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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

• Next Generation: Game Trailers Hitch Up (mentions the H3 trailer)
• Marine Corps Times: Halo becomes literary blood-and-bone ballet (about the graphic novel)

A few more articles continue to pop up about the new Halo universe works being done by Wingnut Interactive and Ensemble Studios:

• The Record.com: Don't Call Them Games
• Dallas News.com: Playing on two fronts

Stuff has a story by Gerard Campbell on how the formation of Wingnut Interactive, working on a future series of digital entertainment products in Bungie's Halo universe, is bringing New Zealand into the heart of the next-generation gaming industry.