Old news but still good news!

Halo Championship Series Season 2 Finals - Recap
The Halo Championship Series Season 2 wrapped up this past weekend, and the folks over at the Xbox Wire took the time to wrap up the gaming for us nice and neatly. Go give it a read if you want to see who came out on top and walked away with their share of $150,000! (MacGyver10 15:10:04 UTC) (permalink)

Hunter/Hunted Halo Shirts at Hot Topic
Everyone's favorite mall retailer for chain wallets and pop culture tees has some new official Halo shirts available. Choose your side and sport the Master Chief or Locke on your torso! (MacGyver10 15:03:40 UTC) (permalink)

He is Forerunner, but He is Not Forerunner
What is Mendicant Bias? Who is Mendicant Bias? Where is Mendicant Bias? As an AI character in the Halo universe, Mendicant Bias has given much to the community as far as discussion goes. Grey101 on our forum wants to engage the community around some of the latest bits of info from both recent lore accounts and Frankie himself. Check out his recent article at the Halo Archive to read his thoughts! (MacGyver10 15:10:29 UTC) (permalink)

The Lore of Halo Fleet Battles
HaloWaypoint user Onyx81 transcribed the lore bits from the new Halo Fleet Battles tabletop game that recently came out. Zofinda started a discussion on our forum on the implications to what we know of the Fall of Reach, and how this new bit of Halo history might affect what we've already accepted as canon or found conflicting. (MacGyver10 20:58:12 UTC) (permalink)

Anything but a Stoic Hero - Woaf 117 part 3
What if the legendary heroism of the Spartan IIs was, in fact, all ONI propaganda? The Woaf has unleashed part 3 of his webisodes for 'Woaf 117', check it out on YouTube when you can! (MacGyver10 20:31:00 UTC) (permalink)

Rockslider's Grunt-Jackal Spawning Trick & Fun with Externals
Rockslider is back with more of his grunt/jackal spawning tricks on Truth & Reconciliation. You can check out the video on YouTube and here locally on HBO! (MacGyver10 20:14:20 UTC) (permalink)

Games Done Quick Does Halo 3 Game Quickly, Soon
Games Done Quick is an annual celebration of the fantastic world of speedrunning, where video game players maneuver through games as fast as possible for charity. General Vagueness let us know that Speed Demos Archive and Speedruns Live will be running Halo 3 this Thursday around 7:50p. There's a lot of links in Vagueness' post worth checking out for all the details! (MacGyver10 15:29:25 UTC) (permalink)

Aloe 5: Gardening
As the hype train ramps up for Halo 5: Guardians, other games are escalating their marketing campaigns as well...sometimes by even hijacking Halo 5: Guardians marketing material. Check out some of the spoofs by PvZ2, especially the one Urban Reflex let us know about. (MacGyver10 15:18:25 UTC) (permalink)

Saint's Testimony, a Halo short by Frankie
Despite his follicular deficiency, he writes a pretty good short story! Go check out 'Saint's Testimony', out now in digital formats and a good read on artificial intelligence in the Halo universe! Thanks Arithmomaniac! (MacGyver10 14:27:45 UTC) (permalink)

Project Jump - Halo 1 Campaign Series
slYnki let us know of his recent compilation, Project Jump - The Complete Series on YouTube. He combines some jumps from every level of Halo 1 into one 30 minute video. There are some pretty cool tricks in there, check it out when you get the chance! (MacGyver10 14:22:40 UTC) (permalink)

Buck Bucks the Digital Release
Looks like the story of Buck's transition from ODST to spartan will be getting the physical release treatment. While the digital story came out March 2nd of this year, the paperback copy will be releasing March 15th of next year! Thanks Hypertrooper! (MacGyver10 14:16:44 UTC) (permalink)

Day 2 of the Halo Championship Series Season 2 Finals
The second day of the Halo Championship Series starts today at 11am/PDT. After months of grueling competition only one team will walk away with the title of Season 2 Champion and their share of $150,000! You can see the finals on Twitch later today! (MacGyver10 06:16:25 UTC) (permalink)

Day 1 of the Halo Championship Series Season 2 Finals
Day 1 of the Halo Championship Series Season 2 Finals is currently going on. Check out the Waypoint page for more information or you can see the live stream here on the Halo Twitch channel! (MacGyver10 22:14:02 UTC) (permalink)

No One Wants to Be on My Team or Hear Me
The Master Chief Collection can sometimes be a little tricky to navigate when you have five full games tied together in one user interface, and it seems many of the people that get together for our 'HBO Customs' nights may not always fully understand how to accomplish certain functions. After a conversation this week, General Vagueness put together a video to show interested parties how to easily change teams and voice channels. Great idea! (MacGyver10 22:03:19 UTC) (permalink)

343 Industries Dev Blog on Co-op Gameplay
Not only do we get another Canon Fodder this week, but the folks at 343 Industries have started a new developer blog series focusing on the development of Halo 5: Guardians. Find out more about Halo 5's cooperative gameplay this week (including new gameplay mechanics, level design and unique character attributes) as Josh Holmes explains how your team is your weapon this time around. Thanks Bounce-A-Gon! (MacGyver10 14:44:21 UTC) (permalink)

Canon Fodder - Ship Happens
The prodigal returned yesterday to give us a heads up on the latest Canon Fodder at Halo Waypoint. You'll find a TON of information on the new Halo: Fleet Battles, The Fall of Reach tabletop game, and some unexpected concept art from within a Covenant cruiser! (MacGyver10 14:39:44 UTC) (permalink)

The Terminus Continues
Maker is once again on our forums and invites you back to the Terminus for more information. (MacGyver10 15:36:07 UTC) (permalink)

New Halo Fleet Battles ships and Deal on Starter Set
We've mentioned the Halo Fleet Battles tabletop game (which is out now) from Spartan Games before, but Morhek on our forum noticed the community at Spartan Games has already discovered some new ship models coming soon!

While checking out their forum, I also noticed a special edition of the tabletop game with $40 worth of extra ships for free will be made available July 30th through August 2nd at GenCon in Indiana and online next week! Might be a great time to buy if you've been wanting the game! (MacGyver10 15:24:22 UTC) (permalink)

Rated R for RAWR
Sometimes, people on the internet create things you never knew you needed until you see them. The Yetee has a collection of stickers featuring game characters from many different popular video games. (MacGyver10 15:49:28 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Championship Series, Season 2 Recap
With the finale of the Halo Championship Series Season 2 coming up July 24th and 25th, ESL Gaming has posted a season 2 recap for those who might have missed out on the current season, or just need a refresher before the finals this weekend. (MacGyver10 15:21:33 UTC) (permalink)

Woaf 117: Government Overvend
The Woaf let us know that part two of his Woaf 117 parody series is up! A bit more humor and a bit more combat, go check it out! (MacGyver10 15:17:32 UTC) (permalink)

Enhance Your Silhouette with Halo Torso-Covers
With the media hype train for Halo 5 going strong, 343 Industries has pumped the Official Store with new tshirts! The Spartan II Blue Team shirts in particular are pretty cool! (MacGyver10 14:01:42 UTC) (permalink)

Giant Leaps
This week's Canon Fodder is heavy on real science, in honor of the recent footage of Pluto coming back from New Horizons. Info comes from real scientists, and is a fascinating read. Check it out! (There are also bits on Saint's Testimony and the Halo Channel.) (Louis Wu 19:35:35 UTC) (permalink)

Halo Community Update: Chock Full o' Goodies
Bravo posted a new Halo Community Update last night - and it's worth a read. Details about the Halo 5 Limited Collector's Edition, some fantastic content from San Diego ComicCon (the Breakout Arena Celebrity Match video was a lot of fun), a closer look at Raid on Apex 7, the map turned into a MegaBloks superpack, and some info on the upcoming invitational to be held at Gamescom later this summer. Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:28:28 UTC) (permalink)

Ghost in the Mach - um, ComicCon
Wow, pretty awesome - DaFrontlineTrooper posted to Facebook about a Ghost that he and some friends put together in time for ComicCon NZ. Gorgeous!

Over the past months myself and a team from Hot Glue Heroeshave been working intensely on bringing to life a Halo:...
Posted by DaFrontlineTrooper (Andrew Cook) on Friday, July 17, 2015

The Thin Fed Line
Once again, I'm several days behind on the latest episode of Red vs Blue Season 13, and that's a shame, because it's fantastic, and you should watch it when it comes out. Episode 13 details the tribulations of the Chorus military, the fears of Carolina, and the plans of Locus. Things are getting scary! (Louis Wu 20:40:07 UTC) (permalink)

Woaf 117: Pillow of Awesome
The Woaf stopped by to announce his new series, 'Woaf 117'. Episode 1 is called 'Pillow of Awesome', and it adds a new spin to some familiar footage. Go try it out! (Louis Wu 20:37:50 UTC) (permalink)

Extreme Convenant Spawning
Rockslider has explored a little further with his crazy Grunt/Jackal spawning experiments... seems the more you pack in, the weirder things get. Check out the video - it's a blast! (Well, many blasts.) (Louis Wu 22:59:14 UTC) (permalink)

The Silent Cartographer: Evolved postmortem
Ifafudafi wrote to let us know that The Silent Cartographer, Evolved, a Halo PC mod we mentioned back in March, has been treated to a mini-postmortem by lead environment artist Siliconmaster, showing (in video form) how the environments grew from concept to completion. There are also a collection of reflective articles written by team members - the .rar file is on Dropbox. This is a great set of resources to see how a group of fans created a beautiful Halo-related project! (Louis Wu 22:54:11 UTC) (permalink)

Tuning Halo 5's Squad AI
Over at the Team Beyond forums, there's some interesting information about Halo 5's squad AI, written by Chris Proctor, systems designer, and posted by Josh Holmes. (Whether you like it or not depends on what you think about playing with smart AI teammates.) Thanks, Bounce-A-Gon. (Louis Wu 23:13:50 UTC) (permalink)

Buy a book, get a REQ Pack
Well, that's intriguing. Bounce-A-Gon appears to have ordered Last Light, a Halo novel due out in September... and it comes with a free REQ Pack for Halo 5. Fine example of cross-promotion! (Louis Wu 23:08:31 UTC) (permalink)

Halo sales now on level with Netflix subscribers
Gamespot discusses the latest sales milestone hit by the Halo franchise: 65 million units sold. That's a pretty big number! (It also means the sales of the Master Chief Collection are below 5 million at this point, since they were at 60 million in October of last year, before it launched. Still a really big number.) Thanks, Gravemind. (Headline, for anyone who cares, comes from here.) (Louis Wu 15:21:32 UTC) (permalink)

CE 2015 Live... no longer live
A little late... but MatthewDratt stopped by yesterday to announce that CE3 2015 Live had just wrapped up. There's a recap on YouTube, and a full livestream (along with a list of projects) on their website. Check it out - really impressive stuff! (Louis Wu 14:59:51 UTC) (permalink)

Laughing in Alien Tongues
Revenant1988 stopped by with pics of a new project he's just polished up... and it's pretty awesome. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 21:35:14 UTC) (permalink)

Custom Trailers: Hunt The Truth
Wow, interesting. Exanubisleader stopped by to point out a project he's just released - it's a trailer for Hunt the Truth. Works pretty well! Go watch. (Louis Wu 20:48:27 UTC) (permalink)

Selfies in the War Zone Episode 2
Longtime visitors will remember This Spartan Life, a groundbreaking series that used Halo machinima as a backdrop to fascinating interviews with real-world guests. They're back with a second episode of their newest series, 'Selfies in the War Zone' - and the guest this time out is Pete Cooper, superfan whose biggest claim to fame is a full-size Warthog he built for a live action Halo video. He talks about Telekos Protocol and Drone, two graphic novel series he's been building for a few years. It's a great discussion, and Damian Lacedamian shows that the format still works wonderfully! Check it out. (Louis Wu 20:34:16 UTC) (permalink)

PSA - Warning: Trigger Warnings
This week's release from the Rooster Teeth team was another PSA - this one takes a close look at Trigger Warnings, and, well... if you need them, don't watch. That's all. (Louis Wu 20:06:58 UTC) (permalink)

Reaching Out, and Falling All Over Again
Grim let us know a little late that the new Canon Fodder is up on Waypoint. There is a lot of cool info in there this week recapping some of the San Diego Comic Con reveals, including an interview with Frankie and Kiki Wolfkill, info on the new Warzone map revealed at Gamespot we previously mentioned, a trailer for the Fall of Reach Animated Series trailer and more! (MacGyver10 19:27:41 UTC) (permalink)

Gamespot and Mega Bloks Reveal New Warzone Map
Warzone is the new 12v12vEverything game mode that 343Industries revealed at E3 this year, but so far we only knew of one of the maps we would be playing on. In a pretty cool reveal, Gamespot uses Mega Bloks to show off the second map revealed for the new game mode. At the time of this posting, Gamespot.com seems to be down, but hopefully it will be back soon. Thanks Quirel! (MacGyver10 19:23:17 UTC) (permalink)

Halo 5 Video: A Hero Reborn
Last night, VAVA Mk2 let us know that a new Vidoc would be releasing according to the Halo and IGN Facebook pages. Looks like that video is up now and live at IGN.com! There's some awesome insight not only into the Spartans we'll see featured in Halo 5: Guardians, but also the making of 343Industries as a game developer. One of my favorite Vidocs in a while!

Update: Quirel added some pictures and gifs of the video that point out some neat parts that might be of interest to Halo fans, and also confirmed Hunt The Truth to be returning via the SDCC panel today! (MacGyver10 15:23:54 UTC) (permalink)

Flip the Halo Channel on Your Smartphone
Our illustrious leader let us know that the Halo Channel app is now available to download on your iOS and Android devices. You have to use your Xbox Live account to login, but the UI is pretty sweet and you'll now have access to some killer videos on your handheld! (MacGyver10 15:19:39 UTC) (permalink)

Fan Vid Halo Legends Abridged Series Finale
Cheeseburger Williams let us know the final installment of the eight part web series, Halo Legends Abridged is up. Good luck teddy bear charms and robot spartans had me really confused for a bit, but it's an entertaining video! Check it out here on YouTube. (MacGyver10 19:35:24 UTC) (permalink)

Warthogs in Sword Base, Covenant on Falcons, Mass Hysteria
Halo: Reach is still providing some amazing new videos as Termacious Trickocity has released the final installment of their Meta Stability Series: Meta Stability 3! Two and a half years in the making, 150 plus hours of tricking, 6 months of editing resulting in a 10 minute video that I think most Halo fans will appreciate! Check it out on YouTube! (MacGyver10 19:28:32 UTC) (permalink)

Authentic UNSC Spartan Supplies
Ever wanted to dress like a casual employee of the UNSC? Looks like Musterbrand, a company that specializes in 'everyday cosplay-ish threads', has reached a deal to start carrying items from within the Halo universe. Thanks Revenant1988! (MacGyver10 19:23:56 UTC) (permalink)

CE3 2015 Live - Halo Mods Showcase
CE3 Live is an annual showcase of some pretty amazing Halo: Custom Edition mods brought together by the community and shown off during a livestream. This is the 6th year making CE3, and as the post in our forum shows, they have some pretty cool Halo mods coming in this year! (MacGyver10 18:42:17 UTC) (permalink)

Expect a Lot of Bangs
Rockslider is back with some more Megabattle craziness! He and his 11 marines tackle the Covenant with some various tactics and weaponry. Check out the linked post for your flavor of video! (MacGyver10 18:33:06 UTC) (permalink)

Prepare to SSD - More
Bones has added to the prize pool for munky-058's Forge Contest (we mentioned it last week), and extended the submission deadline - go check out his cool comic for all the details! (Louis Wu 21:18:27 UTC) (permalink)

So Chief, Tell Me About Your Mother
The Escapist recently started a new series with video game characters spending some time on the couch of a therapist. Our mjolnir wearing hero spends some time talking about teabags and his dearly-departed, AI sidekick in an episode from last month. Thanks General Vagueness! (MacGyver10 14:05:32 UTC) (permalink)

Assessing the Early Halo 5 E3 Build
Digital Foundry, the infamous division of Eurogamer that focuses less on fun gameplay and more on comparing who has more inches, has an up-way-too-early Halo 5 performance article based on gameplay and videos from E3. While I believe they jump to conclusions way too early on videos of a build that are from three months ago and still today four months out, there is some interesting conversation nevertheless. Thanks SIX min WHISTLE! (MacGyver10 13:51:56 UTC) (permalink)

Happy Fourth!
If you're in the US, we hope you're enjoying the beautiful weather and the grilled meats on this Independence Day. If you're not... enjoy what you've got! We'll be back soon.

Scarab Tactics
This week's Canon Fodder gets you up to speed on the lesser-known tidbits about Scarabs, shows off Grim's favorite armor variant as an intro to a fan-response segment asking about your favorite armor (with a tiny teaser about upcoming goodies), and provides details about the SDCC panel we mentioned earlier. Thanks to munky-058 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 21:53:08 UTC) (permalink)

The Game Informer Show: The Halo Edition
Game Informer has an interesting episode of The Game Informer Show, with both a pair of 343 employees (Josh Holmes and Tim Longo) and a pair of folks who USED to work on Halo (Jaime Griesemer, Marty O'Donnell). It's a Halo extravaganza! Go listen. Thanks, Bounce-A-Gon. (Louis Wu 21:48:40 UTC) (permalink)

Armor customization discussion
Over at Beyond Entertainment, Josh 'Sal1ent' Holmes posted a note about the armor customization choices coming in Halo 5. It's not clear from the reaction of our own forum whether the final system is a step back from previous games, or whether people are misunderstanding his words. Go weigh in with your own thoughts! (Louis Wu 21:45:41 UTC) (permalink)

Insight and Sneak Peeks, Incoming
Gamespot has a little bit of information about the Halo 5: Guardians panel at San Diego Comic-Con next week. Swing by for details! Thanks, Urban Reflex. (Louis Wu 21:40:35 UTC) (permalink)

A Halo 5 Skinned Xbox One
At Comic Con this year, you can once again win a custom Xbox One! While there are many different console variations you can win (PvZ: Garden Warfare 2, Gears of War, Madden, etc), there is a pretty Halo 5: Guardians themed console with the Master Chief and Lock up for grabs! Urban Reflex! (MacGyver10 19:05:01 UTC) (permalink)

Hunt for the Truth: Following the Trail of the Halo 5: Guardians Story
Gamespot seems to think the wording of a Halo 5: Guardians panel at the San Diego Comic Con is hinting at the long-talked about, never seen Halo TV series with Stephen Spielberg. Here's the panel description, straight from the Comic Con event schedule.

Hunt The Truth Supercut
Hopefully you were able to follow the #HuntTheTruth audio drama as it unfolded week by week, but if you missed out on it, you can now check all the episodes in ONE BIG SUPERCUT available on the Hunt the Truth tumblr. If you consider yourself a Halo fan, and have not yet listened to this, correct that and go download this! Thanks Urban Reflex! (MacGyver10 18:47:38 UTC) (permalink)

Humble Bundle Initiation for Halo
Those that play video games on the internet might have heard of the 'Humble Bundle' before where they package a collection of PC games with a 'pay-what-you-want' style transaction and the money going to charities and the developer. Humble Bundle also does books and comics now, and their current Humble Bundle for books includes Halo: Initiation! Thanks SIX min WHISTLE! (MacGyver10 18:43:36 UTC) (permalink)

Off-Key
Another week, another episode of Red vs Blue Season 13 - Ep 12 is full of fine moments and turning points. Can they get the sword back? Will Carolina and Epsilon recover? Will Kimball get herself court-martialed? Will anyone act like an adult? Go watch to find out! (Louis Wu 22:38:13 UTC) (permalink)

Close Combat Against 6 Hunters
Rockslider has gone back to Silent Cartographer to see how he would do against 6 Hunters, on Heroic. Heh. (Louis Wu 21:39:46 UTC) (permalink)

Remastering An Epic
Game Informer has an interview with folks on the audio team of Halo 5 - it's a fascinating look at how sounds and music are being updated for Halo 5. Go watch! Thanks, Bounce-A-Gon. (Louis Wu 21:38:22 UTC) (permalink)

I want my, I want my, I want my Splitscreen Play
Forbes has an opinion piece on why Halo 5 can't pass over split-screen... it's more of a plea than a solid argument, but a lot of fans feel this way. Go give it a read! (Louis Wu 21:35:54 UTC) (permalink)

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