Halo 4 - Infinity Weekly Update #10

We have quite the Matchmaking playlist update planned for next week! Here to talk about the specifics of what will soon be greeting you upon sign-in is our Matchmaking Systems Team (Bravo in particular, in case you were wondering).

Week of 1/21:

On Monday, Spartan Ops returns with Episode 6, which will contain five new Spartan Ops missions. Also premiering is our “Community Forge Test” playlist, which introduces community-made Forge maps into a brand new Matchmaking playlist. These maps have been selected with the assistance of the Community Cartographers as the first batch of community favorites, and this hopper allows you to play a variety of 4 vs. 4 game types, to report bugs and provide feedback that will be reviewed by the Matchmaking Systems Team.

Once the playlist is live, you may report bugs to the Community Cartographers by posting in this thread: Community Forge Test Bug Reporting Thread

We’ll provide the complete list of maps this weekend in the Matchmaking section of our forums. Once the playlist is live, we’ll create and maintain individual threads for each map. The Matchmaking Systems Team will actively monitor these threads throughout the week and use your feedback to determine which maps will be added to Matchmaking. We hope you’re as excited as we are about the Community Forge Test playlist!

Next week’s update will also include the unlocking of two new Specializations for all Halo 4 players: Pioneer and Pathfinder.
Pioneer: Spartan optimization for deployment into uncharted, hostile territory (such as uncolonized worlds or Forerunner constructs like Requiem) for the purpose of gathering and relaying information. The Fast Track armor mod allows Spartans to gain more experiential data from each encounter, effectively ranking up more quickly during the process.

Pathfinder: Spartan optimization for deep, unconventional deployment within unknown enemy territory and with little to no assistance from command. The Gunner armor mod decreases the time of weapon overheat when occupying a vehicle weapon position, and increases Spartan speed while carrying a detached turret.


As always, when you level up through these dedicated paths, you will unlock armor sets, emblems, visor colors, weapon and armor skins, and armor mods which provide even more options to customize your Spartan-IV to fit your preferred role on the battlefield. Good luck advancing through these new Specializations!

As you likely know, the Infinity Challenge online finals will be coming to a close in a few days, and competitors are fiercely battling it out for dozens of prizes across all three tiers. The ultimate prize is a UNSC-themed Ford F150 SVT Raptor, and part 2 of our “Making of the UNSC Raptor” series will be released tomorrow here on Halo Waypoint. Look for it then! Special note to all Infinity Challenge participants that any competitor found or suspected to be cheating, stat padding or involved in any collusion will be removed from the leaderboards and tournament without any notice.

To switch gears ever so slightly, we’re sad to report that the service end-date for Halo 2 PC Multiplayer will be February 15, 2013. We’ve been monitoring the population for months, and it’s been peaking consistently at approximately 20 players or less. Those that own this game can continue to enjoy Multiplayer over LAN after that date; however our network services will be turned off at that time. We love you, Halo 2 PC, and you will live forever in our hearts.

#singletear