SR117 reached in Halo 4!

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Woot! I didn’t expect it to be this easy or this quick. Now the dilema though is do I stop here and forever have my account at 117 or continue on to 130. Sigh….too bad 343 didn’t think of this before. It would have been AWESOME to end at 117. But I’m the type of player that likes to go for it all. So, I’ll be continuing on towards 130.

I just HAD to record this rank though, as it’s special, IMO.

I’m glad I got to the rank with the MC armor on. (Okay technically a generic Mark VII, but still…)

-Sal

New Halo Play Arts Kai figures!

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I showed you both the Spartan Soldier and Commander Sarah Palmer at New York Comicon. They were unpainted at that time…

Now though…BAM! Wow, these look amazing. I think I’m going to have to get the Palmer figure.

Yeah, these figures are a bit expensive. It’s the main reason why I don’t collect them. But I’ll make an exception in Palmer’s case.

-Sal

Spartan Ops Episode 5 Comic Book: Memento Mori

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Here is the mid-season finale of Spartan Ops in comic book form.
Episode 5 brings us action, mystery, intrigue, deception and a HUGE cliffhanger!

Spartan Ops returns January 21, 2013 and the comic books will follow shortly there after.

In the meantime, during this whole month, I’ll be exploring all facets of Spartan Ops. Story, tactics, commendations and more! So stay tuned to HaloFanForLife.com!

-Sal

Happy Halodays! A new HFFL Contest.

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I’m proud to announce HFFL’s Halo Holiday contest.

First before I go any further, I’d like to thank “Pete M” of Toys R Us for helping make this contest possible. With his help, I was able to secure some nice prizes for this contest. As well a shout out to my friend, “Sparky” of Mega Brands for his part in this.

So what is the contest going to be? It’s a Classic Christmas song rewrite, Halo themed!

I want you to rewrite a classic Christmas song with a Halo theme. Now since I’m not completely internationally inclined, the song needs to be one recognizable to the average American.

For example: Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly would become Deck the Grunts with lots of Stickies. (This title is not eligible for the contest, so please don’t reuse it here.)

The song must include at least two verses of the song and the chorus. Extra thought will be given to entries including artwork (Artwork MUST be your own and not from another site-any entries found to do so will be immediately disqualified). Extra EXTRA thought will be given to those who submit the song as a Youtube vid. Again, it MUST be your own and YOU must appear in the video SINGING the song.

I will take submissions for the contest from now until December 23. ONLY one entry per subscriber. Hmm, which brings me to the big rule. You MUST be a subscriber to the Blog. Twitter and Facebook folks, if you want it, PLEASE subscribe to the blog itself. This is one of those perks given to blog subscribers. It’s free to subscribe…

You must be 18 years of age or older. If under 18, then you MUST have written permission from your parent/guardian stating so. This must be in the form of a hand written note scanned in and sent along with your entry. (This is for legal purposes as winning and receiving your prize means I will need to have your shipping address.)

Past HFFL contest winners are not eligible for the grand prize but may submit for the second or third prizes.

Winners in the lower 48 United States will receive free. Other locations must pay for shipping of any prizes, this includes APOs and FPOs as well. (Sorry folks, I’m a one-man operation here with limited funds.)

Okay so enough of the legalese….what are the prizes already. Well, I’m glad you asked.

Grand prize is a Halo Mega Blok 10th Anniversary Warthog.

This 734 piece set is amazing. It’s a great build and would make for a nice centerpiece of anyone’s halo collection/display. It’s valued at $55-60.

Second place winner will receive a Mega Bloks Halo Covert Ops: Battle Unit set. I’ve previously reviewed the set HERE.

This is a cool set with the awesome Stealth “Shark” grey color. Set is valued at $18-20.

There will be three third prizes.
Mega Bloks Halo Covenant Armory Pack

Mega Bloks Halo UNSC II Armory Pack

Mega Bloks Halo Covenant II Armory Pack

Each a $7 value. The third prizes will be awarded randomly to the three winner of the third prizes.

I reserve the right to change the rules as necessary. Winners will be picked by me alone. Grammar WILL be taken into account, so please no “1337” speak or internet abbreviations.

Okay, so how do you enter? To enter you need to reply to THIS article. (See, that’s why you need to be a  Blog subscriber…) Please submit the song itself as text within the reply. If you have artwork, please send me that via my e-mail [email protected]. (Songs submitted to my e-mail WILL BE IGNORED….You just reply to this article for that portion of the contest.) If you create a YouTube vid for the contest, please include the link  WITH your text of the words as a reply to this article.

Replies to this article will not be made public until December 24. Submissions must be made from Tuesday 12/11/12 until 12/23/12 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Again, ONLY one submission per subscriber. Additional submissions by the same subsciber will be ignored. (So make your only allowable submission a good one.)

Again, the song must be a classic Christmas song, Halo themed (And I mean a HEAVY Halo theme, not just a word or two).

If you have any questions on the rules, PLEASE shoot me an e-mail at [email protected] and I’ll post those questions and replies here in this article.

Okay folks, I hope to get some really cool entries. Have at it and have fun!

In the meantime, I’ll see you on the battlefield!
-Sal

Halo 4 War Games weekly challenges: 12-10/17-12

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ALright! Some new weekly challenges. Campaign ones are pretty standard. Complete the next mission Legendary Solo (I love that they’re doing this as I’m taking my time finishing the campaign this way and earning XP for it).

Spartan Ops challenges are EASY!! 100 Elites, No problem; 10 Elites in one mission, SIMPLE; 100 grunts, FUN and EASY!

War Games. Hmm, 15 auto kills in one match? Okay, that’s a bit of a challenge. Assassinate 25 players for the week. Sigh, I won’t be getting this one. I’ve said it before, I’m just not the assassin type.

And what is THIS??? We have our FIRST Waypoint challenge! AWESOME.
200 Precision weapons kills. EASY!!! I can get this without Swat, but I may just venture into that playlist anyway for some headshot fun.

All told if you get ALL of the weekly challenges you can rack up 31,200 XP for yourself!

A discussion on Episodic gaming.

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The Walking Dead won Game of the Year at the VGA’s last night. So…how does this relate to Halo you may ask?

Simple, it brings episodic gaming to the forefront.

That means Spartan Ops! Now that the gaming community has giving it’s full seal of approval of episodic gaming with TWD winning, games like Halo 4 with an episodic feature can thrive even more.

What does this mean for we, the gamers? It hopefully means that Spartan Ops will continue beyond the initial 10 episodes. Borrowing from the success of the Walking Dead, Microsoft/343 need to strike while the iron’s hot so to speak. Continuing Spartan Ops not only gives us more fresh content to play, but more story and character development to look forward to. The potential for spin offs be they novels, toys, a spin-off game of more are all there on the table now. Personally, I’d LOVE to have a novel on Majestic Squad, as well as action figures from McFarlane of them, and Mega Bloks sets, not to mention a spin-off game ala ODST.

The gaming industry has been accused by it’s critiques of becoming stale. Well with episodic gaming, it’s freshened up quite a bit and thankfully, Halo is at the forefront!

So I have to give a full Kudos to the folks at TellTale games for winning GOTY with their episodic game as that means, Spartan Ops can/should/MUST live longer than 10 episodes.

Folks, NOW is the time to let 343 know you want MORE Spartan Ops. If you want more Halo, more adventures, more story, let 343 know that. Give them as many ideas as you can think of. (Be nice about ti though)

I’m SO glad TWD won for this very reason. Of course had Halo 4 been up for GOTY (as it should have been), then of course I’d have voted for it instead. As it is though, this is the next best outcome for Halo/Spartan Ops and the gaming industry in general. We’re always going to have campaign related games. Having episodes to continue to play only adds to the richness and replayability of games.

-Sal

Halo 4 takes yet more awards! (Inside Gaming Awards)

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So far Halo 4 and the team at 343 have garnered

Best Sound Design
Best Competitive Multiplayer
Game of the Year (The big one!)

I haven’t seen the final out come of the other 5 categories Halo 4 is up for yet, so I don’t have the answer on those, ATM.

Still, those 3 above are awesome. Especially GOTY!
-Sal

Halo 4 beats Black Ops 2 in a landslide!

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As posted on Halo Waypoint, IGN asked viewers to vote for either Halo 4 or Black Ops 2 in three different categories.
Best Graphics – Total Votes: 91,699; Results Halo 4  77,882/ Black Ops II 13,817 (A 64,065 vote differential)
Best Campaign – Total Votes: 66,749; Results Halo 4 50,249/ Black Ops II 16,496 (A 33,753 vote differential)
Best Multiplayer – Total Votes: 72,547; Results Halo 4 50,223/ Black Ops II 22,324 (A 27,899 vote differential)

Total votes overall 230,991- Halo 4 178,354/Black Ops 2 52,637 (A 125,717 vote differential)

CLEARLY Halo 4 rules!
-Sal

Halo 4 up for MORE Awards!

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Coming off the heels of the VGA’s, Halo 4 has been nominated for several “Inside Gaming Daily” awards.

You can see them all here: http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2012/11/20/inside-gaming-awards-2012-nominees-announced/

Here’s the list of what it’s up for:
• Game of the year
• Best Competitive Multiplayer
• Best Sound Design
• Best Art Direction
• Best Animation
• Best Original Score
• Best Game Cinematography
• Best Character Design (Cortana)

I certainly agree with all of those. Other categories Inside Gaming Daily has that I feel Halo 4 should have also been nominated for are:
• Best Co-Operative Multiplayer (Spartan Ops)
• Best Environmental Design (How the heck did it NOT get nominated for that??)
• Best Trailer (E3 2012 Gameplay Trailer. I mean really folks….That trailer kicked arse!)

Wish Halo 4 and the team at 343 the best as they are up for these awards!
-Sal