The second in an on-going Halo Mega Bloks series, Thrill Squad, was posted today. I found it to be a LOT of fun to watch. Action, great stop motion, good effects with some humor added in.
In case you missed part one, here it is:
So do you like these vids? Yes, they promote the toys. Of course they should. Other than that though, do you like the story, action, humor?
As a fan of Halo Mega Bloks, you know I do!
-Sal
This is a reblog of an article posted today on totalxbox.com, written by Edwin Evans-Thirwell. As usual, my thoughts will be interjected in BLUE.
Here’s your enigma for today: 343 Industries is in the market for a software development engineer to help “drive the future of Halo”, a process that involves work with “external partners”. Another hint, perhaps, that talk of a third-party developed Halo 2 Anniversary reboot is more than talk?
HFFL: Okay, once again rumors crop up about a Halo 2 Anniversary. I say get on with it. If we’re getting it this year, then let’s hear SOMETHING about it. Yes, E3 is coming, but it’s still a couple months off. As well, here we are again with yet another third-party to be involved with Halo. With respect to 343, can’t they design their own franchise? Why myst they always look outside of their own studio? Is it that the talent pool isn’t as good? Or that they don’t have enough people? Or that their taking on TOO much at one time? I think it’s likely a mix of all three with the latter of the three being the biggest contributing factor.
The right candidate will help 343 with “the challenging task of ensuring our external partners are able to turn world class games into industry movers”. He or she “will be able to support external partners using a mature pipeline, drive new techniques and algorithms, take a lead on performance tuning issues and bringing passion and new ideas to the table. They will also be approachable and able to work with closely with artists and designers to understand requirements and solve problems.”
HFFL: Hmm, so this doesn’t actually sound like it’s an external partner per say, but rather a go-between/liason of the studio with those external partners.
Applicants should have “recently shipped a AAA Xbox One title”, and will be expected to “get up to speed quickly on [an] existing codebase already in production”. This suggests – and I’m stretching here, no doubt – that 343’s mostly unrevealed Halo Xbox One will be the technological basis for any hypothetical parallel projects.
HFFL: Okay, really…how many XBOX One vets are there out there right now? And how many of them have actually shipped a AAA title? Seems like a pretty small pool to get applicants from. Looks like they’re trying to steal away another person from another studio. Not at all unheard of. However, this again points to the worries by some in the Halo community that the skill needed for designing for the XBOX One isn’t fully there yet at 343. That’s worrisome if there is supposed to be a new Halo game for the One this year.
Halo Anniversary co-developers Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity are tipped to be working on Halo 2 Anniversary by a number of sources. Microsoft has stated that these and other reports are “based solely on speculation”, which isn’t quite the same thing as saying that they’re false. “Other than confirming that your Halo journey on Xbox One begins in 2014, we have made no announcements related to specific titles,” adds the statement in question.
HFFL: Again with this cryptic crap…Again, please, as a fan and consumer, I’d really like to know if something is coming out this year. It WILL impact my budget and purchasing for the XBOX One. Keep lagging on and not giving us any info and well….my money may have to go somewhere else. I’m not saying a different console, just for other things in general. I’d like to know now, not 2 months or more down the road. I do not yet have an XBOX One, so that’s $535 (includes tax) for just the console, not to mention the game and if there is any limited/legendary edition as well. Some of us are not made of money, so we DO need a large enough buffer of time to be able to save up for these things.
Halo 2 Anniversary rumours aside, he mention of external partners could also allude to a project at Vanguard, co-developer of the moderately well-received Halo: Spartan Assault. It could also refer to an externally developed DLC pack for Halo Xbox One, rather than a full game. Your guess is as good as mine, frankly.
HFFL: Well, while I’ve enjoyed Spartan Assault, I don’t think it warrants having a sequel. DLC pack? Um, have they looked at sales of Halo 4 DLC? AND the fact that many who bought Halo 4 DLC are still PO’ed that they can’t play that content on a regular basis? I sincerely hope it’s not either of these cases, but rather a NEW game.
343 is known to be working on at least one game that isn’t Halo Xbox One or the forthcoming Halo TV series. We’ll hear more at E3, hopefully.
HFFL: Yes, I sincerely hope so. And it MUST be not just good, not just great, but OVER THE TOP AWESOME. Anything less is really going to be deflating to the Halo community, well, at least to THIS Halo fan…
-Sal
With BS Angel’s departure from being a community manager, for now I think we can safely assume Bravo will be writing all of these…
It’s Friday, March 21. The time is 11:00 a.m. PDT. Our live stream is set to begin in three hours, and members of our 343 Pro Team are preparing to battle it out against some of our top community members – StrongSide, Ace, Flamesword, and Snakebite. Somewhere, bs angel is selecting which cat shirt she will wear. For the Pro Team, the last few days have been full of Halo 4 practice and arguments about whether or not Killer V was the best gamertag of all time or the worst gamertag of all time.
That morning, I get an email saying that someone had just checked the Pro Team Lounge and found GH057ayame and Killer V reviewing Halo 4 Theater film, and that Dersky and Neighbor were eating a donut. At this moment, we knew we were ready. As a side note, I was slightly concerned as to whether or not Dersky and Neighbor were eating the same donut, but unfortunately did not have time to investigate. It was getting close to show time.
It’s now noon and time to head over to Xbox HQ. After a team huddle in the Pro Team Lounge, I grab Neighbor, hop in a car, and we’re off. In an hour the gameplay will begin, and we’re both thinking the same thing. But neither of us says a word. At least, I think he was thinking the same thing. Come to think of it, I am really not sure. Regardless, we arrive a few minutes late, and begin to set up his station. As expected, bs angel is nowhere in sight.
We set up the live stream, quickly download some Champions Bundles (Ricochet on Pitfall is a must) and 45 minutes later, I get a text from bs angel asking if we need her for the stream. I panic and wonder if everything is okay. This was going to be a stream where her and I chatted about some of her bestest memories in the Community Manager role, and she is rarely late. Did something happen? Was there an emergency?
I text her back with these questions, and (just as unsurprising as her tardiness) it turned out she was just outside the door and trolling me. Once everyone got situated, the stream would start, and this is where the video below begins. If you’d like to check out a rebroadcast of the stream, with all of the laughs, ridiculous stories, and *SPOILER* the 343 Pro Team victory, check it out here. The gameplay starts around 28:00.
343’ers checking out Friday’s Pro Team matchup on the big screen.
We’d like to thank our pro team, all of the community pros, and of course all of you for tuning in to Friday’s stream. We had a blast, and we hope you enjoyed bs angel’s ridiculous stories about Norman Reedus, appearing naked on the red carpet and more. We plan to be back with more live streams in the future, so stay tuned to Waypoint. Speaking of the future, we just announced some upcoming Matchmaking experiences.
Upcoming Playlists
If you’ve been keeping up with our Matchmaking Calendar, you may have noticed that we were getting awfully close to April and the Ninja Assassins update, which was the last update listed on the calendar – until this morning! Today, we’re excited to announce some of our upcoming Halo 4 playlists, which include the return of some favorites. Check out the details below!
HFFL: All I can say for the above is YES! I’ve been wanting Squad DLC! Now hopefully there are enough people in the playlist!
HFFL: Multi-Team!!! It’s about freakin’ time. Why this was ever taken out to begin with is beyond me. I LOVE this playlist. SO much fun and chaos!!! I really want it to be a permanent playlist!!!!! I’m happy as well that Dominion is coming back (but as a 4v4 team and not 6v6?). And two weeks of KOTH? YES PLEASE!
HFFL: Hmm, what playlist if TBD? LOL, yes, I know what it means…
Multi-Team will return to Halo 4 Matchmaking on April 28, offering a wide variety of fun and chaos that only four-team gameplay can offer. The playlist will feature both Slayer and objective game types.
The Dominion playlist will return to Matchmaking in mid-May, but this time with a new 4 vs. 4 format. With customized settings and maps, this new iteration will give players an opportunity to earn Dominion commendations and medals as well as the sweet taste of sweet, sweet objective-based victory.
The ultimate test of map control, King of the Hill will return in the first week of June, with an updated map pool, game variants, and more.
We’re excited about these upcoming playlists as well as future unannounced playlists, and hope you are as well. To see the full calendar (and keep up with upcoming playlists and playdates), head over to the Matchmaking Playlist Calendar.
Next Matchmaking Update
On top of the upcoming playlists, our Matchmaking Systems team has also been hard at work on Monday’s playlist update. Let’s dig in.
We’ve teamed up with the Flood community leaders and Community Cartographers to deliver a refresh to the Flood playlist, which includes new maps and game types. To start, let’s take a look at the new maps that will be included in the playlist:
The following maps will be updated to patch various map specific exploits:
Additionally, we’re adding a new game type: Last Stand. This game type was created by PA1NTS and S1ERRA420. Here’s a breakdown of the game type:
Last Stand captures the genre of “holdout” style Flood game play. The game type creates a separation of survivor territory from flood territory, containing survivor movement to a holdout area while flood are able to roam free and assault the survivor space from locations outside of the survivor’s reach. Survivors must band together and strategize within the holdout while the flood attack relentlessly from beyond the holdout’s walls. Last Stand can be played on:
To watch the teaser trailer for the game type, head here, and for a detailed breakdown of the game type, head here.
The Squad DLC playlist will feature a mix of DLC-only 6 vs. 6 Slayer and objective play on maps from Crimson, Castle, and Bullseye Map Packs. Additionally, we know that Heavies was fairly popular during its run in Halo 4 Matchmaking, so we’ll be featuring the game type in Squad DLC for the next two weeks, and also discussing some more permanent options for vehicular warfare in Halo 4 Matchmaking.
If the madness of this month has basketball on your brain, be sure to check out next week’s Bulletin to learn about our upcoming special edition basketball-themed Ricochet playlist, which will be available from April 4-7.
Lastly, thanks to your votes last week, Team Snipers was selected for inclusion into the Big Team Battle playlist. Grab some friends and hop into the action!
HFFL: Ugh, Snipers…well, I know what playlist I definitely will be avoiding… I am not skilled at that weapon. I’m marginal at best.
Available Now: Halo: Escalation #4
HFFL: As I’ve already covered this topic in the past two days, I’m electing to skip this part of the bulletin.
Screenshot Spotlight: Haven
HFFL: This week’s topic was Haven. I’m not posting any of them as I really didn’t like any of the ones picked.
For your chance at being in the next spotlight, take a screenshot featuring one or more Frag, Plasma, or Pulse Grenades and then tag it with “Grenade” and “Halo Waypoint,” and maybe, just maybe, yours will be featured in the next Halo Bulletin!
And with that, this week’s Bulletin comes to a close.
Until next week,
Bravo
If you want to read the full bulletin as well as see the screenshot spotlight, you can go HERE to the official site.
-Sal
You may have wondered why I didn’t post yesterday’s color me this article. Well simply put, it was due to a lack of entries. I had one reader submit a colored in DMR. I had two ready to go as well. However, since it seems this line of articles isn’t so popular, I’m going to shelve it for now and possibly revisit it some time in the future.
Thanks to those who did contribute to these over the past 3 weeks.
The story is definitely starting to rev up in this issue.
We find that Thorne has indeed been given command of Fireteam Majestic. (Not a surprise to me really, when given the events of Spartan Ops in Halo 4. I still think he’s going to be the one who bears the torch after Master Chief.
Lasky and Spartan Ray go on a mission to obtain information on the UNSC mole who gave up the location of the diplomatic meeting between the Arbiter and the Brute Chieftan.
Lord Admiral Hood wants to try out the Forerunner engines of the Infinity and gives Roland (ship’s A.I.) the “wheel” so to speak. However, just before they are about to go into slipspace, the Infinity receives a transmission from an old UNSC signal…
A ship called the Pilgrims Pride is found and is about to be brought aboard the Infinity. However, before that happens, the Infinity comes under attack from old UNSC Vultures and Sparrowhawks. Puzzled, but determines, Spartan fire teams are deployed. We learn of two Spartan fire team names. Colossus and Fenrir. The Spartans come under attack within the ship and the Infinity finds out that the core of the Pilgrims Pride is about to explode. With little time to spare, the order is given to evacuate the Pilgrims Pride, however the Spartans are too deep in the ship and Thorne makes the decision to have the core ejected from the ship. The core is ejected successfully, though damage was taken to the Pilgrims Pride.
Meanwhile, Lasky and Ray meet up with one of Lasky’s old friends from his childhood who has become a journalist. The journalist wants information in return. Not anything simple easy. She want info on the Master Chief!
Back aboard the Infinity, crew bring in the wreckage from the quick battle and track down the I.D. numbers of the ships to the originating ship…It is indeed the UNSC Spirit of Fire!
The crew informs Lord Admiral Hood and prepares to put a report of the ship together for him, when he states he knows all there is to know of the ship as he is the one responsible for the reason it went missing almost 30 years ago!
This issue contains lots of action and intrigue as we only just begin to find out the whereabouts of the Spirit of Fire, Lasky’s past, and the future of fire team Majestic.
Do yourselves a favor folks, if you haven’t bought into this series yet, DO IT! If you can’t find the physical copy of the comic books, don’t worry, you can always buy the digital versions direct from Darkhorse!
-Sal
If you haven’t yet bought Spartan Assault, it’s just gone on sale (last night).
Barely three months after being made available on the One and not quite two months for the 360, Spartan Assault’s price has dropped by 33%!
Folk, it’s definitely worth it for $9.99. It’s a fun game and a new experience for Halo fans. It’s EASY to play, however getting those gold stars on each level (without micro-transactions) means a grind to level up stuff. Still, if you need/want a new Halo experience or a change from the FPS style, then give Spartan Assault a try!
You can purchase through your consoles or you can go HERE for the One and HERE for the 360.
Source Link from HaloWaypoint.
-Sal
The 12th annual GANG Awards (Game Audio Network Guild) is now over and Halo: Spartan Assault took home (as a tie) the Best Original Soundtrack Album award!
Congrats to the team who brought the soundtrack to life!
Thanks to halobungie.org for tweeting this out.
-Sal
Halo Escalation is coming in TWO days. Here are a couple of pages from the book:
What’s interesting to note of the two-page spread is that it’s Majestic team, sans DeMarco. (To find out about him, get Escalation #3). It’s certainly good to see 4/5 of Majestic intact!
Also, note the UNSC Hawk is also present. Not just one, but SEVERAL! If you’re not familiar with this ship, it was in Halo Wars:
This brings us even closer to the talk of the UNSC Spirit of Fire being in Escalation. Consider this, it looks like UNSC ships are fighting UNSC ships. One might draw the conclusion that Serena, has of course gone rampant and left orders for the ship to attack anything that came in the vicinity of the Spirit of Fire after her death. With the crew of the Spirit of Fire presumably still in Cryo sleep, this would be the only way to protect them while they are awoken. Now, the Hawks and Shortswords should be piloted by humans right? Maybe. It could be that Serena made a way for those ships to be controlled by the Spirit of Fire temporarily, again to give enough time for the crew to wake up from Cryo Sleep and take over. VERY curious this is indeed!
For those of you who need more of a refresher on the Hawk, Mega Bloks did come out with a set for this back in 2010:
With the prospect of the Spirit of Fire coming into play in the comic book, this series is going to get MUCH more interesting and even BETTER!
Now I always say you should support your local comic book store first, and I hold true to that. However, if you can’t find one locally, you can pre-order this directly from Darkhorse HERE.
-Sal
I found this via a link off of twitter. I can’t seem to find the artist name though, so if anyone knows and can provide a link to them, please forward it on to me so I can give proper credit to them.
In the meantime, here are the Halo game posters they created in a minimalist style:
This one sums it up nicely. Chief and the Halo ring in perspective.
I really like this one. The city in the background with the immense space tether help to give it scale.
Ah the Ark! Classic pose for Chief too.
This one is pretty dark. But then again, the mood for much of the game WAS dark. Once again we visit New Mombasa, but this time in the poster it’s closer, more “intimate”. That also reflects the tone of this game. Kudos to the artist for capturing the game’s essence in this poster.
Poor Reach. Doesn’t ever seem to stopped being glassed.
The look of this poster is very much like it’s more colorful official poster.
I’m wondering if the artist will also make posters for Halo CE Anniversary and Halo: Spartan Assault? I can only hope!
So do you like these? If so, which is your favorite? Click that reply button and let me hear you! (or rather read… 😛 )
-Sal
Last week I introduced a new on-going column asking a “What if?” questions. The first “What if?” questions asked was:
What if the Covenant had not found humanity?
I received some responses from readers and here they are now:
GoodwillHunter jokingly scribes: I imagine the fanbase would be much less fervent for a game called “Settlers of Reach.”
kevinandrewjohnston writes: I think this question has a lot of variables. First though, if the Covenant had not found humanity, I believe that the reverse would have been true. Humanity was rapidly, expanding, and we have always been explorers. Eventually, we would find them. The question then comes down to first contact.
D Town Ninja gets to the point of what my response is in his reply: Very interesting “What If?” I think that if the covenant hadn’t ran into us, things would have been much much darker for humanity. First, the insurrection war would have been much more drawn out, with alot more deaths on both sides. Might have even ended up with a split of humanity, so to speak. UNSC friendly with half of the colonies (probably the inner ones) and the insurrectionalists with the other half (outer). Probably wouldn’t have lasted long though, because both sides would eventually need each other, for supplies and whatnot. But unfortunately none of that really means anything, because once the covies attempted to light the rings, they would have realized they need a reclaimer. So really, nothing in the grand scheme of things would change. Still get an invasion, still have to light the ark, and we would still have to deal with a war with the covenant. The timeline would just be off. The road to ‘The Great Journey’ still would have to go through a human. But thankfully, we still would have Spartans, and would still kick the covies butt!
And my (HFFL) response to the question: First it should go without saying that the war with the Insurrectionists would have persisted for some time. Though ultimately I believe the UNSC would have won out, especially with having Spartans on their side. The cost of the war in human lives would have been high, though no where near as high as the war with the Covenant. I believe that for a long time humanity would have had an uneasy yet relatively peaceful existence. Undoubtedly, there would be a flair up form time to time form some Insurrectionist terrorist organization. Those would be quickly quelled by UNSC forces. Of course that would lead more and more colony folks to hate and mistrust the UNSC.
Spartans would have been glorified within the UNSC while demonized in the colony worlds. The fact that some of the Spartans came form colony worlds might have gotten out. If so, there would be yet more political turmoil and possibly a defection or two (or more) from the existing Spartan ranks to the colony worlds. Had that happened, we could have seen a “real” red vs blue kind of story where the UNSC Spartans wore Blue, while the Colony Spartans wore Red. (or vice versa, take your pick). I chose blue for UNSC since Chief was part of blue team.
No doubt Halsey’s hand in the Spartan program would have completely demonized her in the eyes of the Insurrectionists. This likely would have resulted in a bounty on her head. At this point, she probably would have had a Spartan bodyguard. Chief? Maybe. Most likely not. A tangent of that part of the story could have been that she would have been captured by Insurrectionist forces, led by those Spartans who defected. In this way, we’d have had a slightly similar story for Halo 3. Instead of Chief rescuing Cortana, he’d rescue Halsey instead.
In the meantime, the Covenant would have gone about searching for more Forerunner technology. They likely would have come upon Requiem with no resistance from the UNSC since neither faction had made contact with one-another. Had that happened, would the Didact have been released? Needing a Reclaimer to do so would have prevented the Covenant from wakening the Didact. However, they would have had a treasure trove of technology to harvest from Requiem which would have made them even stronger.
Humanity may have become a bit complacent by then since the majority of the Insurrectionist would have been wiped out or made to stand down. Most certainly the UNSC Infinity would not have had Forerunner upgrades, though likely would have still been built.
Now, this begs to wonder, would the Covenant ever find humanity? Since humans have a penchant for exploration, it is nearly without a doubt we would have made contact with them. First contact with the Covenant was with Brutes. Had humanity found Elites instead would this have changed things? Would the Covenant invite them into the fold? Or would they too have sought to destroy them, especially after seeing the size of the fleet humanity had (even if technologically inferior)?
If humanity would have joined the covenant, the secrets of the Forerunners would have begun to be unlocked. The rest of the covenant would have seen this happen. In turn they would have either used that to their advantage or taken captive humanity in why would become a bloody civil war between human and other race factions of the covenant. The Didact would have eventually been awakened as well and with the civil war in full swing, humanity could have taken a much harder hit. The reason for that being that the covenant would have known the positions of human worlds, those could have been given to the Didact for him to exact revenge.
So looking back at it all, it’s actually better, in a twisted way, that the Covenant found humanity as it did and the events in the official timeline played out as they did. Otherwise, humanity could have been wiped out of existence.
Whew…okay, I’d love to read your responses to my answer and the other answers as well, so feel free to post your comment s below.
In the meantime, here is week 2’s “What if?” question:
What if Cortana didn’t die at the end of Halo 4, instead was saved and reached meta-stability? (Meta-stability meaning she would have overcome rampancy)
-Sal