Another Friday here at the Gamer Limit offices means that Colin lets us off our leashes and lets us play what we want to. There’s quite a variety of games on video for those who are looking for them. Most of the AAA titles are currently behind us, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t games that don’t deserve some of our attention. Whether you’re playing Guitar Hero: Metallica or making a getaway in the Wheelman, let us know what’s up with you this weekend.

Ricky: This weekend is the first in a while that I can truly sit down with a few new games and let myself slip into the world of polygons. I recently picked up Guitar Hero: Metallica and plan to rock out with those dudes. I’m not the biggest Metallica fan, but I imagine that at the very least, the songs will be fun to play for a Guitar Hero vet. I also have Ninja Blade on deck. I was a huge fan of the original Ninja Gaiden, the same can’t be said for its sequel, but I want to try this thing out. I have zero expectations for it, so hopefully I’ll be surprised.

James: Back at work after the Easter Hols, I didn’t get a hell of a lot of time to play this week! I’ve been spending a few hours stalking deer in TheHunter, which is ridiculously immersive. Say what you will about the content, but it’s ridiculously engaging. Still playing through Valkyria Chronicles, which is a killer title, by all sense of the word. Sega really need to make more games like this, instead of pumping out more Sonic dredge. Definitely looking forward to the upcoming DLC.

Chris: Due to Easter vacation I didn’t get much of an opportunity to play games, but I was able to sneak in a bit. I finally got around to trying Farcry 2 on the PC, and was pretty impressed. I’m really confused why you can’t go prone though, considering how fun sniping is. Other than that, I’m mainly just dabbling around in my backlog, and finally getting around to beating Shinobi PS2 (which oddly enough, is set in Neo-Tokyo, and looks a lot like Ninja Blade).

Paul: After being pretty impressed with Halo Wars, completing it this week, am keeping myself in the strategy mood with some Civilization: Revolution as well as some schoolyard sandbox carnage with Bully: Scholarship Edition, although is it wrong that I’m finding most of my enjoyment through the lessons? Never thought a Rockstar game would see me rushing to get to class on time.

Tim I’m still plugging away atValkyria Chronicles. The game is confusing the hell out of me though, because it feels like it’s almost over but there is still a bunch of stuff I haven’t unlocked yet.  I dusted off ActRaiser for the Retro Podcast and have been fully addicted to that recently.  Resident Evil 5 is still getting attention, and I have just 2 more achievements to unlock!

Jamie: I’m on a quest to play through the entire Suikoden RPG series by the end of summer. Currently, I’m most of the way through Suikoden 3, so that’s where most of my gaming time is spent. However, when I have only a short amount of free time, I’ve been celebrating the return of my XBox360 (which I got back only a week ago after getting RRoD’d) by playing Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix – undefeated in ranked matches this week!

Chase: I am currently throwing more hadouken’s and shoryuken’s then I can count with Street Fighter IV firmly implanted into my Xbox 360. When I finally pry myself away from it I have been taking a heavy metal trip into the past with LucasArts phenomenal point and click adventure game, Full Throttle.

Cloud: Two new games for me to play through this week; Mirrors Edge and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction. Seems I’m a bit behind in the times! Greatly enjoying Mirrors Edge but I’m slightly concerned about the amount of indoor levels so far, for a free running game you seem to be inside a lot. As for Ratchet and Clank? Well, I’ve always loved their games, and Tools of Destruction seems like another great one.

This time of the year is always a bit of a dry run for new releases, so it’s been a bit of slim pickings for titles, we know. We went back and found a few we missed, as well as taking a look at some more casual/indie offerings.

Here’s a rundown of the new release reviews for the week of April 05 through April 12.

Peggle Dual Shot:

Score: 9.5

Peggle is the new casual king for a reason. It’s casual-hardcore gameplay has wooed millions of fans into a rampant frenzy, and Dual Shot is no exception. Packed with tons of content, and a reasonable MSRP ($29.99, but you can find it cheaper), Dual Shot is one game you’ll want to keep for every road trip. Considering it’s vast success, mark my words: this will not be the last we see of Peggle.- Chris Carter

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

Score: 7.5

Ultimately, F.E.A.R. 2 doesn’t deviate from the standard shooter fare, so don’t expect much originality. However, I’d definitely recommend the game to hardcore shooter fans due to the strong controls and well-done core mechanics. -Chris Carter

Dishwasher: Dead Samurai

Score: 8.0

For ten dollars, Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is a steal.  Immediately after beating the game on normal mode you’ll be tempted to pack up your upgraded gear and head into the next difficulty full force, or call up a friend and try to aim high on the co-op leader boards.  In all, Dishwasher is a game unlike any other on XBLA and is begging to be downloaded.  It is a game that smelts your patience with its punishing difficulty, and tempers your will like the folded layers of your blood soaked samurai sword.- Tim Turi

Wanted: Weapons of Fate:

Score: 5.5

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is mediocre in every sense of the word, which is a shame since the source material had a lot of potential for a video game. At its core the game is a competent shooter, it’s just highly forgettable and very generic, which is the case for most movie video games. -Vincent Hammett

Easter is here for those that choose to believe in that stuff, but for all of us, regardless of religious denomination… we’ll be gaming.

See after the jump what’s spinning in the staff’s consoles and PC-DVDs this weekend!

Ricky: I’m going to attempt to jump into Persona 4 and make it past the dreaded 3 hour mark, to where I can actually play the game. Other than that, I’ve been slouching on my regular Street Fighter IV practice and hope to get back into the grind. For me, I’ve been slouching in regards to gaming, and hopefully something gets released soon that can change that.

Chris: I’ve been putting in a ton of time with Peggle DS especially since I’m on the road as we speak.

David: Ah Easter, how I completely forgot that you are this week. Since you have not effected my gaming, I don’t see why I would have noticed. I have been filling my time with The Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena. Such a fantastic title that I am glad Game Stop decided to break street date on so I could get it early. I’ve also found every time I have few moments to spare, I pull out my old stand by, Picross DS. It is by far one of my favorite DS games and manages to pull me in and not let go every time I decide to give it another go.

Jimmy: In between working and writing, I’m definitely going to finally crack open Valkyria Chronicles and play it through. It’s one of those titles that requires a pretty decent time investment, and the long weekend provides ample opportunity to play. I’ll also continue my quest to finish The Last Remnant on PC, addictive little RPG that one.

Tim: Resident Evil 5 is red hot and spinning in my 360 tray right now.  Going for all the achievements and trying out versus mode has me dedicated to it.  Tonight it may be replaced with some Guitar Hero: Metallica so I can rock out with some friends and sing like an idiot to some of my favorite songs.  After that it’s time to dig my heels in and get back to Valkyria Chronicles.

Gaius: Having at last bested RE5′s Professional setting, I’ve once again struck out for the Capital Wasteland. Though I fully expect to spend weeks or months exploring Fallout 3 in its entirety, it’s perhaps the first title since Shadow of the Colossus in which I’ve been so fully absorbed in the journey itself; the figurative destination, however remote, I in fact find myself perfectly content to leave on the horizon.

C. Rossi: With so many new games on my shelf it’s been a hard time deciding what I should play. At the moment I’m finishing up Assassins Creed, dominating in Motorstorm as I only bought it this week, and last but not least having one hell of a time playing Eternal Sonata. I was ecstatic to finally find an RPG on the PS3 that I can fully enjoy, and I’ve found it to be one of the more enjoyable ones I’ve ever played.”

Steve: Trying to be a the crime boss is more difficult than it seems. Godfather II is definitely one of the best sandbox games I’ve played in awhile. I’m also trying to become a Peggle Master!

So, dear readers, what is keeping you busy this holiday weekend?

I remember receiving wasted pieces of paper when I was a child in elementary school. Teachers handing out lists and lists of books they felt should be read and understood (without any professional guidance) to prepare us for the literary challenges of the upcoming year. Yeah right, like I’m going to spend my only quarter of freedom reading, of all thing. To be fair, now that I’m an adult, I love to read and do it as often as I can.

Ostensibly, the reading lists were used to develop your reading skills throughout our formative years, with books getting (arguably) increasingly difficult as you advanced through the grades.  These lists were filled with some of the more “classic” examples of literature, appropriate to the grade level. As an adult, that list of books grows exponentially, containing practically every important written works since the beginning of time. Dante’s Inferno, The Catcher in the Rye, On the Road, A Farewell To Arms, these are a modicum of the work that one must read to attain a glimpse at the evolution of written work since the beginning of time. All important, and all must be read to understand literature fully and completely.

Having listened to a GDC edition of the Giant Bombcast, the idea of “Summer Reading Lists” popped up in discussion. Which brought me to wonder about a “Playing List” for gamers and what would be the purpose of one. There are several retro gamers on Gamer Limit, myself not included, that would love to see a list dating back to Pong, and including every important game in history. This is a more “Know Your History” approach to the subject, and is totally acceptable, although it would make the list much, much longer than I feel it needs to be.

To take a step back, what would be the purpose of the list? To bring new gamers up to speed on what we’re doing at the moment? To provide a telescope view of Gaming’s history as a whole? To showcase each innovation, per game, since the inception of the game on video? Depending on the objective, each list can potentially turn out drastically different.

Personally, the non-initiated looking to get into gaming, probably don’t need to know about every single game that we’ve played. It might be neat for them to go back once they’ve gotten an understanding of what we’re currently up to at the moment and see what we did 10 or 15 years ago, it probably wouldn’t help them in any enjoyable sense to have them start where we started, as those games aren’t really relevant to what we’re doing at the moment.

Refining your skills in Contra won’t help you understand how it ultimately lead to Gears of War, and the single plane shooting of Doom would just seem like a pocket version of what was to become Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3. As such, why would one need to play Halo (aside from story purposes of course) when there’s a bigger, better, prettier version of it to be found on current consoles.

Of course the golden age gamers can argue, “Hey! The original Halo is superior in every way to Halo 3!” To some extent they’re, right, but stick the two on a metaphorical vacuum and Halo is just an old version of Halo. Similarly, condemning new players to a month in Everquest before they can step up to WoW is an exercise in cruelty.

Older games that are still relevant probably would make the list. Starcraft is still a surprisingly relevant RTS, and a lot of people would still argue that Chrono Trigger is still the greatest RPG to this day, and for the most part, they’re right. Something like Metal Gear Solid would be up for debate, as the real draw to the game is it’s narrative.

Honestly, I myself am not completely sure about what should be on the final list, but you guys can certainly help me get an idea for what you would want on the list. Let me know in the comments section.

Welcome to the Gamer Limit Money Shot, where the fine folks here at Gamer Limit bring you the best gaming deals of the week. Stop by here every Sunday for the chance to get the most for your gaming dollar each and every week.

Amazon and Newegg have Guitar Hero Metallica for $48, includes free shipping!

You’re in the Movies! has received a universal price drop to $20, a great deal if you’re looking for a vision camera for your Xbox 360.

The Xbox Live deal of the week is Penny Arcade: Episode One for 800 MSP, 50 percent off of the normal price.

The Steam deal of the week is 75 percent off Tomb Raider Anniversary, bringing it down to $5.

Gamestop.com is beginning their Game Day’s sale, which includes a slew of games at discounted prices.  Cheap Ass Gamer has a full list of the games on sale.

And that puts a cap on the deals for this week. Come back next week for more money saving tips from me; a fine penny pinchin’ folk.

A slew of new single and multiplayer challenges is going to be available on April 7th via L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges, a DLC pack for Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts.

Also included in the pack are a new set of blueprints, and 250 shiny new achievement points. The pack is going to run a quaint 400 Microsoft Points. It’s nice to see something coming out at less than 10, 15 or  even 20 (!!!) dollars.

Stay tuned to Gamerlimit.com for more news about Banjo-Kazooie Nut and Bolts and the upcoming Banjo-Tooie for Xbox Live Arcade.

According to Euro Gamer, more Saints Row 2 action is going to be available to virtual gangsters in the form of 3 downloadable packs. The first of which, titled Ultor Exposed, is due out on the 16th of April.

The Ultor Exposed pack will add 3 new missions and 125 additional achievement points, for the boiler-plate price of 800 points.

I enjoyed Saint’s Row quite a bit, and appreciated it’s relative brevity to the “other” popular sandbox game. I’m not sure that a few extra missions would be worth the 800 points, especially given that the “other” sandbox game offers 12 or 13 extra missions and a brand new story 800 more points, but I suppose there’s something there for those who are looking.

For news about the rest of the upcoming downloadable packs, stay tuned here at Gamerlimit.

Story via Eurogamer

Welcome to the Gamer Limit Money Shot, where the fine folks here at Gamerlimit bring you the best gaming deals of the week. Stop by here every Sunday for the chance to get the most for your gaming dollar each and every week.

Amazon.com has a Buy 2, Get 1 Free Deal on select DS titles. The deal includes some recent gems such as Peggle DS and Retro Game Challenge in addition to older, excellent titles like Civilization Revolution and Guitar Hero On Tour.

For Best Buy Reward Zone members: But Killzone 2, get half off of another Playstation 3 Game.

Target has a Buy 1, get 1 half off deal on select Xbox 360 games. (Only on select games marked in store).

This week, Steam is featuring all Indie games at least 10% off, with some games having as much as 50% off. Also, oddworld games are 75% off. You can pick up Oddysee and Exodus for 3.50.

And that puts a cap on the week’s best deals for this week’s Money Shot. Stop by next week to get that wallet working for you again.

Like quite a few of you out there, I’m a man in a committed relationship. And like most of you in similar situations, me and my partner have little to no shared interests. As my writing here on Gamer Limit would reveal to anyone, one of my primary hobbies is playing videogames, I buy them, love them, and to a certain extent, live them. Naturally, I’d want to share this aspect of my life with my girlfriend, just as she is so intent to get me vested into the universe of Twilight (shiny vampires? No thank you).

The first few strokes my her indoctrination were made of the most obvious choices. Her Nintendo DS was arguably barely a step into real gaming. Mario Party DS was about as much of a game as taking out a pen and drawing circles on a piece of paper, but she loved it nonetheless. I may not identify a DS Mario game as being a contender for Game of the Year, but she liked it, and that fact was enough for me.

Future steps brought her into the console realm. Lego Star Wars was a significantly greater step, and we made our way through it. Two button gameplay wasn’t enough to overwhelm her, but the real hook was the fact that we were playing together. Hot on the trail was Peggle, a drug for Casual Gamers and Hardcore Gamers alike (See my review here). Again, she never had more fun with Peggle than when we were playing together. Naturally bringing us to Left 4 Dead, of course this is the natural evolution of steps, who says otherwise?

Here lies the problem, even when set on Easy, Left 4 Dead ain’t easy. Lego Star Wars to Left 4 Dead is a Godzilla sized step for a casual gamer, massive. The game requires full use of nearly every gizmo and gadget on the face of the controller. Both analog sticks, triggers, bumpers, pads, whatever. I had to stifle my laughter as my girlfriend was too busy attempting and failing to turn and shoot, that she didn’t even notice the zombies tearing her apart, limb from limb.

This poor girl, who simply wanted to do as her boyfriend was doing, gunning zombies down like Ving Rhames on stim packs, couldn’t catch a long enough break to do a quarter of that action. Easy just wasn’t easy enough for her.

Game companies are struggling to catch the golden “casual”, and if they want to succeed, they need to make these casuals feel as badass as we do when we get our skills on point. As gamers, we love gloating about prestige levels and hitting level caps, and it takes varying amounts of effort for that, effort that casual gamers, such as my girlfriend can’t afford to provide.

Casual Gamers need an “Easy” button. Much like the beginning levels of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, in which gamers got to use the big, bad, Darth Vader before getting to play the womanly Apprentice, there should be the option to run amuck in god mode throughout the entirety of the game. It’s an injustice to no one if people decide that they want to play Mass Effect 2 by starting out with a tricked out Commander Shepherd from the start, or going into Bioshock 2 with every plasmid unlocked from the start.

It won’t be difficult for game companies to incentivize playing through the game normally, with achievements, trophies, special costumes and endgame rewards. As some would say about cheating on a test, it’s a victimless crime, and the only possible outcome is more enjoyment of the title.

At the very least, my girlfriend will kill more zombies, and in the end, doesn’t everyone win?

Be responsible Game Publishers, help curb the zombie menace, put easily accessible God Modes in your games.

The Sunday Soapbox is an account of the writer’s personal opinions and not representative of Gamer Limit’s opinions as a whole.

The Gamer Limit Sunday Soapbox is a Sunday-only set of Gamer Limit articles straight from the minds of your favorite writers and editors. Think of the soapbox as a blog post or diary entry that we want you to see. Content will will be limitless, ranging from feelings about what we’ve been playing, to reactions to a piece of news.

Keep in mind that these aren’t your standard news, features and previews that you’re used to, and significantly more grounded in opinions and personal feelings. As such, you’ll be getting a much deeper look into the minds of the staff here at GL.

We encourage you to comment and respond to our Soapbox entries, however we will moderate the comments as we normally do. Enjoy!

List of Sunday Soapboxes for the week starting on 3/22/09:

Making the Easy Button a Wee Bit Easier to Push - by: Rick Yutig

Elevator Music – by: C. Rossi

Un-United Kingdom - by: Paul Clark

The Stain of PAL – by: Jimmy P

Moving house gets in the way of war – by: Daniel Clancy

Games are too easy – by: Chris Carter

Previously, on… -  by: Tim Turi

Note: The Sunday Soapbox is an account of the writer’s personal opinions and not representative of Gamer Limit’s opinions as a whole.

If you’ve strictly been playing on consoles for the past few years, you might not know about Peggle, which has been the virtual heroin for PC Gamers over the last few years. Fortunately, now’s the time to catch the addiction as Peggle arrives on the Xbox Live Arcade, brought to you by casual juggernaught, PopCap games.

The idea is simple. There are dozens of pegs on a board, your goal is to erase all the orange ones on the board by shooting them with a ball. Obstacles to success include other colored pegs, place simply for score, swaying pegs, rotating pegs, vortexes, physical barriers, and a lack of familiarity with advanced physics. You only have 10 shots per board, but over the course of a shot, there are several opportunities to score a free ball by either racking up a high score with one ball, or landing the ball in a pacing bucket at the bottom of the screen.

Peggle offers players a choice of animal (or alien) called “Masters” to the player, each with their own different powers. These powers range from splitting one ball into two, turning the ball into a giant fireball that erases everything in its way, or providing an extensive calculation and altered trajectory of your shot, making it a better shot overall. These powers are activated by hitting one of the green pegs on the board, of which there aren’t many, and depending on the strength of the power, they can last anywhere between 1 and 4 turns. There are obvious gaps in each power’s applications, but they’re all fun to use in their own right.

Peggle’s strong suit comes from the constant positive reinforcement the game offers, for doing what amounts to very little work. For the most part, you have no influence over your ball after initially shooting, and the actual route that the ball will go is wildly unpredictable. Regardless, every peg you hit provides an increasingly higher tone, and when you finally do hit the final peg, fireworks spark alongside a rendition of Ode to Joy. Lastly, your ball will fall into one of 5 pits, worth various amounts of points, and depending on which pit it falls in, you’ll be rewarded with a different caliber of fireworks show.

Peggle offers a whole slew of things to do. Once the main adventure mode is over, a series of challenge boards are offered to the player. In addition there are duel modes and extra challenge modes that have you pursuing various goals. There’s also an online suite available which has similar modes. These are a change of pace from the regular game, and the allocation of turns is different depending on what you’ve chosen to play but they do a good job of encouraging competition amongst players. For the first time, 4 player versus mode is included online. It’s not what you’d think, however, because all players play on a separate board, and then their totals are compared at the end, as opposed to 2 player mode, where both pegglers are sharing the same level.

Peggle is a lot of game at a decent price tag. It’s easy to learn and has the types of bells and whistles that ensure that it’ll never get old. The simplicity of the mechanics might be a bit limiting, but this is a textbook case of being fun rather than needlessly complex.

If you find yourself instantly suffering from a case of the stupid fingers whenever attempting to play one of those real time strategy games on a console, Ensemble Studios and Microsoft have something for you in the form of Halo Wars. The magic formula? Increase the streamlining, increase the style and get rid of as many menus as possible, all this accumulates into a great package for Halo Fans and real-time strategy fans. If you’re both, you might just find Halo Wars nothing short of magical.

For most, Halo Wars’ biggest strength is its implementation of the Halo Brand. The entire game is engrained in the Haloistic Haloism that Bungie has spent the first 3 Halo games Haloing, the box art even uses the same exact font as Halo 3, color and all. The entire front end of the game is borrowed from Halo 3, from the game start menus down to the now legendary matchmaking system. Even the difficulty tier uses the Normal-Heroic-Legendary labels we’ve all come to love (or hate). While all this is fine and dandy, it’s really just the wrapping on an even better gift to be found in the actual gameplay.

Halo Wars’ true credit is found in that it brings console real-time strategy to the limit, playing a balancing act so that it never feels too light or too heavy on the player. To RTS veterans, the game might seem like a gigantic step back for the genre as the strategies and tactics never approach that of Relic’s titles like Company of Heroes and Darn of War series, but Ensemble has done well to pack in as much as they could without making it feel cumbersome. Everything from the controls to the base building has been streamlined to the point of being almost second nature, which is the complete opposite of what was experienced in the console versions of the Command and Conquer games.

Halo Wars still makes use of the radial menus made famous by Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth 2. The menus never go further than 1 tier however, ensuring that the button presses happen on the fly. All the other management focused controls are allocated to shortcuts on the controller. There are buttons to quick select all units on the map, or all units on screen. There are also buttons to quick jump to your different bases and unit leaders. After a few games, most of this becomes second nature, which is fortunate, because it makes it much easier to get into the action, which is where Halo Wars shines.

The strategic gameplay of Halo Wars is really basic at its core, especially to anyone invested in the RTS genre. The game encourages either small groups of similar units, or large scale battles with a  good mix of units. As per usual, early game is filled with rush/anti-rush tactics, but these aren’t really as dangerous as they are in other RTS game. Base building has been streamlined down to having a 3×3 grid, where the players only has to choose what to build. All defensive structures have been relegated to 4 turrets to place on the corners of the base.

Where some might be turned off is in the limited strategic offerings in Halo Wars. The game is very much focused on what you build as opposed to how you use your units. While it doesn’t truly detract from the gameplay, it’s something that a lot of RTS gamers have moved past with Relic’s RTS games on the PC. However, for a console gamer, it’s probably best that this is the route that Ensemble has decided to take, as executing elegant strategies might not be so easy given the hardware and control scheme. Whether or not this is a case of a snake eating its own tale is up for debate, but in my experience, it doesn’t detract from enjoying the gameplay.

All of the usual suspects Halo fans have come to love are present and accounting for: warthogs and Spartans doing battle with grunts and elites riding banshees and ghosts (If you’ve never played a Halo game, sorry for that sentence). If you’ve seen it in any of the 3 core Halo games, you can be assured that it will make some sort of appearance in Halo Wars and that includes the giant scarab units that played as whole levels in games previous. And while the units are on showcase here, the way they’re implemented into the action is almost twice as cool.

When two opposing sides converge in Halo Wars, it make for some kind of spectacle. Elites stick their swords through fleshy opponents, tossing their lifeless bodies out of the way, moving onto the next opponent. Big mechanized suits pick up infantry units and thrash them about on the ground until their breathing stops. A great attention to detail was spent incorporating the action into the game without just making it look like a revolutionary war battle where one side shoots the other side until someone’s gone.

Each unit comes with it’s own special ability, some of which have the ability to turn the tide of battle. These are great in that they also take a note from the source material. The Warthog’s specialty is found in that it can run down infantry units, killing them almost instantly. The Spartan mascot’s gift is its ability to hop right on top of an enemy vehicle and jack it from under their nose. It’s nice to see Ensemble incorporate some of the smaller aspects of the Halo games into the product in such cool ways. This is evident from the weapons, down to the sound design. It’s hard not to have your ears perk up when a Spartan loses his shields and the infamous shields lost sound pops up.

As far as actual game modes, Halo Wars has the stock campaign and multiplayer. The campaign sports some of the best looking cut scenes in recent memory, unfortunately it also sports a story similar to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in that the events can’t have a significant impact on the canon of the overall universe. The campaign mode is brief, easy and can be beaten in 8 to 10 hours. The fact that there’s no campaign for the Covenant and  the Flood has been completely excluded from player control is severely disappointing.

Matchmaking benefits from Bungie’s tried and true system from the Halo games. You assemble your party in a lobby, press start and it takes you straight into a game. The ranking system comes straight from the Halo games also, emblems and insignia included. Most of the fun I found was in the 3v3 game modes which provided incredibly large scale battles, and the bigger teams allowed much more variety in how those battles played out. For most, matchmaking is going to be where the majority of time is spent, and there’s a slew of slid offerings here for those people.

Overall, Halo Wars is a solid offering for fans of Halo and RTS games alike. While it might not bare the strategic elegance of most modern day strategy titles, it’s still a ton of fun to play, and it does for console RTS games, what Halo: Combat Evolved did for console FPS games.