by:	September 20, 2007

Now that Microsoft has found a franchise that can be milked like the Mario Cash Cow, they’re sure as hell sticking to it. The Halo franchise has exploded into a massive marketing frenzy, as seen with the release of Halo 3. At Microsoft’s X06 event in September of 2006, it was announced that aside from Halo 3, four different Halo related projects were in development. One of those projects was shown to be Halo Wars, a closer representation of what Bungie had originally planned for the original Halo: Combat Evolved.

Developed by Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series, Halo Wars is a Real-Time Strategy game akin to the likes of StarCraft and Command and Conquer. Players control the men and women of the UNSC Battleship CFV-88 Spirit of Fire in their campaign against the Covenant, a new and widely unknown enemy to the human race. The game takes place about 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, when the Covenant conflict is still fresh in the galaxy’s mind.

Of course, Ensemble Studios is working very closely in conjunction with the Halo masterminds at Bungie to deliver a game that focuses as much on story as it does gameplay. Halo Wars will set the stage for the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and the rest of the series by laying out the back-story for the events to come.

Players can use an arsenal of weaponry and vehicles to wage all out war on the Covenant, including the all too familiar Warthog and Scorpion tanks. However, new troop units and vehicles will be available as well, such as the Hawk attack helicopter and the Wolverine tank. Many more weapons from the Halo series will make an appearance, as well as a great deal of ships and vehicles that never made it into the games from the story. Longsword fighters and Shortsword Bombers will make an appearance, and many more Covenant and UNSC vehicles will be seen in the game as well.