Halo Wars Demo Available to XBL Gold Members

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: mugs
I thought it was decent. I'd rather play a RTS on a PC, but they did a decent job of making it console-appropriate. I didn't do the advanced tutorial, but is there any way to group your troops into teams so you can select the same group later? On PCs this is usually handled with the number keys. Obviously consoles don't have enough buttons to select directly, but you could rotate through each of your groups maybe? Does it have this feature? That was the one thing that bugged me about the demo - as far as I could tell you could select one unit, all units within a circle, or all units.

I think Halo Wars is supposed to automatically group armies together for you. You can cycle through the armies by pressing down on the d-pad.

I played the demo last night and I liked it. The controls are definitely simpler to use than with LOTR:BFME and C&C. My only major complaint is that you have to go back to the base to issue build orders. It would be nicer if you could do that from the position on the battlefield you are observing so you don't have to switch back and forth.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: erwos

I didn't do the advanced tutorial, but is there any way to group your troops into teams so you can select the same group later? On PCs this is usually handled with the number keys. Obviously consoles don't have enough buttons to select directly, but you could rotate through each of your groups maybe? Does it have this feature? That was the one thing that bugged me about the demo - as far as I could tell you could select one unit, all units within a circle, or all units.

Unless the unit limit goes up dramatically, I don't even think it's necessary, at least from what I've seen so far. You're never going to be using more than (I would guess) 15-20 units.

The thing I kept encountering on the second mission is that I wanted to leave a few guys back to guard my base (really unnecessary, but whatever). I wanted to select everyone except the guys at my base, and grouping them would have done the job.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: erwos

I didn't do the advanced tutorial, but is there any way to group your troops into teams so you can select the same group later? On PCs this is usually handled with the number keys. Obviously consoles don't have enough buttons to select directly, but you could rotate through each of your groups maybe? Does it have this feature? That was the one thing that bugged me about the demo - as far as I could tell you could select one unit, all units within a circle, or all units.

Unless the unit limit goes up dramatically, I don't even think it's necessary, at least from what I've seen so far. You're never going to be using more than (I would guess) 15-20 units.

The thing I kept encountering on the second mission is that I wanted to leave a few guys back to guard my base (really unnecessary, but whatever). I wanted to select everyone except the guys at my base, and grouping them would have done the job.

Did you hit the right shoulder button? It selects everyone on screen ("in the area" I think is what the game says). Left shoulder button selects everyone, period.

Also, another tidbit - hitting A twice on a unit will select everything from that unit type on screen.

 

[StageLeft]

Thanks, will DL it.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: erwos

I didn't do the advanced tutorial, but is there any way to group your troops into teams so you can select the same group later? On PCs this is usually handled with the number keys. Obviously consoles don't have enough buttons to select directly, but you could rotate through each of your groups maybe? Does it have this feature? That was the one thing that bugged me about the demo - as far as I could tell you could select one unit, all units within a circle, or all units.

Unless the unit limit goes up dramatically, I don't even think it's necessary, at least from what I've seen so far. You're never going to be using more than (I would guess) 15-20 units.

The thing I kept encountering on the second mission is that I wanted to leave a few guys back to guard my base (really unnecessary, but whatever). I wanted to select everyone except the guys at my base, and grouping them would have done the job.

Did you hit the right shoulder button? It selects everyone on screen ("in the area" I think is what the game says). Left shoulder button selects everyone, period.

Also, another tidbit - hitting A twice on a unit will select everything from that unit type on screen.

Did not know that. Perhaps that was in the advanced tutorial.

 

[Queasy]

Here is the Halo Wars manual

A - Select a unit
Doubletap A - Select all units of that type
Hold A - Paint units to select them
RB - Select all units that appear on screen
LB - Select all units on the entire map
RT - Cycle through units that you have selected to select one particular unit type
LT - Accelerate movement with the Left Thumbstick
X - Move/Attack
Y - Special Attack
B - Cancel

Right Thumbstick:
Up/Down - Zoom in and out
Left/Right - Rotate camera
Click - Return to the default position

D-Pad:
Right - Move to last alert location
Left - Move to/Cycle through base locations
Up - Spirit of Fire menu
Down - Move to/Cycle through armies

 

[ViviTheMage]

queuing up!

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: kabob983
I saw something this morning about the demo "coming soon" but didn't realize it was already out.

Dunno how I feel about RTS' on consoles, I have the LotR 360 game and it works decently well...might give it a whirl.

Well this is the first RTS game that was built completely with the console in mind. All the others were basically ports from PC RTSs. So, it will be interesting to see how Ensemble pulled this off.

Wasn't red alert recently built for console, too? I heard the game was not great, though.

I played this through the second campaign mission (then kids came in). Game is pretty good. They do a good job on the console, but still consoles just are not ideal for RTS and never, ever will be. But, consoles are inferior for FPS, too, vs a mouse and we mostly forget about that. I'd like to play this game, the cut scenes are pretty nice and gameplay is quality.

 

[blurredvision]

I finally got around to playing this demo this morning. I'm not typically a fan of RTS games. I played a lot of Starcraft back in the day, but that's about it. With that said, I think I love this game. 🙂 The visuals are awesome, the controls are very easy to learn and use, and I love the simplicity of everything. One thing I always hated about RTS games is resource gathering. You don't have to bother with that in this game. Units are easy to build, there seem to be enough upgrades to keep it interesting, and I like the "Y" special abilities for each unit. Is there a way to increase the 30 unit limit?

Halo Wars was at about a 3/10 on my give-a-fuck meter before playing the demo, now it's at a 9/10, and when it gets close to release, I'll probably consider buying it.

Who said the holiday was the only time for good games? SF4, Killzone 2, RE5 (well, before the demo anyway), and now Halo Wars. Bring it on!

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: ducci
I'm shorting the shit out of this on SimEx, so I hope it's terrible and fails miserably.

what is simex?

 

[oznerol]

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: ducci
I'm shorting the shit out of this on SimEx, so I hope it's terrible and fails miserably.

what is simex?

The Sim Exchange

Video game prediction market.

 

[flashbacck]

I finally played the demo... Ignoring the fact that it's a Halo game, as an RTS, it's actually not bad. Controls are easy and game looks good. Since I'm so used to PC RTS games though, it does seem like this is a RTS-lite game. Base building is simplified immensely, resource collecting is basically gone (which may be good in some people's eyes) and while the controls are good, you are still limited to the buttons on the gamepad, so no grouping and hotkeying.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: ducci
I'm shorting the shit out of this on SimEx, so I hope it's terrible and fails miserably.

Well it has the Halo name on it and it isn't terrible, so it will probably sell, but 3.15 million is a lot of copies for a game that isn't Halo (FPS style), Gears, or CoD, or in other words has sweet online multiplayer.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: blurredvision Is there a way to increase the 30 unit limit?

You can add 10 reinforcements.

Originally posted by: flashbacck
I finally played the demo... Ignoring the fact that it's a Halo game, as an RTS, it's actually not bad. Controls are easy and game looks good. Since I'm so used to PC RTS games though, it does seem like this is a RTS-lite game. Base building is simplified immensely, resource collecting is basically gone (which may be good in some people's eyes) and while the controls are good, you are still limited to the buttons on the gamepad, so no grouping and hotkeying.

Definitely "lite" version, but I am hoping this actually helps the genre on PC.

The game will let players new to RTS ease into it, without the potentially intimidating learning curve that can be involved. Once they master it, and are hooked on the gene, any further researching or inquiries will lead them to full blown goodness on the PC.

I thought the demo was enjoyable, and the cut scenes are the best I've see in the Halo-verse. I still have not read Contact Harvest, this served as a good reminder to pick it up.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
the cut scenes are the best I've see in the Halo-verse.

That has a lot to do with the fact that Bungie always kept cut scenes in engine, which I liked for the FPS because there wasn't always a clear line between cut scene and not, however you obviously can't get the same effect doing RTS cut scenes in engine.

 

[Oyeve]

I played the demo and may actually buy this (not a Halo fan at all). Reminds me of the simpler RTS's of yore. SC, WH, et....al

 

[RagingBITCH]

I gotta say...not a fan of RTS at all - I messed with Warcraft 2 or 3 for a short while and didn't care much for it...but I really liked this. Maybe because it's Halo...I dunno. Just really enjoyed it though...will definitely be buying it.

 

[UpgradeFailure]

I was listening to...Was it Rebel FM I think, yesterday, and they were talking about Halo Wars and they brought up that you can make more guys without going to a base. Like you could quick-map to a button or something, so if you are in a war and not doing well you don't have to go to your base, make them, and miss whats going on. Anyone hear about that?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: UpgradeFailure
I was listening to...Was it Rebel FM I think, yesterday, and they were talking about Halo Wars and they brought up that you can make more guys without going to a base. Like you could quick-map to a button or something, so if you are in a war and not doing well you don't have to go to your base, make them, and miss whats going on. Anyone hear about that?

That would be really nice. That's really the only complaint I currently have about the game. I can't find anything about that in the instructions though.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: UpgradeFailure
I was listening to...Was it Rebel FM I think, yesterday, and they were talking about Halo Wars and they brought up that you can make more guys without going to a base. Like you could quick-map to a button or something, so if you are in a war and not doing well you don't have to go to your base, make them, and miss whats going on. Anyone hear about that?

That would be really nice. That's really the only complaint I currently have about the game. I can't find anything about that in the instructions though.

I don't think you can. Maybe they had a bunch still training, and just had a rally point near-by? Then the guys would head straight to the scene of the action upon emerging.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: UpgradeFailure
I was listening to...Was it Rebel FM I think, yesterday, and they were talking about Halo Wars and they brought up that you can make more guys without going to a base. Like you could quick-map to a button or something, so if you are in a war and not doing well you don't have to go to your base, make them, and miss whats going on. Anyone hear about that?

That would be really nice. That's really the only complaint I currently have about the game. I can't find anything about that in the instructions though.

I don't think you can. Maybe they had a bunch still training, and just had a rally point near-by? Then the guys would head straight to the scene of the action upon emerging.

That's what I'm thinking...I don't remember any default mappings.

Anyone have any default or good strategies they follow? I'm still playing with what to build first and whatnot...these games have never been my strongpoint. I'm kicking major ass in normal right now but think I'll get my ass handed to me in heroic 1v1. I've mostly been concentrating on building supply depots first, barracks, supply depot grades upgrades, then a reactor...then whatever else. I don't think I concentrate enough on exploring yet. (My last game I found an empty base site literally next to mine...if I had found that earlier I could have had double the base/resources...just shows I really suck at this genre) 🙁

 

[UpgradeFailure]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: UpgradeFailure
I was listening to...Was it Rebel FM I think, yesterday, and they were talking about Halo Wars and they brought up that you can make more guys without going to a base. Like you could quick-map to a button or something, so if you are in a war and not doing well you don't have to go to your base, make them, and miss whats going on. Anyone hear about that?

That would be really nice. That's really the only complaint I currently have about the game. I can't find anything about that in the instructions though.

I don't think you can. Maybe they had a bunch still training, and just had a rally point near-by? Then the guys would head straight to the scene of the action upon emerging.

That's what I'm thinking...I don't remember any default mappings.

Anyone have any default or good strategies they follow? I'm still playing with what to build first and whatnot...these games have never been my strongpoint. I'm kicking major ass in normal right now but think I'll get my ass handed to me in heroic 1v1. I've mostly been concentrating on building supply depots first, barracks, supply depot grades upgrades, then a reactor...then whatever else. I don't think I concentrate enough on exploring yet. (My last game I found an empty base site literally next to mine...if I had found that earlier I could have had double the base/resources...just shows I really suck at this genre) 🙁

Yeah I couldnt find it anywhere in the demo so I assume they must be wrong. It would be a nice feature though for sure

 

[Auryg]

As the UNSC if you upgrade your marines to ODSTs you can then deploy drop pods from your ship - up on the D Pad and then it's somewhere in there. That's the only way I can think of to make some units without being at your base, aside from the Elephant.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
the cut scenes are the best I've see in the Halo-verse.

That has a lot to do with the fact that Bungie always kept cut scenes in engine, which I liked for the FPS because there wasn't always a clear line between cut scene and not, however you obviously can't get the same effect doing RTS cut scenes in engine.

There are some RTS's that use ingame engine for cut-scenes like Company of Heroes.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
the cut scenes are the best I've see in the Halo-verse.

That has a lot to do with the fact that Bungie always kept cut scenes in engine, which I liked for the FPS because there wasn't always a clear line between cut scene and not, however you obviously can't get the same effect doing RTS cut scenes in engine.

There are some RTS's that use ingame engine for cut-scenes like Company of Heroes.

Never played those games, but the cut scenes in Halo Wars (assuming you haven't seem them) are highly personable, showing interactions between a couple characters in great detail. Is that the same type of cut scene used in Company of Heroes?