- Halo Wars Developer Blog: Birth of a Mission
- Posted by Alexastor on July 02nd, 2009 @ 08:33 a.m.
There is a new Developer Blog up at HaloWars.com about how the Single Player Campaign missions were made. It goes into detail on how missions get designed, written and made and includes some never before seen screenshots of Halo Wars in development.The first thing we do when we start a new campaign is to do some research. Instead of hitting the history books like in our Age of Empires games, we grabbed anything we could from Halo and absorbed it. We read books, played through the games, and talked with Bungie to make sense of any questions that arose. I personally spent a few days doing nothing but playing the Halo campaigns in the office to refresh my memory and get some inspiration. This helped more than I even hoped… people would stop by my office to watch me play and learned some things they may have forgotten about the games – or to yell at me to turn it down! Link: Halo Wars Developer Blog
- New controls in Halo: Reach?
- Posted by Alexastor on July 01st, 2009 @ 2:17 p.m.
After Microsoft has showcased project Natal at E3 this year, Natal is on everyone's lips and seems to be popular at Bungie as well.
Studio president Harold Ryan mentioned to Seattle Times that he could imagine to integrate Natal into Halo: Reach. He is all exited about it and would appreciate to support Natal in their game.
Ryan didn't talk about how the support might look like, though. Additionally we don't know what to expect from Halo: Reach anyway, so speculations are rather vague.
Seattle Times also report about planned Studio extensions and further information about Halo 3: ODST.
Link: Seattle Times Article
- Robot Blog & Robot News
- Posted by Alexastor on June 28th, 2009 @ 07:24 a.m.
Robot Entertainment has started a blog with already two entries up. The first is showing off the art team's impressive looking workspaces and the other is detailing the ambitious project of creating a giant Lego sign for the company:As time goes on, content on this page will showcase artwork from someone on the art staff, which will include images from different subject matters, or genres, as well as created in different kinds of software. There will be little in the form of organization or an overall theme (we are artists, what do you expect); instead, the blog will act as a hub to showcase the various works and ramblings from the artists here at Robot. There are also new pictures of Robot's Team playing Halo Wars at their photos page, and they are searching for a System Admistratior for Online Games.
- Belated Halo News
- Posted by AvidWriter on June 18th, 2009 @ 2:56 p.m.
The year is 2552. Covenant forces control the city of New Mombasa. They are searching for something beneath its darkened streets. You are an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. Your orders: Stay alive, meet up with your scattered squad, and escape the embattled city.
E3 held quite a bit of new info about Halo 3: ODST, including a new trailer, Campaign and Multiplayer information, character profiles, and information about a two bonuses: play as Sergeant Johnson if you preorder, and take part in the beta for Halo: Reach.
The new gameplay trailer for Halo 3: ODST(caution, link will open a download box) is enough to end all pants, but before you go change, make sure you watch the trailer for Halo: Reach as well.
With the knowledge of these games coming out, we should all be assured that good games for the Xbox 360 are on their way. Halo 3: ODST is set to release September 22, 2009, so make sure you preorder your copy so you can get the Sergeant to play multiplayer with!
- Halo Wars DLC Announced: Strategic Options
- Posted by Botolf on April 21st, 2009 @ 6:49 p.m.
New content for Halo Wars has been announced today, and it looks like there's a few meaty additions. New game modes and achievements ahoy! This content is rolled up into a package called "Strategic Options Game Add-on Pack", and should be landing sometime in the next several weeks. * Keepaway Mode: This is the Halo Wars adaptation of "Capture the Flag." Teams battle it out to capture a free-roaming Forerunner Sentinel to score points before the other team. Capture three to five sentinels to claim victory.
* Tug of War Mode: This mode is all about having a stronger army than your opponent. Defeating enemies is essential, but success is determined by a combination of the army, buildings, and resources left standing in the end.
* Reinforcement Mode: All active battle units are provided in successive waves. Adapt to their tactics and use the ever-changing set of units to outwit and outlast the enemy.
Strategic Options also adds four new Achievements worth a total of 100 points:
* One and Done: Score the winning point in a game of Keepaway against Legendary A.I.'s
* Pull Hard, Pull Deep: Win and never trail in a Tug of War game
* Freak on a Streak: Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game
* Living Loving Bug: Obtain a Scarab during a Reinforcement game Also coming soon is a title update that implements several balance fixes to Halo Wars:We're letting the cat out of the bag on a few more balance changes coming in the Title Update. The patch brings some balance changes mixed with bug fixes to Halo Wars.
The Covenant Vampire is getting a boost in the patch, with its attack damage being buffed by 15% with every upgrade. It's health bonus and the special attack still remain a part of the upgrades.
The UNSC Leader Professor Anders is getting a slight whack with the nerf bat as well. Her Unique Unit upgrade, the Hawk, is being made more expensive, going from 900 to 1350 supplies. In addition, her Cryo Bomb upgrades are also going up by 50% at every level.
These changes should level the playing field in the UNSC/Covenant Air war. Stay tuned for more changes coming with the Title Update, as well as a date for when it'll hit Xboxes near you!. Original source here.
- New Poll
- Posted by AvidWriter on March 29th, 2009 @ 1:50 p.m.
- After months of the monotony on our home page, the staff at HWH have finally created a new Poll to reflect the release of our new favorite game!
Now that Halo Wars has been released, has it met your expectations? Go vote now!
- Developer Blog Entry #1
- Posted by Botolf on March 14th, 2009 @ 01:44 a.m.
A brand new developer blog has started up on Halowars.com, and the first entry discusses ranking in Halo Wars' matchmaking.Halo Wars has a couple different ways of tracking our players history from matchmade, public games. Some we use primarily to get you good games, others are more oriented to helping players rank themselves against the community. Lets go through each of them:
Player Trueskill™
This is the standard Xbox LIVE Trueskill™ tracking value that rates players to help match them in competitive games. We use this only for matchmaking and we use it for all matchmade games. We track a separate Trueskill™ value for each of the different Halo Wars hoppers you can play in. So you if are great at 1v1 Standard but just getting started playing 2v2 Deathmatch games - then you will be matched with similar skill level opponents in those different games. Also for team games, we average your skill with everyone else on your team - so you don't have to worry about the skill level of the party host versus everyone else on the team - everyone's skill is taken into account. These Trueskill™ levels are meant only to help get our players the best matched game for all our different hoppers - but if you are ever curious about your level, you can always check it out under Multiplayer | Leaderboards. Select a Leaderboard Type of "MP Skill" and set the Filter to "Pivot" (that means "Find me in the list!"). You can also see the Trueskill™ value being used during matchmaking - right after the countdown starts you will see in the middle of the screen "Party TrueSkill™ Rank X". X will be the Trueskill™ level averaged for the entire party (if the party is just you, then that is your exact Trueskill™ level). If you are interested in more detail about how this is calculated, here are the details: TrueSkill™ Ranking System
Skill Level
While the Xbox LIVE TrueSkill™ values are what help us get you good matches for each hopper, we also have our servers track a global skill value for you as well. If you look up on the website, the Player Stats for yourself (or any other player), right under your gamer tag is your Skill Level . That is a value between 1 and 50 for how skilled you are at playing competitive Halo Wars games. We calculate that on the Halo Wars servers with the stats from each matchmade game you play. Note that just like for the Player Trueskill™, if a player leaves early through any means (turning off the box, exiting the game, resigning, etc ) then the system will count that as a loss.
Score
Skill level isn't always the best way for tracking a player experience with the game, so we also keep a total running score of all multiplayer, matchmade games you have played. As this global score for a player goes up, we award the players various ranks to reflect their experience with the game. See the Rank section below to see what total score is needed for the various ranks. To find your score (and rank), in game go to the multiplayer menu and select Service Record | Skirmish. Note that one of the best ways to boost your score per game is to complete the game (as opposed to resigning or disconnecting). While you get a 40% bonus if you win, you also get a 20% bonus if you just complete the game. On team games if you are defeated, the award happens right then - not at the end of the game - so you don't need to wait around in that game unless you want to watch the action.
Rank
Rank Score Needed
Recruit Play 1 Game
Lieutenant 80,000
Captain 200,000
Major 400,000
Commander 800,000
Colonel 1,600,000
Brigadier 2,400,000
General 3,200,000 Read the original source here.
- Release
- Posted by Botolf on March 03rd, 2009 @ 9:22 p.m.
Halo Wars is now available everywhere! Ensemble Studios' final game and sci-rts set within the popular Halo universe is now being scooped off the shelves on all continents. Read about the units of Halo Wars here. Read about the buildings of Halo Wars here.
In site related news, a minor facelift is in progress, just in time for the game's release.
Xbox.com also has created a snazzy looking technology tree for both Human and Covenant factions, go take a gander at it here.
Harvest Is Only The Beginning
EDIT: Fixed main page size issue.
- The Final Countdown
- Posted by AvidWriter on February 28th, 2009 @ 11:04 p.m.
2 Days, 57 Min (forum time)
Until the Halo Wars Release (in North America)
Will be updated frequently.
- Review Roundup
- Posted by Botolf on February 21st, 2009 @ 01:31 a.m.
Reviews for Halo Wars are flooding in as of late!
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