Part 2 of Bruce’s blog restored & new studios update
You can now find the images restored to part 2 of Bruce’s blog archive: http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/?page_id=240
The rest will be restored soon.
Update on new studios:
There has been no news as of yet for a name for the new studios and nor do they have a website setup. I can confirm however that Ensemble people are indeed managing the ESO servers which run Age of Empires 3 and Age of Mythology. My ears are to the ground and will update this site as news develops.
Download the Halo Wars demo and win prizes! (US Only)
Have you downloaded the Halo Wars demo yet? You have? That’s great! I hope you are enjoying it. The good news is that you can now enter a competition to win some great goodies. Including Xbox 360 Elites, hard drives and Microsoft points. If your lucky enough you might win a Halo Wars themed Xbox 360 Elite!
To find out details visit : http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/5194/2/ for more information.
Enjoying the Halo Wars music? Soundtrack is out soon!
Stephen Rippy was head of Ensemble Studios Sound and Music department and worked on the Halo Wars Soundtrack. If you have had a chance to play the Halo Wars demo you would have no doubt heard the excellent work Stephen has created with the soundtrack. Hats off to him. If you have enjoyed listening to the Halo Wars music you will be pleased to hear that you can own the Soundtrack from February 17th. Pre-orders are being taken on Amazon now!
Amazon.co.uk : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Halo-Wars-O-S-T-Various-Artists/dp/B001OB3R1I/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1233968056&sr=8-1
Halo Wars demo is now available
Coming straight from the Halo Wars community website at www.halowars.com I can report that the eagerly awaited Halo Wars demo is now available to download for Xbox Live Gold customers and silver customers a week later. I strongly recommend checking it out!
There’s also a new Halo Wars trailer which you can see here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/viewer.aspx?productId=1898&assetTypeId=2&shotId=6
And also an instruction manual here: http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/31804095-7B32-4CE2-A17E-3CB54A3692EF/0/HaloWars_MNL_EN.PDF
In the words of Ensemble Studios “Have fun and good luck“
Your Halo Wars questions answered
Screenplay have secured an interview with someone from Ensemble Studios on the evening before the release of Halo Wars. The team at ScreenPlay invite readers to send in their questions for consideration!
So if you’ve got that burning question head over to ScreenPlay : http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives/011474.html and fill out the form!
Restoring ES Blogs – Part 1
I have restored images for Bruce Shelley’s most recent set of Ensemble blogs. You can find them in the blog archive.
Over the coming days more images will be restored to older Ensemble blogs. I will be doing Bruce’s blogs first and then Ben Donges after.
Stay tuned!
Halo Wars vid doc 2
The 2nd Halo Wars video documentary is now available on Xbox Live but also on YouTube here:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=QU7pYjVNm-w
Link courtesy of Peterport on HaloWars.com forums
EnsembleStudios.com goes offline – Remember-EnsembleStudios.com live
Today the official EnsembleStudios.com website has gone offline and now redirects to the Age of Empires community. Thankfully, I was warned this might be the case and took action to archive the final images of the Ensemble website along with copies of ES Blogs.
You will notice the formatting of the blogs isn’t all there yet and is missing images. This is something I hope to have rectified soon. However with EnsembleStudios.com dropping offline today it was a priority to get that text back on the web as soon as possible despite the formatting problems.
Sit tight and images and formatting will be restored to Bruce and Ben’s blogs soon.
Last tour of Ensemble Studios; cancelled game concepts revealed; half employees to follow Goodman to new studio
Today Gamasutra has published their last t our of Ensemble Studios at this link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3919/ensemble_studios_the_last_tour.php
This is a must read for any Age, Halo Wars or Ensemble fan. I thought I would pick out some main points of the article:
Ensemble was working on a Halo MMO which was expected to be the full mission of the studio until its sudden cancellation by Microsoft
Other games prototyped included : a fantasy-adventure RPG called Sorcerer; Nova, a “Diablo in space” game; a pirate-themed take on Diablo; a game called Wrench; a Ratchet & Clank-style platformer called Bam (Read link above for details on these. Qouted from Gamasutra)
Half of Ensemble employees will join Tony Goodman in a new studio
The article contains many pictures of Ensemble Studios and prototype images which are well worth looking at.
Expect more press stories like these in the coming days along with announcements of Tony Goodman’s new studio.
It looked like Ensemble was an excellent place to work with employees shouting praises and willing to join Tony Goodman again for Ensemble round 2.
We’ll keep you up to date.
