Halo Wars Wages RTS on 360

The creators of the Age of Empires series are making a brand new Halo-themed RTS for the Xbox 360. First images inside.

While Master Chief is still getting ready for his final showdown with the alien forces in his first Xbox 360 game, Halo 3, Microsoft is also prepping a new Halo game that takes you back to before the events in Halo: Combat Evolved.

Halo Wars is a real-time strategy from the developers at Ensemble Studios - the same people behind Microsoft's successful Age of Empires series.

The game takes place before the first game, during the invasion by those dastardly Covenant. Ensemble hasn't confirmed yet whether you're going to be able to play as the Covenant, but it seems highly likely, even if only in online multiplayer modes.

Halo Wars will be unique in that it's the first RTS designed from the start as an Xbox 360-only game. The closest we've come till now was EA's Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II, which was completely overhauled for the console from its PC original. But this time, Ensemble has had the Xbox 360 in mind from the start.

If you're wondering why Halo is being turned into an RTS, you're not alone. Ensemble explains it like this: "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."

There's no release date yet for Halo Wars, but you can find out more about it at the newly launched official site.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo