Chronique:Halo Bulletin 19/02/2014

Late last week, a mysterious unmarked package arrived at the doors of the studio. Actually, it was a friendly cupcake delivery man who rang the doorbell and was let inside, but only because it appeared that he really did have a boxful of bite-sized treats. Shortly thereafter, I discovered these were no regular cupcakes but rather the decadent, delightful, Deathcake Royale from a local (and amazing) cupcake bakery. A single box of mini heart topped, espresso cookie crusted chocolate perfection had made its way into the studio and before I knew it, was presented to me (in front of a crowd of interested bystanders, none the less) around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, which also happened to be Valentine's Day.

Assuming there must have been some mistake, I opened the box to find the aforementioned treats... and a note. The note turned out to be a beautifully and eloquently written poem, which read in part:

As you can imagine, reading that the Bulletin gives anyone a rush made me immediately skeptical and concerned for their well-being, and the lie about everyone loving me also threw me off. But the words were rather nice, and the cupcakes (which were shared amongst the team) were enjoyed by many. We have yet to find out who sent these cupcakes, but I know it was one of you.

The investigation is ongoing and our team is seeking the community's assistance in identifying the lovely individual who sent me these cupcakes. If you have any information regarding the identity or location of said individual, please drop us a note in the forums via the discuss link at the end of the Bulletin.

Speaking of community members, we've got a community playdate coming up this Monday! Let's talk about it.

Community Playdate[modifier]

This coming Monday, the 343 team will be hopping into Matchmaking. Normally, we enter as a team, and this results in a mix of wins, losses, and good times. This month's community playdate, however, will be slightly different. We'll be heading into the Big Rumble playlist, which means we'll be split up and playing against each other as well as many of you on Monday night from 6-8pm PST. This will likely result in interoffice arguments, bragging, and emailing one another screenshots of Post Game Carnage Reports on Tuesday, which means it'll really just be like any other Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, bs angel is already telling me how badly she'll be beating everyone come Monday.

We hope you'll join us in Matchmaking on Monday evening! Look for the following gamertags:

HaloWaypoint
bs angel
B is for Bravo
TTL L askan

Matchmaking Playlist Update[modifier]

On Monday, Big Rumble premiered in Matchmaking, with the Community Choice Poll-winning Quick Draw available in the voting options. The playlist features 12-player Free-for-All for the first time in Halo 4 Matchmaking, and will be around until March 3rd. Next week, we'll have some details about Medal Madness (coming 3/3) but today, we've got another opportunity for you to vote on which game type you'd like to see added to Halo 4 Matchmaking in our next update.

Community Choice: Rumble Pit Game Types :

For this week's Community Choice Poll, we're asking which throwback Rumble Pit game type you'd like to see added to Halo 4's playlist. We've got three options that may take you down Matchmaking memory lane, so let the nostalgia kick in and vote for your favorite in the forums.

Rumble Snipers : Players are equipped with UNSC Sniper Rifles, Magnums, and dreams of headshots and Snapshots.

Rumble Swords : Be quick, nimble, and for goodness sake, watch your back.

Rumble Rockets : Explosions. Explosions everywhere.

Head here to vote on the Waypoint forums where voting will be open for approximately four days. Next week we'll announce the Community Choice winner along with the Matchmaking Update!

Spartan Assault Xbox One Content Update[modifier]

The next time you log into Halo: Spartan Assault on Xbox One, you will be prompted to download a content update. This update improves general stability and also fixes several reported bugs. We'd like to thank you for your feedback, which led to many of the fixes in this update. The full breakdown of what is included is below:

• Fixed assorted game crashes.
• Fixed an issue where the player would automatically fire when exiting a turret.
• Fixed an issue where the player would occasionally be unable to exit a turret.
• Fixed an issue where the player would stay in a slow walking, aiming, or shooting stance.
• Fixed an issue where players who have completed or made progress with challenges on another device did not show progress, despite challenges being complete.
• Fixed an issue where Kinect voice chat would play through speaker, even when a headset was plugged in.
• Fixed an issue where upon hijacking a Wraith, players sometimes became stuck.
• Fixed assorted grenade indicator issues.
• Fixed assorted audio issues.
• Fixed an issue where Campaign medals would pop up while playing Co-op.

Next up, bs angel is back with another Screenshot Spotlight!

Screenshot Spotlight[modifier]

Last week, we turned the spotlight on love. This week, we decided to go with everybody's favorite sidearm. Take a gander at the following Magnum screenshots, and maybe even find inspiration to make your own.

For your chance at being in the next spotlight, take a screenshot that is predominantly purple and then tag it with "Purple" and "Halo Waypoint", and maybe, just maybe, yours will be featured in the next Halo Bulletin!

Generally, I end the Bulletin right about now but if you haven't yet caught aCreeWarrior's Halo 4 montage from earlier this month, you need to watch it...now! The video has incredible gameplay as well as editing and will likely make you want to head into Halo 4 to grab some multikills and headshots.

Warning: aCreeWarrior makes it look easy. It is not actually that easy.

And with that, this week's Bulletin comes to a close.

Until next week,

Bravo