Finishing Halo Wars must have been bittersweet for Ensemble Studios. On one hand, they’ve created a fine addition to the Halo franchise, but on the other hand, it was their final project and they had the pressure of turning a shooter into an RTS for a console. It could have ended up brilliant or absolutely horrendous. But you need only look at their pedigree and know that the franchise was in good hands.

What started out as an indie developer over a decade ago, eventually manifested itself into a juggernaut within Microsoft, but was ultimately disbanded upon completion of this Halo project. They were the ones behind Age of Empires and the studio that built the Genie Game Engine, which was used in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. So the question on everyone’s mind has been whether or not Ensemble could turn a console shooter into an RTS. And the answer is unequivocally, yes. And I don’t even like RTS games.

You’ve all had a chance to play the demo, which consists of the first three missions, so you’re all aware of how the game actually plays out. The control scheme is surprisingly easy to pick up and the storyline is fantastic but it does have its faults. In case you didn’t know, Halo Wars is a prequel to the Halo trilogy we’ve all come to love or loathe. The cut scenes are amazing, but the in-game graphics are a bit of a letdown. I was always drawn to the storyline in Bungie’s Halo trilogy and Ensemble manages to keep up that tradition and make it a smidge better. The in-game sounds and soundtrack are pretty spot on and flow fluidly. It’s an experience that any Halo fan won’t want to miss. I’ll reiterate by saying that I don’t like RTS games or Halo if we’re being completely honest, but Halo Wars is pretty cool.

Some of you might not have Live, so I’ll quickly touch on the control scheme. Controlling your troops and whatever else consists of a series of hot keys. If you want to move your unit to go attack something then you simply need to select said unit with the A-button and scroll over to a group of bad guys and hit X. Each unit, like a Warthog, has a special attack that’s triggered by the Y-button. I suggest going through the advanced tutorial just so you get comfortable with the myriad of controls. It’s easy once you’re done with that. I suspect my ADD affected my learning curve here. What? I like my old-school side scrolling games.

But as I said, the game does have some glaring faults that are worth mentioning. For instance, you can’t zoom in or zoom all the way out to see the entire map. I mean, the attention to detail in this game is great, but I really want to see my Spartan kick some Covenant ass up close and personal. And while the control scheme is easy to pick up for non-RTS types, I’d imagine the gamers who do play RTS games would find reason to scoff at HW. There’s a certain degree of control that is required in traditional PC RTS games and that’s clearly missing in Halo Wars. While it’s not the happy median I think it should be, I think it appeals to the mass market of gamers that never played an RTS on the PC.

Halo Wars consists of 15 missions with varying degrees of difficulty. I think it took me roughly one hour per mission, but I’m pretty ADD, so the hardcore types will probably finish in half the time.

There are six commanders that you can choose from and each has their own take on warfare, so it’s highly likely that you’ll find one that meets your standards. Your mother ship, the Spirit of Fire, provides resources when you need them, but you already knew that since you’ve been playing the demo.

I haven’t had a chance to play multi-player over Live, but that’s sort of the norm when it comes to getting advanced copies of games. There aren’t very many people that I personally know who have the game that I can play online with, but I’ve contacted a few folks and we’ll be getting it on this weekend.

So, the question still remains whether or not this RTS game works on the console. I honestly can’t answer that question. I don’t play RTS’s but I sure had fun playing this one. Look for it to drop on March 3rd Stateside.

As a special treat, we’ve included all four developer diary clips that Microsoft has released over the course of the last few months in case you missed them.

Just a quick note that the Halo Wars demo is now on Xbox Live. Remember, if you’re at work or whatever, you can queue the download on Xbox.com, and as soon as you turn on your 360 it’ll start downloading. The future!

Again, for clicking through I’ve rewarded you with a YouTube video: bowling bloopers. It’s safe for work this time, so go nuts.

Looks like there’s a “best of” Halo Xbox 360 bundle on the way, which coincides with the upcoming Halo Wars. Too bad that it looks to be Europe-only. (Trivia: tt was first discovered on a Swedish Web site.) That’s how it looks right now, that is.

The bundle includes a 60GB Xbox 360, Halo 3 and Halo Wars. Oh, and you get one month of free Xbox Live Gold access. So that’s nice.

Total price for this wünderbündle? (Yes, I know Swedish doesn’t use the umlaut.) Try Kr. 2,795, or, right now, around $343.

Again, nothing about any possible North American release.

A console RTS, you say? Good luck.

Yes, Microsoft will release Halo Wars here in North America on March 3. Great, right? Sure. But that demo that will be released on Xbox Live on February 5, well, if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to play it a few days early. You can thank the good folks at Major League Gaming.

Simply post in this thread on MLG’s Web site and you’ll automatically be entered into a random drawing for an early access demo code. Code in hand, or at least in your browser’s copy-paste buffer, you’ll be able to play the Halo Wars demo on January 29. That’s this Thursday, so you’ll have a whole weekend to play it.

Twenty five winners will be selected, so the old “many will enter, few will win” mantra applies.

via Kotaku

So Halo Wars, which comes out in North America on March 3, has gone gold. (Unless, of course, Microsoft is lying to us.) That means, for the non-nerds in the house, that the game is all done and Microsoft is busying pressing copy after copy in some plant somewhere.

You also might want to know that Microsoft has published a sort of documentary that “explore[s] the defining themes of Halo Wars.” You can view it on Xbox Live on your fancy HDTV, or on Xbox.com.

You guys know that Halo Wars is an RTS, right? I haven’t played one of those since Age of Empires 2 in 2000.

Microsoft just announced at CES that Halo Wars, the RTS that’s bound to confuse more than a few longtime Halo fans—it’s not a shooter?!—will be released on February 28. A demo will be on Xbox Live on February 5. That is all.

Halo Wars will introduce a whole new approach on the gameplay, according to Amazon. Check out the product description here. For example, 28 fun-filled, adventurous mini-games will be included too.

“You can even design your own wardrobe of clothes fit for a princess chief. Come join the fun with Princess Rosella, Prince Antonio, Tika, Sagi, Tallulah and more! Customizable princess clothes ESRB Rated E for Everyone”

[Via Kotaku]

Update: Amazon has removed the page. Maybe Bungie didn’t want them releasing spoilers?

Today, Ensemble and Microsoft Game Studios announced that Halo Wars will launch in February with a regular retail and Limited Collector’s Edition version for $60 and $80, respectively. This announcement fails to note that Ensemble will dissolve after Halo wars launches. It’s sad, really.

The LCE will include:

Three New “Halo 3” Multiplayer Maps – Be one of the first to experience the Mythic Map Pack from Bungie which includes three new maps, “Assembly,” “Orbital” and “Sandbox”

Halo Wars: Genesis – a beautiful graphic novel by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine and Eric Nylund chronicling the first military campaign against the Covenant. The novel centers around the Sprit of Fire on a mission to discover why the Covenant are so interested in the world of Harvest

Unique In-game Vehicle – “Honor Guard” Wraith

Six Leader Cards – Leaders possess elite skills which can turn the tides of battle

Spirit of Fire Patch – Start the journey as an official Spirit of Fire crew member

As is the case with most pre-orders you’ll get something extra for your fanboyism in the form of a special in-game Warthog with flaming decals. Joy.

We begin this chilly Monday morning with a video game trailer. Currently scheduled for release in the first half of next year, Halo Wars is sure to confuse at least some fans of the series. The real-time strategy game has almost nothing to do with series developer Bungie—those guys are only involved in making sure the game “feels” like Halo.

Yet if Ensemble pulls it off, Halo Wars would be the first half-decent console RTS.

Favorite line: “I care not for your little life!” Poetry!

Isn’t this a kick in the pants? Shacknews is reporting that Ensemble Studios will cease to exist once the RTS based on the Halo franchise is finished. Moreover, employees not working on Halo Wars were let go today while incentives were offered for those on the project to stay on until completion. The RTS is due to come out in the first half of 2009.

Update: Microsoft has just confirmed that Ensemble will be closed after Halo Wars is launched, but fear not for some of Ensemble folks will form another development studio shortly after.

Microsoft has decided to close Ensemble Studios following the completion of “Halo Wars.” After the closure, the Ensemble leadership team will form a new studio and has agreed to provide ongoing support for “Halo Wars” as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios.

The team at Ensemble has made invaluable contributions to the games industry with their “Age of Empires” and “Age of Mythology” games and with the highly anticipated release of “Halo Wars.” This decision does not reflect at all on Ensemble’s talent or the quality of “Halo Wars”. – in fact, many people who have had a chance to test drive “Halo Wars” agree that it is on track to being a fantastic game.

This was a fiscally-rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible.

As to our overall strategy at MGS, it remains the same. We are committed to growing MGS with world-class talent both internally and with our external partners around the globe. We have recently added some well-known developers to our team and will continue growing the team. We’re particularly excited about the titles we have in the pipeline and continue to evaluate additional opportunities to bring incredible games to life with the industry’s best. Our investment in games has never been greater than it is today.

So begins the Halo Wars hype.

McFarlane toys will produce a line of action figures based on the upcoming Halo Wars video games, a game that will either introduce real-time strategy games to the masses or fall flat. (That’s just my opinion.) The figures are scheduled for release next sprint, and will retail for around $10.

At right, one of McFarlane’s Halo 3 action figures.

Check out other Halo Wars coverage here.

Image courtesy of the Gamerscoreblog.

One more after the jump.

While I would normally post every single picture from the Gamepro gallery, I refuse to do so for this because there are 54 images and I just don’t have the time. So, I’ve picked six at random, but you can always check out the rest at your leisure. Check out our previous coverage of Halo Wars here.

New Halo Wars details for your Wednesday afternoon. The real-time strategy game, which should come out this fall for the Xbox 360, supports up to six simultaneous players when played on Xbox Live. Better still, there’s an online co-op mode, which is the “it” mode right now. You and your amigo can team up to face the Covenant in some sort of battle against common decency.

That’s about it as far as new info goes. The July issue of GamePro, presumably, will have new screen shots as well.