Ensemble and Bungie are coming together to make an RTS set in the Halo universe.
I for one welcome our new covenant overlords.
So that’s why Bungie gave a cease and desist from those guys making a Halo RTS for PC. I wonder if they were hired.
Just finished watching the trailer. If any rts has an excuse (or lack of one) to have a decent story for the campaign, this is it. I hope they use the campaign to flesh out the Halo universe a bit, it would seem a great opportunity to do so with this title.
Before anyone downloads the trailer hoping for gameplay footage- it’s a (very nicely done) pre-rendered CGI type preview like the Dawn of War intro. No gameplay.
According to the FAQ at the official website, it’s done by Blur, the same group that did the cinematic for Dawn of War. And Titan Quest, Rise of Legends, Warhammer Dark Omen, Warhammer Online, and Hellgate: London. And others. Yeah, they really get around.
Just to clarify, Blur did the Warhammer Online trailer, but Digic Pictures did the Mark of Chaos trailer.
Oh, ok.
Between this, Halo 3 (and maybe even 4 by the end of the generation), and Peter Jackson’s Offical Halo The Movie The Game ™, I think MS might be diluting the brand too much this generation.
Master Chief Presents: a Cortana Production: SPARTAN’S HALO-GOLFO
I’m not so sure there will be a Halo 4 (or at least it won’t star the MC). His story is coming to an end.
The Halo Sims.
Damn Arbiter peed on the floor again.
Until MS comes up with a franchise of comparible strength, I just don’t see them letting the franchise end. Maybe Halo 3 wraps everything up and Halo 4 is “A New Beginning”, maybe Bungie balks and MS hands the franchise over to the Shadowrun guys or something, or maybe MS just flatout tells Bungine “suck it up and make us another Halo game”, but I think a fourth game is pretty much inevitable.
Artistic integrity be damned, MS isn’t just going to let their premiere title fade off into the sunset gracefully.
I didn’t say MS would, I just doubt there’ll be a Halo 4 with the MC. I can totally see spin off games.
I’m very glad we’re finally public about this. I’m not on the Halo Wars team but IMO it’s shaping up to easily be our best RTS ever, independant of platform. The controls are really dead on, and designed specifically for the console, not just pasting PC controls on the console.
Obviously I’m biased but I’m really excited about this project, the energy level here at Ensemble after the announce today has been through the roof. :)
Actually, Halo was originally envisioned as a Myth-style RTS.
Personally, I’m waiting for the inevitable spin-offs:
- Halo Kart Racing–Wort wort wort!
- Halo Super Melee–Here comes a new challenger!
- Halo Volleyball Extreme–Bouncy bouncy! …or something
- GTA: Reach–Exclusive for the Wii…
- Alan
If the RTS reflects the Halo Universe, then the goal will need to be getting Master Chief where he can KILL THE MOST ALIENS FASTEST. Because in Halo, that one guy turns the tide of every battle he’s in.
…actually, I said that jokingly, but if they can pull off a game mechanic like that it’d be pretty sweet. You only have one Master Chief, so you need to be careful where you deploy him. He’d need to be very very tough, but not quite unkillable. That will never happen, though. It’d be pretty tough to make it a balanced game. Not impossible, though.
So it’s another RTS for the 360. How was Battle for Middle Earth 2 for 360? Any good? I mean, didn’t Goblin Commander bomb? The Pikmin games didn’t sell terrible well either did they?
From what I’ve heard, Halo Wars is set in the pre-Halo 1 timeframe, probably back when the Spartan program was in the early prototype stages. Unfortunately, that probably also means that the UNSC is stuck with the crappy MA5B assault rifles…
- Alan
The trailer video features a mess of Spartans. Pretty sure I saw a battle rifle, too.
Yeah, I noticed that, too. I thought the Battle Rifle wasn’t available until after Halo 1. I think it made its first appearance in The Fall of Reach. Retcon!
Who needs the BR any way? Halo 1 era humans had the uber-pistol auto-sniper cannon.