Ensemble is being hush-hush about the details, but you should notice on their site and in the game that your Skill levels should be changed. Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with your game. In fact Ensemble promises that the system will better relfect the actual levels of players.

Some players have been noticing significant changes in skill level. Some have been going from 3 to 39, and vice versa. Ensemble states problems where players had skill levels that were significantly lower than what should have been. This is now fixed.

The reception for the update has been great so far. There’s of course complainers who want to know how the new Skill system is calcuated. I could care less personally, if they promise to offer a more balanced experience in game.

As you continue your campaign in Halo Wars, through single player or multiplayer you’ll undoubtedly be wanting to know how you’re performing. Luckily, there’s a stats available at the HaloWars community site. Along with player stats, there are more broad stats for the overall game.

Here are some interesting stats I was able to find on the page:

UNSC has won 2,672,529 matches, while the Covenant  has won 1,489,054 (guess we know who’s winning the war)

Total Game time played is closing in on the century mark. Right now it’s at 99 years, 6 months, and 25 days.

Fort Deen is the most played map, coming in at 10 years of play time so far.

I think it’s safe to say that we’re all still noobs at Halo Wars. The game has only been out a couple of weeks, so strategies are still being drawn up. All of us are still learning the strengths and weaknesses of each unit. I’m sure some of you have been playing none stop, and have a great handle on things.

Luckily, the rank and skill levels are set so I don’t have to meet you until I’m ready. The Halo Wars dev blog has released different aspects of the ranking system, and what they mean. Here are brief summaries of each system:

Player Trueskill™ - The Player Trueskill system is what is used when matchmaking for players. Every different hooper is assigned a skill number. Depending on how often, and how successful you are on a different game type, you’re Trueskill number will increase/decrease. If you want to know more details of the system, you can click here.

Skill Level - Skill level is more of a representation of your overall skills at Halo Wars. Instead of basing it off each game type, this encompasses everything. The system is based on 1-50, with 50 being the best. Your win/losses are taken into account. Also, if you leave a game for any reason, like your 360 shuts off it’s counted as a loss.

Score - Your score is more of a barometer of how experienced you are with the game. Not necessarily if you’ve won or lost. Just how much time you’ve put in, but of course winning never hurts. Here’s a graph showing the point totals, and the ranks that are associated with them.

Rank

As Halo Wars continues to most of its players, the reviews keep pouring in. They’ve been good for the most part. It’s very comforting to see that the FPS-RTS transition went through with some minor hiccups. I’ll be honest, I was having my doubts.

Halo Wars had a lot going against first. It had to make that genre transition. Not only that, console based real time strategy games are generally frowned upon. A keyboard and mouse were pretty much made for RTS’s. However, Ensemble Studios was able to pull it all together for a solid experience.

Here are some reviews of the game in case you haven’t gotten it yet.

Game Informer - 9/10: “Halo Wars does for the RTS genre what Halo did for console FPS. This is neither the most nuanced or complicated strategy game on the market, but Halo Wars succeeds as no other title before it in building a functional and fun mechanic using little more than a d-pad and some face buttons. Fantastic between-mission cutscenes highlight a story that will please any Halo junkie, and everything from the music to the Spartans’ animations are awash in the familiar themes of that fictional universe.“

Kombo - 9/10: “Like many of you, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Halo Wars. The concerns, doubts, and questions circled my gamer brain as it did yours. And while it’s not the first-person shooter experience that Bungie has delivered all these years, it is a damn good RTS game. And who better to deliver the new experience than Ensemble Studios. Nearly everything about Halo Wars is well polished: campaign, co-op and multiplayer modes, hidden skulls, solid controls, refined matchmaking, superb voice talent, engaging cut-scenes and story, and everything else that you expect from the Halo brand. Halo Wars isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly great enough to ignore the minor flaws and enjoy an amazing experience from beginning to end and well beyond with online multiplayer.”

IGN - 8.4/10: “Halo Wars deftly dodges between the hardcore micromanagement of real-time strategy and the instant gratification expected by Halo fans. Ensemble has nailed console RTS controls, but at the expense of some depth. The campaign missions often seem overly scripted and the experience doesn’t have the wide-open feel of some other RTSs. But the Halo feel is most definitely present, and serves as one of the game’s biggest strengths. The cinematic cutscenes are gorgeous, if the narrative is somewhat thin in places. Overall, Halo Wars is a fresh and expertly polished approach to the console strategy genre, and it’s a fitting goodbye from a beloved studio.”

I’ve been very impressed with reviews so far. Considering all Halo Wars was stacked up against, I think it passed with flying colors. Here’s hoping we can see the series improved upon, or maybe even a nice PC port in the future.

Halo plus real-time strategy plus gamepad controls may sound like a recipe for a franchise misfire, but Ensemble Studios has polished Halo Wars to the point of an immediately playable console title. While some may argue that, like first person shooters, RTS games should only be played on a mouse and keyboard, Ensemble has done an admirable job of nailing the controls.

You’ll move around the map with the left analog stick, zooming in and out with the right stick. Unit selection is done with the A button — hold A to select groups via a circle — but you can select all units on screen or every unit in your army with the right or left bumpers, respectively.

Your units will fire on enemy units with X, with an alternate firing mode tied to the Y button.

Unit special abilities and building options can be chosen from a pop up radial menu, giving you quick access to things like air strikes or expansion building choices. The control experience is relatively easy to wrap one’s head around, thanks to a clean, quickly loading interface.

Building management is similarly straightforward stuff. We started out with a pre-built base, one with a series of “slots” that additions like barracks and vehicle factories can be built upon. You’ll also have access to defense towers, but Halo Wars won’t devolve into a turret defense mishmash. Base support feels like less of a focus than team-to-team field combat.

On combat, you’ll have more than just Warthogs, Scorpions and Vultures to inflict damage on the UNSC side, a Spirit of Fire colony ship orbited overhead, allowing for called-in airstrikes via MAC cannons. Things get hairy? Call in some giant laser fire.

Halo Wars has some impressive visual pop to it, more colorful than when we last saw it. The game’s visual effects, in motion, look spectacular. It may not have the immediate visual appeal of something like Halo 3, with it’s micro-sized units and overhead perspective, but it looks good.

Keep your eye on Halo Wars, even if you’re not a fan of the franchise or traditionally an RTS fan. It looks and feels like a console strategy game should. When we get our hands on the Covenant next time, we’ll have a better understanding of how well it stacks up.

The plot of Halo Wars is set in 2531 where United Nations space Command discovers the forerunner artifact and the battle with the Covenant. There are two things to be noted in Halo Wars. Firstly, the events takes place 21 years prior to those of “Halo: Combat Evolved” which is already released and secondly, the first battle with the Covenant after the planet named “Harvest” had fallen to the Covenant. It is not still sure if players in Halo Wars would be able to play as the Covenant.

Halo Wars is still under development phase and I will notify you whenever it releases. Here some impressive Halo Wars Videos:

This is a Halo Wars gameplay video of 10 minutes, very cool to see!

Very cool video you can’t miss! Halo WARS !!!

Another very cool Halo Wars trailer.

April Madness Halo Wars Tournament (of destruction) Destructed

It always sucks to start off with bad news, but better to give it to you straight.  I’m sorry to say that the April Madness Tournament (of destruction) has been postponed, probably until later in the development schedule.  I know you were all set to cheer for “Team Who is Chris Stark” and “Team Swanges”, so this is going to come as a major disappointment to you.  We have some really cool stuff that will soon be added to the game so we’re going to hold off for now.  It only makes sense to have a tournament (of destruction) when we can unleash the game’s full arsenal upon each other right?

As it was, our practice rounds were a lot of fun and teams were using somewhat different strategies which is encouraging.  Scorpion tanks were proving to be very strong in the build we were using, mostly due to a bug with an anti-vehicle unit doing less damage than it was supposed to.  Air units were also pretty popular, but because of their fantastic hit and run capabilities that could cripple a player’s Command Center, their power has been nerfed somewhat.  A small group of these units was able to destroy a key building or two in a poorly defended base and then flee.  It’s a good strategy that should be viable, but it was just a little too effective.

Of the strategies that I had been trying I had two that were working out pretty well for me.  The first was a delayed rush with infantry.  The real strength of this strategy is that it was generally unexpected, unless my opponent(s) were scouting well, because Scorpions were so popular.  It takes time to get Scorpions on the field though, and infantry are relatively easy to start training.  I’d concentrate on Marines but hold them back and try to time it so that they’d attack while my enemy was happily booming towards Scorpions or whatnot.  By holding them back I make sure that I’ve got enough units to really do some damage when I do attack, and if all goes well the other team will hopefully be lulled into thinking that I’m busy booming my economy like they are.  I want my opponent to invest in a long term strategy instead of defenses.

I’d have to be doing a good job of scouting so I’d know when to attack.  Attack too late and he’s got high end units that will be tough for my infantry to take out, too early and he might be able to recover and fend me off if I don’t have enough units.  When my infantry arrive at his base I’d try and kill a key structure, like a Supply Pad or Vehicle Depot, while continuing to stream in more reinforcements and booming in my unmolested part of the map.  There’s a little more to the attack than I can safely say, generally revolving around an ability that Marines have, but that’s the gist of it.

I think the real reason I had success with this strategy was the popularity of Scorpions, which take a solid investment of time and resources to field.  It was generally a safe bet that’s exactly what the other side was doing, so I could get away with this.  When I failed with this strategy it was a glorious fiery end to a short game.  Failure usually meant that I was behind economically and would soon get rolled unless my ally carried me on his/her back.

The other strategy that I used is growing in popularity, as it’s a pretty obvious counter to a Scorpion heavy force.  I’ll have to leave that for a later time as it makes use of a new unit that I can’t mention.

Halo Wars Alpha

Yup, as you may have seen mentioned on a couple of sites, we are doing an alpha test with some internal Microsoft folks.  I’m afraid I can’t talk about it at this time.