My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • Podtacular 374

    Dust Storm told us about Podtacular 374, which covers the press conferences that took place last Monday. It’s a monster – more than 3 hours long – but it’s got a boatload of special guests, so you should go listen.(Louis Wu 19:01:10 UTC)

  • Spartan Ops Solo Legendary No Deaths – Episode 8

    We’ve already told you about RC Master’s runs through Spartan Ops Episode 9… but we skipped over 8, which came in on Thursday. Go check out Unfinished Business on Apex and Glassman on Control – and if you missed any of the other Episode 8 chapters, all five are available in this playlist. Now you’re caught up! (Louis Wu 18:48:30 UTC)

  • PGCR 166

    Also last week, Robowski sent word of a new episode of Post Game Carnage Report – this one looks at some great Forge maps, the new Halo trailer, and more. Go listen!(Louis Wu 18:29:16 UTC)

  • Zeus: Mac Halo Editor

    Sparky sent word that his tool for modifying Mac Halo map and tag files, Zeus (we last mentioned it last September), has now been released as a downloadable program (in “pre-alpha” state). Swing by MagGamingMods for information about the app, or grab a copy here! It still needs work, and updates are happening on a regular basis, but if you want to play with it, Sparky’s got you covered!(Louis Wu 18:26:36 UTC)

  • Catching up: a fan’s idea for future storylines

    Over the week of E3, all three of our primary newsposters were in LA – and we missed a bit of news that came our way. I’m going to try and rectify some of that. Almost assuredly we’ll still miss things. Apologies in advance. First up – a member of the PGCR community has some ideas about the Halo universe that could be turned into future games or novels – go see what he’s thinking! (This originally came in a week ago. Ouch!)(Louis Wu 18:20:08 UTC)

  • Community Member of the Week: Ozzy Onya A2Z

    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 Ozzy Onya A2Z. Read a little more about this particular fan below, then hit their profile to learn even more!

    Community Member of the Week

    Gamertag: Ozzy Onya A2Z.

    Origin of Gamertag: “Oddley”, when “Toddley” was taken years ago, my real life nickname. My name is Todd. Ozzy Onya A2Z has a nice play on words for “on your -Yoink!-” and “A to Z” meaning I’ve got you covered for anything you try. Oh, and I’m proud to be Australian so Ozzy is a nice slang for my heritage.

    Current clan/community: Australian BTB was my previous clan and Bungie.net my previous community.

    Halo game(s) you are currently playing: Halo 4, of course! I move to the latest Halo game every release…who doesn’t?

    Favorite map, game type and playlist: Objective, HaloCharts had a series of silly statistics for me as #1 objective player in Australia for standard matchmaking ranked objective in Halo 3. Stats like most flag captures, most bomb arms, most flag kills, most bomb kills, etc. I love Zanzibar, Burial Mounds, Coagulation, High Grounds and flag/bomb carrying/arming.

    Least favorite map, game type and playlist: Swordbase Oddball. *shudders uncontrollably

    Preferred control scheme: Recon, inverted, sensitivity 2 for Halo 4 and default inverted for all other previous Halo games.

    Halo playing style (offense, defense, sniper, driver, etc.): Objective/support, jack of all trades, point man, foot-soldier, anti-vehicle guy and love offensive stealth, counter caps plus taking one for the team. I also should be known as meat shield as I protect our objective carriers intensely.

    Favorite Halo character: The Chief, of course, with Halsey a close second.

    Favorite Halo book: Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund. Please 343i/Eric, do another Nylund trilogy and get him writing for the games, too!

    Favorite Halo quote: Halsey talking to Noble Team…”you were wondering why you were created, what your purpose is…this is the reason.” Similar to that quote but the whole speech is excellent.

    Halo Creations Nothing particular but a pinned topic in Halo 4 forum. Topic Title: Nothing But Facts, Unbiased Confirms. I have also created some wallpapers, other thread concepts for matchmaking systems and generally just soapbox’ing to the Halo forums.

    Get to know Ozzy Onya A2Z here

    Discuss



  • It Gets Better – A Halo 4 Montage

    From Beyond Entertainment:

    Phurion just released a brand new Halo 4 montage titled “It Gets Better”. With slick editing and great music, it makes for a great montage to check out. Make sure to watch the full montage here. Enjoy!

    It Gets Better – A Halo 4 Montage

    Discuss


  • Podtacular 376: E3 2013 Roundtable

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    With the Electronic Entertainment Expo come and gone, it’s time for us to reflect on everything else that happened during the crazy week at E3. Many more games were shown off with gameplay and info leaking out with seemingly no end… until the close of the Expo that is. Where our primary focus is Halo and Microsoft, there are plenty of other games coming out and on other platforms which are of interest, which leads us to today’s recording. Joining Podtacular’s E3 roundtable discussion is MoltenSlowa, Kalbelgarion (GBH), Justin Bryce (Drunken Halo) and Rebel Rouser (RUL). Enjoy


  • One Savior

    Urban Reflex noticed a Forbes piece that posed the thought of “Why Halo is more important to Microsoft now than ever before“. It’s certainly an interesting read that raises some intriguing points; points that will certainly be watched over and mused about in the coming months. Go and give it a read and see what you think!(GrimBrother One 19:16:27 UTC)

  • Master Holland’s OPuS

    RC Master sent along word that the final entries in his awesome Spartan Ops Solo Legendary, No Deaths series are complete! Check out Clean Up, Revenge, and The Hammer, all from Episode 9. You can check out the entire 50-chapter playlist right here. Awesome stuff, go and check it out!(GrimBrother One 19:06:27 UTC)

  • Day/E 3-cap

    bs angel gives us one last look back at E3 in 343 Industries’ Day 3 Recap over at Halo Waypoint. Check out some more details on the quickly-approaching Halo: Spartan Assault and a few words from Bernie and Jack of Rooster Teeth. Go watch!(GrimBrother One 19:00:38 UTC)

  • Yeah Yeah, Here Comes the Rooster

    Thanks to Nikko B201 for letting us know that both the new Fails of the Weak (Episode 143 AH | YT) and a special “Office Tourney” HORSE between Gus and Adam (AH | YT). Go watch!(GrimBrother One 17:32:55 UTC)

  • Hulu: Forward Unto Dawn

    Nice! It looks like Halo: Forward Unto Dawn is now on Hulu! If you haven’t checked it out for some incredibly strange reason, go do it now! Thanks robofin117.(GrimBrother One 16:23:04 UTC)

  • Chief Will Be Waiting In His Trailer

    TheSparbiter let us know about a couple of really awesome fan trailers they’d made. Check out the 2006/2013 E3 trailer crossover as well as an alternative version of the 2013 E3 Halo trailer. Really nice work!(GrimBrother One 16:18:48 UTC)

  • ASE Ep. 33 Destiny Gameplay Reveal

    ASE Ep. 33 Destiny Gameplay Reveal

    Narcogen from Rampancy.net and Cody Miller from HaloReachIsNotCanon.net take a look at the premiere of gameplay in Bungie’s upcoming shared world shooter, Destiny.


  • Podtacular 375: Going Beyond Launch

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    This week has been filled with E3 information, some of which pertaining to Halo. We got a glimpse of Halo on Xbox One during the Microsoft Press Briefing while Spartan Ops has been playable on the show floor. Among the many update videos released from Halo Waypoint, there were also achievements announced for Spartan Assault including 19 of them for a total of 190 gamerscore (weird, we know). We also have the folks over from Beyond Entertainment drop by to tell us about their recently launched website. Cyren, Saucey and Jazzy give us the rundown on the features of the site and their plans for the community. Enjoy


  • RvB Season 11 Episode 1: One-Zero-One

    Season 11 of Red vs Blue has launched… and I’m pretty pumped! It’s got humor, it’s got the beginnings of an exciting story, it’s got awesome music. What more could you want from machinima? Go watch it. Really.(Louis Wu 02:35:22 UTC)

  • Halo 4 Matchmaking Update: 6.17.13

    This Monday, several updates are coming to Halo 4 Matchmaking. In Spartan Ops, we’ll be showcasing a Designer’s choice medley, SWAT will be updated with new game types and maps, the brand new game type Mini Slayer will be premiering, Team Throwdown will be updated to the most current tournament settings, and more. Check out the full details of the update below.

    Mini Slayer is a brand new game type that will be added to Action Sack! This mode has only been played by 343 staff and some lucky studio visitors, and we are excited to premiere it this coming Monday. The Spartans are scaled smaller than normal, but the weapons are normal size, creating fun, hectic, and often hilarious game play. The game type will be available exclusively on the map “Rail” at launch. Here’s what to expect from the game type:

    ·         All Spartans are mini!
    ·         All players have the “Mobility” tactical package
    ·         All players spawn with Assault Rifle
    ·         Killcam disabled
    ·         Melee disabled
    ·         Due to the scaling of character models, corpses become stretched

    In SWAT, we’ve added two new Slayer game types. These game types will add new ways to rack up absurd amounts of headshots and good times. Because they are new, we will be offering them exclusively in the third voting slot and keeping an eye on the voting data to see which are most popular. The game types and settings are as follows:

    Forerunner SWAT

    ·         Starting weapon: LightRifle
    ·         Secondary: Boltshot
    ·         Pulse Grenades
    ·         Infinite ammo
    ·         No weapons on map (Standard SWAT maps)
    ·         No Armor Abilities
    ·         Regular map rotation

    Covenant SWAT

    ·         Starting weapon: Carbine
    ·         Secondary: Plasma Pistol
    ·         No grenades
    ·         Infinite ammo
    ·         No weapons on map (Standard SWAT maps)
    ·         No Armor Abilities
    ·         Regular map rotation


    Team Throwdown, our premiere competitive playlist, has been updated to Gh057ayame’s “v4” settings. These updated settings include altered weapon and power-up locations, optimized spawn points, and a new 11-game type layout that will be found in the playlist. All “TD Pro” game types have been removed from the playlist – these new settings will occupy all three voting slots come Monday.

    ·         Abandon Team Slayer
    ·         Adrift CTF
    ·         Dispatch CTF
    ·         Haven Team Slayer
    ·         Haven Extraction
    ·         Onyx Team Slayer
    ·         Simplex Team Slayer
    ·         Simplex CTF
    ·         Skyline Team Slayer
    ·         Skyline CTF
    ·         Station 9 Extraction

    In Big Team Slayer Pro, we are disabling the killcam and enabling motion trackers. We will continue to monitor community feedback regarding these decisions. In Spartan Ops, we’ll be featuring a Designer’s Choice medley from 343 Industries designers Jayce Diaz and Matt Geer. The line-up for Spartan Ops Matchmaking is as follows:

    ·         Episode 7, Chapter 2: Home Field
    ·         Episode 8, Chapter 3: Lancer
    ·         Episode 2, Chapter 3: Hacksaw
    ·         Episode 9, Chapter 1: The Search for Halsey
    ·         Episode 9, Chapter 5: The Hammer

    Lastly, we’ve fixed up the Shutout version of Team Snipers to ensure that there aren’t any weapon additional spawns outside of the Beam Rifle spawn on the Sniper Rifle Tower, and balanced the Warthogs on Meltdown. We hope you enjoy these updates and new game modes! Be sure to hop into the War Games feedback section to share your thoughts with us.  See you on the virtual battlefield!

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