You guys seen the control scheme for this game? Its on one of the halo wars websites. It's bad....no micro whatsoever :(

Sentouki

I'm excited about this game. I wonder if it will come out before StarCraft 2.

BlackFreefall

Lol, i helped sam152 with some ideas for teh website, and im like the 8th person to sign up for it
:P

Eragon117

a successful rts that's not on a pc? thats quite laughable

StevenGlansberg

@Solid_hedgehog: I believe it's been confirmed in GamePro that it won't be coming to PC. Ever.

TOWER_JUNKIE

@Candlejack: Well after what Master Chief did for console shooters I'm actually anticipating this. But if you don't like shooters on consoles to begin with...

@Grumps: I couldn't stop laughing through that level. They got HL2 in my Halo 3!

slomo788

@braagh: The whole game the screen ratio seemed a little off. The flood bio themed level actually made me sick though. I was a little buzzed but geeze.

Grumps

Will buy for PC.

Solid_hedgehog

I hope it comes for PC after all. I wouldn't mind it. But I won't ever play RTS's on consoles. After all, I don't like FPS's that much on them. RTS's are like the epitome of crap to me, unless on the PC.

Candlejack

It would suck if the owner of that blog ended up hating the game.

@Grumps: Physically sick?
Motion sick, exaggeration, or what?
(It was bad just...what?)

braagh

For me at least, there is no way this could do anything but improve the halo name... at least single player wise. I got physically sick playing halo 3... something that hasn't happened in a long while.
I just hope there's a drag box in this. It's been missing from all the 360 rts games so far from what I've played.

Grumps

The "When its ready" ship date is waaaayy better than forcing a game to ship when its obvoious more time is needed.

More companies should adopt this position. Sure we might have to wait a bit more but its worth it to recieve a quality product.

hk458

this game could have good potential. But they must not screw the Halo name

mcool93

@Sentouki: An RTS shouldn't require you to aim for your troops, or require you to move each unit 2 centimeters to be successful. have fun playing c&c clones every time you get and rts. Maybe this can be an original rts.

deathtastic

This has some potential I Want it to be good. I'm sure everyone does but I have High Hopes for it personally.

Barf#1

Halo Wars machinima would be pretty epic. Heck, any machinima made with a RTS would be epic.

minimelo321

I can't wait for all the Halo fans to buy this, get it home and say 'OMG WTF IS THIS SHIT' and throw a paddy. It'll sell well because of the Halo name, but a week later, It'll be the most abundant game in the pre-owned section.

UkGuru

i am still waiting for a console to get the controls right on an RTS..

dropoff

@BlackFreefall: Doubt it, SCII is slated for September; we'll be lucky to get Halo Wars this year.

bkchurch

@bkchurch: SC2 is due out in September? What sources do you know? I'd be shocked if SC2 came out this year?

Anyway, i don't trust RTS games on consoles... never have, never will!

Mpalm.

I dont think rts on consoles are bad. I actually bought starcraft for N64 when it came out, and i loved it.

smuckersisgood

Halo + RTS = Gaging sensation.

Muisee

After the last Halo Wars article, i went and dl'ed the C&C demo. And I was quite surprised at how easy it was to manage and play. If it wasnt C&C, I would of went out and bought it. Its nice to see consoles branching out but ill still take PC games over consoles any day.

Ra is on Three's Company!

@deathtastic: Halo originally had a couple variants of tanks.

See what I did there? Another useless tidbit that doesn't change anyone's opinion.

.endejas.

@bkchurch: Slated for September? According to who? Blizzard has never said anything like this and if you didn't hear it from them, you can't really trust a date like that. They tend to adopt the same "It'll be done when its ready" attitude that the Ensemble guys are adopting for Halo Wars, which is very good.

I'm glad to see somebody trying something different. From what they said in Gamepro, making an RTS from the ground up specifically for the console is making them rethink a lot of things about how RTS's are traditionally done. It'll be nice to see something truly different for the genre instead of so much of the same, even if most people seem so scared of change. It amazes me gamers always complain about sequels and nobody trying anything new, but when people make changes and do try something new all they get is antagonism. "Oh this isn't coming to PC, this'll be terrible". Seriously, give it a rest, at least until you've actually bothered to play it so you can say something informed as opposed to out of ignorance. Yes you've played RTS's ported to console, but nobody's really done much in the way of an RTS specifically for a console so I don't really think anyone can expect to know how it will play.

fearing

Nothing brings out the haterade more than a Halo article. I'm looking forward to Halo Wars, personally, because I love Halo and I love RTSs. I just hope they do both justice.

@Grumps:

The game screen ratio seemed off? Wow, that's a new one. If you're biggest concern when playing a game is the screen ratio (whatever the hell that is), I don't know what to tell you. Play the singleplayer on Legendary, it's so much better.

Strangelove

@mcool93: In my opinion, which is the opinion of many, Halo 3 pretty much did that.

@bkchurch: We'd be lucky to get SCII this year, as far as I know. Recent interviews say Zerg is still far off. But hey, if they get it out that soon, all the better!

Dielaughing

@Mpalm.: Of course, i loved starcraft sooo much i bought it for pc, n64, and most recently for my macbook. I was just noting that it was a rts that, at least in my opinion, was easy to play with a controller.

smuckersisgood

@Muisee:
halo was original an rts for mac

deathtastic

@smuckersisgood: It's far superior on PC... i mean... FAR.

Mpalm.

@wild homes 5: no disassemble!:
I guess someone hasn't played Halo: CE because then they would know that Halo 3's ending level is similar to Halo: CE's.

goboard117

@Dielaughing:

halo 3 didn't do it. It's just playstation fans starting rumors and criticizing Halo 3. The fact that Call of Duty 4 was rated higher, it was easy to poke at Halo 3

mcool93

To me, Halo Wars can't do anything BUT improve the franchise. I thought the first one was good, the second one was decent but nothing special (although I admit the matchmaking was excellent for its time), and the third one (the campaign mode, at least) was utter fucking crap. It seemed out of date graphically, very bland mechanically, and the level design (after the scarab) went absolutely downhill. The final three levels of Halo 3 were the worst-designed things I've ever played. The Gravemind was stupid-- the whole FPS-inside-of-something's-asshole motif was boring in Prey and it was terrible here. The final stage felt like someone was calling me out for a fight-- ugly-ass graphics, shitty driving-- Bungie's big joke was to finish Halo 3 with Advent Rising's second level. Jesus, that shit was fucking horrible. There's really no way Halo Wars can do anything but improve the state of the Halo universe.

wild homes 5: no disassemble!

@CockroachMan:

Except Bungie isn't making it. Ensemble is. You may have noticed their logo on a little series of RTS games called Age of Empires. But it's okay. Not a lot of people played those games. ;)

GregoriusH

RTS games never worked on a console.. doubt they will now..

Also, the only experience Bungie had with RTS games was with Myth.. and that was 10 years ago, and that wasn't anything special anyway..

CockroachMan

@goboard117: No, I finished the first game, too, but I don't remember it being as dull as the ending of the third game-- and the controls didn't feel as sloppy to me-- but I definitely remember Advent Rising (which I certainly recall ripped off the driving) failing miserably with that same thing. That is why I noted the similarity-- because they both suffered from the same problems.

wild homes 5: no disassemble!

Bah whats with all the halo 3 hate? Its not perfect, but i thought it was fun. The campaign imo wasnt really any better or worse than the first two, but i dont think thats a bad thing. I didnt think it had as much backtracking as the the other games, but really its halo. Its a mindless killfest that can be quite enjoyable if you're trying to play something that doesnt require a lot of thinking. also can somebody explain to me what screen ratio is?

smuckersisgood

@wild homes 5: no disassemble!:

lol, too bad Advent rising stole that level from Halo 1, along with the rest of the game. As an original Halo fan, I found that the last level was simply a shout out to the original game. The asshole was still an utter shit level though. Plus it was a bitch on legendary, with the damage sponge flood.

I honestly don't see why people have to bash the honest attempt of a great company to make an RTS on a console. Anyone else notice that the other attempts have just been ports of games trying to milk a little more from companies like EA?

cmonty06

How the hell are they going to balance a completely unbalanced series? I loves me some Halo but c'mon, battle rifle and rocket troops beat all.

SkutSkut

@TOWER_JUNKIE: I also heard that the FPS Halo games are xbox exclusive and won't come to PCs... oh, wait...

mizeriq

I have really high hopes for this now that I know it will have some sort of Coop campaign in it. Hoping they make the controls work well since Im still wary or RTS games on a console.

@SkutSkut: Easy to beat those, hordes of Scorpion tanks and noobs with energy swords :D

NitrousO

Halo + RTS + console (xbox 360, no doubt) = puking.

FoxyGaz

hmm something to look forward too

zios33

@smuckersisgood: they're called fanboys, reason never comes to thought in them

genbeef

@dropoff: there is, it's called civilization revolution

genbeef

@UkGuru: Yep imagine the people who buy it thinking oh yeah time for some fps fun and then....

Hdfisise

@Grumps:

No dragbox? I haven't played a console rts since I borrowed Dune 2000 for the psx of a friend.

You SURE there was no dragbox?

The guiding blue

@Hdfisise:

...and then they get FPS fun posing as RTS fun, a clever ruse to get both the established Halo fanbase and unfamiliar RTS fans to lay out the mula.

AlbenoEpiX

There's a lot of Halo 3 bashing going on in this post. Can someone please explain to me what was so utterly awful about it? If you do respond, please don't drag the story line into it. I want to know why everyone thought it was such a terrible game.

Spiraltribesman

@Spiraltribesman: Halo 3 wasnt horrible, but its the same thing as with fable. it was hyped to shit and it didnt deliver. doesnt make it a bad game though.

also, the biggest reason to play (mulitplayer) is no fun cause the community for it is the largest collection of human scum.

kommanderk

@GregoriusH: Didn't knew that.. so that's their weapon to fight Starcraft 2 then? :P

I don't really see the point here.. the Halo fans are mostly console gamers, while the RTS fans are usually PC gamers.. what's this game aiming to?

CockroachMan

@Spiraltribesman:

Myself, I dislike Halo because you move so sluggish, no sprint, can't lie down, and (dunno if this is changed in Halo 3) only two models in multiplayer? Lol?

Then again, playing fps competetivly on any console is like shooting your knees off. It only works when the game has some fun mechanics such as Goldeneye/Perfect Dark on the N64 or GTA IV.

The guiding blue

@Mpalm.: I'd make the argument that an RTS designed from the ground up for consoles will probably play better on the console.

StarCraft was definitely not designed for the console but maybe the new one can better be adapted for console play but would probably still be lacking nuances of the PC high-level play as it was originally designed for the PC.

okenny :)

@genbeef: Isn't Civ turn-based and therefore not an RTS?

okenny :)

@CockroachMan:
Well, FPS fans were usually PC gamers as well.. Then something called Halo launched on the Xbox :)

Stefanten

Oh! I meant to add: I don't know about that paint-brush unit selection thing. I think that sounds like a bad idea.

People will get frustrated because they cant pick out the soldiers from in between the tanks and warthogs, etc.

Maybe if they allow unit-type filtering and have a brush that can step to larger sizes. 1=unit, 2=10m radius, 3=30m, 4=screen, 5=1-km, 6=map. Or something. I don't know.
I would expect this would be too hard to implement, so I go back to my original thought: I think the brush-selection sounds like a bad idea.

zluzlutt

I really, really hope the squad AI/commands/cover system from Company of Heroes somehow finds its way into Halo Wars -- the first video I saw, while obviously very early, amounted to the two sides just standing and shooting at one another. Come to think of it, I'm going to play CoH ...

Strangelove

@genbeef: (Correct, @okenny :)) CivRev is not an RTS. Turn-based.

@dropoff: I thought C&C had a pretty good control scheme down. Maybe it could be improved, but I dont know how.

Selecting units of a class and selecting "all-units" (anywhere or at least on-screen) is a must.

(On a console) box-selecting (PC RTSs) and circle-selecting (AvP?) would be a terrible mistake.

Side-note: I really like the CivRev demo, but whats with this low-definition interface? do they have to dumb-down the high-def consoles just to match the Wii??? Please give us more screen space and shrink the minimum text size and icons, etc!

zluzlutt

@zluzlutt: I believe they are doing it as squads instead of single units like Dawn of War so it should be easy to select a squad of soldiers between warthogs etc.

Hdfisise

@Grumps: @braagh:
Motion sickness most probably. I know a lot of people who have a hard time playing FPS' or GoW even...Because of the shaky cam and whatnot.

@Barf#1: I have high hopes for this as well...Who wouldn't after seeing that awesome in-game preview before!

@Spiraltribesman: I personally don't hate Halo. Though I admit I'm not really fond of it. I tried playing Halo 2 and 3. I think I'm halfway to part 3 and will finish it in the upcoming months. I think I might asking too much since I played Bioshock first before playing it. I am going to try its online though...=)

I think the when it's ready "date" means it's up to Microsoft when it ships...Just in time for the Christmas time rush perhaps? I certainly wouldn't mind...=)

excaliburps

@Spiraltribesman: Mostly because it improved so little over its predecessor. Halo: CE was great, but the next two games just felt like the same thing, with minor additions (OMG dual-wielding!)

When CoD4 came out, the multiplayer was SO much better, offering unlockables and fun game types, unlike getting "Shotty Snipers" 300 times in a row in matchmaking.

FoxyGaz

@Hdfisise: Right, but I was referring to smaller units between larger units in a map that isnt based on a grid. IIRC, every unit in Dawn of War is in a grid (like all old RTSs) (which I'm not saying is a bad thing, btw). In C&C a unit/building can be anywhere, in any orientation, as long as it can fit. Halo Wars definitely looks like this. (I'm not sure what this is called).

So. Given this, imagine you can have two big Elephant transports parked next to each other, and have a few squads of marines sandwiched between them, using them as cover. Now, you want to move them out.

A big paint-brush would get them but it would also select both Elephants. Same with circle-select and probably box-select.
A select-all-unit-type would get the marines that you already tasked in front of the Elephants.

The only way I can think of solving this is to have a unit-type brush select.

Of course, its not the end of the world if this isn't solved. You'd just have to unit-select each to add to your selection.

I point this out because on the PC this is trivial: moving to the next unit and clicking with the mouse takes zero time.
On a console, moving to the next unit is not trivial. It's not hard but imagine having to quickly select 10 specific units that have come under fire.

I really want an RTS to work on the consoles. If they can get that to happen with a normal controller, fantastic. If they need to add a mouse, that's fine, too.

zluzlutt

@zluzlutt: Ah I get you now, A unit specific brush would actually be a pretty kick ass way to solve this and I doubt it would be too hard to implement as well.

Hdfisise

@smuckersisgood:
Envy. Fanboys envy the franchise's success altogether. They'll slam the series as being generic, horrible or been there done that. Yet, the moment it was announced that Bungie was longer a 1st party dev to M$, the first comments out of Nintendroids and Playslaves mouths were "OMG, Halo for Wii & PS3!!!" Though the fanboys were too absent minded to realize that the franchise is trademarked by M$.

Xbots do it too. "God of War sucks. All it is is a button-masher with nice graphics." Then Jaffe leaves Sony Santa Monica Studios and those people's remarks suddenly turn to; "God of War on 360 FTW!!!"

With Halo Wars, Piracy Campers (PC Fanboys) had been nagging for years that RTS' weren't suitable for consoles due to controls. Now that there's an RTS made from the ground up on console & optimized to take advantage of it's controls, they fear the thoughts of their comments being put to rest. Thus, they'll make derogatory remarks such as; "This game's gonna blow ass without a mouse & keyboard" or "I'll just wait to pirate the PC version" to make themselves feel better.

It's in most cases all abount brand/platform loyalty and rarely in pertains to the actual product.

beem

@kommanderk: Well, I can understand that the Halo 3 hype machine led you to be disappointed with it, but I don't think that some of the racist, sexist cretins that play Halo 3 can really be used as an argument against the game itself. After all, you can mute them.

@The guiding blue: Yeah, I can see that the lack of character customisation options are a bad thing in Halo. Online FPS play can be painful, but with a group of friends, I honestly can't think of one FPS game that's as much fun as Halo. It's engine allows for any number of amusing outcomes to firefights if you experiment. Where as with games such as COD 4 (And I do love COD 4), your character dies and that's it. I know that's more realistic, but it's a lot less fun when it comes to social play. Although, COD 4 does create a lot more tension :)

@FoxyGaz: I suppose you could say that Halo 2 and 3 were just a refinement of the original, but, to be fair, they really did refine the experience and Halo 3 contained all the best aspects of the previous 2 games. And yes, granted, COD online is better, but I can't ignore the feature to record and watch the game back from any angle in Halo 3. That really speaks to how much attention to detail they put into it.

@excaliburps: Haha, yeah, Bioshock is a slightly different experience to Halo 3 :D

Anyway, despite it's flaws, I love Halo 3 (as you may have noticed) and I will be playing the RTS interpretation of the Halo universe.

It's probably really late, but you guys responded to me so I thought I should respond to you, even if you don't read this!

Spiraltribesman