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New Halo Wars Achievements reveal new maps (again)

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 6th 2009 at 2:00PM }

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]

Former Halo Wars dev bites into Apple

by Jason Dobson { Jun 9th 2009 at 8:30AM }

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 tactically cuts one third off Halo Wars price for today only

by David Hinkle { May 22nd 2009 at 2:45PM }

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 ...

Halo Wars 'Strategic Options' DLC available now

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 19th 2009 at 12:30PM }

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]

Gallery: Halo Wars 'Strategic Options' DLC

New Halo Wars maps revealed by Halo Wars

by Richard Mitchell { May 12th 2009 at 6:45PM }

click to Halo-size

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!]

Gallery: New Halo Wars maps

Halo Wars patch live, review the notes

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 12th 2009 at 10:50AM }

Robot Entertainment has released the Halo Wars patch, which the company teased last month. The update allows for the Flaming Warthog and Honor Guard Wraith skins, improves game balance and fixes some bugs -- like a patch should.

The company also expects to add more information about the upcoming DLC for the console RTS "shortly." So, we expect to bring you news regarding it "in the near future."

Halo Wars 'Strategic Options' DLC adds new multiplayer, achievements

by David Hinkle { Apr 21st 2009 at 11:09AM }

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.

Gallery: Halo Wars 'Strategic Options' DLC

[Thanks Patrik K.]

New Halo Wars dev blog talks unit balance

by Richard Mitchell { Apr 16th 2009 at 2:00PM }

click to Spartan-size

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.

Gallery: Halo Wars UNSC counter chart

Halo Wars title update incoming, new details

by Richard Mitchell { Apr 14th 2009 at 2:45PM }

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.

Charts galore: Halo 3, Halo Wars player comparisons; other RTS titles get in mix

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 10th 2009 at 3:05PM }

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.

Continued →

Halo Wars sells a million, Ensemble still disbanded

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 19th 2009 at 1:21PM }

Microsoft announced today that Ensemble's Halo Wars has sold one million units worldwide. According to the publisher, that makes the wars of the Halos the best selling real-time strategy game on any current-gen console -- 'cause, you know, it's such a "Flood"-ed field.

As for the stats: there have been 2.6 million multiplayer matches, over 118 years of time have been spent by players in matches on Xbox Live, more than 200,000 players battle each day and 80% of them achieve wins through Warthog rushes (okay, we made that last one up). If you're looking for more stats, click here. Microsoft says more content is on the way for the game from Robot Entertainment, "so stay tuned."

Gallery: Halo Wars

The Guide: Don't Rush Good Strategy

by Richard Mitchell { Mar 13th 2009 at 12:30PM }

Welcome to The Guide, an editorial feature in which former Xbox 360 Fanboy lead Richard Mitchell looks at issues important to Xbox fans. The opinions expressed here belong to the author and don't necessarily reflect those of Joystiq, Weblogs Inc. or its affiliates.

Sorry, but I'm going to talk about Halo Wars again. I realize I've already devoted one column to the game, but it's really where I'm sinking almost all of my gaming time these days. I'm also really looking forward to Resident Evil 5, so maybe I'll squeeze that in there too. Probably not though.

Continued →

Rippy: Ensemble Studios was a 'victim of its own success'

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 10th 2009 at 1:31PM }

David Rippy, founder of Bonfire Studios and a lead producer on Halo Wars, believes Ensemble's death occurred because the studio was only known for -- and allowed to create -- RTS titles. In an interview with GI.biz, Rippy expresses that Ensemble couldn't get non-RTS project prototypes approved, stating that the group represented "the RTS guys." He notes that lack of diversity is something he'd like to avoid in the future with his new studio.

Rippy states that Bonfire's first project will not be an RTS game, but that the company may consider doing one again in the future. He states that the game will be different than what the team has done in the past, while still offering "a strong strategy element." As Bonfire works on the new project -- which will apparently not be published by Microsoft -- the other studio born out of Ensemble's remains, Robot Entertainment, will continue employing "the RTS guys."

Halo 3 back on top of Live charts, Halo Wars debuts at #6

by Richard Mitchell { Mar 10th 2009 at 1:30PM }

Our very personal bestest friend, Major Nelson, has posted Xbox Live activity for the week of March 2nd. Halo continues its never-ending battle with Call of Duty with Halo 3 nudging World at War from the top spot. Call of Duty 4, Gears of War 2 (somehow) and GTAIV round out the top five.

The Halo series receives some backup this week, with newcomer Halo Wars debuting at number six. On top of that, the Halo Wars demo inched up the top ten, moving from the ninth most played to the eighth. FIFA 09 moves up a notch to number 9, shoving Street Fighter IV to the tenth spot.

Considering the limited edition of Halo Wars including the Mythic Map Pack, it might have had something to do with Halo 3 reclaiming the top spot. The big question now is whether or not Halo Wars can maintain its momentum. As one of the few RTS games to make a big splash on consoles, you can bet Microsoft is watching it closely.

Download a digital copy of the Halo Wars tech tree

by Dustin Burg { Mar 5th 2009 at 7:30PM }

To give us a better understanding of Halo Wars' units and all the upgrades available, Xbox.com posted a downloadable Halo Wars tech tree chart (PDF).

The Halo Wars tech tree (not to be confused with the plantable type) is an easy-to-use reference guide that visually explains the technology progression of both Covenant and UNSC units, as well as each of their Leaders' unique powers. The chart comes in especially handy when creating the nearly invincible Grizzly and ODST combo. It's a strategy we nicknamed the "Drop Shock and Awe."

[Via HaloWars.com]