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Tattoo Tuesday: The Halo Effect
Some people show their love for Halo by playing the games. Others get a relevant image permanently placed upon their body. Enjoy this particular example of a Halo-related body modification, and if you have a picture you’d like to submit for possible future inclusion, send it to bsangel[at]halowaypoint.com!
As seen on Mr. Gauss
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Halo/Man of Steel 2 Mashup Trailer – A Halo 4 Machinima
From Gugga Leunnam:
I love the fan-made trailer of Man of Steel 2 by Solyent Brak1. It’s great! In this trailer, the Master Chief continues as Superman and Arbiter is Batman. Arbiter was the best choice for Batman!
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The TA Top Five: Soundtracks
From Dread Reaver:
There is something about a great piece of music that can stir something deep within our souls, get us off the couch to dance, or even just simply cause us to violently shake our heads in time to the music (perhaps one of my personal favourite styles).
Video games have been incorporating musical compositions for quite a few decades, but we are now surely in a golden age where the quality of game tracks rival those heard in the cinema, and even professional orchestras. Here I will be looking at some of the best soundtracks to grace our consoles within the last decade. If you have a Spotify subscription, be sure to listen while reading; I have picked a few stand-out tracks for your listening pleasure:
4. Halo
For a series as epic as Halo, the developers needed music to match. Martin O’Donnell teamed up with composer Michael Salvatori, who were both tasked with creating the iconic Halo theme song. They knew that they needed something “big, exciting, and unusual with a classical orchestra touch to give it some weight and stature”, and something with “some sort of ‘ancient’ feel to it.” They were onto something: the scores for the Halo and Halo 2 theme songs that we have come to know and love both won awards, including Best Original Videogame Soundtrack from Rolling Stone.
Despite the latest Halo game being developed sans Bungie, the soundtrack to Halo 4 became the highest charting video-game soundtrack album of all time. This time the soundtrack was composed by Neil Davidge, and represented a major thematic shift to go alongside Halo’s new style.
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Top 10 Mid 2013 by Esport Halo France
From EsportHaloFrance:
Top 10 Mid 2013 by Esport Halo France. Clips captured by Dji.
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Beyond Top 5 Plays Ep. 5
Beyond Entertainment is back with another Top 5 Plays of the Week episode, narrated by Clicked and edited by Jazzy. The gameplay is… scary good. Thanks, CyReN.(Louis Wu 18:42:22 UTC)
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Master Chief Draw My Life – A Halo Fan Art Video
From Ivan Sayon:
John 117, aka Master Chief is a man of few words and not big on sharing. This should go REALLY well. Drawn by Ivan Sayon. Master Chief voice by Matthew Mercer. Written by Brian Rubin.
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Halo 4 Matchmaking Update: 9.16.13
Today’s Matchmaking Update introduces new content and optimization across several different playlists, including continued playlist consolidation. For an update regarding consolidation and other upcoming Matchmaking items, be sure to read the latest Halo Bulletin. The details of today’s update can be found below.
Team Doubles
The Team Doubles playlist has received refreshed maps and a new game type, Legendary BRs. The updated map listing is as follows:
Pitfall
Onyx
Rail
Haven
Graphite
Skyline
Abandon
Simplex
The Team Doubles voting options have also been updated. We will continue to monitor feedback and statistics as we consider adding additional game types in future updates. The voting options are as follows:
Slot 1:
Infinity Doubles
Slot 2:
Legendary BR Doubles
Slot 3:
Doubles Pro
Ricochet
Ricochet has received new and optimized maps this week. Haven, Solace, and Adrift have been updated to the “Turbo” variants that were released with the weapon tuning – this includes colors and lifts added to Haven, new geometry added to Solace and Adrift, and more. Also, three new popular symmetrical, arena type Community Forge maps have been added: Onyx, Dispatch, and Simplex. We hope that those of you who have been frequenting the Ricochet playlist will enjoy these updated and new map variants!Big Team Battle
The Big Team Infinity Slayer and Big Team Skirmish playlists have been combined to create the Big Team Battle playlist, which brings 8v8 combatants into the same arena. The Big Team Infinity Slayer CSR has been carried over, and the Matchmaking Systems team will closely monitor match quality as well as community feedback regarding Big Team Battle CSR and in-game experiences. The voting options are as follows:
Slot 1:
Big Team Infinity Slayer
Slot 2:
Big Team Slayer
Slot 3:
Big Team Skirmish game types
Infinity Slayer
The Majestic Map Pack is now required to play Infinity Slayer. As the goal of this is to gauge if the DLC-required playlist solution is a viable one, we will be monitoring its population closely. This is an experiment, and is in no way, shape or form a permanent move at this time. We have also slightly adjusted and optimized the voting options in this playlist. They are as follows:
Slot 1:
Infinity Slayer (on-disc and DLC maps only)
Slot 2:
All Team Slayer map / game type combinations
Infinity Slayer on Community Forge Maps
Slot 3:
All Legendary BR map / game type combinations
To ensure that split-screen players have a favorable option in the first voting slot, we have restricted this slot to Infinity Slayer on the on-disc and DLC maps. Legendary BRs is currently the exclusive option in the third voting slot. We’ll also keep a close eye on voting data and community feedback when considering the optimization of the voting options in Infinity Slayer.
Spartan Ops
In Spartan Ops, we are kicking off a full rerun of episodes 1-10 with ‘Grunt Birthday Party,’ ‘I Would Have Been Your Daddy,’ and ‘Mythic’ Skulls enabled. While the first two Skulls do not affect gameplay, the latter one increases the health of your enemies. This week, an encore of episode 1 is available.
We hope you enjoy the new experiences offered in Halo 4 Matchmaking. Be sure to stay tuned to Halo Waypoint to see what’s coming next.
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ASE Episode 60: Seven Things
Over at Rampancy.net, Narcogen and Blackstar took a look at 7 things that found their way into both Halo and Marathon… that Narcogen thinks might have been better in Marathon. Entertaining watch! (And for those who’ve never seen it, that’s really Blackstar’s car at the end.)(Louis Wu 16:13:24 UTC)
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Beyond Entertainment 1 – A Halo 4 Community Montage
From Beyond Entertainment:
Beyond Entertainment is pleased to showcase our first community Halo montage using your submitted clips!
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ASE Ep. 60: Seven Things
Seven things in Halo that are the same (or better) in Marathon.
This podcast uses:
Aleph One, free and open source versions of Marathon for Windows, Mac and Linux at http://source.bungie.org
Garry’s Mod, available from Steam.
Mark V[B] Spartan model for Garry’s Mod by 017.
Halo M6G and SMG weapons by Residual Kat.
SCars Slim by Sakarias88, Scars Halo by Lucky9Two, and Russian cars by Denz.
Blood Fury’s cinema tools.
Greenscreen Material by DasMatze.
Remixes of the Marathon soundtrack by Craig Hardgrove at http://themarathonmusic.com
For audio recording, we use Mumble:
Subscribe to the YouTube channel for Anger, Sadness and Envy video podcasts:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIof4Cp3-cam7bAFzDEwK_wzSSEya050i
Subscribe to the iTunes channel or RSS feed for video and audio podcasts:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anger-sadness-and-envy/id266991411?mt=2
http://feeds.feedburner.com/AngerSadnessEnvy
Let’s Play Marathon 2 starts this week!
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BCM 84: Freakiness and fun
Rockslider packaged up a bunch of fun clips from a variety of campaign levels for his latest video – it’s a smorgasbord of Covenant carnage! Go watch.(Louis Wu 21:24:50 UTC)
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Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide – out soon!
The Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide is hitting stores this week – but some people got their hands on it a little early. You can read some of the new tidbits over at the Halo Waypoint forums – thanks, zofinda.(Louis Wu 21:24:19 UTC)
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Recolor your weapons
ForgeWorldMaps stopped in with word of a video showing off ‘hidden skins’ for certain weapons… they look to be more like color glitches due to Champion Bundle assets, but either way, they’re fun!(Louis Wu 21:23:33 UTC)
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Covers for Escalation #1 revealed
We mentioned Halo: Escalation, a new comic series from Dark Horse coming in December, back in July – but mikimarquez noticed a pair of covers for the first issue over at Comic Book Resources (Find ‘Escalation’ on the page). The Kenneth Scott variant is… wild.(Louis Wu 21:22:01 UTC)
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Weekend Webcomic – Compromise
Weekends and webcomics go hand in hand, and there’s no better day to celebrate that relaxing ritual than on Sunday. Today’s Halo-themed Weekend Webcomic is brought to you by DairyBoy Comics. Enjoy his Halo-themed strip, and if you have a comic you’d like to submit for possible future inclusion, send it to bsangel[at]halowaypoint.com!
by: DairyBoy Comics
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Hindsight: Reach
Forward Unto Dawn is celebrating Reach’s 3rd birthday with a look back of their own – they’ve kicked off ‘Hindsight: Reach‘, a retrospective analysis of the game. The first two chapters, Noble Actual and Winter Contingency, are online already. Thanks, davidfuchs.(Louis Wu 20:00:26 UTC)
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The Drunken Halo Podcast Ep 61
Justin Bryce let us know that Episode 61 of the Drunken Halo Podcast is now online – main topic of conversation is the Halo 4 Champions Bundle DLC. Go listen! (Louis Wu 19:54:24 UTC)
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Happy Birthday, Reach!
Today is the third anniversary of the release of Bungie’s last Halo title, Halo: Reach. Bryan Newman kicked off a thread on our forum – and there is some fun reminiscing in there! Go join in. (Louis Wu 19:21:26 UTC)
The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft
