We’re headed to Austin for RTX this week! Actually, we’re already here. Where are you? We’ve got lots to show you, so please come soon!
If you’ll be joining us, we’ll see you in just a few days. If you’re actively participating from home, be sure so keep an eye on Waypoint to keep up with everything going on each day! Last week, we spoke a bit about what we’ll have going on this weekend, and this week, we’ve got some more details. Let’s get into it!

HFFL: And of course check here on HFFL for great stuff from RTX.

RTX 2014

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Demo
The first place you’ll have a chance to see Halo: The Master Chief Collection is within the walls of our behind-closed-doors demo on the show floor. You can be some of the first people to see how we’re bringing the story of Master Chief to you in one unified experience, as well as get an exclusive demonstration of the Halo 2: Anniversary Campaign. We’re excited to see what you think! In addition, those that make the journey to see the The Master Chief Collection in-person will get an exclusive gift!

HFFL: It’s nice that 343 is bringing the MCC to RTX. The main thing I want to see is the UI and H2A campaign. Hopefully we’ll get some good shots of that. Exclusive gift? Cripes, I hope I can get ahold of one… (I’m NOT a fan of convention exclusives. In part because they are harder to get, but more so because of the vultures who scalp those exclusives on eBay for profit.)

Classic Halo Play-a-Pro
How have your truly classic Halo: CE and Halo 2 skills held up over these past 10 years? Want to find out? We’ve packed some old school TVs, original Xboxes, controllers, and GH057ayame and Neighbor into the back of a big truck, and we’re sending everything down to RTX. Everyone who steps up to the challenge against our pros will get a free Halo Micro Action Figure blind pack from Mega Bloks!

HFFL: Okay, now being able to take on either guy would be cool. Expect to get your butt handed to you though. They’ve been playing the MCC for months now. So you KNOW they are back up to speed.

HFFL: Pictured above is series 8. Series 9 is out now. As well, the newly articulate and removable armored figures in series ALPHA have just been spotted in Canada. 

Those skilled players that can get one kill against our pros will win a beautiful RTX Play-a-Pro exclusive Halo: The Master Chief Collection poster, and if you actually beat one of our professional players, you’ll get a code for a Halo: The Master Chief Collection digital download at launch on November 11, 2014!

HFFL: Heh, I hope those guys will be nice enough to let people get at least a kill on them.

The player that performs best against our pros each day of RTX gets a daily grand prize: an Xbox One, Astro A40 Headset, Halo: The Master Chief Collection digital download, limited edition poster and a Series 8 Micro Action Figure!

HFFL: Okay, THAT is a fantastic grand prize.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, you can line up for a chance at the times below:

The Classic Halo Play-a-Pro Schedule:

Friday, July 4: noon to 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday, July 5: 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Sunday, July 6: 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and noon to 1:30 p.m.

(Times shown are local)

343 Panel – Halo: The Master Chief Collection
We’ll have a few of our top 343 Industries agents as well as friends from Certain Affinity in our Halo: The Master Chief Collection panel. We’ll be showing off some new stuff, so we have a feeling you won’t want to miss it. Everything starts at noon on Saturday, July 5 in the Main Theater.

The official description is below:

This fall, the Master Chief’s entire story is brought together as Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The collection brings all four Master Chief Halo games to Xbox One, including Halo 2: Anniversary, which features re-mastered and reimagined gameplay in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of Halo 2. Get an inside look at the vision and design of this recently announced project through the eyes of 343 Industries.

*Panel attendees will receive an exclusive RTX 2014 Halo: The Master Chief Collection poster (limited availability).

Attendees:

Dennis Ries, Max Szlagor, Max Hoberman, David Mertz, and yours truly (Bravo).

Can’t make it down to RTX? That’s okay, because Rooster Teeth will be live streaming our panel. Tune in and chat along with us! The panel will be available at http://www.twitch.tv/rtxlive2 at noon on Saturday, July 5.

Panel Meet and Greet
After the panel, come swing down to our booth, where we’ll be hanging out from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Bring your Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 2: Anniversary questions, and we’ll bring our answers. Also, please bring donuts.

Instagram #ChiefSelfie Contest:
Post your best selfies with Master Chief during RTX for a chance to win a signed Limited Edition Spartan Emile Figure! Tag it with #Halo and #ChiefSelfie to enter!

Limited Edition Spartan Emile Figure

Your selfie can include any version of Master Chief – get creative! We just want to see your love for the Master Chief. Share it with us via Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and tag it #ChiefSelfie for a chance to win.

HFFL: Okay folks, the gauntlet has been put down! Who’s going to enter this contest? I know I am. I’d LOVE to own that Emile!!!  Looks like I’m going to bring out the big guns for this one!

#ChiefSelfie #TashiStation

So much more cool stuff!
We’re bringing more to share, show, and sell…we just can’t fit it all in this Bulletin, so we’ll be updating you all weekend on our adventures on Waypoint.

HFFL: Count on me reporting on this as well!

If you are heading to RTX, come and say “hi!” Also, remember each day of RTX, the first 100 people to make a purchase from our store will get a free, exclusive Halo: The Master Chief Collection water bottle, ridiculously modeled by me below. I was forced into this.

We’ll see you in Austin!

A Volcanic Voyage

There’s no doubt that Halo and the story of the Master Chief have inspired many around the world. Whether it’s knowing that Spartans never give up, or realizing that sacrifices must sometimes be made in order to reach a better tomorrow, we’ve heard quite a few stories about how Halo has inspired fans to persevere and accomplish some pretty incredible things. Just a few days ago in fact, we got wind of a Halo-inspired tale that we must share.

Last month, David “TimeliestBrute” Shockey, a storied professional Halo 2 player, was inspired by Halo’s elusive Killimanjaro multiplayer medal to ascend Mount Kilimanjaro – yes, the highest free-standing mountain in the world. Naturally, we thought this was pretty fantastic, so we sent David a good luck package which included our best wishes as well as one of the best sidekicks we could offer: a San Diego Comic Con 2013 exclusive Spartan Warrior Funko Pop! Vinyl Figure. The little sucker might be small, but it packs quite a punch (actually, a compact-channel linear accelerator that fires a high-explosive round at incredible speed). You’ll also notice in the below pictures that the Spartan does not break their stoic gaze even once.

We’re told that traveling up the mountain was rough, and after over six days of trekking up the trail, both David and his trusty Spartan-IV made it to the top, where conditions included a -15 degree windchill, 40 MPH winds, and an elevation of nearly 20,000 feet. Check out some pictures from the adventure below.

Day 1: The mail-order Spartan Warrior at the Machame Gate (6000 ft), the starting point for the journey.

Day 2: TimeliestBrute and his Railgun-wielding Spartan trek through the rainforest. The last transmission from the captain’s dropship was from this area.

Day 4: Timeliest and his Spartan partner have arrived at Baranco Base Camp, where visibility is low due to the fact that they are now at 12,700 feet, and standing in clouds.

Day 6: TimeliestBrute and his palm-sized Spartan at Uhuru peak, 19,341 feet above sea level

At the top: We’re proud of you, little guy.

We’re quite impressed with David’s summit, and glad that a brave, little Spartan-IV was able to join. Truth be told, we never doubted either of you. Although many Spartans may have achieved Kilimajaros, we are pretty sure this is the first time one of them has actually been to the top.

David, from all of us on the Halo team, congrats on your achievement, and thanks for bringing a Spartan to where they’ve never been before.

HFFL: That’s a pretty darn cool story. Indeed quite an accomplishment.

Holiday Weekend

To celebrate this weekend’s festivities, we decided to add to the explosions with a brand-new Team Regicide game type. In this new version, Kings will wield a modified Spartan Laser.

HFFL: Well now! Heh, some of my buds and I were contemplating what Holiday playlist might be made for this weekend. I had guessed that the grunt birthday party skull would be activated when a player got a headshot kill. Looks like I might be partially right. Modified Laser huh? That might just open up some interesting possibilities for other weapons in the future too.

The playlist will be available from July 4–6, so hop into the playlist to join the action!

Halo: Reach Custom Challenges Decommissioning
We’re shutting down Custom Challenges for Halo: Reach by September this year. The Custom Challenges interface for Halo: Reach in the Xbox 360 Waypoint app will be decommissioned sometime this summer. You’ll still be able to create Custom Challenges on our website here through September. After September, Halo Waypoint will not support the creation of new Custom Challenges. Be sure to make any challenges you want before then!

HFFL: Folks, if you didn’t take advantage of custom challenges, you missed out on something fun. I was pretty big into these when they first started out. I was creating them daily for myself and friends. I had already hit Inheritor before these became available. However, I love beating challenges. So being able to make some for myself and friends was fun and created daily goals for me to keep my interest in Halo Reach. One of my favorites that I made was killing 1,000 enemies in Firefight in 3 hours. I forget now how many credits that was worth. It was a lot. I could routinely beat this challenge.
Hmm, maybe I”ll have a special HFFL challenge for Reach in the near future???? Okay, that’s got me thinking…

Screenshot Spotlight: Rocket
Two weeks ago, we turned the spotlight on the LightRifle. Take a gander at the following Rocket screenshots, and maybe even find inspiration to make your own.

HFFL: Okay, there are some cool screens in this week’s bulletin. The ones I like are:

Evolution by BlastingLight – I like the color of the spartans and they way they both blend and standout with/from the background.
Imminent Threat by Z6NITRO – That looming Banshee just makes this shot for me.
Rocket to the moon by CrazedSpartanII – This is my favorite of then whole bunch. It’s due to the colors of the spartan also being reflected on the rocket launcher itself. Pretty cool.
Arik’s Requital by meow4halo – Red is my favorite color, ’nuff said.
The Demon by MrMartini85 – Hey, it’s Master Chief!
Enraged by RPGeeee – It’s Spartan TRON!
Overheat by stealth4ce – This feels like an old-time Spartan. Love the sepia tone of it.

Heh, that’s the FIRST time I’ve liked 7 out of the 10 in ANY spotlight. In fact it’s the first time I’ve liked more than 4 of any spotlight. 

For your chance at being in the next spotlight, take a screenshot that features a non-default weapon skin and then tag it with “Snazzy Skins” and “Halo Waypoint,” and maybe, just maybe, yours will be featured in the next Halo Bulletin!

HFFL: Okay, I’ve got skins! Hmm, how many? Four skins? Nope, more than that…. Now, will I finally enter a screenshot for this???

And with that, this week’s Bulletin comes to a close.
Until next week,
Bravo

HFFL: Decent Bulletin. It was expected to be RTX heavy. 
-Sal