14 DAY TRIAL // The Halo universe is one of the most popular and best-selling franchises in Microsoft's portfolio. It made the first Xbox a pretty successful console but pushed the Xbox 360 to new heights when the third iteration in the shooter series appeared, a game that is still being played quite heavily on the Xbox Live online service.
But the franchise is set to receive a very different installment soon, as Halo Wars, the first strategy title in the series, will appear, exclusively for the Xbox 360. It will introduce to strategy fans a full-fledged title, created by the great team at Ensemble Studios, the makers of the acclaimed Age of Empires series, all set in the Halo universe, with units taken from the other games in the series.
But until the end of February or the beginning of March, as that is the period when the game will be launched, players don't really have anything to do. That is why Microsoft and Sumthin Else decided to release a Halo Wars Soundtrack album, which will consist of two discs, one with the tracks that will be in the game and another one, a DVD, with nine additional bonus tracks, nine 5.1 mixes of the tracks from the first disc, two cinematic trailers and, last but not least, a behind-the-scenes video from the development team.
“For Halo Wars I wanted to write music that fit both the size of the story and its sense of discovery,” said Stephen Rippy, Ensemble Studios Music & Sound director and composer for Halo Wars. “Each of the various worlds in the game feels a little different; each of the main characters brings something to the mix. More than anything else, it was important that these tracks fit comfortably into the existing Halo universe. I hope they’ll take the listener to some new places as well.”
It seems that Microsoft is definitely pulling out all the stops in order to make this game very anticipated by fans. Considering the fact that a lot of people who played the first Halo games were very much into shooters, it will certainly be interesting to see if they will like the strategy gameplay of this future title. Look forward to the soundtrack on February 17, and to the game on February 27 in Europe or March 3 in North America.