Podtacular

Better late than never as we delve into Season 2 of the Halo TV show taking a look at the first episode. Making the initial connections to the game lore, we start to see the development of the events of Reach with the silver lining. Since GT was out last week, we got to play some Custom Games for Fraggin’ Friday last week, which went off. Thanks for joining us!

While we missed last week due to Dust Storm being sick, an interesting topic came up in the Halo Community. A former 343 Industries developer shared on Twitter that 20 to 30 ideas for Halo games were pitched and turned down by Microsoft over the last 12 years, begging the questions, “What kinds of games would the Halo community love to see Halo explore across other genres or stories in the Halo Universe?” and “Why were so many projects turned down when Microsoft has so many studios with various expertise that could expand the Halo franchise?” We take some time to explore these questions and catch up on the latest Halo news.

It’s a lore-filled week as the Halo TV Show’s Season 2 has kicked off on Paramount+, we have another Halo Chronicle and Halo: Epitaph releasing in a couple weeks. Dust Storm is solo this week covering the rest of the Halo News with an unexpected MCC patch, more community articles on Waypoint and the upcoming first HCS open of the 2024 season.

To kick off the new year, 343 Industries hosted their first Spartan Chatter of 2024 updating u s on what’s coming in the next content update. Moving away from the season cadence, Halo Infinite will now have 4 to 6-week operations to deliver content more frequently as it’s ready. The Spirit of Fire Operations lands January 30th, bringing updates to Forge, playlists refreshes and a new map Illusion.

Welcome to a new year, Spartans! This year is shaping up to be quite a year, leading off on a great streak of content on Halo Infinite, the next season of Halo Infinite competition and the Halo TV Series, and so much community content still blowing our minds. Sadly, it looks like we are at the end of the road for MCC development, but community mods are thriving, not to mention our podcast hosts have finally completed Cursed Halo.

Halo Infinite’s Season 5 is here and with it, new maps and modes and already into the mid-season update with the return of Firefight! After an extended break and Thanksgiving holiday in the states, we couldn’t be more excited with the continued content roll-out. As we enter the holidays, we’re thankful for everyone who listens, joins our game nights on Fridays and joining us live on Saturdays for our new podcast recording time. We look forward to playing with you all on Halo!

This week, we talk a bit more in depth on the Extraction game mode and the new maps, Prism and Forbidden introduced in Season 5 of Halo Infinite multiplayer. We’ve had some time to get plenty of games and share our thoughts on the continued content delivery that continues to bring people back to Halo and new players exploring the scene. The next operation, Combined Arms is our first foray into the new events and battle pass structure introduced this season and Halo 3 Refueled is on its way as well.

After two months and a delivery later, Dust Storm returns to the microphone with Godzilla T to take a speedy look at the jam packed conclusion to Halo Infinite Season 4 and HCS Season 2. As we move into Season 5, Forge has never been more powerful, 343 continues to knock out new content out of the park and HCS will return for a Season 3 in Infinite! There’s so much stuff to bring up in one show we’re going to have to break it down a bit more where appropriate. We definitely recommend checking out our friends at HCS Pro Talk for all the HCS content in the meantime!

Another month of incredible Halo drops and an uptick in population spells some good news for Halo as content, playlists, improvements and more are in full swing. Forge has never give us such quality and diverse maps, the community art is stellar and we are just happy we get to share in it with you all.

The mid-season update for Halo Infinite Season 4 brings along with it several new things including a reimaging of Countdown from Halo: Reach called Dredge. Forge water gets an upgrade with reactive surfaces and several bug and quality of life fixes makes playing multiplayer a constantly refreshing experience. Halo: Outcasts has released and gets Dust another book behind. We’ll be off next week, but don’t miss our Fraggin’ Fridays on Halo Infinite if you’re looking for a group to play all the latest content with!

It’s been a few weeks since our last show while Dust Storm was redoing his streaming set up, so there’s a lot of news to catch up on. The latest Community Spotlight, Forge Features, HCS Event and book (yes, this means Dust is falling even more behind) is up for discussion along with a little twist. While we’ve haven’t recorded the podcast in the last few weeks, we have been playing the Cursed Halo mod, which is very much what it sounds like. Strap in for a short, but dense episode.

In a double surprise this week, we got a new Halo Infinite playlist drop and a season’s worth of content in MCC. Squad Battles brings Three of the best Halo 3 Forged maps to Halo Infinite in classic 8v8, which has probably been the best playlist addition to Infinite yet! And on the MCC side of things, the Digsite team has outdone themselves over the last 6 months. There’s way too much stuff to list it all here, so just go check Waypoint for the incredible amount of content that just released for MCC, including Theater for Halo 4, Custom Controller Mapping, 8-Player Firefight and Halo 3 Escalation Slayer.

After a week into Season 4 of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, we’re already getting new content with a new Forge map Solitude and a surprise delivery of Mini Slayer! With the amount of content that’s been delivered and the great reception of new modes, this season has turned out to be one of the best received. With the quarterly cadence established, it’s refreshing to look forward to a steady flow of content.

On this special episode, we dive into Halo Fan production November Black. Taking inspiration from Halo lore, November Black is a short film set to follow ODSTs fighting of Insurrectionists before the events of Halo. We’re pleased to welcome Vulture Productions and returning guest Mooreshots on to talk about this project’s inception, timelines and goals.

The run up to Halo Infinite’s Season 4 is just around the corner. We have the details laid out all on Halo Waypoint where we have lined up next week Infection making it’s return with a thematic reintroduction. Along with Infection, we’re getting one new Arena map: Forest and one new BTB map: Scarr. Also coming with Season 4 is the Threat Seeker and Quantum Translocator, two new pieces of Spartan equipment. Career Ranks makes it’s debut along with a new Battle Pass and plenty of quality of live improvements.