14 DAY TRIAL // With Bungie taunting us about a big announcement coming out at the E3 trade show, we might just be around to see a new first person shooter set in the Halo universe. But, for now, the only confirmed game that uses the background of the franchise is Halo Wars, the real time strategy title that is developed by Ensemble, the Microsoft studio responsible for the Age of Empires series.
The developers say that the game will most likely be played as good on the Xbox 360 as it does on a PC. The people at Ensemble studio went so far as to initially re-program Age of Mythologies to prove that the console controller scheme would work for strategy titles in a very smooth manner. They believe that "if we do a good job with Halo Wars, especially the controls, it could encourage a much more rich and interesting genre of console strategy games for the future".
There's a big battle right now to implement a control scheme that uses a console game pad and which allows the player to control a RTS as easily as using a keyboard and mouse setup. Both Kane's Wrath expansion for Command & Conquer 3 and the Supreme Commander Xbox 360 port have made steps in the right direction but a lot of strategy fans still see the PC as being the only machine on which real time strategy really works well.
Other details regarding Halo Wars are available from Ensemble. It seems that the game is pretty fast paced, with a few rounds taking under 15 minutes to complete. Also, a player cannot cover all the game areas at the same time. Going for a technological edge will mean less resources for combat units, while picking a fight early might force gamers to abandon tech altogether and focus on production.
The Halo themed RTS should be out later this year if no major delays hit the project.