There's an embarassment of riches in Halo-related news out of X06:

Xbox.com has put up an item on the Halo Wars announcement; there's one particularly interesting tidbit there that places the game at the beginning of the human-Covenant conflict:

"Halo Wars" places the player in command of human UNSC armies as they deploy for mankind's first deadly encounter with the enemy Covenant forces.

Since real Bungie fans don't trust a word that is said about the Halo franchise, or indeed any Bungie game, unless it comes straight from Bungie, KP has now posted at Bungie.net to give the official imprimatur to the heretofore scurrilous rumors spread in Spain by Peter Moore and Peter Jackson.

To wit:

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.

Those of you who thought that behind the closure of the Halogen project, a three-year-long attempt to make an unofficial mod for Command & Conquer Generals, lay a more sinister purpose, your suspicions have been confirmed. Ensemble Studios, creators of Microsoft's real-time strategy series Age of Empires, has announced Halo Wars, a real-time strategy game set in the Halo universe. The game will be developed in collaboration with Bungie and released for the PC and the Xbox 360.