From Andrew Gagnon:

In this episode, Wiener Dog team’s plan goes awry… or does it?

Every Monday, we feature a community member who does one or more of the following things: routinely goes above and beyond for their fellow forum members, is a positive and active member of the community, and/or sends me mass amounts of cat pictures. This week our Community Member of the Week is HurryingCandy. Read a little more about this particular fan below, then hit their profile to learn even more!

Gamertag: HurryingCandy.

Origin of Gamertag: I only needed a Silver account for DLC at the time, so I took a suggested GT. Not really original but there you go!

Current clan/community: Halo Waypoint.

Halo game(s) you are currently playing: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, ODST, Halo Wars, Reach, CEA and Halo 4.

Favorite map, game type and playlist: Blood Gulch and Slayer Classic.

Least favorite map, game type and playlist: None.

Preferred control scheme: Default.

Halo playing style (offense, defense, sniper, driver, etc.): Sniper and driver.

Favorite Halo character: Gravmind, Rtas ‘Vadumee and The Master Builder.

Favorite Halo book: Halo: Silentium and Fall of Reach.

Favorite Halo comic: Halo: Blood Line.

Favorite Halo quote: “There is much talk. And I have listened. Through rock, and metal, and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen” – Gravemind

Anything else we should know? I have been transcribing and arranging Halo music for piano for about 5 years now. I love the Halo scores, and it’s the reason I play piano. Marty made amazing soundtracks. I hope Neil does the same.

This Monday’s Matchmaking Update welcomes the long awaited Halo 4 Weapon Tuning Update as well as other Matchmaking updates. Starting today, several of Halo 4’s multiplayer weapons have been slightly tuned to provide optimal Matchmaking experiences. To see the full details of this update and how each weapon has changed, check out last week’s Halo Bulletin. 

In addition to weapon tuning, the following updates have also been applied to Matchmaking:

The “Slayer Pro” game mode in Big Team Infinity Slayer and Infinity Slayer now has an Assault Rifle loadout. Also, the “Global Skill searching,” or CSR matching duration, has been increased once again for all playlists. This increase will help ensure that Matchmaking is primarily searching for both teammates and opponents at your per-playlist CSR level.

The Majestic DLC playlist has returned as the “featured DLC” playlist. We will continue to offer a variety of DLC maps in this slot, and may update the game types, maps, and even team sizes moving forward to keep DLC content fresh and available in Halo 4 Matchmaking. The Community Forge Island playlist has been retired.  In Capture The Flag, the overtime period has been increased from one minute to two minutes in order to allow for even more nail-biting, and “big party matching” has been turned on, which ensures that parties of three or more will get matched with parties of three or more. In King of the Hill, the hill point limit has been increased from 25 to 50, and the score to win has been increased from 150 points to 250 points to provide more control-based game play.

Lastly, the multiplayer design team has been updating all of Halo 4’s maps with new weapon (ordnance) locations, new weapon drops, updated starting, vehicle, and objective spawns, and even new Forge objects to diversify and balance gameplay. Full details of these changes are below.

Abandon

Sniper rifle above gold lift
Sniper rifle next to red spawn by the cliff
Overshield placed on 1st floor of center structure equidistant from both team spawns
Red flag moved to bottom of gold lift
Blue flag moved back closer to cliff

Adrift

Overshield placed in center of map below Mantis
Twin Sniper rifles placed on the corners of the map
Needlers replace the frags in the center room in the corners
Adjusted cover and line of sight in the top hallways to help attackers in objective modes

Complex

Moved spawns farther apart and in proper “bases”
Flags are now moved to their respective “bases”
Red team Sniper rifle moved to the 2nd floor of their “base”
Rocket Launcher replaces Sword in the courtyard

Exile

Mantis replaces Scorpion and placed equidistant from both team spawns
Laser spawns in center cave
Railgun is in front of each team spawn replaces SAW
Removed Gauss Hog and replaced with Rocket Hogs for each team

Exile CTF

Team spawns and flags pushed back into their respective “bases”
Sticky Det spawns in Banshee hangar (no Banshee)
No team Warthogs
Gauss Hog spawns in the center of the map and is flipped onto its side
SAW in front of each team spawn
Beam rifle spawns in the cave over by the Scorpion bay

Haven

Rotated team spawns 90 degrees to oppose each other on the opposite axis found currently in matchmaking
Sword spawns in the upper center
Concussion rifle spawns next to closed ramp
Sniper rifle spawns next to open ramp
Lifts are now at the drop downs to allow more flow to the upper level
Colored lighting to distinguish player/map orientation
Miscellaneous grenades placed around the map

Landfall

Moved spawns and flags to opposite corners of the map. Blue flag in lift room and red flag by sea side
Shotgun, sniper rifle, and Overshield are initial weapon spawns

Longbow

Gauss Hog at each team spawn
Banshee at each team spawn
4x Shade turrets at the center fort on the ridge
Overshield in center cave
Beam rifle and Rocket launcher at each team spawn

Meltdown

Fuel Rod replaces Incinerator cannon at each team spawn
Gauss Hog at each team spawn
Plasma turrets inside each side bunker
Scattershot at each side bunker

Meltdown (CTF)

Mantis at center of map under bridge
Beam rifles on top of the side bunkers
Plasma turrets inside each side bunker

Ragnarok

Added Rocket Hog to vehicle set

Ragnarok (CTF)

2x SAWs at each team spawn
Railgun in the field opposite Pelican crash site

Solace

Removed Incinerator from low center
Sword is alone at low center
Fuel Rod spawns on the side of the map equidistant from the team spawns

Vortex

Gauss Hog at each team spawn
Mantis at each team spawn
Banshee low center equidistant from team spawns

Thanks for checking out the details of today’s update. We hope you enjoy these changes, and we’ll see you on the virtual battlefield!

Discuss

War Games Weekly Challenges

Spartan Ops Weekly Challenges

Campaign Weekly Challenges

From Beyond Entertainment:

Barker is back with another Halo 4 montage featuring footage from Murphinator. With slick editing and laid-back music, this is one montage you don’t want to miss!

Last week, for our Friday Caption Fun festivities, you provided quips for an image featuring a Spartan in need of assistance. Here are the top captions you left for that particular image!

“341. 342. Oh, hey Frank! 343…” –EZcheeZ217
“This wasn’t what I meant by hanging out with me, dude.” –SpartanWO439
“No, the magnetic boots do NOT have an off switch!” –sarcasmbully
“Jimmy’s attempt to reenact Spider Man failed…miserably. ” –l JK l
“After much testing, the sit-ups Armor Ability proved to be worthless.” –QuadSquadLeader
“Fred’s fascination with his own dead body was the major factor in his team’s loss.” –GunRunner48
“Hang ‘Em High, they said…” –Lord Hookocho
“Let’s be honest, this isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing.” –Josh Ross
“Day 3: They’re still convinced I’m only a bat.” –Kevin Braumiller
“This is a horrible place to spawn! WTF, 343!?” –Brendan Shepherd

Now that we’ve wrapped up that picture, let’s start a new one. Up for your captioning pleasure this week is an image featuring a mid-stomping Mantis. Soak in the screenshot, then leave your witty and relevant quip in a comment. Off you go!

Author: RangerDanger11

From Rooster Teeth:

Jack and Geoff are back again. Enjoy this week’s episode of Fails of the Weak!

Editor’s note: Language is mature. Proceed with caution.

From airguitar901:

This is Missile’s first ever Halo 4 montage. Hope you enjoy, and don’t forget to leave a like and a comment and to subscribe if you haven’t already!

From Sir Boobington:

I’d like to send a special thanks to all participants and to the general readers. I have had a great time hosting the Halo Community Creative Writing Event. I hope you enjoy all the fan fiction!

The submission period has ended and voting is upon us! Click here to vote on your favorite writer. I will announce the winner when the voting process is finished. Thanks, and good luck to all the participants!

Halo is a fictional universe. However, the place where it’s created is not. Serving as home to both Mister and Master Chief, little else is known about the inside of our studio…until now. Enjoy a teeny tiny peek inside 343 industries, and if you have a hankering to see or learn about something that isn’t overly top secret, send it to bsangel[at]halowaypoint.com and we’ll see what we can do! This week, @ChrisJ_7 wanted to know who has the highest number of screens or computers. That would be Chase Thompson, who you see below!

From Rooster Teeth:

Today everybody’s favorite lovebirds, Michael and Lindsay, face off in a round of Halo HORSE for the office HORSE Tournament! Who will win?

Editor’s note: Language is mature. Proceed with caution.

From HaloCustoms:

We are aware that your infatuation for a good competitive game in Halo runs deep as the blood in your veins. Nourishing that need for intense competitive fighting is something that we try and support here. In this game, I can say that nothing feels quite as good as landing your virtual boots on a new platform, taking a swift look around, and readying your rifle to fight whatever your foes throw at you.

But that’s not what this is. Give it time. That will come. For now, let’s look at the lighter side of Halo, the part that was never intended to exist in the first place. Let’s have a look at Halo minigames. Yes, they’ve always been a fun break from the norm, but are often taken more lightly than they deserve. A minigame must be balanced just as a competitive map is made fair. Time must be spent in the game type editor as well as in Forge, finding the best settings for your newborn map.

So now into the part that many of you will be interested in. “Why should I submit my game to your contest, Halo Customs?” Well to be short, you don’t really have a reason not to. To be slightly less short, we have a fantastic controller and Xbox skin for the winner of this contest. Be it the classic lava pit minigame from previous Halos, or some brand new one making use of the Armor Abilities, we want to see what creative concoction that the people of Halo Customs can come up with. We have a controller just sitting around anyway, collecting metaphorical dust. The beautiful people at Gamermodz were kind enough to support us with this prize, and to whoever wins this, I’m envious. I need a new controller and they make some fantastic custom designs. We all decided it could use a good home, and since my idea of giving it to myself for free didn’t go over so well, what better way to decide that home than making you all compete against one another? Nothing is the answer. Nothing at all.

From 0IAH:

Learn how to build this epic random weapon dispenser in Halo 4! This invention can be used in a variety of your custom games…perhaps Flood?

Halo is a fictional universe. However, sometimes we catch sight of things in real life that remind us of our favorite science fiction video game franchise. This particular series, titled Halo in Real Life, showcases those very moments. Enjoy the subtle Halo references sometimes spotted when out and about in the real world, and if you have a picture you’d like to submit for possible future inclusion, send it to bsangel[at]halowaypoint.com!

From Indirect:

The seventh installment of my new Halo 4 top ten series is now live. I hope you all enjoy!

From AgentPaperCraft:

Hello, Waypoint goers! With the addition of community-made content into Matchmaking, custom maps and game types have become an integral part of Halo’s Multiplayer. Forgers and game type creators often work hours, days and even months on their content before it’s considered for Matchmaking, and it’s usually the lack of having a ready player-base to test their maps that it takes so long. So I offer an option to our Forgers, a place to bring your maps and game types to have them tested and reviewed by a group of the top Forgers around. You’ll receive top-notch forging tips and tricks to wow your players, improve map spawn and flow, provide a better map experience and get your name out there. You’ll also get to work directly with the Community Cartographers, a select group of community Forge enthusiasts who work with 343 Industries in the search of top-quality content for Matchmaking consideration. Every Wednesday night at 6PM ET, get an invite by sending “AgentPaperCraft” a message over Xbox LIVE, or leave a comment in the Test Night Thread.

Hope to see you there!

From omgitskazer:

“Awkward Moments in Halo” is a series about the strange moments we witness when playing Halo 4. This episode focuses on Xbox LIVE. Enjoy!