Monthly Archives: December 2013

The Spirit of Fire podcast for 12.9.13. Spartan Assault on the XBOX!

Posted on by

We’ve not had a podcast in a month. Truthfully, there wasn’t much exciting news to report and repeating the Halo bulletin every week when I already do a synopsis of it on the blog is redundant. Anyone can reread the bulletin, so I’ve decided I won’t do that and only focus are the real news worthy topics.

In the episode Martin and I talk about Spartan Assault being released for the One and the 360, but at different times. We briefly talk about the One’s graphics, some of our favorite types of covenant, the new Dark Horse Halo comic book and more.

This is a short podcast for us at just about 45 minutes.

      SoF 12-9-13
Click above to listen

SoF 12-9-13
Right click above to download and listen at your leisure.

-Sal

Spartan Assault this AND next month…

Posted on by

Halo Spartan Assault Logo

It was announced on 343’s twitch stream today that Spartan Assault will be available for the XBOX One on Dec 24. For those curious about when for the 360, it was only stated, sometime in January.

As someone who will not be able to afford an XBOX One for at least 6 more months, this is disappointing. Yes, I’m glad it will come to the 360, but I’m disappointed that it’s not coming out at the same time as the One.

Marketing strategy or not, it would have been a nice gesture by 343 to release it for both console at the same time. Sigh….

I can only hope that someone out there who is getting this for the 360 will play co-op with me. Those of my friends who are getting this that I know of, are getting it for the One.

-Sal

343 has a new Creative Director!

Posted on by

Josh Holmes is no longer Creative Director. He’s been switched to being an executive producer. We can only wonder why? Perhaps his misstep during the Halo 4 Post Mordem earlier this year.

In the meantime, we have a NEW Creative Director. His name is Tim Longo. He formally was the Creative Director for the Tomb Raider reboot and Lucas Arts “Republic Commando”. I have to say being a HUGE Star Wars fan, this is AWESOME news. Republic Commando was one of my all time favorite Star Wars video games. Think Spartan Team Noble, but with Clone Troopers instead. Trust me it’s bad arse!

TimLongo

So if we the Halo community get an infusion of that into Halo, I have to say we are in for a much better game than Halo 4!!!

I’ve already started following him on twitter. If you want to follow him and welcome him as well to the Halo community, go HERE.

-Sal

Plush Huragok? YES PLEASE!

Posted on by

Flickr user larabair created a fantastic plush Huragok. It’s very detailed, especially for being made out of yarn.

Here’s a pic of an in-game Huragok for reference.

6114535654_f188b3354a_o

Considering the lack of official Huragok as well as merchandise, this would be a great way to bring it to light for fans. I have to say this is highly desirable. Would you buy into Halo plushies? I know I would.

-Sal

The Halo Bulletin 12.4.13

Posted on by

halobulletinheader_12-4-13This week’s Halo bulletin is a GREAT one! LOADS of upcoming Halo gameplay news and MORE!

After Bravo has a paragraph about what he did for Thanksgiving, we get into the good stuff that is Halo!

First up, 343 day (Dec. 9)
343day_660To celebrate the 343rd day of the year, 343 will be having a couple of special unlocks as well as it’s own playlist. Before we get to that though, note that they will be live streaming that day from 1-4pm PST. There will be interviews with Kiki Wolfkill, Kevin Gracce, Brain Reed, as well as gameplay with 343ers and community members. News of Spartan Assault, what might be coming to XBOX One and more…

The first unlock that day if you COMPLETE just one matchmaking game or Spartan ops matchmaking mission you will get the Commando Helmet.

kommando_660

This can normally only be unlocked if you have the Dominion mastery (which I already do). Note that you will only get the helmet, not to full armor set. You still have until Sunday late night to master that commendation to unlock the armor set.

Resistor Unlock
resistor_660
Next up is the Resistor unlock. Finally 343 is making good on it’s promise to unlock this for everyone. It’s coming this Monday. No need to play, though you may need to download a small update.

Lastly for the 343rd day of the year is 343 Day Slayer.
343daylist_660
This will be a speed slayer playlist. The settings for this are as follows:

•    6 vs. 6 Team Slayer
•    Score to win: 800
•    130% player speed
•    Preset Loadouts, each equipped with Resistor and Mobility
•    Initial Ordnance enabled, Random and Personal Ordnance disabled

The game type will be featured on the following maps:

•    Longbow
•    Complex
•    Daybreak
•    Exile
•    Outcast
•    Meltdown
•    Harvest
•    Wreckage
•    Vortex
•    Vertigo
•    Perdition
•    Ragnarok
•    Shatter

Matchmaking Playlist Update

Race will finally be coming to Halo 4 officially. Get ready to rev those engines come Monday.

The community choice poll has concluded for what multiplayer map to include in this and Longbow won! (Yes, that was my pick too!!!)
voting660

The Team Slayer Top 200 list is LIVE and you can check it out HERE.

Some fun news!

Halo: Escalation
This is a new comic book mini-series that follows the events AFTER Halo 4 (so of course spoilers will be present). The first issue comes out Dec 11 (next Wednesday). The basic premise of the story is that the UNSC Infinity has been tasked with escorting the Arbiter to meet with a Brute Chieftan in hopes of a truce or some other kind of diplomatic goodness.

To celebrate this, Waypoint has posted several versions of the two alternate first issue covers of Halo: Escaltaion #1 for your smart phone. (Check the link at the end for the full bulletin to get those pics).

If you’re lucky enough to be in Seattle on December 11, you can join in a special Halo: Escalation Launch Party. (Dang, I would LOVE to be there for this…)’

poster_660

And finally BS Angel has a Screenshot Spotlight that focuses on Snow.

To read the full bulletin, download those smart phone pics and see the Snow shots, go HERE.

-Sal

 

 

Halo Props for sale by DaFrontlineTrooper!

Posted on by

You’ve seen his props featured here on the blog before. Now Andrew is finally selling a few of his props. Not as commissions, but as part of what he has already made.

Take a look at the vid below for what he has to offer. The auctions for these will be going up tomorrow on eBay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=331pI9_5zPU&feature=c4-overview&list=UUpURJ31GSBcMAxM9_5m26Dw

Man, that Suppressor is SWEET! I’d love to get that!!!

If you bid and win, please take some pics and send them to me at [email protected] and I’ll feature you on the blog.

-Sal

Played the DLC maps in Halo 4 lately?

Posted on by

I will say that it is bit frustrating not being able to play on DLC maps paid for. I for one am of the mind that there needs to be a DLC specific playlist. Yes, map sizes vary widely so some DLC maps may be better than others depending on party size.

So I’d suggest a Team Slayer DLC playlist and a BTB DLC playlist.

The maps for each would breakdown as follows:

Team Slayer DLC (4v4):
-Monolith
-Skyline
-Pitfall
-Vertigo
-Landfall
-Daybreak

BTB DLC (8v8):
-Wreckage
-Harvest
-Perdition
-Outcast
-Shatter

Broken up like this, there is a good distribution of maps per DLC playlist. Of the ones I put in for Team Slayer DLC, only Landfall is a bit big for 4v4. However, it’s been used for such already, so people are fairly used to it.

The BTB DLC maps are the biggest of the 11 DLC maps. While a couple of them may seem a bit tight for 8v8, they are definitely a bit too big for 4v4. Now if BTB DLC were actually 6v6 then all of those I put in that list would definitely work.

Regardless, population is low. So how do we get these two playlists without affecting the regular population much?

Consolidate the current playlists a little. We need to have Team Objective again. CTF needs to go into that playlist. It will be the big draw for that one. Then add in Oddball, Regicide, and King of the Hill. With those others also having commendations attached to them, it makes sense to have them in a unified Team Objective playlist. I’d MUCH prefer that than a rotational playlist that comes around every few months.

One thing is for certain, if there isn’t something done to better manage DLC maps, the next game’s DLC sales will suffer GREATLY. I’ve already had many friends tell me they aren’t going to buy DLC for the next game because of the issues with DLC in Halo 4.

I for one look forward to new maps, so not having DLC in the next Halo game is NOT an option for me. However, if the franchise is going to flourish, DLC must be handled much better.

-Sal

A short story of Halo news from the weekend…

Posted on by

On our way from our home to my wife’s mom’s home for the weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving, we stopped at a strip mall along the way. The intention was for my wife to go into a craft store to get something she had a coupon for. While there, since Toys R Us was right next door to it, I decided to peruse, hoping to get the 20-figure set, since my local one didn’t have it in stock when we were out earlier in the morning.

I come upon the Mega Bloks section and saw two boys and their mom. The older of the two boys, I’d guess at 11-12 was looking at the Halo stuff, when he noticed the 20-figure set. Now mind you, this was Black Friday (yes, my wife and I celebrate Thanksgiving on the Saturday instead, because we can have more family present that way). Anyway…

The older boy snatched up the set and his younger brother, I’d guess at 7-8, grabbed the last one. The older boy turned to his mom and asked if she had an extra $50 for the set (as that was the price tag on the shelf. She said no and both boys looked forlorn. Well, I could have snatched that opportunity for myself and wait for the kids to put them back…OR, do the right thing, which is what I did, without any hesitation. I told the mom, that particular set was on sale for Black Friday ONLY for $30. She asked if I was sure, and I said yes. In the meantime, the boys ran off to find a price checker. They came back excited and said it was $30. She smiled and said they could BOTH have their sets. She then told them to thank me as they wouldn’t have known of the sale otherwise. The boys were quick to thank me, then the mom did as well, since this saved her $40 between the two sets.

There I was, still no 20-fig set in hand, but the feeling of helping someone, especially a family, even in such a small thing as to mention a sale price, was beyond worth it to me.

So yes, I had Halo on the brain this weekend, just couldn’t post anything since I didn’t have access to my computer and my wife’s mom’s internet was down. One side note, she (wife’s mom) is going to repaint her kitchen. The color she picked out is called “Halo”! I thought that was pretty cool and she was excited to tell me about it being that color. Just so you know, it’s a pale yellow.

-Sal