Jump to content
Please support IVG when you shop at Amazon

Halo Wars

MarketTantrik

By MarketTantrik,
in Games

Recommended Posts

MarketTantrik Newbie

MarketTantrik

Posted
Posted

HALO WARS

 

Halowars-bkg1.jpg

 

Developer : Bungie Studios, Ensemble Studios

Publisher : Microsoft Game Studios

Release Date : TBA

 

Genre : Real-time strategy

Mode(s) : Single player, Multiplayer, Xbox Live, Co-op,

Ratings ESRB: Rating Pending (RP)

Platform(s) : Xbox 360

 

 

Background

 

Halo Wars is an upcoming real-time strategy video game that will take place in the fictional Halo universe. The game is being designed by Ensemble Studios and set for release exclusively on the Xbox 360. Announced during Microsoft's X06 media briefing on September 27, 2006, details of the game first appeared on 1UP.com. A pre-rendered trailer for the game was shown at X06.

 

 

Synopsis

 

Halo Wars will take place prior to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. The game is set in 2531, in the UNSC's first battles with the Covenant around the planet Harvest. It will allow the player to control the crew and vehicles of a UNSC ship, CFV-88 Spirit of Fire, and receive instructions and commands from its AI Serena. An update posted on January 30, 2007 stated that the game would be using Motion capture. Screens on the website show this being used. However, after questioning, one of the moderators claimed that whether or not it will be used and how are still unknown.

 

A small demonstration of Halo Wars was revealed[4] to gaming media at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) on July 10, 2007 and a demo walkthrough video narrated by Halo Wars' Lead Designer was released on Xbox Live Marketplace on August 27, 2007.[5]

 

When asked whether it would be possible to play as The Covenant, the game maker's answer was an ambiguous "stay tuned"[6]. However, sections of the game's official website suggest that it will be possible to play as the Covenant.

 

 

Development - X06

 

The trailer shown at the X06 began with an Ensemble Studios logo, followed by five M12 LRV Warthogs and two modified (turret-less) Warthogs leaping over a rise in a snowy night landscape. Two Marines from the outfit Blue 6, dressed in Arctic uniforms that haven't been seen in any other Halo productions before, are radioing in to Spirit of Fire, confirming their joining with Blue 5 (an outfit of nine Scorpion tanks) and their trajectory towards the last-known position of the recon force with whom communications were severed.

 

The camera then pans to two members of the recon patrol, radioing in to Blue 6 as they flee from an unidentified enemy towards a waiting Warthog. Both Marines, however, are promptly gunned down by plasma rifle fire, with one man surviving long enough to turn on his back and witness an Elite de-cloaking and raising an Energy Sword. Screams are heard over the radio, and it is revealed that the last remaining patrol member has been killed. The Elite picks up the Marine and inspects him, after which he tosses him away. Additional Elites de-cloak behind him as Banshees rise into the air and come forward.

 

All-out battle breaks out as several previously unseen aircraft land; Longswords, Shortswords, Scorpions, and Warthogs are deployed along the line. A wing of Banshees is shown wreaking havoc upon the UNSC air force, but several Marines taking cover behind an overturned Warthog are able to gun down the first of several charging Elites with what appear to be Battle Rifles.

 

The camera then moves to an overhead view from behind a Spartan, which reveals that the battle has already progressed to a point where several columns of smoke are rising from the destruction. The lead Spartan then identifies himself, along with his Spartan squadmates as Spartan Group Omega, wearing the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor. The Spartans all seem to be carrying Battle Rifles. They give a bravado-charged "If they want war, we'll give 'em war", before the screen cuts to a "Halo Wars" logo, ending the trailer.

 

The trailer was created by Blur Studio.

 

 

Demo video

 

The video was narrated by Graeme Devine, the lead designer of Halo Wars. It is a compilation of game play footage that was previously seen at E3 2007. Controls and other game play features such as vehicles, user interface and special weapons were highlighted, along with new vehicles and weapons used in the game.

 

 

Playable Demo

 

In the October Issue of Official Xbox Magazine, there was a sentence under the preview of Halo Wars on the same page that read: "Play Before You Buy: The game's lead developer, Graeme Devine, has announced that there will be a playable demo of the game before it's released."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MarketTantrik Newbie

MarketTantrik

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Halo Wars Q&A (Xbox 360)

 

From GameTap

_________________________________________________________

 

Find out why this real-time strategy game will be one of the big games of 2008.

 

By: Giancarlo Varanini | GTGV

Dec 21, 2007

 

"We've shown Bungie Halo Wars as we've progressed, but they have let Ensemble make the game as Ensemble wants to make the game."

Graeme Devine, lead designer

 

Graeme’s Greatest Hits

While most gamers may recognize Graeme Devine from his days of working at Id Software on Quake III and Doom 3, his career actually started long before that. In 1990, Devine founded Trilobyte, which produced The 7th Guest and its sequel, The 11th Hour.

 

The fight against the Covenant ended in Halo 3, but Ensemble Studios--creators of the Age of Empires franchise--is going to tell the story behind its beginnings in Halo Wars for the Xbox 360. Unlike the other games in the Halo franchise, which are first-person shooters, Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game where you control a variety of units derived from Halo canon, as well as some entirely new units created specifically for the game. Though Ensemble has been relatively quiet about the game over the past few months, we had an opportunity to speak with Graeme Devine, lead designer on Halo Wars, to get an idea of where the game is at, and how its individual components are shaping up.

 

GameTap: How did this project get started? Did you approach Bungie about the idea of a Halo real-time strategy game?

 

Graeme Devine: We actually started working on the controls for six months before we talked to anyone. Once we felt we had a control scheme that really worked, we showed Microsoft and they got us to show the folks over at Bungie, so we flew up and started to talk. Things went well from there.

 

GameTap: Is there any particular reason why you selected the pre-Halo first-person shooter timeline?

 

Graeme Devine: We wanted to tell our own story. The story of the war between the Covenant and Humanity is huge and being able to tell that story from a different perspective, earlier in the war, with different characters is just really cool.

 

GameTap: Will we see any notable locations from the other Halo games in Halo Wars?

 

Graeme Devine: You'll see...oh wait, I can't tell you yet.

 

GameTap: How much freedom do you have in terms of working with the story? Or are you fairly restricted in what you can and can't do?

 

Graeme Devine: We worked closely with Bungie on the story. There is nothing more important with the Halo canon than respecting it. We're adding to an immensely detailed universe here, so it was really important to us all that any story we tell adds to the overall canon, timeline, and story.

 

GameTap: How much input does Bungie have in the process? Do they have final approval on story elements, new types of units, or things of that nature?

 

Graeme Devine: We've shown Bungie Halo Wars as we've progressed, but they have let Ensemble make the game as Ensemble wants to make the game. It's been a good relationship and we've gotten great feedback and input from Bungie along the way, but they really have let us make the game we wanted to make.

 

GameTap: Obviously, the control scheme is always an important subject when discussing real-time strategy games on consoles, how do you go about striking a balance of offering the depth that RTS games are known for, but at the same time, keeping the controls simple enough as to not be overwhelming?

 

Graeme Devine: I think this is key. When we started work on Halo Wars we started from scratch, we threw the mouse and keyboard paradigm away and rethought what it meant to control a real-time strategy game. I really think that's one of the big differentiators with Halo Wars because it allows us to bring the depth to the controller while, in our opinion, improving how controllable we can make the genre.

 

GameTap: What your stance on resource management for console RTSs? Some feel it's necessary to keep it limited (or do away with it entirely) to allow for simpler controls while others think it's a necessary element of the genre.

 

Graeme Devine: There's more to resources than digging in the dirt. Time, unit count, buildings, and many of the in-game objects in a real-time strategy game are really resources in disguise. For example, if it takes me four minutes to research nuclear missiles, then I need to dedicate myself to making sure I have those four minutes. So I feel it's a matter of coming at the resource/depth issue thinking of more than stone, gold, and wood. There are a lot of knobs in there that we can tune, some more visible than others, but there's a lot of depth there.

 

GameTap: How is Halo Wars' resource management going to be handled? Is it going to be similar to the dirt farm structure from the Age of Empires games, or will it be similar to the capture-and-hold style in Company of Heroes?

 

Graeme Devine: No digging in the dirt! We showed supply depots in the E3 video bringing supplies down from Spirit of Fire. But the key development model for Ensemble is to iterate, and while supplies are still in the game today, we've iterated hard on the resource model to find the right balance. I think we're still working out the model to find that in the game.

 

GameTap: Is the single-player campaign linear with scripted missions, or would you say it has more in common with world conquest-style gameplay featured in games like Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 and Empire at War?

 

Graeme Devine: The campaign is a roller coaster ride. Like the other Halo games, we feel that story is integral to the experience and wanted to tell a new story from a new perspective. I'm really excited to see people's reactions as they play through the campaign; I want to hear "But they can't!" and "So that's what that means!" as we unfold this new chapter.

 

GameTap: What sort of features are you going to implement to coax Halo fans that loved the first-person shooter series, but may not be huge fans of the RTS genre?

 

Graeme Devine: I think the fans are a very intelligent bunch--just read the forums--and are looking for a new Halo experience. It would be easy to just add a warthog to the game and say, "Look, it's Halo," but that would suck. Our units, even the ones you've never seen before, have to integrate with this universe, we have to be part of this universe, and to do that we've worked hard on telling a new story, making the game accessible, focusing on the combat, and getting that magic "Halo" feeling. We're fans too.

 

GameTap: It seems like the Covenant will be playable in some form or another. How much work goes into balancing the two factions and making them distinct from each other?

 

Graeme Devine: Right now we've been focusing on the campaign and making the Covenant scary. What does it feel like to be in a trench holding a MA5B with two clips left while a squad of Jackals has you pinned down? I'd imagine that feels pretty weird for your average marine, but I imagine you would be pretty happy when you hear some S2s taking out those Jackals and looking up in the hill two miles away to see a group of Spartans on your side. That's what I think about a bunch right now when I think of the Covenant in the game.

 

GameTap: Why do you think Halo Wars will be one of the biggest games of 2008?

 

Graeme Devine: I think we've got magic in the disc. We've worked on the controls, gameplay, and story for this game being very much aware of what has gone before us. I was down in playtest yesterday and actually did not get to sit down and play because folks were spending their lunches playing the game. I know we're doing well when that happens. More than that, I believe we will be huge not just because I believe, but because when we put the controller in your hands, you will believe too.

____________________________________________________________

 

 

Heh Heh !!! This could be a "sleeper" (relatively speaking of course) hit for the Xbox 360 in 2008. I for one am eagerly awaiting its release on the PC in 2012.

 

--MT

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...