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 crazybydefault. Read about his Halo preferences below, then hit his profile to learn about his favorite movie. Hint: It starts with space and ends with balls!

Gamertag: crazybydefault. No spaces, no l33t-speak, easy to remember!

Previous or current clan/community: I play with anyone and everyone, but there are several people who you’ll find me online with.

Halo games you are currently playing: Halo: Reach, Halo 3, and I’m getting back into ODST.

Favorite map, game type and playlist: I absolutely love Anchor 9, Breakneck, and Timberland. I love Elite Slayer. WORT WORT WORT! Playlist: Anything with “Anniversary” in it, as well as regular BTB, although I poke around in SWAT and Action Sack a lot. I’ve also been known to play Invasion from time to time.

Least favorite map, game type and playlist: 3-way tie between Uncaged, Pinnacle, and Atom (even though Atom doesn’t exist anymore). I’m not a huge fan of Dino Blasters and I really don’t know why. Playlist: Team Snipers. Power weapons are fun, until everyone has one….

Halo weapon specialty/preference: Precision weapons. I do love the little purple skulls. Although, it feels weird saying that I prefer precision weapons, seeing as how I don’t like Team Snipers!

Halo playing style: I play a mix of offense and defense. I push up with the rest of my team, but I often like to sit back from afar and pick people off from a distance.

Anything else we should know? My Halo career is fairly short. When I was younger, I played Halo 2 at my cousin’s house for about 15 minutes. I had no idea what I was doing, but I enjoyed it! Fast forward a few years, and you have me sitting at my best friend’s house playing (read as: getting my butt handed to me) Halo 3 and loving every minute of it. I had always been a Nintendo fan, but Halo was the game that got me into Xbox. Fast forward AGAIN to Christmas of ’10 and you have me purchasing a new 360 along with a copy of Reach. Booyah. I also now own a copy of CE, 2, 3, ODST and Wars! Double booyah.

Get to know crazybydefault here!

From Mega Bloks:

Mega Bloks is feeling all warm and fuzzy this Valentine’s Day, so we decided to share the love!

How to play

Simple! Follow us on Twitter and retweet the following on February 14th between 9am – 6pm EST. You can only enter once per prize, and you can only win one prize. One winner will be selected by random draw, and we will announce the winner on Twitter and on our blog. Make sure to check out the Official Rules before you play!

To win the Halo heart, RT the following:

RT I want to win the #MegaBloks #Halo Valentine’s Day Heart http://bitly.com/y9A1Wj #MegaValentines

Mega Bloks Valentine’s Day Twitter Contest – Win a custom-made “Heart of Bloks”

From FBWalshyFTW:

This is a Halo: Reach funtage from Legitify, edited by himself, entitled “Chillax.” The editing and soundtrack are laid-back, and the gameplay features a very diverse array of footage, including a lot of unique clips like a sword lunge suicide and an awesome Overkill on Countdown where Legitify wins a 1v3 battle and follows that up with a ninja. Enjoy!

Chillax – A Halo: Reach Funtage

From ishtrish:

I painted these Halo shoes for my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. The card said, “I’m the Arbiter to your Master Chief. I’ll always be there for you.”

Not exactly a brand name shoe but that’s okay. It’s the thought that counts!

Halo Shoes – A Valentine’s Day Gift

From petetheduck and submitted by Der Flatulator6:

Last Forger Standing is a multi-week Forge competition following a TV reality show elimination format. These are real contestants in a real contest with a real prize for the winner: 4,000 Microsoft Points!

Last Forger Standing 4 – A Community Forge Competition Show

This week it’s back to Campaign with challenge you may have not seen in a while. Like the days of arcade machines, we’re challenging you to reach the highest score you can. And if you amass a whopping 250,000 points, you will receive a tidy sum of credits at the end to maybe get your Spartan a nice Valentine’s Day present. So get to it!

NOT LOUGH, HIGH – 30,000cR
Earn a score of 250000 in any mission in the Reach Campaign.

Why not make this a co-op adventure and build a group via the forums:

Weekly Challenge Thread

American International Toy Fair is the largest toy trade show in the western hemisphere, and MEGA Brands is there, showing off the latest and greatest Halo MEGA Bloks toys. They sent along some pictures for those that are not attending the festivities in person, so enjoy this peek into their booth, and keep an eye on their blog for more information!

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, which chronicles the unknown story of the Spartan named Jun, is brought to you by Levi Hoffmeier. Enjoy this incredible fan-made series, and if you have a comic you’d like to submit for possible future inclusion, send it to bsangel[at]halowaypoint.com!

by: Levi Hoffmeier

You’re a busy person, and we have a thing for releasing as much Halo-related content our multi-fingered appendages can handle. That means—assuming you aren’t a speed reading super-soldier—you probably missed a few stories along the way. Not only do we forgive you, but we’ll also happily provide a convenient weekly wrap-up of absolutely everything we covered during the last seven days. Don’t worry about saying thank you. We’d rather you spend that time soaking in the goodness that is this entertaining collection of articles. Off you go!

News
The Halo Bulletin: 2.8.12
Office of Halo Intelligence: Part 3
February Matchmaking Playlist Update
Reach Weekly Challenge – 2.6.12

Videos
Halo Theme on Violin
Last Forger Standing 3 – A Community Forge Competition Show
Mini-Halo – An Artistic Halo Video
The Adventures of Koko Bear Chapter 3 – A Halo Machinima
Halo Medals In Other Games – Devil May Cry 4
Form – A Halo 3 Trick Jumping Montage
Super 8 – A Halo: Reach Racetrack Review
SingleHaloClips January 2012 – A Halo: Reach Communitytage
Game Fails: Ha! I win! … Ah Nuts
Muggsy 2 – A Halo: Reach Montage
The Thing – A Halo: Reach Machinima
Tyrant’s Halo 3 Legendary Walkthrough – Tsavo Highway
Fails of the Weak 73

Fun Stuff
Female Spartan Reach Armor – Halo Cosplay
Tattoo Tuesday: Remember Reach
Halo IRL: Maximum Security
Chibi Master Chief Plush
petetheduck’s Forge Puzzle
Time Flies When You’re Playing Halo
Friday Caption Fun 39

Community Happenings
Community Member of the Week: OnyxTech
Test Night with a Cartographer: 2.8.12
Halo: Reach Playdate – jggh Games

Halo: Reach Screenshots
Brute of Grace – Absolutely Hilarious
TIE Fighter – Fun with Forge
The Katana – Fun with Forge
The Woods – Freakin’ Weird
Forerunner – Simply Amazing

Author: Apollo Creed 01

From Rooster Teeth:

Geoff and Gus look at another hilarious batch of fails from Halo: Reach. Join them in their hilarious ways. Hilarity. Hilarious.

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

Fails of the Weak 73

Last week, for our Friday Caption Fun festivities, you provided quips for an image featuring a rather explosive vehicle. Here are the top captions you left for that particular image!

“Guilty Spark silenced critics once and for all, proving Red Bull does, in fact, give you wings.” –ShadEO9
“Can someone tell me what’s on my windshield? Is it a spider?” –PopulistSpy2817
“Okay, so maybe it isn’t a Dyson sphere….” –TJRoots
“It wasn’t until closer examination that the UNSC found out how the Plasma Launcher’s tracking capabilities
really worked.” –Mr Gruntsworthy
“Who needs Suicide Grunts when you got this?” –Robert Jonez
“The Chief took “Send me out with a bang” a little too literally.” –FLASHPANTHER
“Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are shooting stars… close enough.” –Kroadge
“Engineers at 343i quickly learned that letting bs angel design the vehicles for Halo 4 wasn’t the best idea
they’d had.” –Rolling Flame
“Quidditch matches in Reach would never be the same.” –Coux73

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

Author: Morbid Mette

Office of Halo Intelligence, or OHI for short, is a semi-regular diary-type feature brought to you by various members of the Halo 4 development team. Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director, kindly agreed to write the third entry. We hope you enjoy an inside look at the making of our next title!

From the 2.8.12 edition of the Halo Bulletin:

Ship Just Got Real

Obviously we’ve been working on the game in earnest for a long time, but it’s all starting to feel pretty real to me now. Campaign is playable from start to finish (not to be confused with complete or polished) and multiplayer has been running for a while. It’s amazing to see changes big and small have a dramatic effect on making the game smoother, more playable and more enjoyable in almost every session.

Personally I have been traveling a fair amount in support of the impending year-long launch activity. Visiting with our partners and colleagues in Europe to talk (and walk) them through the game, the features, the U.S. marketing plans and the sheer scale of the project. We certainly surprised some folks with the ambition and concrete realization of where we’re at, but it was kind of cool to see genuine excitement and enthusiasm for the game.

Our show and tell was pretty BIG, since the European partners (marketing, retail guys, etc.) need as much information as is available to make their plans and start building the path to launch abroad. So they went from knowing practically nothing about the game, to knowing practically everything about it. Which is a weird feeling when you expend so much effort and energy on security and secrecy. It’s amazing how much detail you need to go into. It’s not good enough to simply list off the changes and additions and improvements, you have to contextualize them. It’s been almost five years since Halo 3 and a LOT of stuff has happened between then and now: ODST, Reach, multiple map packs, loads of story and a whole swathe of technical and gameplay changes.

Creating material to explain those changes, walking people through the game features – showing them a lot of this stuff in action, it’s fun, but it’s nerve-wracking. In a way it’s a preview of our public showings, where we get a feel for which changes, which additions, which refinements are going to get people excited. It’s also a chance to get a feel for which new features are complicated and how to distill the explanations to capture the essence of what we’re making. Training wheels, as it were, for showing you guys.

Launching a game is a massive undertaking, with literally hundreds of people all over the world preparing and planning to make sure that every aspect, from the box art to the matchmaking, is executed flawlessly. And if it seems slow, ponderous, even, then remember that there’s a plan and a process, and that you’ll see Halo 4 soon enough. And we can’t wait to share it with you.

Frankie

From Hunted54:

This is my 22″ diameter clock laser cut from steel. It was a Christmas present from my son and daughter. We have three generations of Halo players in our family!

From MythicTyrant:

Welcome to the Tyrant’s Halo 3 Legendary Walkthrough! Each week I’ll be taking you on a detailed tour of Halo 3 on solo Legendary with in depth, narrated video guides brought to you in high definition. Each week a celebrity from the Halo community will be guest hosting with me in addition to giving away awesome avatar prizes at the end of each episode.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for a chance to win free XBL avatar prizes each week! The day of release, I will be asking ONE question regarding the released episode. The first person to get it right will receive a 343 Industries t-shirt avatar code: one male & one female.

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

Tyrant’s Halo 3 Legendary Walkthrough – Tsavo Highway

Author: Grim 0

From soFallenfilms:

This video is based off John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” Four UNSC officers follow a downed Falcon that landed in a city.

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

The Thing – A Halo: Reach Machinima

From petetheduck:

I have been toying around with the idea of puzzles that can only be solved in Forge mode. This is a simple introduction to that concept; on the rock spire in Forge World sits a single Warthog. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to destroy that Warthog.

There are no rules; destroy the Warthog by any means necessary. However, that is not to say I am going to make it easy. The Warthog is encased in shield walls. You are also prevented from approaching the Warthog by a teleporter barrier that cannot be deleted, marked by the blue line in the water. I’ve also taken measures to prevent use of the ‘delete all’ ability.

You can download the map here: Forge Challenge. If you do destroy the Warthog, I’d love to see your film clip! For more details about submitting a clip, visit www.idleduck.com.

petetheduck’s Forge Puzzle

From FBWalshyFTW:

This is Muggsy’s second Halo: Reach montage, edited by Muggsy himself. The gameplay’s good, showcasing many sweet Overkills. As usual, Muggsy delivers, demonstrating a very proficient mastery of establishing flow with great syncing, theater work, and effect usage. Enjoy!

Muggsy 2 – A Halo: Reach Montage

From Higginstuff:

This Master Chief plush is the original green, and he is made entirely from super soft minky fabric. He is approximately 10 inches tall, and his arms have joints in them so they can move up and down. I really love how this plush turned out. He is sooo soft!

Editor’s note: WANT.

Chibi Master Chief Plush