For a limited time and only at participating retailers, Microsoft is offering a Halo bundle that includes:

* Xbox 360 Pro console with 60GB hard drive
* A copy of Halo 3
* A copy of Halo Wars

It’s going for $449, which is $50 over the regular RRP. Although, as noted yesterday, you can get all the above – plus Mortal Kombat vs DC – at GAmetraders for the same price.

Anyone seen any better 360 deals?

“Human error” is blamed. It covers singleplayer. It covers multiplayer. It covers Trueskill leaderboards. It covers all matchmaking data. Gone. Says the Major:

This was human error related to Xbox LIVE servers. It is not a broader service issue and will not impact other titles or Xbox LIVE experiences. The Xbox LIVE team is investigating the cause to prevent this from occurring in the future.

Larry goes on to apologise, on behalf of Xbox Live …

“for the incident and any frustration Halo Wars players have experienced in having their statistics disappear from the Leaderboards. You can rest assured that we’re putting processes in place to prevent this from happening in the future.

Halo Wars Leaderboards [Major Nelson, thanks Brian B.]

While the first round of Halo Wars downloadable content focused on new game modes, the Historic Battle pack is all about delivering new places to strategically kill the enemy. You’ll get two new 1v1 maps in Barrens and Blood River; Memorial Basin, which is a 2v2 map full of wide open spaces; and Glacial Ravine, a large map bisected by snow-capped mountains, perfect for 3v3 play, as seen above.

The pack also comes with four brand new achievements. Add up to 100 points to your gamerscore with:
• Tour Coming Through: Hot drop 50 squads to your Covenant Leader in a single game on Memorial Basin (30 points)
• Never Leave a Man Behind: Finish a game with 5000 net resources contributed to your teammates on Barrens (15 points)
• Drain Cleaner: Kill 20 enemy squads with a continuous Covenant Leader Power on Memorial Basin (30 points)
• Killjoy: Disrupt 5 active Leader Powers in a single game on Blood River (25 points)

The Historic Battle add-on is due out on July 21st for 800 Microsoft points.

Memorial Basin

Blood River

Barrens

Devine was the lead designer and lead writer on Halo Wars before Microsoft decided to shut Ensemble Studios down. Earlier this week Devine confirmed that he is working at Apple in the iPhone group.

While he has declined to say what he is doing, he mentions coding and preparing for Monday’s World Wide Developers Conference on his Twitter page.

Last year, Devine was named one of the hot 100 game developers by Edge, ranking at number 36.

Devine is likely best known for his work on The 7th Guest and 11th Hour at Trilobyte, which he formed in 1990. He later went on to work at id and then Ensemble Studios, where he worked on Age of Empires III and Halo Wars.

While no one has said he is working on games at Apple’s iPhone group, it stands to reason that such a prominent and talented game developer wouldn’t leave his area of expertise.

Fortunately we only have until Monday to find out. Here’s hoping we get to see something developed in-house by Devine for the iPhone at the WWDC.

Announced last month, the Strategic Options pack introduces three new single and multiplayer skirmish game types to help players play out the war between humanity and the Covenant. Keepaway Mode is basically Capture the Flag with a free-roaming Forerunner Sentinel in place of a flag; Tug of War Mode has players trying to build the biggest army; and Reinforcement Mode, which pits players against successive waves of enemies with an ever-changing set of units at their disposal.

All of this new gameplay comes at a price, however, and that price is 800 Microsoft points, which seems a little bit on the pricey side for just game modes. Still, if you love your Halo Wars and are looking to squeeze a bit more out of it, Strategic Options is your downloadable content.

Three new multiplayer modes are making their way to Halo Wars courtesy of the Strategic Options Game Add-On Pack.

Available “in the coming weeks”, the Strategic Options pack adds several new ways to experience Halo from a top down perspective online against your friends. In Keepaway Mode, players struggle to capture a free-roaming Forerunner Sentinel in what is effectively the Halo Wars version of capture the flag. Tug of War mode is all about having more units, buildings, and resources than the other player. Finally, Reinforcement Mode has both sides receiving wave after wave of new units, adjusting their strategies to cope with the ever increasing forces on both sides.

The add-on also adds 100 points worth of multiplayer achievements for completing various objectives in the new game types:

· “One and Done” (30 points): Score the winning point in a game of Keepaway against Legendary A.I.’s
· “Pull Hard, Pull Deep” (20 points): Win and never trail in a Tug of War game
· “Freak on a Streak” (20 points): Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game
· “Living Loving Bug” (30 points): Obtain a Scarab during a Reinforcement game

Look for the Strategic options Game Add-On Pack to arrive sometime soon for some sort of price.

We had some Halo goodies to give away last week. Asked you to write a Halo themed haiku. The comp’s closed now, so let’s find out who won the main prize Xbox 360 console and the runners-up copies of Halo Wars.

And the winner of the main prize (Halo Wars Limited Edition game, Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 console and Halo 3 Legendary Edition game) is:
James C
Saving planet earth,
Chief fights through two galaxies.
Must pee in his suit.

The two runners-up, who each take home the Halo Wars Limited Edition game are:
James O’Connor
Korean copy;
Twenty bucks on Play Asia,
Don’t understand plot.

Trent
Am I really a noob?
I keep getting killed; they laugh;
they crouch on my face.

Congratulations guys, we’ll be in touch shortly to arrange delivery of your prizes. And thanks to everyone who entered and made selecting the winners such a difficult job. Look out for more competitions on Kotaku soon!

Today is your last chance to win a copy of Halo Wars, plus the Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 console and the Halo 3 Legendary Edition Xbox 360 game (cat helmet included). If you like some real-time strategy, some first-person shooting and some Halo-ing, you will want to enter our Halo Wars comp over here.

Microsoft’s latest foray into the Halo universe has surpassed the million copy sold mark, making Halo Wars the best-selling console real-time strategy game of the current generation.

Nearly three weeks after the game’s initial launch in Asia, Halo Wars has sold more than one million copies worldwide, which Microsoft says makes it the best-selling real-time strategy title on the current crop of consoles. Of course, real-time strategy titles haven’t historically done too well on consoles in the first place, but still, a million is a pretty big number. Microsoft also offers up some more big numbers with the announcement. Did you know that 2.6 million multiplayer matches have been played since Halo Wars launched, or that 118 years worth of time have been spent playing the game on Xbox Live? Well now you do. You’re welcome.

Putting Halo in the name of your game certainly does move a lot of copies, though nowhere near as many as an actual Halo first-person shooter title. To put things in perspective, Halo 3 had 1.7 million preorders.

Let’s run through those Halo Wars prizes again: Halo Wars Limited Edition Xbox 360 game, Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 console, Halo 3 Legendary Edition Xbox 360 game. Plus two runners-up get the game. Sound good? Write a Halo haiku and try your luck. Just make sure you enter over at the original post.