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Aside from releasing an RTS title in Halo Wars this year, concept art found on ex-Ensemble Studios artist Dylan Cole's website reveals yet another game that the studio was working on in the Halo universe. No name is given for the shots, though Cole calls the above image "Halo Universe City," which could mean a city from the world of Halo or a game named "Halo Universe."

He also mentions that the "concept paintings" were for "a project that was canceled," so you can bet we won't be seeing these beautiful vistas in game form anytime soon. We do know that the studio was at one time working on a Halo MMO that never saw the light of day -- maybe these shots have something to do with that? We've asked Dylan Cole for more information, but for now, check out the full gallery of concept art right here.

[Via HBO]

Always there with a friendly reminder, Major Nelson sends word that the Historic Battle Map Pack for Halo Wars is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. The new content includes four new multiplayer maps: Barrens (1v1), Blood River (1v1), Memorial Basin (2v2) and Glacial Ravine (3v3). The DLC also adds four new Achievements worth a total of 100 points. If you need some new space to rock out with your tiny Spartan death squad, the Historic Battle Map Pack will run you 800 ($10). Check out some fresh images of each map in the gallery below.

Download the Historic Battle Map Pack to your Xbox 360

Gallery: Halo Wars Historic Battle Map Pack DLC

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Are your miniscule, impressionable Spartans developing powerful cases of wanderlust? Are they growing antsy and restless -- sure signs of boredom with their tired stomping (and shooting) grounds? You'll be able to whisk them off to new, yet-to-be-bloodstained areas soon enough -- on July 21, Microsoft is dropping four new maps and four new achievements for Halo Wars.

The "Historic Battles" map pack (which will cost 800) includes two 1v1 maps, a 2v2 map, a 3v3 map and four new achievements which tack 100 extra gamerpoints to the strategy title. We've got descriptions of each map and 'cheevo listed after the break for all you cautious consumers.

Robot has revealed specific details regarding the third title update for Halo Wars. Most of the changes being implemented are for the sake of balancing the game, and there are also a handful of bug and exploit fixes. It looks like the effectiveness of the Gauss Warthog will see a reduction, with the unit doing less damage to tanks and receiving more damage from grenades. The Warthog will also take three seconds longer to build (25 seconds). Anders has also seen her research speed bonus reduced from 50 percent to 25 percent.

There are a smattering of other changes, the most significant perhaps being that stockpiled units in a locked-down base will now release much faster when the base is unlocked. Very good news for anyone that has seen their stockpiled units killed one by one as they emerge from an unlocked base.

Check out all the changes after the break.

For all you negative Nancys out there who just couldn't believe it when we told you that Halo Wars itself had revealed some upcoming maps, here's some more proof for you. New achievements have popped up on the Xbox.com Halo Wars page in the UK, and they reveal -- wait for it -- new maps. The names of the maps just so happen to be the very same names we discovered back in May: Barrens, Blood River and Memorial Basin.

If you still aren't convinced that new map DLC is on the way, you'll just have to wait for the official announcement. The rest of us will just sit here and act smug for a while.

[Thanks, Richard]

When Ensemble Studios closed its doors earlier this year many of its staff landed behind a desk at either Robot Entertainment or Bonfire Studios, a pair of outfits that rose up from the Age of Empires and Halo Wars dev's splintered remains. Not Graeme Devine, however -- he's far too trendy for that business.

Instead, the Halo Wars lead designer revealed to Kotaku's @crecenteb via Twitter that he opted for a job at Apple, working for the company's iPhone group. It's unclear exactly what he's working on at the popular fruit company, though given his experience perhaps Apple is looking to bring game development in-house. We've reached out to Devine for more, though whatever he's up to we're sure there's an app for that.

[Via Develop]

Amazon's daily deal features Ensemble Studios' Halo Wars, offering the game at the discounted price of $39.99 for the standard edition. It's a game that many on the Joystiq staff find to be "the tops," though others on the staff have found it to be "mildly satisfactory." It's caused a rift, one you need not bother involving yourself in because, hey, cheap game! And, should you decide to pick this up, you could always apply those saved duckets toward some of the new DLC. Just saying ...

The advanced AI known as Major Nelson informs us that Halo Wars' "Strategic Options" DLC is available now for 800 ($10). The pack includes three new game types and 100 points of Achievements (no maps?).

If the price seems a bit steep for a few game types, we've got that covered too. We've got a post up now to win one of five free codes. Good luck!

[Add Halo Wars Strategic Options DLC to your queue]

Of all the places we expected to hear about new Halo Wars maps, we didn't think it would be within the game itself. If you're very, very patient -- seriously, it takes around half an hour -- the information crawl that scrolls across the bottom of the main menu will show the names of three upcoming maps. The crawl also mentions the recently revealed gameplay modes from the upcoming "Strategic" Options DLC. The three maps mentioned are Barrens (1v1), Blood River (1v1) and Memorial Basin (2v2).

We've contacted Microsoft to see if the maps will be part of the upcoming DLC or if they are intended for a separate release. If you're still not convinced, you can check out some shots we snapped of the map names in the gallery below.

[Thanks, FJ!]

It appears as though Bruce Shelley's words will not go unfounded, as the fourth Ensemble Studios-spawned development house has outed itself in Newtoy.The studio is already developing its first game, World War Robot, in collaboration with comic book and game industry veteran Ashley Wood.

In fact, the studio says it's trying to foster this kind of behavior, "a new kind of game development," by creatively collaborating with "world class game makers from around the globe," such as Wood. The few pieces of art available so far appear rather conceptual in nature and do little to help explain the gameplay. We do know, however, that it's based on the Ashley Wood paperback of the same name and the concept shots share a distinct look with the art of the book. No matter what, it's always a pleasure to see new studios popping up in the current economy.

If your real-time strategy needs have been fulfilled ever since you took care of business in Halo Wars, then know that Microsoft is preparing some DLC for deployment. The DLC pack will be titled "Strategic Options" and will contain 4 new achievements for 100 points and 3 new multiplayer modes.

First up is Keepaway, a CTF variant featuring 3 different flags for capture. Next up is Reinforcement, a mode that provides support in waves, disabling your ability to build armies. Finally, there's Tug of War, which Microsoft has not divulged any info on, though our own pre-school experience with the gametype causes us to assume it will involve a rope, and take place near the jungle gym. We're kidding: the winner is decided based on total volume of assets, including units, buildings, and resources.

The new achievements are:

• "One and Done" (30 points): Score the winning point in a game of Keepaway against Legendary A.I.'s
• "Pull Hard, Pull Deep" (20 points): Win and never trail in a Tug of War game
• "Freak on a Streak" (20 points): Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game
• "Living Loving Bug" (30 points): Obtain a Scarab during a Reinforcement game

Microsoft has not commented on a price for this DLC, but we've put in word to Microsoft for confirmation.

[Thanks Patrik K.]

In the latest Halo Wars developer blog, lead technical designer Tim Deen discusses the game's unit balance. Most Halo Wars fans are probably familiar with the game's "Rock, Paper, Scissors" (or RPS) balance, but Deen goes into extreme detail, even providing the complex chart seen above. If you'd like to move beyond RPS basics and start learning the difference between a 'soft' kill and a 'hard' kill -- and which units do which -- it's definitely a good read.

Sadly, Covenant fans out there are left in the cold, as the chart itself only addresses UNSC units. Hopefully, someone at Robot will be kind enough to put together a new chart for our Covie friends. Then again, we only build Brutes anyway.

A post on the Halo Wars website has announced that a title update for the Halo RTS is on the way. The update looks to address some matchmaking bugs, fine tune game balance and implement a new feature. While the bulk of the update remains a mystery, community manager Aloysius does mention two changes.

One, the Prophet of Regret will have his land speed reduced to match the speed of the other Covenant leaders, thus balancing the Prophet rush tactic (which is a lot of fun, by the way). Another fix will allow users to enable the Honor Guard Wraith and Fireball Warthog units (available to collector's edition owners and those who pre-ordered the game, respectively) inside of multiplayer matches with other players. We're not sure why that wasn't included in the game in the first place, but it's a welcome addition.

No details are given regarding when the patch will release, but Aloysius promises more info will appear on the official Halo Wars site.

Considering Halo Wars was built from the ground up to establish an RTS audience for consoles, and obviously used the Halo name to get gamers excited, we were curious to know if it accomplished its mission. With a sample size of over 150,000 mostly core gamers, we asked social networking website GamerDNA if it had any data we could work with. Not only did it give us what we asked for, but did a full comparison of Halo Wars to other console RTS titles as well. The data not only gave us a better understanding of Halo Wars' success from being associated with the Master Chief franchise, but also how it compares to other RTS games on the console.