The Halo Bulletin

London Bridge is not falling down.
To make a long story short, your entire childhood was a lie. It’s ok, though. Mine was, too.

This is not the soda you’re looking for.
If
you order soda thinking you are going to get their equivalent of Pepsi
or Coke, you are mistaken. You will actually get bitter, pucker-inducing
carbonated water. Enjoy.

Where’s the beef?
I
ordered a club sandwich, expecting layer upon layer of deliciously
meaty fillings, all nestled within three pieces of perfectly toasted
bread. What I got instead was ham. And eggs. On bread that wasn’t even
toasted.

As I reflect upon my time spent in London, I’m struck by
how much this Bulletin is like their version of the club sandwich:
still delicious but missing some of the meat. Anniversary is a mere 20
days from release, and as that date approaches, more and more
information becomes available. Not all of it corresponds with a
Bulletin, though, so today’s communications may be a little less juicy
than normal. That being said, there are still plenty of other tasty
tidbits, so let’s go ahead and dip in, shall we?


Behind the scenes of the Behind-the-Scenes.

On
Monday, we released two behind-the-scenes Anniversary videos. One
revealed insight into the process involved with remastering the sounds
of Halo: Combat Evolved, and the other discussed the development process
behind the Terminals. If you missed either video the first time around,
they are both conveniently embedded below. If you already soaked in
every last detail, feel free to do it again. We know you were looking
for an excuse to take another look at that amazing ‘stache. And we don’t
blame you. Not one bit.



Drop it like it’s hot.

In case you
forgot, Anniversary isn’t the only thing dropping November 15th. Halo
Waypoint is also getting updated across all of its various screens
(console, mobile, and web). There are treats coming in December as well,
in the form of a mobile experience called ATLAS.
Back to November, though. On or within 364 days of the 1st, we’ll be
rolling out your almost monthly Halo: Reach matchmaking playlist update.
Here to give you those details is the collective Matchmaking Systems
Team. And no, Matchmaking has not suddenly become self-aware. Because
clearly that is a gradual process, not an instantaneous one.


I is Matchmaking Systems Team. Prepare to be destroyed.

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MLG Playlist updated:
MLG is playing V6 settings at their events, and you should be, too!
We’ve updated the MLG list to include new maps and updated gametypes.
Yes, we completely skipped the V5 settings, but they were totally lame,
anyway. Obviously, because why would there be a V6?!

Grifball Playlist updated:
Two new maps are making their way into the Grifball list this month:
“Hot Bikini Guys Palace,” the home court of their Good Games League
summer champions, and “The Exultant Genuflect,” which my 2-in-1
dictionary & thesaurus tells me is a juxtaposition. Yeah, we can get
concomitant over here too, y’all.

Cliffhanger removed:
Cliffhanger has had a long and illustrious career in Reach. Try as we
did to hold on to it, it slowly slipped out of our hand and plummeted
4,000 feet to the ground below. A year later, we’re reluctant to venture
onto those same hallowed grounds in search of 100,000,000 Good Games.
Who would’ve known John Lithgow was laying the groundwork for a
villainous story arc on Dexter by threatening Rocky with automatic
weapons 16 years earlier?

Weightings adjusted in Firefight:
More Gruntpocalypse, we’re listening! This Unggoy-only gametype has had
its weighting increased, and Unearthed will no longer be your default
first voting option. Fret not, though, because Unearthed remains in the
lists and is heavily weighted for you Rocket ‘Hog lovers out there.

Beta Matchmaking Playlist fixed to have its own stats: FTFY. Smooches.

TU Armor Lock adjusted:
We’ll be constantly tweaking and updating the settings to Reach’s Title
Update. This is the first time since the list’s birth that we’ve turned
the knobs in the player-facing world, so it will be vital that you
continue providing feedback on the Waypoint Forums.

Weighting of the Zero Bloom Slayer DMRs gametype in the Beta Matchmaking Playlist increased: You wanted moar, and MOAR is what we’re giving ya!

Needle Rifle removed from loadouts in the Beta Matchmaking Playlist Slayer Pro gametype:
Bloom affects the DMR and Needle Rifle differently, and we’re adjusting
the loadout options accordingly. The Needle Rifle will be treated much
like the Concussion Rifle: not as a power weapon but as something that
you should pay close attention to. This way, you can have your
auto-headshot-cannon-cake and eat it too.

Firefight Limited removed:
Firefight Limited was dying a slow and painful death. It was breaking
our hearts, and we just couldn’t stand it another month. Being the
playlist-atarians we are, we thought a swift and painless end would be
the most humane solution. Soon, Firefight Limited will be in that big
hopper in the sky, frolicking population-concern-free alongside Team
Classic and Premium Slayer.

DLC matching reweighting:
We are reweighting matching within any DLC playlist so that people with
DLC match with other people with DLC on a more frequent basis.

*The
Anniversary playlists are coming November 15th.We’ll share those
details with you never. And by never, we mean in a few weeks.

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Carve this way.

Halloween is
Monday, and if you’re anything like me, you have yet to carve a pumpkin.
Fret not, though, fellow procrastinator, because we have some fun
Halo-themed pumpkin carving patterns for you. We attempted to provide
both easy and complicated designs. So pick your favorite pattern, click
to embiggen and print, carve it into a gourd-like squash, and then share a picture on our forums.
Oh, and you should probably know the white portions signify areas to
carve while the gray patches should simply be scraped. But you probably
already knew that. ‘Cause you’re smart like that. (I’m not. But that’s
completely irrelevant.)





And now it’s that very special time where you ask a question
and I pretend to answer it (without really answering it, of course).
Off we go!



Will we be seeing the Anniversary playlists going
online before the game's release for any kind of testing? Or is it just
going to magically appear at midnight on release day? -JDHarbs19

I
used to think the playlists just magically appeared, too. Then I met
the people who actually work on that stuff. After seeing the numbers and
letters whiz across their screens at an extremely fast rate, though, I
have gone back to thinking it is actually magic.

Oh, wait, there
was more to that question, wasn’t there? The Anniversary playlists will
begin going live when the game is officially on sale. Since we are
dealing with time zones spanning the whole world, some people will see
the playlists before they can actually play them. We’ll have more
details about that soon.




Will we be getting a premium theme for Anniversary? -Bolt Ons23

I asked my Magic 8 Ball, and it said, “Signs point to yes.” Read into that what you will.




When will Europe/UK get a 343 visit? -Sgt HD

Refer
to the first portion of this Bulletin. Also, consider yourself lucky
you didn’t know I was there. Normally, people put a lot of time and
effort into avoiding me, and you were able to do it without even trying.
Bleep bloop!


And with that, it’s time for me to move like
Jagger. I don’t even know what that means exactly, but I’m hoping it has
something to do with making a graceful exit, since that’s not my usual
modus operandi. Until next week....

<3,
bs angel

P.S.
Friday is almost here, meaning you only have two more days to get your
captions in for this week’s image. I would say do it already, but I’m
not the bossy type. Wait, I totally am. Do it already!
And preferably in a quick-like fashion. In return for your efforts,
here is a nice wallpaper-esque image featuring last week’s quips. Enjoy!



P.P.S. We’re throwing a Halo Day Party on November 14th to celebrate
the launch of Halo: Anniversary. Join us and other Halo fans at
Microsoft stores nationwide. We’ll be sharing more information soon,
including a complete list of participating stores, but for now pencil us
in on your calendar. Just make sure you do it in permanent marker....