This is what happens when the EZ Pass lane isn't working.
(Credit: Microsoft )With the March 3 release of Halo Wars for the Xbox 360, one of gaming's most popular brands took a potentially risky step into uncharted waters. Instead of a twitch-based first-person shooter, Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game. This complex genre, perhaps best described as Stratego meets the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has befuddled mainstream gamers for years, even with occasional hits such as Command & Conquer and Starcraft. (Despite having covered the video game business off-and-on for the past 10 years, I'm still an RTS novice.)
Having had a chance to get some serious hands-on time with Halo Wars during the week before its release, we were actually kind of shocked to find that the game was, for the most part, simple enough that even we could understand it. Most real-time strategy games require players to move lots of little soldiers around a big map, controlling a whole army rather than a single character. But to get those soldiers, one must first gather natural resources, construct buildings, and even research new technology. Of course, this all happens in "real time," so while you're trying to figure out how to do one thing, the rest of your miniempire is getting blown up somewhere across town.
Halo Wars automates much of the tedious resource gathering and construction, to instead focus on the combat, which is what Halo fans want anyway. Most of the game's levels involve building new soldiers and tanks, waiting until you have dozens of them hanging around your base, and then telling everyone to blindly rush the enemy while you sit back and hope for the best. That said, the simplified gamepad-friendly controls may even be a little too stripped down. Telling everyone to attack one target is easy, getting some guys to go right and some other guys to go left is much more of a challenge.
While Halo Wars has gotten a mostly positive critical reception during its first few days of release, we'll have to wait and see if the millions of gamers who bought 2007's Halo 3 are willing to try a Halo game without a first-person point-of-view and without a star turn by series protagonist Master Chief.
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It goes without saying that in addition to a stellar reputation for academic innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is renowned for its geeky pranks. The best-known of these was perhaps the time when students decorated the campus' Great Dome to look like Star Wars robot R2D2 in celebration of the legendary film series' first prequel in 1999.
But Star Wars prequels are so last decade. These days, it's all about the much-hyped Xbox 360 title Halo 3. And why prank your own campus when you can pull a fast one on those snotty Crimsons next door?
Consequently, MIT pranksters headed over to the neighboring campus of Harvard University and decorated Harvard Yard's legendary statue of founder John Harvard to look like a Spartan warrior. Enough said.
Click here to see the end result.
A caption in the MIT student newspaper, The Tech, explained the full prank: "The back of the helmet, which is worn by the protagonist of the game, Master Chief, was labeled with 'Master Chief in Training.' The statue was decorated with an assault rifle (bullet count of 2E), as well as a Beaver emblem on the right shoulder." (In case you didn't know, MIT's mascot is the beaver.)
Oh, Boston. What do they put in your water, anyway?
(Credit:
Mimoco)
If you love Halo 3 but hate staying up till midnight to attend over-the-top launch parties, there's hope for you yet.
Mimoco has announced its line of Halo-themed Mimobot USB flash drives, so you can now experience Halo without all that gameplay. The drives are available for preorder on Mimoco's Web site.
The thumbdrives are available in three styles: the Master Chief Mimobot, the Blue Spartan Mimobot, and the Red Spartan Mimobot. Irregardless of the style, all three USB devices look like they're stuck head-first in your USB port when you're using them.
They're pretty pricey. The 1GB version costs $50, the 2GB version costs $70, and the 4GB version goes for $110. The Halo 3 game itself sells for $60.
Josh Lowensohn is the odds-on favorite in the office to buy all three of these USB drives.
There's still another week to go for Halo 3, but you can enjoy some Spartan combat early with WizKids' Halo ActionClix miniatures game. A lot like WizKids' Heroclix and Horrorclix games, Halo ActionClix (or HaloClix) is a tabletop strategy game that lets you control inch-high characters and units from the Halo universe. Instead of dealing with complicated stat sheets and strange characteristics, every HaloClix character's twistable base and card comes with all the information you need to control them.
Smile for the Chief
Gamers who preorder Halo 3 at Target will get an exclusive two-pack of HaloClix, including an assault rifle-wielding master Chief and an energy sword-wielding Arbiter. These two figures are hardly enough for an epic tabletop battle, though, so if you really want to build your miniature army of Spartans or Arbiters you'll need to pick up HaloClix booster packs. The packs contain four or five figures each, along with a pair of tiny dice, game instructions, and a fold-out game map. The packs will retail for $10 or $11 each, and start hitting stores this Wednesday.
Prototype Master Chief Halo Actionclix model. Don't worry, we got permission.
If the Halo video games, action figures, and dubious body armor aren't enough Master Chief goodness for you, then you'll be happy to know that the alien-fighting supersoldier is getting his own collectible miniatures game. WizKids, makers of the HeroClix and HorrorClix miniatures games, is creating a new "-Clix" game based on Halo. Halo ActionClix will feature dozens of tiny, plastic Master Chiefs and Spartan soldiers, each equipped with tiny, plastic weapons, and able to pilot not-quite-as-tiny plastic vehicles.
Like the other -Clix games, Halo ActionClix is a tactical tabletop game where players can collect tiny figures from starter and booster packs. The games' names come from the clicking wheel in every figure's base. The wheel displays that figure's abilities and statistics, and it changes by "clicking" the wheel when they heal or take damage. It's a handy system that does away with countless rules books and databases for character stats.
Halo ActionClix won't be ready until this fall, so you'll have to wait a while before raising your tiny army of Master Chiefs. Considering that Halo 3 is also scheduled to launch later this year, perhaps we'll see a Collector's Edition of the system-selling game that comes with its own unique Halo ActionClix figure. WizKids could not comment on this prospect, but it wouldn't be surprising; the Collector's Edition of City of Villains came with its own set of HeroClix.
Star Wars constructible card game prototypes.
That's not the only collectible goodness coming from WizKids later this year. The company is also releasing a Star Wars "constructible card game." It's a tabletop strategy game like Halo ActionClix, only instead of tiny plastic figures, it uses perforated plastic cards that are punched out and assembled into TIE Fighters, X-Wings, and other Star Wars ships. It's similar to WizKids' Pirates constructible card game, only it's set in space and there's less pillaging. I can't get enough Star Wars (of the original trilogy, at least), so until LucasArts finally announces a new TIE Fighter game, this will have to tide me over.
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