It's a sad reality, and one we're not willing to accept. Already, we're contorting Ensemble's promise of future DLC to mean that maybe, just maybe the Flood will be added in the future. If not, well, there's always Halo Wars 2.
Downer: The Flood not playable in Halo Wars
It's a sad reality, and one we're not willing to accept. Already, we're contorting Ensemble's promise of future DLC to mean that maybe, just maybe the Flood will be added in the future. If not, well, there's always Halo Wars 2.
Video: Halo Wars demo (with the Flood!)
Without a doubt though, the most intriguing part of the video happens right at the end of the demonstration, when we get our first glimpse at the Flood. We only get a general idea of how the Flood base is structured and also a brief look at the Infection Forms as well as what look like (former) human Combat Forms.
Now, if we can just get this time machine working, we can play it right now.
TGS 08: Halo Wars in early '09, Flood confirmed!
It was just revealed at the Tokyo Game Show that the long, long delayed Halo Wars (whose developer has had a bit of a struggle) will be releasing to the Xbox 360 EARLY 2009. Got that fellow fanboys, EARLY 2009 and you can bet we're going to hold Ensemble and Microsoft to that.
Also confirmed (after months and months of speculation) is the inclusion of the Flood in Halo Wars. No specifics yet, just know that they'll be part of the Marine and Covenant party.
Video: Halo Wars 'Field Trip to Harvest' trailer
Just as Mr. Geoff Keighley promised, a new Halo Wars trailer titled Field Trip to Harvest recently aired over on Gametrailers (it's their exclusive, don'tcha know) and it gives us our first taste of what the Halo Wars storyline is all about. And in typical Halo fashion, the trailer is hella' entertaining, visually impressive and quite the informative piece of video. Check out the trailer embedded after the break.
We also wanted to say that if the presented images are the actual in-game cut scenes, then man oh man will we be impressed. It's freakin' beautiful! Oh, and for the geeky Halo folks in the crowd, our own Richard wanted to point out that the the main Elite towards the end of the video is wearing the Arbiter's armor. That means he'd be the Arbiter Elite that was bestowed the "honor" prior to the Arbiter we came to know in the Halo games. Geektacular!
Continue reading Video: Halo Wars 'Field Trip to Harvest' trailer
First Halo Wars footage releases this Saturday
Halo Wars fanatics, listen up. This Friday night (technically Saturday morning at 1:00AM eastern), GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley will be airing in-game footage from Halo Wars, introduce us to the cast of Halo characters and debut some cut scene footage. Not only that, but Keighley will sit down with the Ensemble crew to discuss their feelings (Dr. Phil style) about being shut down by Microsoft. And just from watching the GTTV teaser trailer, we can't wait to see the informative Halo Wars cinematics that they're going to share. Joy!
[Via HBO]
Former Metal Gear 4 producer joins new Halo team
Yesterday, Microsoft confirmed that former Konami employee Ryan Payton will be joining Microsoft Game Studios. Payton will join a newly formed team that is responsible for all current and upcoming Halo titles.In response to a rumor that Payton had been tapped as the lead producer for the long awaited Peter Jackson Halo Project, Microsoft would only confirm Payton was one of many employees recently hired to make up the new team, according to EDGE Online.
Among the other members of the Halo team announced is fan favorite ex-Bungie employee, Frank O'Connor. as well as former members of Gearbox, id and Pseudo Interactive.
Payton, who is best known for his work as an assistant producer on Metal Gear Solid 4, left Konami in August.
[via Joystiq]
Ensemble founder blogs studio closure, disappointment
Earlier in the month the industry was shocked when rumors circulating about the closure of famed-RTS developer Ensemble Studios turned out to be accurate. Having finally broken his silence on the situation, Ensemble Studios founder Bruce Shelley outlined his take on the matter on Ensemble's blog last night."I believe we thought we were immune to shut-down talk because our published games have done so well and have been so profitable," Shelley wrote. "We thought we were among the best studios in the world, and that may be true, but we don't fit in the future plans of MGS as an internal studio so we're out."
According to Shelley, Microsoft outlined a number of reasons why the studio had been selected to close but at the end of the day the bottom line is the bottom line. "The new leadership of the game group at Microsoft has a new plan for making the game group consistently profitable, especially over the next few crucial years, and we are the odd group out."
As previously announced, the outgoing development house will close its doors after the Xbox 360 exclusive Halo Wars releases in 2009 and members of the team will form a new company signed to maintain content for the game. Shelley has confirmed he will not be joining the new company formed after Ensemble Studios closes its doors and maintains the studio is "very disappointed" in Microsoft's decision. We agree.
New details on Halo Wars Marines and Hornet
Source - UNSC barracks and Marines
Source - UNSC airpad and Hornet
Gallery: E308: Halo Wars
Brutish new concept art from Halo Wars
Instead, we simply direct you to the images, which you can find in the gallery below. Our biggest question: At what point between Halo Wars and Halo 2 did Brute beards go out of style?
Gallery: Halo Wars Brute concept art
Gallery: Halo Wars
MS: 'More than two or three teams' working on Halo
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, head of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer talked about where the Halo franchise is headed (among other topics) and confirmed that multiple development teams are indeed working on numerous Halo projects.
"There's more than one team building Halo games right now. There are more than two or three teams building Halo things right now" says Spencer, adding "some of them we will own, some of them we won't." Hmm, interesting stuff. Currently, we're aware of two Halo titles, Halo Wars and the Peter Jackson projected dubbed Halo: Chronicles. So, if there's more than three teams working on games, how many Halo titles does that equate to and when do we get to hear about them? Whore that Halo franchise MGS, whore it out good!
Ensemble Studios to close its doors, Halo Wars will remain unaffected
In a shocking announcement made late last night, Microsoft confirmed rumors that Age of Empires and Halo Wars developer Ensemble Studios will be shut down as soon as work on Halo Wars is completed. An astonishing decision Microsoft claims to be one that is "fiscally rooted". Wowzaz!
In Microsoft's official statement to the media, Ensemble Studios' closure is addressed, mentioning that after completion of Halo Wars, the "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." Microsoft also makes it clear that they'll "place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft" and insists that the studio's closure has nothing to do with "Ensembles talent or the quality of Halo Wars."
What can be said? How random, how unexpected and how troubling it is to hear this news. News that we never would have seen coming. From our early experience with Halo Wars and the Age of Empires franchise, the level of talent the entire Ensemble crew possess is more than apparent as we wish them all the best with their future endeavors.
McFarlane announces Halo Wars figures for '09
To compliment their already expansive sets of Halo 3 figures, Todd McFarlane and crew just announced that they'll be releasing Halo Wars figures to retail beginning March 2009.
The first series of Halo Wars figures are actually mini-figures, 2.5 inches tall (aww, shucks!), rotatable at the waist and sold as a three pack. At release, the first series will be comprised of four different sets including Spartans, Marine Infantry and Covenant with each set packaged with various weapons. You can get learned about all four different Halo Wars sets after the break and view the work-in-progress figure sculpts in the gallery below. Lovely, aren't they?
Gallery: McFarlane Halo Wars Figures
Continue reading McFarlane announces Halo Wars figures for '09
Halo Wars monthly: Weird code, scrambled image
As we've come to expect, the latest Halo Wars monthly update doesn't contain much in the way of juicy information. No new UNSC units have been uncovered. There are no details about how the Covenant plays. No, what we get is some general info that the game is coming along nicely. There are promises that more info is on the way soon though, along with some significant changes to the Halo Wars website. And then there is the image at right (click here for full size), which is undoubtedly the most intriguing part of the update. It's accompanied by the text below."Scrambled Transmission
Incoming Sub Space Trans Encode ####121478####121381####
ONITrans Priority; Delta
ReceiveTrans Loc; Subspace Relay 000003878
ReceiveTrans Loc; Subspace Relay 000003879
ReceiveTrans Loc; Subspace Relay 000017438
CovCarrier Detect; Encode [ Null ]"
What does it all mean? We have no idea. We're fairly certain that the image is some kind of environment. Dare we hope it's a Flood containment facility? Given the presence of human lettering in the lower left corner, we're inclined to think it's not. Thoughts?
Halo Wars: It's all about the Spartans
Ensemble posted a new Halo Wars update where they talk about the design decisions and gameplay elements behind one of Halo Wars' most powerful units, the Spartans. It's pretty good wall of text read, full of interesting Halo Wars decision making stories and explanations of how they came to decide upon the Spartan unit's special move: vehicle jacking. What's our favorite Spartan factoid? The fact that the more your Spartan levels up, the "larger your swagger on the battlefiel." Because Spartan swagger is l33t as hell.
Halo Wars introduces the UNSC Wolverine
