About two and a half weeks ago we brought you news of the apparent end of Halo Wars stat-tracking, effectively killing the game's community. Apparently, fans of the game lost their collective crap in response to the news. Now it seems that reports of Halo Wars' death were greatly exaggerated.
Console fans have one less RTS game to stat-track. Halo Wars is about to receive a fifth title update. This update will do two things: 1) Fix some theatre issues, and 2) Prepare the game to be disconnected from halowars.com. The forums are transitioning to Halo Waypoint, which means the Halo Wars forums will be taken "completely offline". What does this mean to current players? Well, it means that they can expect an exclusive avatar for the Halo Waypoint forums, and an end to their precious, precious stats.
It's been a few months since we've had a Halo Waypoint Co-Op Night, but we're back to our regularly scheduled programming with the event. This month marks the one year anniversary of Halo Wars, and we're celebrating the only way we know how - by playing it.
We reported not too long ago that Halo Wars, in addition to a couple other co-op titles, went Platinum and was now available for the low, low price of $29.99. Well now Microsoft's sweetened the co-op pot by offering Halo Wars via download through its Games on Demand service. While the game may not have been as widely popular as its more traditional FPS brother, Halo 3: ODST, the game is one of only a few co-op titles we've reviewed that has received the full 5 out of 5 for its co-op score. All that co-op fun without ever having to leave the comfort of your home? Now that's a deal.
Three more co-op titles have landed on the XBox 360's Platinum Hits list: Fable 2, Gears of War, and Halo Wars. While we weren't too keen about the way co-op was handled in Fable 2, it was still a fun game in its own right and there may be some potential for a "save file tie-in" between Fable 2 and Fable 3. Halo Wars provides a very solid co-op RTS experience on the 360, with each player controlling their own troops but sharing the resources as they fight off the Covenant forces. As for Gears of War, it offers the same co-op experience as its successor, with a few great moments of its own. Each of these titles costs $29.99 so now may be a good time to use some of those lingering gift cards you got from Christmas.
You're probably thinking, hey, what's this? A toy? Isn't this a column about kid and family friendly video games? Well, yes, it is. But is there any thing more kid friendly than a toy? Certainly there is not, especially when the toy is based on a fantastic video game. As soon as we learned about the existence of Halo Wars Mega Bloks, it was a foregone conclusion that we'd own them. Building our own Halo vehicles, with adorable little soldiers inside, is a lot of fun, and was certainly a cooperative effort!
When Ensemble Studios, creators of Halo Wars, was closed a few projects went with it. Surprisingly one of those projects was another Halo title, though not much is known about it. These painting were from artist Dylan Cole and are listed as concept artwork for a cancelled title in the Halo Universe.
I'm not quite sure how this one got past my radar. Halo Wars is the latest franchise getting its own construction toy treatment. Mega Bloks brings us the Halo Wars Authentic Collector's series. Right now, just a few sets are available, ranging from the Warthog, pictured above, to a sweet box including Hawk vs. Banshee, Aerial Assault.
Looking to get a little co-op action on in the Halo universe? Do you have an itch for a solid RTS title? Do you like blowing things up with giant cannons from space? If you answered yes to any of the above questions then Halo Wars is probably a game you would enjoy - we certainly did.
If you and your buddy had a kickass score on Mission Four of Halo Wars's co-op campaign, you can kiss it goodbye. Perhaps it was the only proof that, yes, you can save Ship #3. Now it's forever lost thanks to a technical glitch between the game's servers and Xbox Live.
With the release of Halo Wars DLC "Strategic Options," we decided to give it a test drive in the name of Co-op. These three new modes are available through the skirmish menu, and add a certain flare to simple seek-and-destroy gameplay. Nick "BApenguin" and I tried out each one of these, and wanted to share that experience.
Halo Wars is one of the best games released this year. It's so good that last week, we chose it as the featured game for Xbox Live Co-Op Night. A large variety of units, unique missions, and a fantastic control scheme all combine to make Halo Wars one of the the best RTS games available on any system.
