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Halo Wars Demo Impressions

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The Halo Wars demo has hit the XBL Marketplace and we have our demo impressions for you. Halo Wars was developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game is a Xbox 360 exclusive title and releases March 3rd in North America. Hit the jump for my impressions.



The demo gives you the opportunity to play 2 missions in the human campaign, and play unlimited amounts of 1v1 skirmish matches versus the computer. I'll start off with the campaign. Your army is on the UNSC ship the Spirit of Fire orbiting the planet Harvest. Your first mission is a basic tutorial on how to move around and fight. You are then given a hero unit and you set off on the missions. The missions are nothing to scream about, the main part of this demo is the skirmish mode.

Skirmish mode allows you to play as both the covenant and the UNSC, but you must use the preselected leader. For the covenant you can be the Prophet of Regret and for the UNSC you can be the Captain of the Spirit of Fire. Each leader (Six total in retail game; 3 UNSC/ 3 Covenant) has unique units, bonuses, powers, upgrades, perks, etc. to help define their play style. The Captain can use an orbital "sniper bomb" known as the MAC Bomb. With the MAC bomb you pinpoint an area and deal major damage in that small Area of Effect. The Prophet of Regret can use his power to destroy enemies quickly. The prophet, who is a decent fighter/defender early game, can call down a "holy beam" for 10 resources a second to nearly "insta-kill" and units found under it. He also has the unique Honor Elite Guards. These are basically Elites equipped with only energy swords and can cloak to sneak around. From what I tested they are only good to make an early rush with or defend from an early rush. Once the opposing side has middle tier units they are useless, except to be canon fodder.

The demo does not include all units or all of the tech tree so it is hard to estimate how deep this game will be, but from the demo it looks deep enough to keep you interested but will look like a flat experience to hardened PC RTS fans. Another issue is the controls. Many sites have critically acclaimed the controls, but I beg to differ. Sure, the controls work for a console, but there are many useless things maped to buttons that could be used better off. For example, you can use the right trigger to jump between bases and when you pass one and want to go back, you'd click the left trigger...right? Wrong. The left trigger is used to increase scroll speed accross the map. Sure, the increased speed is nice, but could have been implemented much better. They could have just made the scoll speed gradually increase as you scroll, for larger maps.

Overall, Halo Wars looks like a step in the right direction for a console RTS, but it is not the final step. Future console RTS should use Halo Wars as a model, but expand on it. Think of Halo Wars as the skeleton, we just need to add the muscle to it now. Also, after playing EndWar, lack of voice commands seems like a step backwards for a console RTS. I would have really liked to see Ensemble add an option for voice commands for tedious controls, that would free up the controller even more for a deeper experience.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew


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Quick Update

You may have noticed our lack of postings recently but we are coming back soon! I have been on vacation without access to the internet and my co-writers have been busy as well. We will be back to bringing you the latest in gaming news, previews, interviews, podcastings, and reviews withing 2-3 days!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew


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Feed Burner Update

Our feed count has been deleted agai so I submitted a ticket to feedburner and got this response:

Cool, you recently moved to a Google Account! Your feed stats might be low for a bit; they should return to former levels in about 72 hours.


Hopefully things should return to normal soon.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew


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Feedburner Problem Fixed!

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Well our subscription base should be fixed right now. Everyone should be getting the daily subscription emails again. I figured out that Feedburner now requires everyone to migrate their accounts over to their Google accounts for them to function, after I did that the subscribers were restored.

If your are NOT getting your subscription emails, and you were before, them please comment here and explain your problem and we will help you promptly.

Sorry for the Inconvenience,
The VGToday Crew

Update!: The feed count at the right is still not operating correctly, I'll wait 24 hours for it to adjust before questioning it's legitimacy. Remember, those Feedburner subscriber counts are notorious for being incorrect...alot.

Update!:
Ok, things should be back at 100% now...thank God.


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Feed Burner Issue

Feedburner is currently experiencing some issues and our subscriber base has all been deleted. We are currently working to get everything fixed. Sorry for any inconveniences.

The VGToday Crew


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E3 Open To Public 2009

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The E3 Expo that takes place this June will be open to the public, after a few years of the event being private. Of course, this will come at a price. The price tag for a ticket is currently at 400$ USD and you must be 17 Years or Older with a valid US ID to present. We have applied for a media pass to go to the event, we hope we will get an invite!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

Links:
http://www.e3expo.com/


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Halo Wars Demo Open To The Public!

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The Halo Wars Demo is now available to the public. We will have full impression of the demo up later this week/weekend. Tell us what you think about the demo in the comments section!

Download Link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/offers/0ddf000a-0000-4000-8000-00004d5388ba?cid=SLink

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew


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A Detailed Look Into Halo Wars

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After watching this I am now interested in playing this game. At first glance it looked like a simple Rock-Paper-Scissors with Halo skins and a RTS on console (not a good resume'). This video now have me pumped for February 5th, and see if I will be buying the game, or just renting it for the story. I am not a big fan of Halo, and definitely not a fan of console RTS, but I think this could revolutionize console RTS. Do not keep this off your radar.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew


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Batman Arkham Asylum Trailer

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Looks promising, and possibly one of the best Batman games in recent times, or anytime for that matter. The game is due out late 2009 for the PS3 and X360. Leave a comment on what you think about the game!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew


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