Those looking to continue their Halo Wars escapades will be happy to hear that there is a Historic Battle DLC pack on its way

Featured in the Historic Battle pack are 4 new maps for players to wage war on. There will be two 1v1 maps included in the pack entitled Barrend and Blood River, one 2v2 map entitled Memorial Basin, and one 3v3 map called Glacial Ravine.

Additionally, the pack will come bundled with 4 new achievements totaling 100 Gamer Points. Below are said achievements:

• Tour Coming Through: Hot drop 50 squads to your Covenant Leader in a single game on Memorial Basin (30 points)
• Never Leave a Man Behind: Finish a game with 5000 net resources contributed to your teammates on Barrens (15 points)
• Drain Cleaner: Kill 20 enemy squads with a continuous Covenant Leader Power on Memorial Basin (30 points)
• Killjoy: Disrupt 5 active Leader Powers in a single game on Blood River (25 points)

For screenshots of the rest of the maps, hit up the read link below.

Read (Kotaku)

It seems the Strategic Options DLC pack for Halo Wars has officially hit Xbox Live for all to have. What’s included in the pack, you say? Well, thanks to Destructoid we have the entire contents listed below.

You’ll get 3 new game modes:

Keepaway: Teams need to capture a free-roaming Sentinel three times to win. Halo War’s version of Capture the Flag.

Tug of War: Victory is determined by the amount of units, buildings and resources that are left at the end of the round.

Reinforcement Mode: Units are provided in waves.

And 4 new achievements totalling 100 Gamerpoints:

One and Done: Score the winning point in a game of Keepaway against Legendary A.I.’s

Pull Hard, Pull Deep: Win and never trail in a Tug of War game

Freak on a Streak: Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game

Living Loving Bug: Obtain a Scarab during a Reinforcement game

And best of all it’s only 800 Microsoft Points. Wait, 800 Microsoft Points? That’s $10 dollars, right? And you don’t even get 1 new map? Is this some kind of joke?

Perhaps Microsoft is testing us to see who the real Halo fans are. Then again, probably not.

It seems that not one, not two, but three new game studios have emerged from the ashes of the late Ensemble Studios.

This time, former Ensemble dev Dusty Monk takes the ropes and announces the launch of his new game studio, Windstorm Studios.

Theres no concrete details of what their first project will be, but they describe it as:

A better online game – a game with the promise of of a hopeful future — cities of glass and steel, and most importantly, flying cars!

Flying cars? Cool! More information on Windstorm Studios at their official website, here.

Read (Joystiq)

The game just officially hit shelves today but Joystiq has already got a video of its final credits up.

As you can see from the above video, Ensemble Studios managed to squeeze in a final farewell message thanking all of the fans for their support over the 12 years in the final credits for Halo Wars.

It’s too bad Ensemble Studios had to close right when their flagship game was released. Oh well, let’s just hope Robot Entertainment and Bonfire Studios will continue the once great developers legacy.

If you didn’t already know, the late Ensemble Studios’ Halo Wars has hit North American shelves everywhere.

Don’t know what Halo Wars is? Have you been living under a rock? Only kidding, Halo Wars is the first official real time strategy (think Command & Conquer) title based in Bungie’s hugely popular Halo universe. Better yet, if you got the Limited Edition version, you now have access to Halo 3’s Mythic Map Pack.

Oh yeah, it’s an Xbox 360 exclusive, but did I really have to say that?

Now comes word that a second studio has risen from the ashes of Ensemble in the form of Bonfire Studios. Based out of Dallas, Texas, the 35-person studio is working on a new game which they hope to announce in the coming months.

“Ensemble had an incredible group of highly talented people and the companies coming out of it are really made up of the best of the best. Ensemble was one of the few studios with two A-teams,” said Bonfire Studios CEO David Rippy, who most recently served as producer at Ensemble.

While a portion of Ensemble’s team remains at Microsoft to finish up and support Halo Wars, many have moved on and joined Goodman at the new studio.

No word was offered on what sort of projects the studio would work on, but more RTS goodness is expected from them.

I know, I know, I’m a day late, sue me. Anyways, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, this is for you.

Recently released over Xbox Live is the demo for the late Ensemble Studio’s Halo Wars. Again for those who don’t know, Halo Wars is an all new RTS developed exclusively for the console, set in the Halo universe.

Did you know that Halo was originally designed as an RTS long before the idea of an FPS ever materialized? True story.

The game isn’t even out yet and developer Ensemble Studios is already talking about unleasing DLC after the games release.

This news comes to us from an interview done with the game’s lead producer, Jason Pace. Snippets from the interview include “We are committed to supporting the franchise,” but “there’re no definite plans yet.” However, whether he ment to hint at DLC or not he continued on to say “additional downloadable content is something we’re looking in to.”

Well Ensemble, or whatever your new studio’s name is, let’s just make sure you made a gamer-friendly console RTS. We’ll talk about DLC after that.

The Xbox 360-exclusive strategy game is set for release in North America on March 3. A playable demo will be made available through Xbox Live Marketplace on February 5.

The demo will offer two tutorials – beginner and advanced – and the game’s first two campaign missions. A multiplayer map for offline battles will also be included, letting players take control of either UNSC or Covenant forces.

The release date for the demo of Ensemble Studio’s Halo Wars was not the only thing released at the Microsoft CES keynote. What you see above is all new gameplay footage from the convention.

Featured in the video is basic gameplay, but what it really showcases on is the seemingly easy control scheme. Many thought that when a Halo RTS for the console was announced, it was doomed to fail.

After watching this video, many of the haters may be intrigued to at least try out the demo because it really doesn’t look that painful. I guess we’ll have to wait until it’s March 3rd release date before we pass judgement.

As a fan, usually anything baring the Halo moniker will catch my attention that’s why this news at Microsoft’s CES keynote definitely caught my attention.

Robbie Bach, a Microsoft exec, announced via the keynote that a demo for Ensemble’s upcoming console RTS, Halo Wars, would hit Xbox Live on Feburary 5th.

That’s not all though; Bach also let us know that Halo 3:ODST would in fact be hitting shelves this year, exactly when we are still not sure.

Read (Kotaku)

Halo Wars, sadly the final game from Ensemble Studios, creators of the seminal Age of Empires franchise, will be released on Xbox 360 on March 3, 2009, according to Microsoft.

North America will be the last region to get the game, surprisingly, with the Europeans to be the first February 27. Gamers in Japan/Asia Pacific will get it one day earlier on February 26.

The latest entry in the long-running Halo franchise, Halo Wars will offer strategy gameplay, having players beat back the aliens using Spartans and other weaponry.

Shane Kim, Microsoft VP of interactive entertainment, assured gamers that the company still owns the rights to the franchise and that they are “super excited for the potential of the franchise.”

Kim also talked about the new company that will be created from the ashes of Ensemble. It will supposedly be independent and be founded by the heads of Ensemble, with Kim adding that Microsoft will “have an ongoing relationship with that new company.”

It was “the right thing for our business at this time,” noted MGS head Phil Spencer in an internal email obtained by Gamesindustry. He reaffirmed the studio’s commitment to game development, adding that they will “continue to bring in talent to work on titles and franchises where we’ll see the most.”

As for the employees who will be left without a job, Spencer committed that they will be integrated into Microsoft Game Studios or the broader Interactive Entertainment team where they have relevant openings.

Fret not though as they also let us know that the core of the now dead studio will move on to form anew with continued support for Halo Wars and, of course, the development of new games.

There is no word as to why the studio will be closing but we will keep you updated.