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"  SANTA MONICA, Calif. \u2014 If Halo 3 is heroin for gamers, then Halo Wars is a shot of methadone, designed to stave off the inevitable withdrawal that will set in once the trilogy ends. This real-time strategy (RTS) title is set 20 years before the first Halo game, towards the beginning of humanity&amp;#039;s war with the fanatic alien horde known as the Covenant. That officially makes it a prequel, although the game play in Halo Wars is completely different from any of the Halo games, and it was built from the ground up, without borrowing a single line of code from its successful predecessors.  The interface is standard RTS, with the camera hovering at an effective altitude of 400 ft. above the battlefield. If you&amp;#039;re bored, you can zoom in and skim the surface to watch the combat unfold. The environment also feels less cartoonish than in some RTS, with idle infantry units doing push-up drills behind the barracks, and silos hemorrhaging smoke as a missile sits in the open tube, ready for launch. For Halo fans, all the familiar weapons and vehicles are on hand, including the all-terrain Warthog and even Spartan 2s (Halo&amp;#039;s protagonist, Master Chief, is also a Spartan).  We watched a single-player demo battle, which featured an array of infantry, tanks, and enemy aircraft. The developers might not be using Halo&amp;#039;s engine, but they&amp;#039;ve tried to keep the physics as accurate as possible, like when the Warthog fishtails during turns and nearly tumbles onto its back after jumping a massive canyon. There was also a scripted event, or what lead designer Graeme Devine called one of the many &amp;quot;wow moments&amp;quot; in the game, when a massive alien juggernaut called a Scarab, with a beam cannon for a face, lurched into the battle. This thing made an appearance in Halo 2, but seeing it in its full, battalion-devastating glory was more satisfying than I expected. That&amp;#039;s a good way to describe Halo Wars \u2013 more satisfying than you&amp;#039;d expect from a shameless bid to capitalize on Halo fever.  According to the game&amp;#039;s PR rep, Halo Wars is specifically aimed at console players who may have never tried playing an RTS (most RTS games are made for the PC). There will apparently be features in the game that should appeal to hardcore RTS types as well, but Devine couldn&amp;#039;t share anything about the multiplayer game (such as whether you can play Covenant vs. Humans, or even Covenant vs. Covenant) so its hard to say whether the veterans will pick it up.  Unlike many RTS titles, this one is story-driven, following a single vessel during a campaign across various planets. All of the battlefields will be land-based, and, because we had to ask, Master Chief won&amp;#039;t be making a cameo. The storyline was under wraps, but Devine was able to confirm that while it won&amp;#039;t overlap with the trilogy&amp;#039;s narrative, &amp;quot;the plot allows Halo to happen.&amp;quot; Halo Wars is slated for a 2008 release, right when the shakes get bad enough, and any fix will do.  \u2014Erik Sofge  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a1901/4219274/>