Spartan Locke Trailer and Armor Set with GameStop Pre-Order

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Dust Storm

In the land of pre-order exclusives, GameStop is coming out ahead of the pack with the Spartan Locke Hunter Class Armor set.  The bonus is available to US pre-orders and will be available at launch to use in multiplayer.  The armor is purely aesthetic and won’t impact performance in matches.  Here’s what you can expect:

  • HUNTER-Class Armor: Sophisticated and lethal, HUNTER-class armor incorporates Watershed Division’s latest warfighting technology.
  • HUNTER-Class Helmet: Though still considered a prototype implementation, the HUNTER’s sensor suite enhances situational and threat awareness.

Source: Xbox Wire

The trailer itself features Spartan Locke expertly using the new Spartan Abilities introduced in Halo 5: Guardians as he hunts for the Master Chief.  Plowing through Covenant enemies, we see the use of the Thruster Pack, Ground Pound, Spartan Charge, Clamber and a new enhanced ODST-like visor mode.  It seems that the Covenant, in addition to the UNSC are hunting the Master Chief as well.  For what purpose we may have to wait until the games release on October 27th.

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Podtacular 475: Grifcon 2015

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Dust Storm

Last week, GrifballHub launched their Grifball at RTX Kickstarter.  The last two years, they’ve fundraised their booth for Grifball presence on the show floor with free swag and playable Halo.  This year, they’re looking to do the same thing with some new reward items you can only get through funding the project.  Help support the Halo community and if you’re there in Austin this August, drop by the booth and say, “Hi!”

On the news front this week, Halo: Spartan Strike is now out on Windows 8, Steam and iOS, for $5.99.  The next Halo MCC patch is due this week after passing Xbox certification and addresses ranking fixes including deployment to other playlists, new penalties and monitoring for quitting and betrayals, and updated Halo 3 Forge to include forging game type specific modes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:00 — 38.0MB)

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Podtacular 474: TheSimms Interview

Posted on April 18, 2015 by Dust Storm

Richard Simms, better known as TheSimms is a competitive Halo commentator heralding from the UK.  Simms started playing Halo competitively during Halo 2 and commentating during Halo 4.  We had the pleasure of having him cast during his US debut at the HCS Season One Grand Finals last month at Pax East 2015.  With competitive Halo making a firm comeback, we’re happy to have some overseas talent recognized and holding his own alongside veteran commentators.  We’re privileged to have the opportunity to talk with Simms about his competitive past, his ease into the commentator seat, his thoughts on the Halo Championship Series and what his Halo 5 caster/streamer wishes are.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:22 — 42.8MB)

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Podtacular 473: Cracked Foundations

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Dust Storm

As Benjamin Giraud digs deeper into John’s past, the more the truth breaks into the fabricated story laid out by ONI and the UNSC.  What was supposed to be an easy assignment now has Ben questioning everything he’s learned about John’s past.  As he so eloquently puts it in his latest episode, “Do glassed people have bad records?”  Riding on the edges of any leads he can get to invalidate Ellie’s stories of John as a kid and the facts at play about his family and Elysium City, Ben takes huge risks going outside approved interviews, relying on his own sources.  One ONI plant finally snaps under the pressure from Ben, but having the conversation take place over Waypoint could have jeopardized his investigation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:38 — 57.3MB)

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April MCC Update Details

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Dust Storm

master-chief-collection

Today we get a first look at the next Master Chief Collection update coming next week.  The April Update is now in the certification process and the full patch notes will be available when the update goes live.  Typical stability and party updates will be included along with:

  • New penalties and monitoring for quitting and betrayals
  • A variety of ranking system improvements and fixes
  • Updated Halo 3 Forge to include editing for all game types

The update to the ranking system puts in place some significant improvements that will allow ranks to be rolled out to additional playlists.  The first playlists to receive the updated ranking system will be Team Slayer and the HCS playlist.  This rollout will also reset the Halo 2: Anniversary ranks.  As the ranking system is tested for stability, it will be rolled out to additional playlists.

SWAT will be brought back as the featured playlist including Halo 3 gametypes.  With the Forge improvements to Halo 3, other playlists utilizing the game in their hoppers will have new Halo 3 gametypes and maps included making their way into matchmaking.

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HCS Season Two Kicks Off with IG Atlanta

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Dust Storm

iron-games-hcs-atlanta

The start of regular season play for HCS Season 2 is here starting with Iron Games Atlanta this weekend.  The tournament features a $25,000 prize pool with the first place team taking $10K and earning 600 HCS points.  For the rest of the breakdown, for prize money and points, check out the Season 2 Announcement Details.  Tune into Twitch.TV/Halo and the Halo Channel all weekend to catch the action on stream.  Here are the current standings after the pre-season online events.

Place Team Roster Presason Points
1st Team Randa Randa, Contra, Naded, RyaNoob 185
2nd Evil Geniuses Snip3down, Roy, Lunchbox, LethuL 175
3rd Counter Logic Gaming Royal 2, Snakebite, OGRE2, Cloud 150
4th eLevate Shooter, Munoz, Gabriel, Str8 Sick 110
5th Denial eSports Mikwen, Chig, Heinz, APG 100
6th Cloud9 Hysteria, FearItSelf, Victory X, iGotUrPistola 85
7th Noble Black Arkanum, Ninja, Aries, Prototype 60
8th OpTic Gaming Flamesword, Ace, Assault, Maniac 35

There have been some extensive roster changes to teams including iGotUrPistola re-joining the action on Could9.  More info on roster changes over on Halo Waypoint and Team Beyond.

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Halo: Spartan Strike Out Now

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Dust Storm

hero-large-hss

After being delayed for four months, Halo: Spartan Strike is finally available for download.  The top-down, twin stick shooter is the sequel to Halo: Spartan Assault, featuring 30 new missions, new weapons, vehicles, enemies and more.  Spartan Strike is available now on Windows 8, Steam for Windows, and iOS all for 5.99USD.  Achievements are available only on Windows 8.

You are a Spartan supersoldier in this classified ONI simulation that starts during the events of Halo 2 on New Mombasa in 2552. Lead UNSC troops through numerous missions battling against new enemies to save Earth from being overtaken.

Discuss Halo: Spartan Strike in our forums.

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