The press event saved the best for last, in an almost Steve Jobsian "just one more thing" sort of way, with a trailer for Ensemble Studios' upcoming Xbox 360 title, Halo Wars.

It features a battle between Human and Covenant forces, as well as Spartans other than the Master Chief. The latter, of course, has been a fan request for nearly five years; and the former, I can only assume, means either the game is set in a time period before the close of Halo 2, or that the postulated human-Covenant alliance against the Flood never actually occurs.

No indication of whether or not the Spartan group referred to in the trailer as "Omega" bears any relation whatsoever to the RvB character of the same name.

The trailer has a link to www.halowars.com. Some users have reported problems with the site, but so far they have pages for downloading their trailer and a FAQ, which mentions that Halo Wars is an Xbox 360 exclusive, not a PC title as well as I posted earlier. There are also forums and a gallery of screenshots.