Halo Wars News

Halo Wars News

Halo Wars Finished

Halo Wars

Halo Wars if officially complete and is being manufactured currently.  This means a demo will be available February 5th.  The demo includes the first two campaign missions as well as one multiplayer map but it looks like it will only be against A.I. in the demo.  Also there is a video documentary.

Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Halo Wars Update

“Halo Wars Update 01.30.07

A lot of you may be familiar with the fine art of motion capture (mocap), as it has been used in the movie and game industry for a number of years now. It is
the process by which real world movements are recorded and used to make
3D models move in a fluid and realistic way. Like Gollum from the Lord
of the Rings movies, who was a 3D model except for the occasional time
he spat when he said his lines. The spit was all Andy Serkis who was
the actor providing the voice and movement for Gollum.

Shortly before Christmas, Ensemble Studios Producer Bill Jackson and Artist Woody Smith went to the House of Moves in Los Angeles to run through a variety of motion capture tests to see where it could be used in Halo Wars. As part of the tests, actors performed scenes from a game cinematic. It’s intentionally kept dark in the House of Moves for these sessions, so it makes taking pictures a little difficult, but here are some shots from the session inside the House of Moves taken by Billy Jack:

Image 1: This is one of the actors who performed a number of different roles during the Mocap session, everything from Marine to Elite. The camera’s flash
reflects off of the ping pong like balls on his suit that are used to record his movements. It is not at all related to any newly captured covenant technology…at least that we can tell you about.

ILYBS
Image 2: These are the funky leg extensions that the performers strap on when they turn into bad ass Elites, and not a crazy back scratcher.
ILYMB
Image 3: ES Artist Woody Smith sits in the director’s chair and does his best impression of Spielberg, instructing the actors on the scene they are performing.
BMFH
Image 4: This is a Mocap Warthog. It doesn’t look like much but this plywood and wheel could rock back and forth, movement that was also recorded in addition to the actors, so the 3D model of the Warthog would also rock in real time.

Image 5: This is the real time display that showed the movement of the models inside the Warthog as they performed.

Source: Halo Wars
Forums

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Halo Wars FAQ
“Q: What is “Halo Wars”?
A: “Halo Wars” is the next big real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, creators of Age of Empires. Designed exclusively for the Xbox 360, “Halo Wars” allows you to take charge of the human UNSC armies and see the Halo universe from a totally new perspective.
Q: Where does “Halo Wars” take place in the Halo timeline?
A: “Halo Wars” takes place before Halo 1 during the UNSC’s first deadly encounters with the Covenant.
Q: Can you reveal anything about “Halo Wars” storyline?
A: Players will lead the crew of the UNSC’s “Spirit of Fire” from initial skirmishes to an all out war against the evil Covenant.
Q: Will I be able to play as the Covenant?
A: Stay tuned.
Q: Why is “Halo” being made into an RTS game?
A: Warthogs are cool. Scorpions are cool. Controlling lots of Warthogs and Scorpions and sending them into battle is really, really cool.

We’ve been big fans of Halo for years at Ensemble Studios, and when we sat down to discuss our next project we thought Halo would be absolutely perfect as an RTS on the Xbox 360.

Q: When will “Halo Wars” be available?
A: Stay tuned.
Q: Will I be able to play Halo Wars on Xbox 360 and PC?
A: Halo Wars is for the Xbox 360 exclusively.
Q: Is the trailer pre-rendered?
A: Yes, and it’s based around our world concepts and uses lots of in-game models. The sound and music were done at Ensemble Studios as well. Props to our friends at Blur for bringing it all together and making it really shine.
Q: Other RTS games that have transitioned to console have had issues with controls, how will “Halo Wars” improve on the formula?
A: “Halo Wars” was created for the Xbox 360 from the ground up, which meant we didn’t have to make compromises or shoe-horn in artifacts from a Windows PC game. We were able to take all the best aspects of RTS games, make them work perfectly on the Xbox 360, and exclude the rest.
Q: Where can I learn more about other Halo games?
A: Our friends at Bungie, the creators of the Halo Universe, have lots of information about Halo. Check them out here: www.bungie.net.”

Source: Halo Wars

Monday, January 29th, 2007