27/2013 by Sal

Halo Waypoint has released another in the entries of the Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide. This time it’s Jul ‘Mdama, the leader of the Storm faction of the Covenant.

To learn much more about Jul, especially regarding the events that lead UP to Halo 4, read the Kilo-5 trilogy. So far the first two books are out. Glasslands is the first, with The Thursday War being the second. The third book will be out in a scant few months.

-Sal

I guest hosted on Podtacular tonight.

Posted on 09/26/2013 by Sal

Just finished recording the newest Podtacular podcast. In that episode we talk about all things Halo collectible and toy related. If you want to hear me geek out, this is the podcast for you! LOL

Dust Storm from Podtacular should have this up tomorrow. When he does, I’ll get a link up here pronto for that podcast.

-Sal

Toy Review: McFarlane Halo 4 series 2 Master Chief w/Cortana Micro Ops figure

Posted on 09/26/2013 by Sal

Fast on the heels of the CIO spartan review comes this Master Chief toy review. A logn wait between series 1 and 2 is worth it!

On with the review (click to make pics bigger):

The slim packaging is a great idea. For one it saves on cardboard which saves on trees being used, plus excess garbage. Good for the environment! The Cortana microfig is display nicely with it’s own graphic. It’s a really nice bonus with the Master Chief figure.

As with the other figures in this wave this one comes with a code. Here is the ‘Riptide’ skin for the Assault Rifle. I like this skin as well. Given that bonus skins via the Champions Bundle cost money, these being bonuses for no additional cost on top of the figure is VERY welcome indeed!

Master Chief in orthogonal views. This one compared to the one from the cryo tube is MUCH cleaner. In fact I think it’s even better than the one that came in series one of the Halo 4 figures. Not just for it’s clean paint application, but also considering the weapon skin code AND the Cortana microfig. You definitely get your monies worth from this figure!

The railgun with the MC fig is well done. Weathered AND has small UNSC and UNSC bird emblems on it! Now THAT is detail folks! The peg in the middle is removable and is there if you want to stow the weapon on Chief’s back.

A little tough for me to get in focus, here is the Cortana micro figure. This is just FANTASTIC! Not only is the sculpt great, the paint application on such a small figure is OUT OF THE PARK Awesome!!!

What’s great about the Cortana micro figure is that it DOES come out of the ‘puck-like’ stand. Now I will say BE CAREFUL doing this. It is a small figure. While slightly flexible, you don’t want to break it.

You can see more of the detail that went into this figure above.

Finally, Master Chief holding Cortana in his hand. It seems purposeful that Cortana was made to pop out of the stand for Chief to hold. This pic shows more of the detail of Cortana.

McFarlane REALLY nailed this toy. Not only is Chief FANTASTIC, but the Cortana minifig is amazeballs!

I HIGHLY recommend getting this, even if you have the series 1 Chief figure. Again, you get the code, plus the Cortana Micro figure.

This gets a STRONG 10 of 10 from me!

-Sal

Toy Review: McFarlane Halo 4 series 2 CIO Spartan (exclusive)

Posted on 09/26/2013 by Sal

It’s been a long time coming for series 2 of the Halo 4 figures by McFarlane. Thankfully that wait is over and this series is hitting retailer shelves.

My friend ‘StunkPK‘ and his son (and a member of my gaming group) TheBigCheese320 found some of these at their local Walgreens. They were kind enough to pick up this figure as well as the Master Chief figure from this series for me. (Master Chief review coming shortly after this review).

On with the review (click to make pics bigger):

I’m not sure if this series will all be in the slim packaging as seen above. I kind of hope so. The wider packaging takes up shelf space, which means less room for more Halo toys. I like this design anyway. The back of the packaging as well as the front of the card are the same for all of the figures.

This particular figure is the ONLY exclusive to series 2 and is found at Walgreens. What separates this figure from the regular purple CIO in this wave (and for that matter any of the Halo 4 figures to date) is that is has one of the ‘skins’ on it. I like this figure even more so for that. Though it would be impractical to get every spartan with every skin, I’m glad that McFarlane has given us at least this one (to start).

All of the figures in series 2 come with a code. The codes are either for a weapon skin or armor skin. As you can see above this one comes with the “Bones” DMR skin. It’s pretty cool in-game.

Here is the figure out of the package in orthogonal views. Again, you can see the great sculpting here. Paint application is fantastic.

The DMR that comes with this is very well sculpted and also has good paint application. That little peg in the middle is if you want to stow the weapon on the Spartan’s back. It is removable.

Finally we see here (apologies for the bit of fuzziness in the pic) we see the articulation of the figure. It’s LOADED with articulation! This is one of McFarlane Toys strong points when it comes to Halo action figures.

While this was a long wait between series 1 and 2, it’s been worth it. Glad to have the bonus weapon skin and very glad that there were no issues with paint application, articulation and sculpt.

I give this figure a 10 or 10!

-Sal

The Halo Bulletin 9.25.13

Posted on 09/26/2013 by Sal

We start off with the Matchmaking Playlist Update. The Sniper is the weapon of the day here.

Team Snipers will be receiving new and updated maps: Ragnarok has received heavily optimized respawns, with many of the mid-map respawn points being moved to reduce the frequency of gaining control at the “50-yard line” and continually spawn-killing the enemy. Additionally, the respawn points behind and in front of the bases have been optimized to reduce the frequency of spawning out in the open. Also, Pitfall will be added to the playlist alongside Community Forge maps “The Ark,” made by The Fated Fire and “Opticon,” made by SaItyKoalaBear.

The Ark offers a wide mix of sightlines and scenery that help players learn and understand the map relatively quickly. For a look around the map (and potentially a jump on your opponents) check out the vid below.

Opticon brings a large arena-esque map into the Snipers mix, and offers challenging angles and sightlines into the middle structure, guaranteeing that securing map control will be no easy feat.

In addition to these updated maps, there are some new game types. The first of these are Covenant and Forerunner Snipers, which will equip players with Beam Rifles and Binary Rifles, respectively. Also, the traditional Team Snipers variant will no longer have any on-map weapons, and each game type (Team Snipers, Covenant Snipers, and Forerunner Snipers) will feature single-weapon sniping experiences. There is something new inspired by “No-Scopes Only” custom game types that have been popular in custom game lobbies for years. This coming Monday, Snapshot will make its premiere in Matchmaking.

SNAPSHOT
In this new game type, only “un-zoomed” kills will add to your team score. Players will still be able to zoom in, and even kill opponents whilst in-scope, but these kills will not count towards your team score, and your team will be upset with you for being so foolish for zooming in with a Sniper Rifle.

Players will start with both the Beam Rifle and UNSC Sniper Rifle. Extensive playtesting went into this game type, and we decided to start players with the Beam Rifle as the primary weapon due to the fact that un-zoomed kills with this weapon come at a faster and smoother pace, and we believe that this leads to an optimal flow (as well as laughing, chaos, and epic multi-kills). As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback about this game type.

Community Game Type Highlight: Conversion

Over the next few months (and potentially beyond), I’ll be highlighting noteworthy contributions from the community in the Bulletin. These may come in the form of maps, montages, and more. This week, I’ve decided to focus on a custom game type that has gained some steam and popularity over this past summer: Conversion. I had the chance to play this game type a few days after it was officially released, and was impressed by the new twist on an attack/defend round-based game type, which is based off of Extraction. There has been a significant amount of work on the game type since I last played, so I reached out to The Psycho Duck, one of the brains behind the project, to discuss the game type, where it came from, and where it is now. Enjoy!

(What follows is an interview with the creator of this game type. To see this go to the official site. Link at end of article)

In the meantime, you can download the gametype and maps here:
Conversion Gametype
Firebase map
Colony map

Lastly the screenshot spotlight. This week: Ricochet.

I particularly like this shot:

To read the full bulletin, go HERE.

-Sal

Meet Catherine Halsey

Posted on 09/25/2013 by Sal

HaloWaypoint.com gives us another entry from the Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide. This time, everyone’s favorite doctor and mother of all Spartans, Catherine Halsey.

I hope they keep doing these! I do wish they’d have shown Halsey though with her full arm, instead of the severed arm.

-Sal

Populate HFFL 1 hour custom game event results. (Blog’s 2nd Anniversary event!)

Posted on 09/24/2013 by Sal

Results of the Populate HFFL 1 hour custom game.

https://app.halowaypoint.com/en-us/Halo4/HaloFanForLife1/wargamescustom/match-18221ed5dea3933e

One person wasn’t accounted for that actually played. However since Waypoint does not show this, I will go by their stats as official. Yes, I had to paste the image above together to show all who played. Following the link above will show these same people.

The TOTAL kills for this one hour period were: 1,202.

While it wasn’t a huge number of gamers that played, that wasn’t the only goal. The main goal was to get this started. Then the hope is that other Halo communities will pick the banner and go for the record of most gamers in a one-hour custom game of Halo. (Come to think about it, most kills too!)

I did follow some specific rules, so if you want to try this out and want to use the same rules/settings I used for this, send me an e-mail at [email protected]. I HEARTEDLY invite any and all Halo communities to top this number and keeping trying to top each other. THis is meant to be a fun bragging rights kind of thing.

Hopefully this is just the START of something cool!

-Sal

HFFL 2nd Anniversary GRAND PRIZE trivia question!

Posted on 09/24/2013 by Sal

This promises to be MUCH harder than all the rest of the daily questions before. This is for the grand prize of a Halo Mega Bloks Night Ops Gauss Hog (as previously reviewed here).

What are the THREE ways I hate to die the most in Halo 4?

To answer you must reply to this article. To reply, you must be a registered subscriber of the blog.

Lots of replies. Noone has got all three right within the same answer. So…I’m going to help this along a bit. ALL THREE have been within the answers so far. So you just need to figure out WHICH of those are the correct three. The grand prize is still up for grabs for ANYONE (who is registered with the blog).

[UPDATE] After MANY tries, the question was finally answered correctly. I absolutely hate being Sniped! Then when Reach came out, I added Assassination to that. With Halo 4, the Boltshot QUICKLY became my most next hated way to die.

Thanks for playing folks! Prizes will be mailed out this weekend. Stay tuned to HaloFanForLife.com as more contests will be on the way!

-Sal

Halo Initiation trivia question #5 (and final for these codes)

Posted on 09/24/2013 by Sal

Answer the question below first and correctly and you will win a code each for digital copies Halo Initiation issues 1 and 2.

What is Palmer’s service number? (You MUST get all correct including correct hyphens and be first to win)

To answer you must reply to this article. To reply, you must be a registered subscriber of the blog.

To redeem the code you must be registered on darkhorse.com. It’s free to register!

You may only win ONE set of codes.

[UPDATE] The question has been answered correctly. THe answer is: 65287-98303-SP As if you didn’t know that already, right? Easy…

-Sal

Halo Initiation trivia question #4

Posted on 09/24/2013 by Sal

Answer the question below first and correctly and you will win a code each for digital copies Halo Initiation issues 1 and 2.

What is Palmer’s birthdate (Month/Day/Year) AND birth world? (You must get BOTH correct and be first to do so to win)

To answer you must reply to this article. To reply, you must be a registered subscriber of the blog.

To redeem the code you must be registered on darkhorse.com. It’s free to register!

You may only win ONE set of codes.

[UPDATE] The question has been correctly answered. The answers are: April 13th, 2527. Born on Luna.

-Sal

HFFL 2nd Anniversary trivia question #10

Posted on 09/24/2013 by Sal

As promised I will be asking at least one trivia question a day leading up to HaloFanForLife.com’s Two-year anniversary on the 24th of September. So stay tuned each day to HFFL for questions to win prizes!

Here is question #10:

What are the names of the three High Prophets in Halo?

To answer you must reply to this article. To reply, you must be a registered subscriber of the blog. During this 9 day trivia contest worth of questions, if you win once you may not enter again, until the final trivia question on the 24th for the big prize.

Okay folks, first to answer correctly gets a Halo Mega Bloks Convention Covert Ops Spartan Mk VI w/green visor (as seen here), as well as either another Halo Mega Bloks figure OR a McFarlane Avatar minifigure.

[UPDATE] The questions was answered in lightning quick fashion! The answers were, Truth, Mercy and Regret

-Sal

Populate HFFL time has changed!!!

Posted on 09/24/2013 by Sal

I’m making a late change here from before being 7-8 pm NOW being 9-10 pm.

A few reasons for the change:
• Agents of Shield (new Marvel series on ABC) is on from 8-9pm my time and I do not want to miss a second of it)
• Some of my gaming group guys won’t be able to make it until later.
• Other friends/fnas have asked for a later time so they can make it too. This accounting for the time difference between east and west coast.

So join me at now 9pm EST until 10PM for the Populate HFFL event. For more info go here.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause anyone.

-Sal

HaloFanForLife.com

A site by a Halo fan for Halo fans

Monthly Archives: September 2013

The Spirit of Fire Podcast for 9.29.13

Theater for Campaign? IT DOES EXIST!

A better look at the new Didact figure from McFarlane Toys

Meet Jul ‘Mdama

I guest hosted on Podtacular tonight.

Toy Review: McFarlane Halo 4 series 2 Master Chief w/Cortana Micro Ops figure

Toy Review: McFarlane Halo 4 series 2 CIO Spartan (exclusive)

The Halo Bulletin 9.25.13

Meet Catherine Halsey

Populate HFFL 1 hour custom game event results. (Blog’s 2nd Anniversary event!)

HFFL 2nd Anniversary GRAND PRIZE trivia question!

Halo Initiation trivia question #5 (and final for these codes)

Halo Initiation trivia question #4

HFFL 2nd Anniversary trivia question #10

Populate HFFL time has changed!!!