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