Apologies for not putting out articles today. Not feeling so well. Should be back to it tomorrow.
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Articles coming this week!!
Now that we are past Christmas, I’ll be reviewing the Halo related stuff I got. These will include:
• Halo Mega Bloks
• Jakks Pacific Master Chief
• Sandboxr 3D Printed Spartans
• Boomco Halo dart guns
On that note, if YOU received Halo related gifts, please feel free to send me pics at [email protected]. I’ll post those here on the blog to show what other fans what you folks received for the holidays.
As well, now that Forge has been out for a little bit, I’m going to post a series of tutorial videos from ForgeHub. I’ve dabbled in Halo 5’s Forge myself and will give a some text commentary after each video.
-Sal
Canon Fodder: Holiday Shipping
This is a reblog from HaloWaypoint:
By GrimBrother One
ISSUE 56
Festive greetings, fiction fans! Today will be brief so let’s get right to it. Last week we announced our upcoming narrative guide, Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo, coming in 2016 from our friends and partners at Egmont Publishing. We’re incredibly pleased with the level of excitement the lore community has shown for the possibilities within the book, and we can’t wait to get it in your hands next fall.
If you recall, last week I also said that I wasn’t sure if we’d have a normal issue come out today. What can I say, Halo community, I just can’t quit you. In fact, I figured that while I’m down in sunny Florida celebrating Christmas with the rest of the Grim clan, it was only logical that we give the lore legion a small gift of their own – one that’s been on many of your wish lists for Story Claus. So today we’ll be taking a quick look at the new alien ships seen in Halo 5: Guardians. Let’s get to unwrapping! Continue reading
A VERY Merry Christmas from HaloFanForLife.com to YOU!
This is my first go at making something in Halo 5’s Forge. Given the time of the year, I thought it only appropriate to make a Christmas tree. I used several effects here to make offset blinking lights. Signs and radar dishes filled in for ornaments. Both a Covie and regular fire at the top in place of a star. (There actually IS a star at the top, but it’s too small to see in the pics and vid.
Halo World Championship North American Qualifier results
Well, as if we didn’t know the outcome already, Evil Geniuses takes another tournament. The are unstoppable. Here is the bracket for the final eight.
Too bad this wasn’t a double elimination. I’d have liked to have seen CLG get another shot at moving up.
I really want to get into Halo eSports more, but with ONE team dominating like this, it’s actually a bit boring to me. Not hating on EG, I just always like to see underdogs pull off the seemingly impossible.
New REQ pack BUNDLES (for money only) My thoughts…
If you haven’t heard, 343 has made available several sets of REQ pack bundles. These however are for real money only and not available to purchase via REQ points.
Here is what they offer and their respective prices (click to make bigger):
Let’s talk about the potential Pros and Cons of this.
You can decide if what comes next is a pro of con… Continue reading
Halo Toy Review: Mega Bloks Phaeton Gunship
Okay, , first I need to say that I’ve written this review twice before and both times it didn’t save…so hopefully third times a charm. On with the review.
Mega Bloks Phaeton Gunship
Technical Specifications:
Build Time: 30 minutes sorting, 1 hour 30 minutes building.
Set Piece Count: 455
Minifigs: Halo 5 Promethean Soldier X2, Oribtal Spartan (Green)
Weapons: Boltshot, Binary Rifle, Halo 5 style Rocket Launcher
Accessories: N/A
Special Features: Open/Close front hatch, cockpit, swivel guns, open/close rear hatch
Cost: $45
And on with the pics! (Click pics to make BIGGER) Continue reading
Halo World Championship Qualifiers this weekend on Twitch!
This Saturday and Sunday, will be the first qualifiers for the Halo World Championship.
Check out all three segments of the tourney on the following twitch channels:
ESL: twitch.tv/esluk (German Qualifier)
GFinity: twitch.tv/gfinitytv (United Kingdom Qualifier)
MLG: twitch.tv/halo OR mlg.tv/halo (North American Qualifier)
So will you be watching this weekend? If so, which matches? I know for sure I’ll be watching the MLG one. Not sure about the others.
Microsoft May Make Life-Sized Cortana In Person For HoloLens
This is a reblog from TechTimes:
By Fritz Gleyo
Microsoft may soon developed a life-sized Cortana for HoloLens.
With HoloLens running on Windows 10, it wasn’t hard for people to propose a life-sized hologram of the digital assistant Cortana. A couple of Microsoft Studios community members thought of it and shared their ideas through Microsoft’s recently launched Share-Your-Idea initiative for its augmented reality headset HoloLens.
“Hologram of Cortana from Halo who you can talk to and interact with. Works in the same way as cortana on Desktop / Phone. Get answers to questions etc,” proposes LookItsKris. “Maybe ask a question on HoloLens and answers come through on phone? Possibilities are endless.”
“Whenever you invoke Cortana, she will be displayed as a holographic object, like a real AI in the Halo Universe,” writes jigerdoodles117. “Each word she says can be mapped to facial animation. When she is thinking/processing queries, she could display a classic chin-rub thinking animation.”
A lot of people find both ideas feasible. This is seen in the number of upvotes for each post: 402 upvotes for LookItsKris’ post and 173 for jigerdoodles117’s. In fact, some think it may already be in the works.
“Good idea, but this probably already exists,” says Stompplantes, another Microsoft Studios community member.
HoloLens was formally announced together with Windows 10 in January. The headset’s next major appearance was during E3 2015 when it was used to generate an interactive virtual Minecraft world on top of a table. Microsoft also demoed the HoloLens for 3D modelling using various third-party software and first-person shooter games and as an interactive teaching medium.
Microsoft is set to release the mixed reality headset’s developer kit in the first half of 2016. Virtual reality headsets such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift are also set for a first-quarter launch next year.
Redmond is yet to comment whether or not a life-sized Cortana for HoloLens will be available.
HFFL: Okay…SIGN ME UP FOR THIS! Seriously though, who wouldn’t want a life-sized Cortana hologram?
Halo 5: Guardians Seasons Explained
This is a reblog from HaloWaypoint:
The Cartographer’s Gift update for Halo 5 brings with it the arrival of Seasons. Seasons are a new competitive feature for Arena which will give you a chance to continually challenge yourself in ranked playlists, and also prove that you’ve improved your game since the last Season. The January 2016 Season will begin today, with the Cartographer’s Gift update, and end on January 31, which will make the first season a little over a month long. Moving forward, we’re going to keep an eye on feedback regarding season length.
Now that the season has begun, all of your Pre-Season ranks are still viewable on your Halo Waypoint Service Record, and all CSRs for ranked playlists have been reset, giving you a chance to place in each of these playlists again. At the end of each Season, those who qualified in at least one playlist (by playing 10 placement matches in any ranked playlist) will earn an exclusive seasonal pack reward emblem, only available that Season.
Additionally, social playlists are now available, including Big Team Battle and Holiday Social, the latter of which includes a variety of Slayer and Snipers variants at launch. Over time, we’ll be expanding the social mode offering as new modes come online, and incredible community-created content surfaces. And lastly, before we forget, Doubles is back as a ranked playlist, and will be available through the holidays.
We’ll see you online!
ICYMI: Halo 5 Cartographer’s Gift is now available!
The update was made available yesterday. Pardon my lateness in posting this, but I was knee deep into Forge. Intact, I spent 3 hours alone just looking at all the items you can bring into the maps.
There are some truly amazing pieces out there. The team did a masterful job of creating new assets for we Forge fans to play with.
Now, fair warning, the UI is VERY different from what we’ve know of past Forge’s. For old pros it may take a little while to get used to. For new comers, it may be a bit daunting. However, with the amount of items, audio and visual effects, scripting and so much more, it’s WORTH learning!
If you don’t see me on XBOX One, it’s likely because I’ve made myself ‘OFFLINE’. I do this when forging so I’m not interrupted. I take my forging seriously! LOL
Halo Reach now backwards compatible for the XBOX One!
In an article on XBOX.com a list of games that are backwards compatible as of today was release. Halo Reach is one of them!
All you need to play is the Halo Reach disc. As for bringing your achievements and game saves along, IIRC, you have to do a cloud save first. I’ll check into that to be sure.
Canon Fodder: Mythellaneous Topics
This is a reblog form HaloWaypoint:
BY GRIMBROTHER ONE
ISSUE 55
Welcome back, lovers-of-the-lore! We’re hoping today ends up being a pretty cool one for Halo fans of all walks and interests, as many of you have likely already spent part of the day diving into many of the new features and facets of the Cartographer’s Gift content update for Halo 5: Guardians that we detailed in last week’s issue. I know there are countless souls within our studio walls that are eager and excited to see what Halo’s wildly creative community comes up with as the boundaries of the mode get pushed ever further.
Today though, we’re going to talk a little bit about different project we’re also pretty excited about: Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo. After sneaking it into the most recent episode of The Sprint, we saw fiction fans immediately begin to speculate about the nature of the new project – many wondering the same as one of our forum members, ChasCT2, who asked “Will the Halo Mythos book which is coming out next year be the next Halo Encyclopedia?” The short answer to that question is “no,” and it was important to us to make sure our loyal lore community had a clearer inclination as to what to expect. So if it’s not the “new encyclopedia,” what is it exactly? I’m glad you asked…
The 2016 HFFL event official name and logo reveal!
Okay folks, here is yet another article to show you all that I’m 100% committed to making a Halo fan convention happen. This is the official name of the convention as well as the logo.
SpartanCom
I went with ‘COM’ instead of ‘CON’ for a couple of reasons. First, SpartanCon was taken…
So thinking quickly, I know that the military shortened jargon for the word ‘Command’ in ‘Com’. You can even find this in several Halo references as well. Also, since we now have Spartan Companies in Halo 5, I though ‘Com’ could also reference ‘Company’.
The logo is a nod to Master Chief’s visor with the ‘O’ in Com a nod to a Halo ring.
I’ve already set up Twitter, and Facebook pages for the convention. Also, I have two e-mails associated with the convention. The first is [email protected] and the other, [email protected]. The HaloFanForLife e-mail is the more official one, though I’ll check the yahoo one as well.
I have the website already secured as SpartanCom.Org. I’m currently building that. When it’s ready to launch you’ll see the first post about it HERE!
So another cog is put into place!
What do you think of the logo and name??
Oh and if you’re on twitter and/or Facebook, please give each a follow and like! Much appreciated!!
-Sal
Cartographer’s Gift December 2015 Update
This is a reblog from HaloWaypoint:
Last month, Battle of Shadow and Light, the first free Halo 5: Guardians content update released, bringing with it new REQs and Big Team Battle. This week, the next free update brings Forge in Cartographer’s Gift. Since the introduction of Forge in Halo 3, the community has been creating, sharing, and pushing the mode to its absolute limits. With Forge in Halo 5: Guardians, the only limit is your imagination. The new Forge was built with years of community feedback in mind, and arrives just in time for the holidays.
FORGE
Forge has been rebuilt from the ground up for Halo 5: Guardians. Giving more power and control to the Forge community was the primary goal, and community feedback will continue to fuel the evolution of Forge as we update the mode with new features and content. Here are just some of the features launching with Forge in Cartographer’s Gift: Continue reading