From Liam DeBeasi:

I’ve been working on a Halo: Heroes Never Die wallpaper. Download and enjoy!

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Fan-made Heroes Never Die Wallpaper

From halo.bungie.org:

Lee Georgeton dropped by with a video showing off some funky mini-Spartans on Forge World. Awesome effect!

Mini Spartans – A Halo: Reach Illusion

I saw a motivational poster in a high school gym once that said “it’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you play the game.” That’s good advice as playing can be fun and challenging, but if you want to get a big prize at the end you better get to winning games. Seventy seven games to be exact. It’s no easy task, but you can do it! This week we challenge you to:

PLAY TO WIN – 20,343cR
Win 77 games in multiplayer Matchmaking this week.

Winning is way more fun in a group, so don’t forget to stop by the forums and build your squad.

Weekly Challenge Thread

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: 2.15.12
Halo Avatar Collection – February
Office of Halo Intelligence: Part 4
McFarlane Toys Introduces New Halo Product Lines at 2012 NY Toy Fair
Reach Weekly Challenge – 2.13.12

Videos
Last Forger Standing 4 – A Community Forge Competition Show
Chillax – A Halo: Reach Funtage
Superiorosity SX – A Halo: Reach Racetrack Review
Express – A Halo 3/Reach Montage
Halo: Reach – Achievement HORSE #62
r/Halo 2 – A Halo: Reach Community Montage
Forge Spotlight 13 – A Halo: Reach Machinima Series
Helljumper 2 – A Fan-made Halo Web Series
Beaver Creek Walkthrough – A Halo: Anniversary Gameplay and Commentary Video

Fun Stuff
Halo eValentines for Your Favorite Player 2!
Halo Shoes – A Valentine’s Day Gift
Chance to Win a Custom-made Mega Bloks Heart!
Toy Fair 2012: Square Enix
Halo IRL: Ivory Tower
You Know You Play Too Much Halo When – Part 3
Halo: Reach Gamer Health Kit
Friday Caption Fun 40

Community Happenings
Community Member of the Week: crazybydefault
The Running Riot Goes Feet First into Helljumper
10,343 Halotracker Challenges, In the Bag!

Halo: Reach Screenshots
Elites with Cones – Absolutely Hilarious
Batman – Fun with Forge
Orbitally Deployed Sangheili Troops – Fun with Forge
Night Hunter – Simply Amazing

Author: Advanced 90

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. Kenneth Scott, Senior Art Director of Halo 4, kindly agreed to write the fourth entry. We hope you enjoy an inside look at the making of our next title!

From the 2.15.12 edition of the Halo Bulletin:

Big thanks to Jessica for dragging me gently into this week’s OHI. The 343 Art Team (and 343 in general) is thundering on all cylinders, and the seismic rumble has the neighbors all up in arms. When your landlord is the UNSC, you tend to giggle when the homeowner association mail starts to pile up!

With Chief making an appearance at the NY Toy Fair, the internet has bubbled with lots of questions around Chief’s design changes. Having cut my first game developer experience on Daikatana, I’ve developed a healthy respect and fear of the internet. I will step onto a message board with all the cautious ginger one would employ pulling lost forks out of a sink garbage disposal. I did want to risk mangled finger burger to talk a little about some of what brought us to our current design.

Above all, we wanted the player to really feel what it’s like to be the Master Chief. This manifests itself in a lot of ways, and for those who read the Fall of Reach, there’s a lot of character depth behind that helmet that has yet to make its way into the game experience. Every person who was allowed to touch him had to, HAD TO, understand his history as a person. The Chief’s origin is pretty sad and grim: A strong, vibrant child stolen from his parents, he underwent dangerous bioengineering that destroyed the weaker of his friends, and trained to stomp out human Insurrectionists. Pretty morally nebulous beginnings for someone who ultimately saved humanity. Of all FPS heroes, he is distinct in that his arc is aspirational and not a cynical view of the universe.

A big focus on the Chief’s armor was his physicality and putting the player in those mighty shoes. Getting that weight across in the design had us looking at a lot of contemporary military vehicles, and we pushed detail and form into the armor that implied that history. This is the bleeding edge of military technology.

A Spartan tossing his chest plate should feel like an anvil dropping….

A Spartan sprinting across concrete should be a stealthy whisper….

Putting on your helmet should feel like powering up an F-15E….

These are the sorts of experiences we want to give the players.

Kenneth

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

“Suddenly, Blue Spartan realised that the question wasn’t ‘Why are we here,’ but
‘Why am I balancing on a gun in 1-inch deep water?’” –Sqartan1176
“Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, that ‘Hog was fast as lightning.” –RegulineSix
“It was only then that Caboose realized a tiny jet ski wasn’t the best thing to ride on….” –The Storm War
“The Water ‘Hog was rejected because it shrank when put in water.” –Aerohed
“Teaching Spartans how to swim was not met with much enthusiasm from the Spartan community.” –m3rkMS
“Aw, crap! Two inches of water! Sorry Reach, you’re on your own!” –Jedi Maddog
“Geoff from Achievement Horse finally managed to win a round when he stuck this landing.” –GunRunner48
“Didn’t I warn you that no matter what you do, tank beats EVERYTHING?” –AlfaSirius
“One small step for Spartan, one giant leap for…. OH -Yoink!-” –MLG SU11YDUD3

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 rather infectious Spartan. Soak in the screenshot, then leave your witty and relevant quip in a comment. Off you go!

Author: shatteredwings