GamePlay Unlimited

A new video documentary featuring the Spartans from Halo Wars.

The soundtrack to Halo Wars is set to release on February 17th through Nile Rodgers' Sumthing Else Music Works record label. The OST is based on the game and was composed by Stephen Rippy of Ensemble Studios and performed by the FILMHarmonic Orchestra and Choir Prague. "“For Halo Wars I wanted to write music that fit both the size of the story and its sense of discovery,” said Stephen Rippy, Ensemble Studios Music & Sound Director and Composer for Halo Wars. “Each of the various worlds in the game feels a little different; each of the main characters brings something to the mix. More than anything else, it was important that these tracks fit comfortably into the existing Halo universe. I hope they’ll take the listener to some new places as well.”" Hit the jump for the tracks listing. Track Listing: 1. Spirit of Fire 2. Bad Here Day 3. Perspective 4. Money Or Meteors 5. Flollo 6. Just Ad Nauseum 7. Unusually Quiet 8. Flip And Sizzle 9. Put The Lady Down 10. Six-Armed R...

The release date for Halo Wars had been "early 2009" for quite some time, and with early 2009 bearing down on us rather quickly we were wondering if the game would ever get a launch date. Cue Microsoft, the company has announced today via GamerScroe Blog that Halo Wars will launch March 3rd in the United States (and the rest of North & South America), Japan on February 26th, and Europe on February 27th. Why the U.S. gets a Halo game last is beyond me, but at least we have a solid date now. Pre-orders are available at most major retailers now for the regular or collector's editions.

Halo Wars will be available early next year, to tide you over we have some new screenshots and cutscene art! More images after the jump.

For those of you who are Halo and RTS fans, Halo Wars must be close to the second coming. Just announced today, Halo Wars will be getting a special edition that includes many things, in particular the upcoming Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3 from Bungie Studios. Here is a list of what the extra $20 (MSRP $79.99) will get you: Three New "Halo 3" Multiplayer Maps - Be one of the first to experience the Mythic Map Pack from Bungie which includes three new maps, "Assembly," "Orbital" and "Sandbox" Halo Wars: Genesis- a beautiful graphic novel by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine and Eric Nylund chronicling the first military campaign against the Covenant. The novel centers around the Sprit of Fire on a mission to discover why the Covenant are so interested in the world of Harvest Unique In-game Vehicle - "Honor Guard" Wraith Six Leader Cards - Leaders possess elite skills which can turn the tides of battle Spirit of Fire Patch - Start the journey as an o...

The news that Microsoft was closing Age of Empires and Halo Wars producer Ensemble shocked quite a few people, but it also allowed the press to do some digging through their skeleton-ridden closets, and Gamasutra found some very interesting things. According to Gamasutra , from 2006-2007 Ensemble was working on a MMO based in the Halo universe. The studio had even been hirring for an MMO project in early 2006. According to the website, the MMO was most likely internally cancelled in mid to late 2007 for reasons unknown. As you can see from the images and concepts, the Halo MMO had a very similar layout to most MMOs out now including World of Warcarft. Talents at the bottom, health and "mana" at the top left among other similarities. One can begin to wonder, what if this had been completed? I guess we will never know.

Rumors earlier today had been speculating that Microsoft was gearing up to close Ensemble Studios after the completion of Halo Wars, the upcoming RTS for the Xbox 360. Gamespot now reports that the rumors are indeed true and Ensemble will be closed following the release of Halo Wars. Ensemble was also the developer behind the Age of Empires series. "' The team at Ensemble has made invaluable contributions to the games industry with their Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games and with the highly anticipated release of Halo Wars," the publisher said in a statement. "This decision does not reflect at all on Ensemble’s talent or the quality of Halo Wars--in fact, many people who have had a chance to test drive Halo Wars agree that it is on track to being a fantastic game.'" As for the support of Halo Wars post-launch, Microsoft has stated that it will continue. The "leadership team" from Ensemble will create a new team and continue to support the ...