Halo Wars DLC confirmed titled “Strategic options”
Microsoft has published its news release about the upcoming Halo Wars DLC “Strategic options” . The DLC has been worked on in part by Ensemble Studios and part by Robot Entertainment. Ensemble’s ex Lead Designer Graeme Devine has previously stated that the DLC was nearly finished at the time of shipping.
“The main thing is that DLC was built into the game design from the very beginning so we’ve actually been working on DLC all along, It was never the plan to finish the game THEN start work on the DLC”- Graeme Devine
Robot has been working diligently since the release of the game to make balance patches, bug fixes and complete the testing of the upcoming DLC. Both a title update (a forced download) and the DLC will be made available soon.
No details on the pricing of the DLC of yet, nor an official date has been set but expect to find out very soon. The official press release from Microsoft follows:
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Strategic Options Add-on for Halo Wars
Published April 21, 2009
Halo Wars™, the best selling real-time strategy game on any current generation console, mixes up the battlefield like never before with the Strategic Options Game Add-on Pack, available in the coming weeks exclusively on Xbox 360®.
Build the stronger army in Tug of War.
Strategic Options ushers in the next wave of battle for Halo Wars with three new game modes which dramatically change the multiplayer experience and challenge you to rethink your battle tactics.
Defeat waves of enemies in Reinforcement.
- 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 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.
Capture the Forerunner in Keepaway.
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
Haven’t tried Halo Wars yet? A free demo is also available on Marketplace. The full-featured demo includes two levels of the Campaign mode, plus a one-on-one Skirmish battle between the USNC and Covenant.
Halo Wars
Set in the iconic Halo universe, Halo Wars predates the original first-person shooter Halo. Experience the early battles between the UNSC and Covenant, the far-reaching conflict that has been diligently followed by the masses in the blockbuster Halo series.
Rumor: New Halo Wars multiplayer modes coming
I noticed this article appeared on the web today: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/20/entertainment/e093139D82.DTL
It mentions Halo Wars as follows:
Coming this week: new goodies for Valve’s zombie thriller “Left 4 Dead.” And a little further down the road is a pack of new multiplayer modes for Microsoft’s “Halo Wars” strategy spinoff.
No other news sites seem to have reported this so am not sure how accurate it is – but it could well be true.
I shall try and get confirmation on this as soon as I can however Ensemble tradition has not been to comment on rumour or speculation and I imagine Robot will be the same to.
HaloWars.com members can discuss this here: http://www.halowars.com/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=558897#558897
Stay tuned!
More Halo Wars balance patch information – Boosting vampires, nerfing Hawks
Aloysius has revealed more information of balance adjustments in the upcoming Halo Wars title update. In simple terms the Covenant Vampires are getting a boost and Anders (who dominates the Top 100) is having the Hawks nerfed by making them more expensive. More details courtesy of Aloysius below:
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!.
Halo Wars selling like hot cakes – beats Sony’s Killzone 2
March has been a fantastic month for Halo Wars and its developers. Halo Wars has shipped 690k in March which are fantastic figures as measured by the NPD. Halo Wars has also outsold PS3 console exclusive Killzone 2 despite Killzone being released a whole week earlier. You can see the whole March NPD results below and a link to the source:
RESIDENT EVIL 5* (360) 938K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION (NDS) 805K
HALO WARS* (360) 639K
RESIDENT EVIL 5* (PS3) 585K
WII FIT W/BALANCE BOARD (WII) 541K
MLB ’09: THE SHOW (PS3) 305K
KILLZONE 2 (PS3) 296K
WII PLAY W/REMOTE (WII) 281K
MARIO KART W/WHEEL (WII) 278K
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K9 (360) 205K
Tim Deen talks about Halo Wars unit counters in detail
The official Halo Wars website has the second developers blog online and this time comes from Tim Deen who is the Lead Technical Designer on Halo Wars. Halo Wars players might recognise the resemblance between Tim Deen and Fort Deen, which is a 3v3 map on Halo Wars- a possible connections methinks!
The summary on the Halo Wars website reads as follows and you can click the link below to read the full blog entry.
“…a detailed look at the Halo Wars RPS reveals that it is a layered system of 3 RPS systems with a specific order of priority in application. Also each RPS system provides a different flavor to the game and serves to provide a specific combat flow purpose. Additionally the RPS relationships are split into the two separate buckets of “soft kill” and “hard kill”, “soft kill” relationships are where the units have a medium advantage in combat and “hard kill” is where units have a very strong advantage in combat. “
Robot listens to fans with Halo Wars patch
A Halo Wars update is coming over Xbox Live courtesy of Robot Entertainment. A recent update on the Halo Wars website confirms that the first balance patch is on the way. Keeping with Ensemble style the patch is based around feedback from fans. Whilst there has been no Ask Sandy for this game, Ex Ensemble Studios members from both Robot and Bonfire have been active on the Halo Wars message board collecting feedback and helping members.
Just to point out though, this patch is NOT DLC
That’s right. You wont find any maps of new gameplay in the update it is just a balance patch for now. You can read the full statement from Robot’s Community Manager “Aloysius” below:
“We’re going to be releasing some information on the upcoming Halo Wars Title Update, or patch, here on HaloWars.com over the next few weeks. This Title Update fixes some matchmaking bugs, balances a few things inside and outside of gameplay, and adds a small feature that fans have been asking for. The Patch was developed around fan feedback, so hopefully players will be happy.
The first piece of news is that the Prophet of Regret’s speed on land has been reduced to match the other leaders. This helps balance the Prophet Rush that was stymieing a lot of players. The second piece of news is that the Flaming Warthog and the Honor Guard Wraith will now be available in Multiplayer battles against other players.
We’ll give you guys more bits of the update here on HaloWars.com so keep checking back. “
New Bonfire blog: “Defending the Prophet rush as Captain Cutter”
Bonfire Studios have released another developers blog focusing on Halo Wars. This time the team discusses some ways Halo Wars players can combat the Covenant leader rush particularly when playing as Cutter and your team mate is rushing with the Prophet of Regret. Check out the new blog here:
Ensemble’s Halo Wars sells a million copies already, becomes the fastest selling console RTS ever!
Great news for Halo, RTS and Ensemble fans as Microsoft has revealed that Halo Wars has ALREADY sold more than a million copies and has become the best selling RTS of this console generation! What a great reason to celebrate!
Outstanding job Ensemble!
This news is somewhat bittersweet as despite Halo Wars outstanding early success the studio was shut down. Hopefully Robot, Bonfire, Windstorm will have the resources they need to keep making great games.
Good job!
Sources:
http://www.t3.com/news/halo-wars-becomes-the-best-selling-rts?=38421
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/23064/24088/halo-wars-sells-millionth-game.phtml
http://www.virginmedia.com/games/gamingnews/news-story.php?storyid=37317869
Oh and by the way… Its not over yet, Robot is working on DLC as we speak!
Robots at work; Halo Wars.com gets re-branded and DLC coming
Halo Wars fans who often visit the official Halo Wars community website may have noticed that as of yesterday the site had been re-branded from Ensemble Studios to Robot Entertainment. Whilst I am pleased that Robot get to make their mark its somewhat sad that the Ensemble name has been removed.
Robot Entertainment folk are working on Halo Wars DLC which I imagine will be announced in the next few weeks. It is unknown whether the DLC will completely or partially re-brand the game to Robot Entertainment. Tony Goodman’s crew are staying zipped about what the DLC is going to include. Good news is however in traditional Ensemble fashion they are actively listening to fans and players on the forums. You can catch people like Dave Pottinger and Jerome Jones who were both leads on Halo Wars browsing the forums. Just look for the Robot logo under their names.
Of course another thing we can expect soon is the launch of the Robot Entertainment website which has been displaying a splash screen for quite a while; keep checking back here by adding us to your RSS feed and we’ll let you know when it goes live.
A few other updates…
I know I’ve promised updates to the Bruce Shelley and Ben Donges blogs, I’ll try to get them up soon.
Oh, and, I’m sorry to report that ES_Paragon and ES_Solus are no longer with the Ensemble crew at Robot or Bonfire, but are pursuing other opportunities. We wish them good luck with that. 🙂
What happened to the Spirit of Fire?
Halo fans will be pleased to hear that Graeme has updated his website with another entry expanding the Halo-verse. This time Graeme talks about what happened to the Spirit of Fire and some theories as to why it didnt return home and as such not tell the UNSC about the Flood. Read the new entry here:
As for Graeme the ex Lead Story writer at Ensemble for Halo Wars, hes currently not involved with Robot, Bonfire or any other game studio… yet. Sit back and enjoy the forthcoming Halo Verse fan fiction!
