If you remember with our last contest, I promised we’d have another one soon enough, and here it is- Ripten’s giving you a chance to win a free code for the Halo Wars Flaming Warthog! But this definitely won’t be the last contest we hold- the prizes will only get better with time, mon frêre. This code was only available for those that preordered Halo Wars. Of course, the last method of contest entry was a disaster, and since this is such a trivial prize, I figure the method of entry should be trivial as well. Hit the jump to see how you can get your hands on this code.

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A great show of new game releases for the first week of March. Of course the biggest release of the week is Microsoft’s RTS take on the Halo universe, Halo Wars, but there are plenty of other goodies hitting stores this week including MLB 2K9, Sonic and the Black Knight and Tom Clancy’s HAWX. Oh, and don’t forget Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game, I’m picking that one up fo sho. Hit the jump for the full list of new game releases and my pick of the week (not Grey’s Anatomy, I was only kidding). Read more…

I’ve never been a RTS fan, especially when the genre tries to break into the console market.  At best there is a distinct sense of a lack of control in the game, and at worst it’s unplayable.  Obviously, any excitement for Halo Wars was lost on me.  Recently, however, I got to reminiscing about the entire Halo franchise and how substantially things have changed over the course of it’s history, many of them in part due to the franchise’s own innovations.

Part of what got me to thinking about all of this was that it’s pretty much the same way I felt about first-person shooters on consoles before I played Halo.  A controller would never hold a candle to a mouse and keyboard.  There is more accuracy with a mouse than a game pad and getting weapons and items would always be quicker on a keyboard when you can just press one button for whatever weapon you needed.  Hell, at that time I was very much not an Xbox fan. Read more…

The fellas over at JoyStiq put together this video of the new Halo 3 Mythic Map pack, which will come included with the Halo Wars CE and will eventually be released to the XBLM sometime this spring. The video is pretty tight and gives us a great look inside the three new maps: Orbital, Assembly and Sandbox. WATCH THE VIDEO HOMIES!

Ensemble Studio’s RTS twist on the Halo universe, Halo Wars, is now available for Xbox Live Gold Subscribers to download and try out for themselves. In the demo, players will be able to play the first two campaign missions and the Skirmish mode on one of the 14 multiplayer maps. Weighing a heavy 1.4GB, the Halo Wars demo might take a bit to download, but hey it’s free, so go ahead and start that download.

Halo Wars will officially be hitting stores on March 3rd with two versions: the standard version and the limited edition version, which will contain three news maps for Halo 3.

Source: Xbox.com

During its CES 2009 keynote, Microsoft announced that the Halo Wars demo would be arriving to the Xbox Live Marketplace on February 5, just a few weeks before the actual game hits stores on February 28.

Being a fan of the Halo series, I’m kind of skeptical about this game because it’s not an FPS. I’m glad to hear there’s a demo coming out to see if I’d like it.

Source: Kombo

For you Halo fanatics out there, the Halo Wars Limited Collector’s Edition – which is bursting at the seams with Halo goodness – is now available for preorder. I’m not crazy about plunking down $80 for a game, but I have to admit, there’s some pretty sweet stuff here. Hit the jump to read all about it. Read more…

The Ensemble Studios CGI department has definitely been working overtime cranking out stunning Halo Wars cinematic masterpieces, but what about the “real-time” aspect of the highly anticipated real-time strategy? Ask and you shall receive.

Here’s a brand new campaign focused video demonstration narrated by Halo Wars’ lead developer, Graeme Devine. It gives us some insight into the game’s straight forward interface design, the studio’s commitment to delivering an authentic Halo experience, as well as a brief glimpse of “The Flood.” Hit the jump for the video. Read more…

A new Halo Wars trailer has popped up out of New Zealand. I think I heard something somewhere about this whole “Halo” business, so I thought maybe somebody might be interested in watching it. We’ve plopped it here on our site just for those few. Read more…

The steady flow of information about the units in the upcoming RTS, Halo Wars, is slowly beginning. Ensemble Studios have now revealed the Warthog and the Fire Base (above). Read more…

According to the folks over at the Angry Pixel, their source at Microsoft informs them that the upcoming Halo RTS, Halo Wars, will make its way to PC as well as Xbox 360 and feature cross-platform play via Microsoft’s Games for Windows – LIVE. Read more…