All Articles: Halo Wars 2

Today’s Xbox Games Store update includes four heads for the future in one game and to the past for three retro-inspired games.

Fans have been asking for a sequel to Halo Wars for years, and now Microsoft has delivered with the Xbox One release of Halo Wars 2. Fans who purchase the Xbox One edition through the Xbox Games Store will also receive access to the game on Windows 10 thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere program, but everyone will get a chance to guide their futuristic soldiers with its real-time strategy gameplay.

Also available to download today for the Xbox One is Zombie Vikings, a side-scrolling hack and slash starring the “most fearsome Vikings ever raised from Norse soil.” Up to four players will be able to fight back against a menagerie of monsters as they search for Odin’s missing eye. The Xbox One is also home to a second new side-scroller today with the release of Shift Happens. Players will solve puzzles, collect coins, and go on a “comical yet dramatic” adventure.

Finally today, Xbox One owners will have the chance to download Vaccine, a survival horror game inspired by the genre’s PSone-era beginnings. As part of a special bio-hazard rapid response team, players will have to race against time to find a cure for a deadly disease in a house full of mutated monsters.

That’s all for today, but you can learn more about any of these titles after the break. (more…)

Developers at 343 Industries love to refer to the Halo franchise as a Star Wars saga for a new generation. I’m not sure if the Master Chief and Cortana will ever be as well known as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, the development certainly knows how to put together a thrilling sci-fi action sequence. Case in point… the new Halo Wars 2 launch trailer.

If you’re not a scholar of Halo lore, don’t worry, Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb offered up a few more details about the trailer, and the real time strategy game’s many feature, on his eponymous blog:

After experiencing a pyrrhic victory following the events of the first Halo Wars, Captain Cutter and the brave crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire wake up after 28 years of cryosleep to discover themselves orbiting a familiar Forerunner construct; Halo 3 fans, you know what it is. After receiving a distress signal and sending down some Spartans to investigate, the crew meets Atriox – an incredibly dangerous Brute who is as intelligent as he is strong. He poses a grave threat to humanity, and it’s up to you to stop him and his Banished.

In addition to the robust campaign, Halo Wars 2 is packed with a full suite of multiplayer modes that are suited to players of all skill levels and familiarity with real time strategy (RTS). Build your base, assemble your army and battle for control of the map in Domination, test your strategies solo or with a friend against AI in Skirmish, fight to hold more bases than your opponent in a timed Strongholds match, duke it out until you’re the last one standing in Deathmatch, or jump straight into the action with the all-new deck building multiplayer experience, Blitz.

Halo Wars 2 will be available for the PC and Xbox One on February 21. As an Xbox Play Anywhere title, players who opt for the digital edition of the game will receive access to it on both platforms for no extra charge.