IGN previews the Halo RTS Halo Wars, which is expected to be released in 2008. Halo Wars is set 20 years before the first Halo game. Ensemble Studios, the deleoper of Halo Wars, spent six months to make the RTS controls console-friendly. While there are no Spartan squads in the demo, they are expected to appear in the final game.
The good news for Halo Wars fans who have been hanging in there waiting for more information and or images from the game is that Ensemble Studios will be showing a small demo of the game for select members of the press at E3.
While Halo FPS' get a great deal of hype and attention, it's still very much unknown how much of that fanbase will be interested in a point and click RTS as well.
RTS games on consoles don't have the best history for quality and sales, though it has been improving. However, BFME2 has only sold about 255k in America and CNC3 won't have sales data available for a week or two.
This came is severely under rated. The Halo fanbase is time and time again looked down upon even though it has shown to be rabid for Halo content. I would estimate this to top out at the very least 2.5mil lifetime.
Anyone that down bids me is just against Halo. To add further proof that it will succeed, games like BFME2 and CnC3 are spectacular for RTS on the 360. If Halo Wars is even half as good it will have great reviews. This is a must buy here and irl.
Copies of BFME 2 sold like crazy on 360 even though console gamers weren't familiar with the first one. I think that with the support of the Halo brand Halo Wars will far outdo a meager 1.67 million copies throughout its lifetime.
IMO , anything with a Halo attached to it will sell for at least 2 million before you run to the negative button , think of it there is like 6 million Halo fanboys having 33% buy this game sounds just about right if not a understatement.
Yea...... Trebuchets were really annoying. :P No one would ever really expect a good rts on a console. Mybe the game would require a wireless keyboard in which you have to pay to link up to your xbox? It seems like big-game companies with games on the inernet are wanting to scrounge up all of the money that people have just so we can get all of their extra content.
I think that Halo Wars is going to be a very touchy game- I think that if it doesnt play well, it will be harder for Master Chief to become Bungie's and Microsoft's Mario. -Stick Sparton 117 on any game box and it sells, kind-of-thing. Lets hope that this doesnt happen like that. I bet Red vs. blue would have fun with this game, given we get individual team colors and good controls, along with zoom-down-and-close-up to the battle :P
There are actually several RTS attempts on console--none of them successful.
jaded_alyx, you refer to Battle For Middle Earth II (BFMEII), which was decently rated on PC but didn't sell anything on Xbox 360. The control scheme was actually decent (they figured out ways to use an Xbox 360 controller to call up build orders instead of using a pointer and clicking on things on the screen). You can download the demo on XBL.
The controls were workable, but partly because BFMEII was a dumbed down RTS. If you were trying to play something with lots of micro-management, say Warcraft III, the controls would've been unworkable because you simply couldn't select specific units fast enough and use specific abilities.
However for RTS games like BFMEII and C&C, the control scheme can be workable because the games require no tactics--you just attack move (if you don't play RTS games, that means you mass an army, move them to a place on the map to engage the enemy, and sit and wait until they exchange fire til one side dies). If you don't need to micromanage your units, then the console may work. Unfortunately, from previous Age of Empires games, I can see Halo Wars being a dumbed down RTS where you just attack move. Mass trebuchet anyone?
Halo Wars, is looking like it would be a really good game. i just dont know if they made the right move putting it on the 360. I would buy it if it came to the pc, which, I hope it will, because it is extremely difficult for someone to make an rts for a console. The last one i remember was Starcraft for the N64, and, maybe, Pikmin, if you think that counts. (G-cube) Thing is, having an rts on a console is just awkward, not just for the gamers, the programmers too. Did Ensemble Studios bite off more than they could chew? I think im waiting for a demo. You just cant be sure.
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