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343 Industries has released new Halo 4 concept art offering an early look at the environments being built for the War Games DLC maps detailed earlier today. Read below for more details Source: Computerandvideogames.com As reported earlier today, 343 will launch three War Games map packs for Halo 4 - one each in December, February and April. As detailed through that link, each pack will contain three maps, the first glimpses of which you will get from the concept art below. A 'War Games Pass' giving buyers access to all three map packs at a discount bundle price will be included in the Limited Edition version of Halo 4 or sold separately for 2000 MS Points. View full article

343 and Microsoft have released the details of the Halo 4 Season pass. Read below for more details Source: Gameinformer.com With Halo 4's release just a few weeks away, Microsoft outlined the post-release content plans for the game. The War Games Map Pass gives you a 15 percent discount if you purchased all the upcoming maps individually. The pass costs $24.99 USD2 (2,000 Microsoft Points) and gives you access to three War Games map packs as they become available. Additionally, purchasers receive two in-game helmets (‘Scanner’ and ‘Strider’) as well as a unique in-game emblem (‘Falcon’). The Halo 4 War Games Map Pass is included as part of the Limited Edition Halo 4 game, Microsoft says. Below are the War Games map details: Crimson Map Pack (December release timeframe) Maps: Wreckage, Harvest, Shatter Description: Witness the chaos of a clash of civilizations in Wreckage, with its blend of claustrophobic spaces and dangerous exposures and venture into the human colony environs of Harvest, and explore a human foray on an alien moon in Shatter. Majestic Map Pack (February release timeframe) Maps: Landfall, Monolith, Skyline Description: Landfall’s emphasis is on infantry battles against a glittering ocean on a distant world, while Monolith exposes you to the naked vacuum of space – and the firepower of opposing teams, and Skyline’s distinctly industrial feel provides new challenges in somewhat familiar, but occasionally confined spaces. Castle Map Pack (April release timeframe) Maps: Daybreak, Outcast, Perdition Description: Daybreak is set in a military facility against the backdrop of an idyllic mountain range, while Outcast plunges you into the warrens, canyons and arches of an alien edifice, and Perdition takes players into the heart of an urban sprawl, with tactical speed and situational awareness its key features. View full article

The Australian Xbox Facebook page has been updated indicating that there may be an extended version of the David Fincher produced launch trailer being released soon. Read below for more details Source: LittleEnglishBlog.com and Xbox Australia Facebook "This is the only time this has been mentioned, but it would go some way to explain the slightly disconnected nature of the scenes in the ad. The two minute ad didn't really have any of the hallmarks of a David Fincher production either so hopefully an extended version will really show off his input." Here is the two minute trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgvPAT8A7KY&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LLbjFViXk3gCFOQk2PTFv95A View full article

http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/halo-4-limited-edition/102028 Preorder Limited Edition Halo 4. Limited Edition versions of Halo 4 are still up for pre-order at Gamestop!!! If you haven't already, preorder it now as this may be your ONLY chance. The Halo 4 Limited Edition includes the following: Halo 4 "War Games" Map Pass Launch Day Access to Six Specializations UNSC Infinity Briefing Packet Special Edition of Halo 4 Forward Unto Dawn In-Game Prime (Recruit) Armor Skin In-Game Prime Weapon Skin - Assault Rifle In-Game Prime Emblem Recruit Armor Avatar Costume Avatar Cryo-Tube Prop Halo 4 pre-orders at GameStop also include bonus "Forest" armor DLC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMWkiT1gy_4 View full article

Okay, so i bought the halo anniversary map pack as soon as it came out and it wont let me play the map pack. I've tried redownloading it and everything i can think of and NOTHING WORKS!! I really need help because i just started playing halo reach again since halo 4 comes out soon.

Gaminformer interviewing Frank O'Connor franchise development director for the Halo franchise about Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Read below for more details Source: Gameinformer.com The third episode of Halo’s live-action web series premiered today, and we had a chance to talk to Frank O'Connor, the franchise development director for the Halo franchise. He has a somewhat ambiguous job title and it means that O'Connor has his hand in just about everything related to Halo. We spoke to him about creating Halo 4's live-action web series, Forward Unto Dawn, and got some clarification about what his job is exactly. You’re the franchise development director for the Halo franchise? What does that job entail? Obviously I’m a spokesperson and that entails being an expert in every aspect of everything that we’re doing and then talking about it, but the vast majority of my work involves building and creating new elements of the franchise that end up in all of the various aspects of it. It’s a very large business at this point, even outside of the game. Obviously the game is the bulk of it, the game is the absolute master of everything else we do in the franchise and so everything feeds back into the game. It’s a really big franchise and it’s a big business on its own. From that perspective, how involved were you with the show, with the production? Were you writing and that kind of thing? We were editing and we were tweaking, really all the writing was done by Todd and Aaron Helbing realistically. We make notes and stuff like that but we were in the initial meetings with the Helbings about story and their first pitch, and the reason they got the job actually, was a story set on Harvest, which is one of the worlds from the Halo universe. We’d interviewed a bunch of writers and we had seen a bunch of pitches, and their pitch wasn’t the show we wanted to make, but it showed a really profound understanding of the universe and what the universe was about. It also mapped directly to what we wanted to do which was tell a story about people because that’s what we wanted this thing to be. Obviously it’s going to be great for fans. Fans are going to look at just about every single detail in this and hopefully love it. We wanted this to be approachable for people who are not familiar with the Halo universe and to do some setup, not in the sense of a pure origin story, but to give context to the beginnings of events that actually end up playing out in Halo 4. So their Harvest story did a lot of that but we needed to do something much more directly connected to it, so in the early meetings we basically helped them craft the story from the get-go and it was a completely different story from the one they originally wanted to tell. We were very involved in crafting that original plot, but we barely put pen to paper, that was those guys. We had meetings where we discussing things like Lasky’s allergy to the cryo-sleep as a sort of motivation for his character. It was basically world and story building from the get-go but they did all the writing. You’re talking about getting pitches. Did you guys put out a call for writers? We did, we put out a call. First we interviewed a bunch of writers and then we narrowed down that list and then we put out a call for pitches, but those guys actually had the most complete pitch to begin with and the deepest understanding of the universe. They had done really good work on serials with Smallville and Spartacus in terms of really quickly being able to establish characters. We don’t have a lot of time with this show, it’s five weeks of content, so we needed writers that could rapidly establish character, and motivation, and universe building, basically in a very rapid time frame. I don’t mean their execution on the script, I mean the five weeks of content that this thing ends up being. What was the impetus for doing a live action show for a video game? We haven’t had a numbered Halo sequel in almost five years at this point, and we wanted to refresh people and we wanted to bring people back into the universe. We were talking about doing it both in the game and in TV commercials, and both of those things are actually going to happen. There’s going to be a lot of bringing people up to speed, hopefully in really unobtrusive and non-obvious ways. That conversation started extending out into, “Well what else can we do here?” What can we do to really make people sit up and take notice? And what can we do to tell a really good Halo story? I think people love watching the TV commercials, but they’re not terribly satisfying in terms of narrative content. They’re really big and you see some cool action, maybe an explosion, and while people enjoy seeing Halo stuff brought into the flesh as it were, they’re just not getting a lot of satisfactory resolution to those brief vignettes, and so it literally just snowballed from that conversation and we said, “Well why don’t we just make a show? We can do that kind of thing.” The next step was starting to talk to first a production company and our producers, so we gired Lydia and Josh (the executive producers behind Forward Unto Dawn) and with those guys in tow we started farming out the pitch to various writers and directors. We were really trying to pick people who would fit the scale of this project and honestly give us the most bang for our buck. All of the people we’re working with have worked on pretty cool things that are able to do a lot with fairly limited resources. We’re trying to get as much of our budget up on the screen as possible. Read on to find out exactly how Forward Unto Dawn fits into the narrative of Halo 4. How important Forward Unto Dawn to the plot of Halo 4? Will players who only play the game and skip the show be lost? Certainly not. They’re connected via characters and some elements I can’t talk about, but if you don’t play the game, Forward Unto Dawn will make perfect sense to you. In fact it’s very self-contained, again kind of like a superhero origin story where you’re finding out all this stuff and hopefully that will drive people to be interested in the game, not the other way around. People who play the game and have watched Forward Unto Dawn are going to recognize characters and scenarios and certain pieces of setup that should provide really cool resonance. They will work really well together but they’re absolutely not essential to each other. They both need to be their own stories and they both need to be complete. Is there a fear that this might turn into what the Matrix kind of had, where there was almost too many versions of stories that all came connected into one place and left people out in the cold a little bit? I think if you have a matrix, and I don’t mean the movie, if you have a matrix of things that are required to understand something, you’re just creating a mess for yourself. We don’t want to make an ARG. We wanted to tell a story that established the human covenant conflict, the basic ideas and premises of the Halo universe like the UNSC, what are Spartans, and this story actually does all of that. In some ways it’s kind of the origin story of the Halo universe as we understand it today, and it’s a completely standalone story. The connection points, again, are sort of through lines for characters. The character of Thomas Lasky, who’s the lead in Forward Unto Dawn, is going to be in his 40s by the time you see him again in Halo 4. Just that simple fact means that the stories, while connected, are not linear or chronologically connected and they both stand alone completely. Even in Halo 4 we want to make sure we have a story with a beginning, middle and an end that doesn’t require that you read a book, that doesn’t require that you have any previous understanding of the Halo universe. These things should all be complimentary, but not essential. If you do watch Forward Unto Dawn, and you do read all the books, and you follow all this fiction, and you check out all the terminals you’re going to have a very different experience. But if you shoe-in all of that stuff you’re still going to be in a perfectly safe and valid narrative space. You’ll understand everything that’s going on no matter which of those discrete pieces you consume, or all of them. Your experience should be enhanced by it, not required. You just talked about a character that ages 40 years when he appears in Halo 4, are there any other ways you can talk about how Forward Unto Dawn ties into the Spartan Ops or the main campaign of Halo 4? Not without giving away some spoilers. There’s a device that’s used throughout the show that does have a very direct connection to Halo 4, but I don’t want to ruin it. It’s a piece of context for the overall premise of the show and it will make sense by the time you see episode two, that will completely make sense, but I don’t want to spoil that for viewers. Do you feel like you had a good experience making the show? Do you think you would want to do more stuff like this? Not even necessarily for future Halo games but even just to keep going with the story? I think we had a great experience with the people in the production and actually seeing the final show last week, we had been watching it with ADR caption and the wrong colors and placeholder special effects and all that stuff. It was already really compelling at some point a couple months ago, where you could watch the whole thing from beginning to end, and we really enjoyed the story, but seeing it all come together as this polished piece – I had to watch the first two episodes for feedback in their finished form a couple of days ago and I was genuinely disappointed and irritated when I got to the end of episode two and I didn’t have the finished episode three to watch, so I went back and watched one of the unfinished builds of it just to keep the story going. It’s actually just a good story, it could be set in the 20th century or the 30th century and it would still be a good story about compelling characters. Be sure to check out our interviews with Forward Unto Dawn's Director Steward Hendler, and Daniel Cudmore, the actor playing Master Chief in the series. Halo 4 releases November 6 on Xbox 360. View full article

Halo 4, Foward unto Dawn episode 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbBYG77VeCE&feature=g-all-u "Just as Hastati Squad is confronted by a video of secret ONI super-soldiers, their war and their whole universe are changed forever by a much more deadly surprise." View full article

Halo 4 lead multiplayer map designer Kynan Pearson takes us on a tour of the "Haven" map. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_bEU4--dSM&feature=g-all-u View full article

The Halo Bulletin 10.17.12 Read below for more details Source: HaloWaypoint.com Click the Source link for videos on this bulletin Every time someone spreads a leak, an angel loses its wings Every time someone spreads a leak, an angel loses its wings. At least that’s what I’m assuming is happening, considering my backside is suddenly bare. Oh yes, there’s no longer any junk above my trunk, I’ve lost the adonk from my badonk, and Sir Mix-A-Lot no longer likes me. Despite the absence of flying apparatuses, my spirits are still soaring. Why, you ask? Because in less than three weeks, you will finally have Halo 4 in your hands. Whether you start with Campaign, Spartan Ops, or the multiplayer mayhem that is War Games, you will soon be embarking upon an adventure – one that we’ve spent years crafting for you, and one that we hope you’ll enjoy immensely. Regardless of whether your road to launch includes getting touched by a spoiler, nothing will compare to the moment you feel the familiar weight of the Battle Rifle in your hands as you’re welcoming back your old friends, the Master Chief and Cortana. Speaking of the Chief, I can neither confirm nor deny that in Halo 4, he decides to mix things up a little. I can tell you, however, that he just may attempt to shoot his way out. Enough small chat, though. We have a lot we have to cover, in not a lot of time. This week’s topics include Meltdown (one of the multiplayer maps shipping with Halo 4), the Mantis (dat mech), a complete list of Halo 4 skulls (now with pictures!), Halo-themed pumpkin patterns (in case you’re planning on carving a jack-o'-lantern this year), and a few other interesting tidbits. Shall we begin? I think we shall! PLNB PRIORITY TRANSMISSION [CLASSIFIED] ENCRYPTION CODE: [CLASSIFIED] PUBLIC KEY: N/A Evolution of the Master Chief As the video game industry advances, so does its tools and techniques, and that is readily apparent when looking at the Master Chief’s evolution over the past ten years. Each iteration of our favorite Spartan super-soldier has been distinctive yet similar, but don’t confuse design with canon – the Chief is the Chief, just with the details and idiosyncrasies based on what each time period and toolset has to offer. So embiggen the picture above by clicking on it, and enjoy the walk down Master Chief Memory Lane. Just don’t wander off too long, because some brand new Meltdown screenshots are anxiously awaiting your attention. FROM: CODENAME SURGEON TO: CODENAME COALMINER Meltdown Brand spankin’ new Meltdown screenshots 1 and 2! MELTDOWN DESCRIPTION: While most Forerunner technology appears to support safe usage over immense passages of time, the failure of specific systems can cause a cascading effect which dramatically impacts a site’s foundational composition. This frigid moon’s icy conditions once served to control a Forerunner reactor’s intense heat, but those days are now long gone. The main objective when creating Meltdown was to design a medium size level that catered to both infantry and light vehicle combat. Early on, several paper maps were drawn in the attempt to find the best possible solution to these goals, and ultimately a figure eight-style took the crown. Though it had several iterations through its design, the figure eight vehicle path and base locations always stayed the same. The largest changes were adding more infantry paths (like the caves) and making simpler base interiors. Initially it was difficult to tell what side of the map the player was spawning on because of the rotational symmetry. We solved this with the level’s theme: Using the core meltdown of one of the base generators, one side of the level was essentially melting from the heat and the other remained covered in snow and ice. While the original concept took place in a canyon-like environment similar to Beaver Creek, this new theme solved many issues with environment identification. Meltdown is built around a looping layout with upper and lower pathways. The lower path is focused on vehicles (which tend to run loops around the map and perform hit-and-run actions on enemies), and the upper path is focused on infantry (which tend to move across the light bridges into the center combat space and use cover to ambush enemy players or move around the cliff walls and fight at range from the high ground). Throughout the design process, our goal was to make infantry feel on equal footing to vehicles. This is where the tighter vehicle paths, plenty of cover and numerous foot paths come into play. With this in mind, we wanted a level that felt like a large vehicle map while staying the size of a medium infantry map. Unlike the normal large vehicle maps that are usually seen in Halo, the tighter vehicle paths and prevalent infantry areas make it much easier for the player to traverse on foot without feeling vulnerable to snipers and vehicles. It's also possible to run from one side of the map to the other within a short amount of time, similar to other medium-sized maps. CLASSIFICATION: ELEVENTH HOUR [2/5] SUBJECT: OVER THE FENCE Brand spankin’ new Meltdown screenshots 3 and 4! As a large, vehicle-heavy map, Meltdown spawns a wide range of power weapons. Games on this map typically kick off with big explosions as each team spawns near both a Railgun and an Incineration Cannon. During the matches, Infinity keeps teams well equipped with the Incineration Cannon, Scattershot, Sniper Rifle, SAW, Rocket Launcher, and Fuel Rod Cannon. Despite its size, Meltdown does not spawn the Banshee by default. This helped us create unique vehicle combat, focusing on the clash between the high ground on the cliffs and bridges and the low ground below. Without the Banshee, it means getting to the high ground advantage is even more important in combat encounters. If you can’t live without the flying purple dealer of doom, you’re free to forge a Banshee for yourself for even more varied gameplay. Unlike the other maps, this particular playspace has the bases built into the outer walls. With these large, integrated bases, Meltdown is built to support Dominion (but Big Team Battle is also a studio favorite). Teams spawn inside the Alpha and Charlie bases and then contest the center, which is a large contrast from Longbow, which has players attacking and approaching all three bases from the start of the match. In the end, Meltdown became a fun level for both infantry and vehicle fans, and stands out in objective game modes. But look out for the Mantis, which has the ability to rip you a new one when you're not looking… /FILE EXTRACTION-RECONSTITUTION COMPLETE/ /START FILE/ The Halo 4 Mantis We first introduced you to the Mantis through the above dubsteppy, Spartan-stompy, teabaggy video. While it made the majority of people excited about piloting this particular bad boy, a few were concerned it was overpowered when compared to the rest of the Halo 4 sandbox. To quell that fear and talk a little more in-depth about this brand new vehicle, Ali Zandi, a Systems Designer here at 343, stopped by with more information you could ever want to know. And then some. The Mantis is a new UNSC bipedal weapons platform, fully equipped with a high caliber chain gun mounted on its right arm, multi-rocket system on its left arm, and UNSC’s energy shielding technology. The chain gun is effective up close, but has significant projectile spread and heat when laying on the trigger for long periods of time (once the chain gun overheats, it goes into a cool down sequence for a few seconds, disallowing the weapon to fire during that period). The rocket pod delivers massive direct impact damage, as well as moderate amounts of splash damage to infantry and armor. It has two firing modes, one being semi-automatic, and the second being a full volley of however many rockets are loaded in the pod. A total number of five rockets can be queued up by holding the weapon’s trigger down, or fired individually by latching the trigger. Once all five rockets are depleted, the Mantis initiates a reload sequence, replenishing the rockets after a few seconds. The Mantis has two variants – Campaign and Multiplayer – which differ greatly in terms of damage, spread, and projectile speed. The Campaign version of the chain gun deals much more damage as it uses higher caliber rounds, and the rocket system is anti-aircraft. Inspired by Halo Legends, the Mantis started out as an armored exoskeleton that Spartans would equip, augmenting their abilities. It had numerous weapons, roles, mechanics and shapes, and featured a dedicated shield. It also had the ability to jetpack, use thrusters, and fire a Railgun. We even had an early prototype that consisted of the Chief riding in a giant scaled-up Chief (Yo dawg, we herd you liek the Chief, so we put the Chief in your Chief so you can play as the Chief while you play as the Chief). The idea then evolved into an actual mechanized vehicle, which was more epic in scale and fit the UNSC better. SPECIES CANDIDATE//LINE RECORD 94:73:02:75 Once the concept was finalized and the Mantis was modeled and rigged for animation, we hooked up the bare systems to allow the weapons to fire and players to occupy the seat. During that time, there was massive animation work done to get all the parts moving and animating. It was difficult because there was nothing in the game engine that contained any logic for a mech. It was not easy iterating on values, because if we cranked the knobs on movement speeds or stomp delays, for example, the animation team would need to iterate on the animation content for the walk cycles and the stomp animation to compensate. Communication was crucial. We ended up using a biped/vehicle hybrid, and there were significant amounts of content and code work done to bring this to life. After that phase came the heavy animation work and iteration process on the timings and numbers to get the legs feeling and behaving correctly in all the different possible situations across numerous maps. The team focused heavily on the Mantis’ legs and foot pinning to make sure the legs would behave when walking across various elevations and obstacles. Once we felt good with the timings and animations of the movement, we starting balancing health, weapons, and numerous amounts of other magical systems for Campaign and Multiplayer. During the balancing phase, we discovered players were having a hard time knowing if the Mantis was reloading or not from certain distances, because the silhouette remained the same. To address that issue, we decided that it needed some sort of visual feedback to show when the weapons were temporarily down. It was definitely interesting and challenging to decide how we could animate the arms without it sorting into itself at different torso rotations and pitches, or looking like a Jersey Shore fist pump. Once we got the animations down, we found that it was extremely useful to players on foot, because it visually conveys the windows of opportunity infantry has when the Mantis weapon systems are down. Overall, it’s slightly similar to the Scorpion tank in terms of health and armor, but it trades firepower for maneuverability, allowing the Mantis to be more agile than the Scorpion when needed. Also like the Scorpion, it is capable of being boarded by enemies and EMPed by a Plasma Pistol charge. One notable difference is that the Mantis is capable of using its weight to deliver a devastating stomp to crush enemies in front of it by pressing the melee button. Time your stomp carefully though, and remember that it’s a risk reward. If you miss and or use it carelessly, you leave yourself open to being boarded. UNGGOY// Sensors at Balaho indicate stability, no off-planet transport recorded since Solipsis. Runners are claiming that Buwan has been abandoned as well, but we’re keeping our eyes on it anyway. Moderate Unggoy populations have been observed in Sangheilian systems at various intervals. The biggest challenge when designing the Mantis was making it feel satisfying both for the players piloting it and players fighting against it. The goal was to have an awesome new vehicle in Campaign and Multiplayer, and not have it pulled off the Multiplayer boards because it’s impossible or too easy to counter. Through rigorous playtesting and prototyping, we pursued the “less is more” approach and simplified the Mantis into a much more focused experience. One of the more effective roles for the Mantis in Multiplayer is base defense. It does especially well in close to medium ranges against both infantry and vehicles, but it’s good to have some cover just in case. You don’t want to be caught out in the middle of the battlefield in your big giant robot when the other team has a Spartan Laser. If used in an offensive operation (for example, escorting teammates toward the enemy flag), it is extremely critical to have a team supporting their fellow Mantis, killing potential boarders and anyone targeting the Mantis with a power weapon. While piloting the Mantis is an enjoyable experience, so is blowing it up. Hooking up and polishing all the numerous little bits and doodads that splinter off the Mantis when each section starts taking damage and breaking apart was definitely the most fun (and time consuming) out of all the vehicles to setup. Each destruction asset piece is tuned to give proper visual response when popping off its parent region. There is a lot of attention to detail, and we made sure that the destruction is granular and satisfying. Oh, one more thing to all you budding mech pilots: Watch your back, because she can be boarded from behind. And yes, that’s what I said. KIG-YAR// Eayn’s native population continues to grow and expand within reasonable governing parameters; its economic and social lines have stabilized in the wake of the war. Muloqt, Kaelarot, and Valyanop, the primary interplanetary colonial sites, all remain static, with little notable movement. There are rumors of mercenaries operating alongside a handful of more conservative Sangheili states, although that has yet to be substantiated. Section 3 Please remember to take out the garbage. SANGHEILI// Most intel here originates from ground contacts, but sensors have assisted with validation. The primary issue with the Sangheili is that of discordant cultural symmetry. It is difficult to assess military growth across several dozen active colonial vectors all with disparate political structures. Nevertheless, any and all visible military activity appears to be internecine in nature. Halo 4 Skulls Skulls are a longstanding tradition in the Halo series and one we’re excited to continue. Modifying gameplay and multiplying difficulty, the Skulls in Halo 4 will behave like the ones you already know and love from Halo: Reach. In Halo 4, they will be available in Campaign and are automatically unlocked from the start. For the uninitiated, you can find the names and descriptions below. By the way, if you’re the type that leaves no stone unturned in your quest for hidden secrets, fret not, because the Domain Terminals will scratch that itch… and more. Famine - Weapons drop much less ammo. Tilt - Enemy resistances and weaknesses are increased. Mythic - Enemies have increased health. Catch - Enemies are grenade happy! Black Eye - Shields don't recharge unless you melee enemies. Tough Luck - Enemies always go berserk, always dive out of the way, and never flee. Iron - Co-op: Back to previous checkpoint on death. Solo: Restart mission on death. Thunderstorm - Major upgrade to the capabilities of enemies. Cloud - Motion sensor is disabled. Cowbell - Acceleration from explosions is increased. IWHBYD - Rare combat dialogue becomes more common. Grunt Birthday Party - Headshot a Grunt, HAPPY BOOM TIME! Blind - The HUD and the first person arms and weapon are hidden. NOTE: A cluster of Sangheili frontier worlds saw a sudden and anomalous convergence of unregistered ships, largely cruisers of varying classes according to a handful of remote relays stationed nearby. By the time sensors were deployed, the ships were gone. The relays can’t assess numbers or strength, but the readings we have indicate that this wasn’t an expeditionary voyage or something tied to a single state. It appears to have been much larger. Carve this way Last year we provided a variety of pumpkin carving patterns perfect for your Haloween-related festivities, and this year we’re doing the same. Below you will find seven different patterns, some relevant to Halo 4, some specific to Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, but all somehow related to this crazy thing called Halo. So choose your difficulty, pick your favorite pattern, print it out on a paper-like product and carve it into a large orange fruit (the white portions signify areas to carve while the gray patches should simply be scraped). Then, once you’ve completed the aforementioned activities, share it with us via the “Submit News” button on the front page. Yes, we want to see it, because we kind of sort of like you. And your gourd-like creations. /END FILE/ And that wraps up yet another Bulletin. Until next week... <3, bs angel View full article

The holiday discount sales expand to the Limited Edition Halo 4 Console. Read below for more details Source: Computerandvideogames.com Fans of overpriced consoles covered in special paint will be pleased to know that the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 4 console bundle will be slightly less overpriced than first expected. The $400 bundle, which includes the custom designed 320GB console and two matching controllers, Halo 4 and a code for various downloadable treats for the game, will be included in Microsoft's recently-announced US Holiday Bundle sale. This means a $50 reduction, for a neat price of $349.99 - a very tempting proposal. The console is available for pre-order now at the special price from participating US retailers (Best Buy, GameStop, Amazon, Target, Toys 'R Us and Walmart). For officialdom, here's a list of the other Holiday Bundles available in US for an unspecified "limited" time: 250GB Xbox 360 with Kinect and Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports, and Kinect Adventures and one month of Xbox LIVE Gold for $399.99 USD (ERP) 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect and Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Adventures and one month of Xbox LIVE Gold for $299.99 USD (ERP) 250GB Xbox 360 with two games: Skyrim and Forza 4 Essentials Edition and one month of Xbox LIVE Gold for $299.99 USD (ERP) View full article

Halo 4 lead multiplayer map designer Kynan Pearson takes us on a tour of the "Meltdown" map. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2_6L-j26ag&feature=g-all-u View full article

Here is the final map of the War Games map list called Vortex: Source: Halo4nation.com View full article

Bravo has posted a video of Infinity Slayer on Ragnarok at New York Comic Con. "Halo 4 Ragnarok Gameplay from NYCC! This is Tashi's POV - his loadout is the light rifle, boltshot, frag nades, regeneration field, shielding, and dexterity. Take note of the zoomed in light rifle, speed of the reloading, use of the regen field, and also the railgun choke. Please like, subscribe, and favorite! These make me happy and help me out." Special thanks to Tashi: https://twitter.com/Tashi0106 Check out some of Bravo's other videos! Halo 4 - Competitive Settings & Options - http://youtu.be/RNGxCbvgoSQ Halo 4 - Dominion Strategy - Halo 4 - Promethean Weapons Breakdown - http://youtu.be/PU8n0Eashoo Halo 4 - Solace Gameplay - Halo 4 - Helmets, Shoulder Armor, & more! - Halo 4 - Grifball - Halo 4 - Forge Mode -

Halo 4 forge option I think you should be able to change the weather of your map that you make in forge. For an example, if your making an infection map you can change it to a thunder storm or you could use the idea for machinimas.

Bravo interviewing Kevin Franklin; Lead multiplayer designer for Halo 4 at 343 Industries. They Talk about Infinity Slayer, Slayer Pro, Team SWAT and more. Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/BravoMLG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNGxCbvgoSQ&feature=g-all-u (Quoting Bravo) "I sit down with Kevin Franklin and ask about him 4v4 slayer pro, "join in progress," custom game options, DMR vs BR, launch playlists, team ball, capture the flag, swat, and more! Thanks for checking out this video and please share it by clicking "share" and posting the link to twitter and FB!" "Please like, subscribe, and favorite! These make me happy and help me out. More videos coming from New York Comic-Con all weekend!" "Check out some of my other Halo 4 videos!" Halo 4 - Promethean Weapons Breakdown - http://youtu.be/PU8n0EashooHalo 4 - Solace Gameplay - Halo 4 - Helmets, Shoulder Armor, & more! - Halo 4 - Grifball - Halo 4 - Forge Mode - http://www.twitter.com/BravoMLG http://www.facebook.com/AndyDudynsky Check out the H4 Fans page! https://www.facebook.com/Halo4Fans View full article

Gameinformer interviewing Daniel Cudmore, the man playing Master Chief in the web series; Forward Unto Dawn. Read below for more details Source: Gameinformer.com The second episode of Halo’s live-action web series premiered today, and we had a chance to talk to Daniel Cudmore, the actor behind Master Chief’s mask. You won’t see Cudmore’s face in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, but if you did, you may recognize him from the X-Men films where he played Colossus, or the Twilight series where he plays Felix. We asked Cudmore about taking on the role of a beloved video game character, and whether or not Master Chief flashes a thumbs-up when he gets a solid head-shot. Would you consider yourself a gamer? I am and I’m not. I enjoy playing games and then I’ll have a bit of an ADD moment and I can’t sit around for too long, but I think it also depends on the game too. The funny thing is, I think I was bought Halo 3 by my girlfriend at the time, who is my wife now, she bought it to kind of impress me and I think that’s the only game that I played front to back. There might have been some other ones, but I think that was the one. Do have other favorite games other than Halo 3? I do remember when I was in college when the very first PlayStation and Call of Duty came out. I remember everyone went away for Thanksgiving and I was one of the only guys stuck in the dorm, and I think I played Call of Duty 8 hours straight every day – it was ridiculous. I’m a pretty good fan of Assassin’s Creed. I enjoy that game too. So you’re playing Master Chief in the Forward unto Dawn series, were you nervous about playing a character that has such a strong legacy in the world of video games? Yeah it’s always daunting, especially that kind of character who is the staple of the series throughout most of the games. It’s funny, I was talking to people about how you become him. Each player becomes him. Everybody has their own interpretation of who the character is, but I just did a lot of research and bounced as many questions as I could off of all the guys at Microsoft and 343. I just read a lot of fiction and I just thought, "I’m going to go with what I think it is and I’m not going to stray too far from what they created and just add a little bit of myself to it and hopefully everyone likes it." In the games Master Chief is a little bit of a blank slate for the sake of the player. He is a badass but he doesn’t exude a lot of personality. In the show were there opportunities to add more humanity to Master Chief? How much were you able to accomplish working behind a mask? Well that’s also a tough part of it, you’re really going to see more humanity though someone’s facial features in their eyes and various other places, so when you can’t see his face it makes it hard. There are definitely moments where there is a little bit more humanity in certain aspects, but at the same time he’s really trying to just helps these kids get out of here alive and there is not a ton of opportunity to really kind of interact as much as you would like to as an actor or a character, but it’s really not who Master Chief is. Can you tell us a little bit about the casting process? How did you win the role of Master Chief? It really was through various people that I worked with in the past. I worked with some of the producers and the stunt coordinator; I have more of a stunt actor background. I started with acting and I fell more into stunts and was given the opportunity to do that, so it kind of spun that way and I just met with the director and we hit it off, and then I met with all the guys at Legacy who designed the costume and it just kind of went from there. There was never necessarily an audition process, because you’re not seeing my face and things like that. There is the acting aspect that I had to do as the character for the other actors, but a lot of is body acting it’s a lot of movement and things of this nature. Where you doing his voice too? Or was that sort of a Darth Vader situation? I had to act out all of the scenes with all of the actors, but I believe they hired someone else to do the voice. You did all of your own stunts? Yeah, everything action-wise, and it’s funny because I did everything that was asked of the character too. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. With a production like this, a live-action web series, is it different than working on a film or television show? It’s funny, because going into it you have these sorts of visions in your head of what a lot of live-action web series have been. The problem is that it’s not a medium that a lot of the traditional movie makers and TV show makers work on. They really don’t understand it as well, so I feel like they never really invest that large amount of money into it when the audience is just absolutely massive on the internet. It’s funny, you look at some of the stuff that’s out there, and even though its production value is not quite there, just because they don’t have the money obviously the imagination and hard work is there. You kind of think, “Well how is it going to be when I have to work on big-budget things? Is it kind of going to be like that?” Honestly just showing up it felt like a feature film movie set the whole time, and everything just felt the same so I didn’t really notice a difference at all. Can you tell us all of the secrets about Master Chief that they told you in confidence? So you could understand the character? You can tell us all those, right? I can’t tell you anything. I just read some of the fiction that explained really where all of the Spartans came from, and what sort of training they had, and how they become who they are now, and how Master Chief has sort of become who he is. So that helps a huge amount with his sort of psyche and what he’s been through and how strongly rooted he is in his duties. Almost in a way, brainwashed the way he is, but that’s the only life he has ever known so he believes it whole-heatedly that he has to protect and do his job no matter what. Was there a lot of input from the game designers at 343? Did they have specific actions that Master Chief did or doesn’t do? Like Master Chief wouldn’t do this, did they give you directions like that? There was a lot of discussion on the certain way he carries himself, the way he shoots guns, the way he just sort of moves a lot. I took a lot of it from the featurettes they have done for advertising for some of the Halo games were they have done these CGI scenes, and just following the way the character really moves. Obviously 343 and Microsoft had a plethora of guys on set all the time who were just absolute encyclopedias of Halo and any question I ever had I could fire off of them and anything they kind of thought didn’t look quite right they would fix. It was really cool working environment. Where there any strange things? Like did they ever say Master Chief doesn’t give thumbs up? Did they have any weird Master Chiefisms? I think there was the tea-bagging – you don’t want that. There are things like thumbs up and certain things like that, that you think would be fine but there like, “nah he doesn’t do that kind of thing.” He is very kind of simple in his approach to what his goals are and he is not really showy or that kind of G.I. Joe type “Thumbs up kids.” I’m trying to think over the days if there was anything specific or weird but I can’t think of anything. So are you excited about Halo 4? As being part of this production were you able to demand an early copy for research purposes? I wish! I don’t think anyone has gotten an early copy, though I want a copy of the game. I got to play it down at Comic Con and it’s funny, I haven’t played games in a while and away from how quickly and how good the quality and how fast the gameplay is nowadays. I got to play the little small pieces that they had that they were advertising down there, and I was getting beat down so badly by the other players. I felt like a grandfather who tried to sit down with a 13-year-old kid and try to play video games. It was ridiculous. The quality of the game was unbelievable. The amount that they put into the game and the amount of things you’re going to get out of the game – it blew me away. Be sure to check out our interview with the director of the series, Stewart Hendler. View full article

Episode 1: http://www.343indust...dawn-episode-1/ Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K56gSEJ6IGc View full article

Halo 4 Progression System The UNSC Infinity is your gateway to the Infinity Multiplayer experience in Halo 4 and serves as the center of your Spartan career. Here you will build your custom Spartan-IV super-soldier, and progress your multiplayer career across both Spartan Ops and War Games modes. You’ll start your career as a Spartan-IV, with a limited amount of choices. As you level up, that will slowly unfold into a large amount of choices. The pace with unlocks will be regular, but not so fast that it causes confusion. When designing the progression system for Halo 4, our primary goal was to give progress more meaning, and in order to do that, the player’s progress has to impact gameplay. In Halo 4, we primarily do this by allowing the progression system to modify the weapons and abilities the player can take into battle, empowering player choice, and exposing more elements of the sandbox to more players. As you progress through your multiplayer career, you unlock items that allow you to build the character and experience you want. The things you really desire, such as the Battle Rifle and DMR, you’ll gain access to fairly quickly. Some of the more difficult choices you’ll face, such as which Specialization to tackle first, come later. All of these things give you the ability to tailor your experience and focus on your favorite parts of the sandbox more than ever before. How quickly you progress through your career will partly depend on your skill. Skilled players will rank up faster, as you get more XP for winning matches. It’s also worth noting that quitters do not get game completion XP. They can progress commendations and challenges, but they will not get partial XP at the end of the game (AHEM). Below is a breakdown of the Halo 4 progression system. FROM: CODENAME SURGEON TO: CODENAME COALMINER Spartan-IV Career When you first enter Infinity Multiplayer, you automatically enlist into the SPARTAN-IV program and begin your Spartan career. This career spans all of your gameplay in War Games, Spartan Ops, Forge and Theater. New SPARTAN-IV recruits are issued the following gear: • Assault Rifle • Magnum • Frag Grenade • Recruit Armor, Emblem, Visor and Stance Stances are a new customization option that let you select a pose for your Spartan on your Player Card. This card is seen in every multiplayer lobby in the game and is how your Spartan is identified outside of gameplay. You will have to rise up through the Spartan ranks to unlock more gear and make your way through the SPARTAN-IV program. CLASSIFICATION: ELEVENTH HOUR [1/5] SUBJECT: AFTERMATH Spartan-IV Ranks Spartans begin their career in the base SPARTAN-IV ranks. There are 50 ranks to work your way through, from SR-1 to SR-50, unlocking gameplay and visual customization items as you rank up. To rank up, you need to earn XP. You earn XP by: • Playing War Games (earn more for winning and high personal score) • Playing Spartan Ops (earn more for higher difficulties) • Completing each level of a Commendation • Completing Challenges • Using Forge At each rank, you will earn one or more Spartan Points (SP). SP are used to purchase gameplay items for your personal loadouts. Once you purchase an item, it can be used in any of your loadouts. The Spartan Point system is based around offering choice at each rank. The full suite of gameplay items is available for purchase by SR-26 but you won’t have enough SP to buy everything until SR-50. It’s up to you to decide the order in which you want to build up the arsenal for your Spartan-IV. /FILE EXTRACTION-RECONSTITUTION COMPLETE/ /START FILE/ Loadouts Each loadout contains a Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Grenade, Armor Ability, Tactical Package and Support Upgrade. As you rank up, you will gain access to the Armor Ability slot (SR-3), the Tactical Package slot (SR-7), and the Support Upgrade slot (SR-12). We have default loadouts in our War Games playlists to give you a preview of these items before you reach those ranks, and to offer an alternative to your own custom loadouts. Over the course of the SPARTAN-IV ranks, you also unlock four extra loadouts (at SR-6, SR-14, SR-26 and SR-41) for a total of five loadouts. You can rename these loadouts, so pick names that match the role or gear for that particular loadout. Decades from now, when historians evaluate the war, what will they say about us? Will they claim that our victory was ultimately fruitless? That it failed to secure a lasting peace, or worse, that it was only a prelude to far greater horrors that now lay ahead? Visual Customization All Spartan-IVs start out with the same Recruit look. As you rank up, this is reflected in the look of your Spartan, which is visible to other players in gameplay and every Multiplayer lobby. Visual customization items such as Armor, Armor Skins, Weapon Skins, Visors, Emblems and Stances are unlocked through several means: • Earning a specific SR rank • Earning a specific rank in a Specialization • Mastering a Commendation • Completing a Waypoint goal When you meet the prerequisite, you will gain access to the items automatically; you do not need to spend Spartan Points. My hope – OUR HOPE – is that history would instead view this war as a catalyst. That the last thirty years were a crucible, a threshing floor for our species, sifting out our fears and frailties. And that ultimately it made us stronger and more vigilant in the end, fully prepared for whatever will come next. After all, what good is struggle if there is no change? What good is a fire if the sword is not made stronger? Specializations Once you hit SR-50, you have the option to enlist in a new Specialization. You can choose which of the available Specializations to enlist in. Specializations are composed of ten levels each. As you rank up in Specializations, you will unlock new armor sets, emblems, visor colors, armor and weapon skins and armor mods – which provide even more options to customize your Spartan-IV to fit your preferred role on the battlefield. Once you commit to a Specialization, you have to complete it before switching to a new one. It will take roughly as long to complete a Specialization as it does to go from SR-40 to SR-50. All players have access to two Specializations at launch: • Wetwork: WK-1 to WK-10 • Operator: OP-1 to OP-10 The rest, which are listed below, will gradually be made available in the months following launch. We will be keeping a close watch on player participation post-launch and will roll out the additional six Specializations when the player base reaches certain milestones. Purchasers of the Limited Edition and pre-orders in certain territories have launch day access to the remaining six Specializations – although you still need to complete the initial 50 Ranks before you can enlist in one. • Pioneer: PR-1 to PR-10 • Pathfinder: PT-1 to PT-10 • Engineer: EN-1 to EN-10 • Stalker: SK-1 to SK-10 • Rogue: RG-1 to RG-10 • Tracker: TK-1 to TK-10 Other players will be able to see your overall progress through the Specializations by your SR rank. This keeps going up by one each time you earn a Specialization rank, all the way up to SR-130. There might be a reward or two waiting for those who hit SR-130! Attached are four reports accounting the major contingency structures our species currently faces in the wake of the war. Please evaluate them closely. Their outcomes will dictate how history views us, or if history even views us at all. Commendations Halo 4 features over 120 commendations covering a wide variety of activities (per weapon, per enemy type and per game type, for example). There are commendations based around earning specific medals, and we also have aggregators that require you to master multiple commendations to complete them. Commendations also have a variable number of levels. Certain Commendations can award visual customization items when you master them. To master a Commendation, you need to have earned its highest level. We see the Commendation system as the long-term progression with the most exclusive items. Most players will still be mastering Commendations well after completing the Specializations. Xenomorphic element [2/5] Martial element [3/5] Provenancial element [4/5] Primogeniture element [5/5] Challenges Like Commendations, Challenges have been expanded in Halo 4. We not only have daily content, but also a weekly and monthly cadence as well, giving players ample time to complete different challenges with varying levels of difficulty. Challenges are divided into four categories: • Campaign - 2 Weekly Challenges • War Games - 2 Daily Challenges - 2 Weekly Challenges - 1 Monthly Challenge • Spartan Ops - 6 Challenges • Waypoint - Exclusive daily challenges for War Games If you’re looking to get a jump start on your career, you’ll definitely want to stick around for the next segment of the Bulletin, because it’s about to get all double XP up in here. Source: http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2012/10/10/The-Halo-Bulletin-101012-.aspx View full article

Globe has announced Halo skateboarding shoes and skateboard in commemoration of Halo's 10th anniversary. Pretty nice gesture of love huh? The shoes look nice and i might buy a pair myself. Read below for more details Source: Gameinformer.com The shoes come in Master Chief green with the number 117 etched into the sides. Additionally, the tongue and heel sport the UNSC logo while the wheels are inspired by the iconic Warthog vehicle of the series. The skateboard is selling for $139.99 and the shoes for $69.99. View full article