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Hey every1,

How do ya submit comments and posts, i wanna submit some cool shit but it wont let me, wen i click my subjects and then submit, it wont let me type anything, its gettin freakin annoying!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since the trailer was released, the time frame of events in the upcoming Halo Wars RTS have been hot topics for discussion. Did it happen before the Halo FPS games or after? Over a long period of time, or a short one? Where did those battle rifles in the trailer come from if Halo Wars is supposed to chronicle early Human-Covenant conflicts?

Now, Ensemble has published a two-page timeline for the Halo universe (one, two) that gives the backstory. Also, starting with this month's Update, they'll be posted on the front page of HaloWars.com instead of in the forums.

Currently the timeline covers the period from 2160 (early civil conflicts) through 2552 (the events of Halo 1-3). The ship featured in Halo wars, UNSC Spirit of Fire, was built in 2473 and refitted in 2520.

Curiously enough the timeline doesn't actually say when Halo Wars begins or ends, although previous statements have indicated 2531, which on the timeline corresponds to the Battle of Harvest.

Never Forget from the Halo 3 soundtrack. I have the music sheet written out couple weeks ago but never had the time to transfer it to PDF. Maybe someone would want to help me write them into music sheet to share here? I have a video of how the song goes here > http://youtube.com/watch?v=0DzQcAAQldY Please feel free to comment and make suggestions on what I sould make of this.

Avateur in the HBO forum pointed out a Halo Wars Q&A with Ensemble Studio's Graeme Devine over at GameTap. Devine is the lead designer on Halo Wars.

In addition to mentioning how Ensemble must simultaneously respect the Halo canon and being free to make the best Halo RTS game Ensemble could make, rather than the best Halo RTS game Bungie could make, the article touches on the touchy issue of console controls:

GameTap: Obviously, the control scheme is always an important subject when discussing real-time strategy games on consoles, how do you go about striking a balance of offering the depth that RTS games are known for, but at the same time, keeping the controls simple enough as to not be overwhelming?

Graeme Devine: I think this is key. When we started work on Halo Wars we started from scratch, we threw the mouse and keyboard paradigm away and rethought what it meant to control a real-time strategy game. I really think that's one of the big differentiators with Halo Wars because it allows us to bring the depth to the controller while, in our opinion, improving how controllable we can make the genre.

Although no solid date is given, Devine says that Halo Wars has the "magic in the disc" to be one of the "biggest games of 2008" so that seems to indicate fans have twelve months or less to wait before they see the first non-Bungie, non-FPS Halo game hit the shelves.

Hey can anyone email me the ochrestra version of halo theme arranged by Zaoeyo S.C. on rampancy because for some reason it won't let me download the sheet music my e-mail address is darkshot19@hotmail.com

At HaloWars.com there's a new monthly update about Halo Wars, written by Thunder. It's mostly about the game's AI:

Ultimately, the philosophy that we’ve had at Ensemble Studios is that the most fun games are when you think you might lose but don’t. The CPAI should attempt to provide the player with this challenge in each game. We want to set the difficulty levels to where most players will find a challenge, but there will be a level that can beat them if they start making mistakes.

Check out the update in the Halo Wars forum.

Bungie.net will reboot tomorrow with new features enabled. TeamXbox has an interview with Bungie.net's development lead, Chris Gossett, about the new features.

IGN has previewed one of Halo 3's previously unrevealed multiplayer maps: Isolation.

Tyson "Ferrex" Green has put up part two of his three-part series on Forge; this one is on advanced features like inventories, budgets, and quotas. If you missed part one, read that first.

Midnight at The Hushed Casket wonders if Halo 3 can overturn Halo 2's sales records.

Kikizo interviews Harter Ryan of Ensemble Studios about the secrecy surrounding Halo Wars' early development.

A midnight London launch of Halo 3 won't be permitted on Oxford Street, but will be... apparently just about everywhere else.

Major Nelson has a rundown of Halo 3 Launch Events on his blog.

PlanetXbox has details on Circuit City's Halo 3 launch plans.

From Xbox360Fanboy.

Major Nelson posts a note that the Halo Wars "First Look" trailer, clocking in at a tad under 500 Mb in High Definition trim, is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace:

Based on the Halo universe, Halo Wars introduces a new landmark in the strategy genre. Halo Wars places the player in command of human UNSC armies as they deploy for mankind’s initial deadly encounters with the Covenant Empire.

Comments indicate this is the same video that Ensemble has on their website, just in higher quality.

Dean Takahashi has an blog entry up about Microsoft's E3 after party which is well worth reading for its notes about the Xbox 360's technical problems, but it also reveals a few choice tidbits about Ensemble's RTS, Halo Wars:

This game won’t ship this year. But it looks great. It takes place in the year 2531. You see all of the characters in the Halo universe, from the Elites to the marines. You can use the analog and four buttons to control the squads and vehicles, up t o about 20 at a time. The analog stick is used to navigate a circle with menu options, kind of like the iPod scroll circle interface. The characters are small but you can make out their individual movements. The Elites yell and behave like they do in Halo. It’s like a set of miniatures.

Takahashi is still skeptical about RTS games on a console but it does sound like the game is coming together. That the game is not due out this year may explain why it didn't get headliner treatment during the press event, since Microsoft at this year's E3 Lite vowed to focus on games to be released in 2007, with very few exceptions.

This image of the UNSC Sparrowhawk accompanied Halo Wars forum admin Thunder's signature in the February 2007 monthly update on the game's progress.

The February Halo Wars update by Thunder has a lot of fuzzy, censored pictures, but we're told flat-out that the game is in a playable state, and has been played by Microsoft bigwigs like Shane Kim. Still, he reports there is "a long way to go" and there is still no officially announced release date.

One of the oft-discussed topics among those following the upcoming Halo Wars RTS game by Ensemble for the Xbox 360 console is whether or not a workable interface for a strategy game can be created for a console. Many commenters have offered that RTS games just belong on PCs to be played with mice and keyboards, mirroring the comments of many PC gamers before the release of console FPS games like GoldenEye and Halo.

What are they to say now? Now that the Command & Conquer series is also coming to the Xbox 360?

Mr Sprout over at the new Halo Wars fansite, Halo Wars Central, was able to get an interview with Dispraiser, the lead of Slipstream Productions that was working on the Halo-themed Halogen mod for Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour. Shortly before the announcement of Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 at the X06 event in Barcelona, Spain, Bungie contacted the Slipstream team with word that Microsoft's legal department wanted the team to stop working on their mod as they considered it an infringement of Microsoft's intellectual property, the Halo universe.

However, the team has not stopped working on the mod-- it just isn't Halo themed any more:

Well, it'd take the mystery out of it if I just said what our next project is, but a lot of our fans have found the secret message (rather crudely hidden) on our old homepage. I think if I just said what we were up to it'd take a lot of the fun out of making everybody find that message... But lemme just say, if you liked Halogen for more than just the Halo name, and you saw the work we put into our creations, and our faith to our motto (Semper Qualitas), then let me say that you won't be dissapointed.

For those still unclear on what actually happened with the cancellation of Halogen, read the interview.

• Next Generation: Game Trailers Hitch Up (mentions the H3 trailer)
• Marine Corps Times: Halo becomes literary blood-and-bone ballet (about the graphic novel)
• NG-Gamer: XCN Interviewed Peter Moore (Halo Wars, Bungie and Ensemble mentioned)
• Bungie.net: Halo 2 Vista Developer Diary Part Two (Vista is pretty and likes to kiss all the boys)
• Halo Wars.com: New forums for Suggestions and Haloverse Discussion.

The latter, it seems, not an actual Bungie Weekly Update; Frankie is having difficulty putting one up from his location and KP is at a loss for words.