My Halo News.com

The latest news about the Halo series of games from Microsoft

  • What got you started?

    I guess it’s that time again… cheapLEY has kicked off a thread on our forum asking for your favorite Halo memories over the last decade or so. I’m gonna be keeping an eye on it – I love hearing what brought people into the fold!(Louis Wu 15:44:42 UTC)

  • Cool Halo props on Etsy

    GryphonOsiris ran across Johnson Arms, an Etsy shop run by Brian Johnson. He makes some fun stuff, including a Halo Reach M6G Pistol, a Carter Commando helmet, and a Halo EOD helmet. Got some spare cash? Check this stuff out!(Louis Wu 15:41:29 UTC)

  • Halo 4 Spartan Ops: Invasion

    Download

    Halsey has been confined after being interrogated by Lasky and Palmer, but it doesn’t stop her as an opportunity through Roland presents itself. Overriding Roland, she learns Master Chief is alive and tries to take matters into her own hands, contacting Jul and preparing to leave Infinity. Roland stops her attempts to undermine Lasky’s operation, but Infinity get’s invaded. In response, all Spartan teams are ordered to return to defend Infinity. What will happen to Dr. Halsey from her treachery? Will the Spartans be able to fend off invaders? Find out this week as HaloFanForLife returns once again. Enjoy


  • Podtacular 352

    Dust Storm let us know that the latest Podtacular episode is live – CyReN, GH057ayame and Saucey of Beyond Entertainment sit down to talk about their plans for the Halo community. They also discuss the competitive Halo scene. Go listen!(mastrbiggy 21:01:27 UTC)


  • Community Member of the Week: OompaMyLoompaa

    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 OompaMyLoompaa. Read a little more about him below, then hit his profile to learn the story behind the extra “A”!

    Community Member of the Week

    Gamertag: OompaMyLoompaa.

    Origin of Gamertag: My friend was a big gamer. Since I’m tall and I share similar interests and a close birthday to great British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot and screenwriter Roald Dahl, my friend and I discussed a new Gamertag for me to change to since the one before this was incredibly lame. At that time there was also a new kid at our school named Charlie, and so my friend and I looked into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for some inspiration. We laughed at the thought and idea of oompa loompas, and so we settled on “OompaMyLoompaa”. I had to add in the extra “A” at the end because at the time somebody already had it. I’m not sure if I should spend another few hundred Microsoft Points to take off the extra “A” now that the spot is available.

    Current clan/community: Pinnacle clan and Halo Waypoint (of course!).

    Halo game(s) you are currently playing: Halo 4, Halo: Reach, Halo 3 and Halo: CEA.

    Favorite map, game type and playlist: Love most of the maps but Skyline and Landfall have to be some of my favorite maps. Ever. I’m loving FFA and Regicide, Grifball, SWAT, Dominion and Grifball. Yes, I said Grifball twice.

    Least favorite map, game type and playlist: Abandon and BTI Slayer.

    Preferred control scheme: Default; sensitivity: 3-10 (always changing, but right now I’m using 4); non-inverted.

    Halo weapon specialty/preference: Mostly an all-around guy, but I think close-range battles have always been my specialty.

    Halo playing style (offense, defense, sniper, driver, etc.): My playing style is hard to explain, as I love to do everything! Although the vehicles in Halo 4 are significantly weaker than in past titles, vehicle play is still so much fun! I’m the type of guy that will adapt to any combat situation and drive you around in a Warthog.

    Favorite Halo character: Buck, Thomas Lasky (Forward Unto Dawn version), Gabriel Thorne and The Rookie. I have a personality similar to theirs’.

    Favorite Halo book: The Fall of Reach, Ghosts of Onyx and Cryptum. I’m not the biggest Halo universe junkie, but I applaud the writers for doing such an amazing job and contributing to such an awesome fictional universe.

    Favorite Halo quote: “She said that to me once… about being a machine.” – John-117

    Anything else we should know? I’m a kid who devotes his time to writing stories and music, as well as eating tacos and honey-roasted peanuts while playing Halo with friends and a pizza. I love to meet new people so come holla at me some time!

    Get to know OompaMyLoompaa here

    Discuss


  • Castle Map Pack Trailer

    Halo Waypoint released a trailer for the Castle map pack – the DLC includes three new medium-to large-range maps. Perdition reminds me of the city hub from ODST – cool! Waypoint also posted a screenshot gallery of the new maps. The Castle map pack launches on April 8th.(mastrbiggy 17:58:41 UTC)

  • Castle Map Pack Trailer

    Halo Waypoint released a trailer for the Castle map pack – the DLC includes three new medium-to large-range maps. Perdition reminds me of the city hub from ODST – cool! Waypoint also posted a screenshot gallery of the new maps. The Castle map pack launches on April 8th.(mastrbiggy 17:58:41 UTC)

  • Halo 4 Matchmaking Update: 3.11.13

    Legends in the Dark

    This week in Spartan Ops, we are featuring an encore of Episode 7. In War Games, the Team Action Sack playlist is now available, so you can get your fill of crazy and fun non-traditional game modes.  We’ve seen a lot of great feedback regarding this playlist’s return, and we’ll admit that we’re pretty excited about it, too. Here are the game types you’ll see this week, and the maps they are available on:

    Team Fiesta

    Rocket Slayer

    Binary Slayer

    Haven

    Complex

    Haven

    Adrift

    Abandon

    Monolith

    Abandon

    Harvest

    Harvest

    Solace

    Landfall

    Skyline

    Landfall

    Monolith

    Complex

    Monolith

    Skyline

    Ragnarok

    Skyline

    Adrift

    Landfall

    For more details on each of these game types, check out last week’s Halo Bulletin. We’re currently building additional Action Sack game modes, and look forward to bringing them to you.  For now, head on over to the Team Action Sack Feedback thread in the War Games Feedback section and let us know what you think of the current game modes. Also, feel free to suggest your own wacky, crazy game types.

    Discuss




  • Visualizing the Halo Universe Round 8: Ancients

    Portmortem has kicked off the next round of his Visualizing the Halo Universe project – this time he’s looking for fan renditions of Precursor Orbital Arches. (Read his post if that’s not clear.) Get to sketchin’! (Louis Wu 14:42:22 UTC)

  • Halo Reach Press Kit for Sale

    Compton is selling his Halo Reach Press Kit (pretty slick briefcase, filled with goodies) to raise money for an upcoming Xbox purchase – if you’ve been looking for one of these, here’s your chance!(Louis Wu 14:36:52 UTC)

  • What Halo’s Ancient History Can Tell Us About Destiny

    You can never truly know a game until you play it.
    Seraph, from Matrix Reloaded

    Okay, so I’m paraphrasing, but the point stands. Right now we don’t know much about Destiny, but it might be pretty difficult to say we know anything at all. I’m starting to get a sort of pleasant feeling of deja vu, and wondering what it was we thought we knew about Halo when it was first revealed. Our first glance at the game back then was more substantial back in the summer of 1999, when Steve Jobs welcomed Jason Jones on stage to show Halo running live, in real time, using OpenGL, on a Macintosh. He then said it was coming out on PCs and Macs next year.

    The rest is history.

    Perhaps Bungie showed more of Halo back then than of Destiny now because they honestly thought they were closer to releasing Halo than they really were. Possibly they felt they had to generate some hype for the game. Despite being an award-winning cross-platform developer, it’s hard to say that Bungie commanded the kind of attention before that game’s release in the Macintosh gaming market that they have occupied in the console world ever since. Now, independent from Microsoft, without the need to serve the well being of the Xbox platform over and above all else, the players on Sony’s platform may now be their thrall as well, and after that, who knows, perhaps those on Macs, Windows, and even Linux, iOS and Android. Bungie would appear to have big plans for Destiny.

    It’s not the first time Bungie’s had big plans, though, and things have a way of taking on a life of their own. In particular, some of Bungie’s plans for Destiny remind me of what I always guessed were Bungie’s original plans for Halo…

    read more


  • Europe wins out with Forward Unto Dawn

    Well, that’s interesting – it looks like Region 2 (Europe, mostly) will be getting a ‘Deluxe Edition’ Blu-ray/DVD combo of Forward Unto Dawn at the end of this month – as far as I can tell, this is not available (or at least announced) elsewhere in the world. In addition to the discs, you will also get a set of Halo art cards, a poster, and over 100 minutes of exclusive bonus content. Thanks, mikimarquez.(Louis Wu 23:09:26 UTC)

  • Celebrating both Cortana and MC

    JR3D_MTTH3W stopped in with a pair of vids – Master Chief Origin is a retrospective of our favorite Spartan, while Cortana Tribute is exactly what the title suggests. (The latter was featured on the Waypoint blog last week, so you may have seen it already.) Go watch!(Louis Wu 23:00:51 UTC)

  • Waiting for Halo 4

    Joseph “Maniac” Cirillo sent word of a new documentary he released this weekend – swing by GameExcess.net to watch ‘Waiting for Halo 4’. It was inspired by Halo 2: The Road to Glory, released by Noah Gallup more than 7 years ago, and it takes a look at one fan’s love affair with a franchise. Go watch! (Louis Wu 15:44:49 UTC)

  • Waiting for Halo 4

    Joseph “Maniac” Cirillo sent word of a new documentary he released this weekend – swing by GameExcess.net to watch ‘Waiting for Halo 4’. It was inspired by Halo 2: The Road to Glory, released by Noah Gallup more than 7 years ago, and it takes a look at one fan’s love affair with a franchise. Go watch! (Louis Wu 15:44:49 UTC)

  • Reaching Happiness

    uberfoop decided to take a run through Reach with fresh eyes – and record what he saw. Screenshots, videos, and new observations – he got through Long Night of Solace, and was pretty happy, for the most part! Go follow along.(Louis Wu 15:34:23 UTC)

  • Reaching Happiness

    uberfoop decided to take a run through Reach with fresh eyes – and record what he saw. Screenshots, videos, and new observations – he got through Long Night of Solace, and was pretty happy, for the most part! Go follow along.(Louis Wu 15:34:23 UTC)