Game Day: This 'Wars/ is to the death

"Halo" was originally planned as a real-time strategy game, but series creator Bungie didn't make "Halo Wars," the first non-shooter in the series. Instead, it was developed by strategy veterans Ensemble Studios, the company behind Microsoft's "Age of Empires" and "Age of Mythologies" games.

Ensemble was shut down by Microsoft after "Halo Wars" was completed. The studio's end is disappointing, especially given the quality on display here.

"Halo Wars" – to be released March 3 – takes place 20 years before the discovery of a Halo installation in the first game. The war with the alien Covenant is a few years old and still far from the near-total destruction of the human race that has occurred by "Halo 3." The game opens with a series of missions on the devastated, icy human colony of Harvest, which the United Nations Space Command has just retaken from the Covenant after five years of fighting that has left the surface a frozen wasteland.

Data Source : Sacbee.com