News Halo Wars 2: Launch Party

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"His Name... Is Atriox.
The whole damn covenant couldn't contain him at the height of their power.
All you've got is one old ship and half a crew to staff her?"

"Where you see half a crew, I see family.
And where you see one old ship, I see hope.
That is always worth fighting for!"


Halo Wars is back for the latest generation, this time you'll be facing up against a very angry brute with a giant hammer. It's not just him either, he's brought his big and hairy brute friends too, the Banished. You'll be fighting your battles on familiar ground, with the Ark taking centre stage in the latest confrontation between The UNSC and The Covenant. You'll be leading the UNSC forces from the Spirit of Fire against the Banished, an enemy so dangerous even the rest of the Covenant couldn't stop them. From your birds-eye view of the battlefield you'll have to fight your way across the Ark and defeat one of the toughest foes the UNSC has ever faced to secure victory. Can it be done? Will your tired crew of marines fresh from 30 years of cryosleep be up to the task? The fate of humanity is at stake, so I really hope so!


There's not long left to wait, with the release date set for the 21st of February, and if you've pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition you'll only be waiting until the 17th! But before all that there's the launch party livestream on the 16th of Feb, at 4pm PST (8pm EST, 12am GMT). 343i and Creative Assembly will be streaming on Xbox One, Beam, Twitch, Facebook Live and Youtube, so you can pick your favourite service and watch along with the rest of the community. There will be some exclusive interviews with the team that designed and built Halo Wars 2 and giveaways, so be sure to tune in for a chance to win some cool stuff! (I don't know what they'll actually be giving away, but it's been advertised so hopefully it's something decent.)

If you've not yet gone out and pre-ordered the game, there are two options available to you: The Standard Edition, and The Ultimate Edition. If you just want to enjoy Halo Wars 2 by itself, the Standard edition is for you, containing the full game including both the single player campaign and online multiplayer, as well as the pre-order bonus of the "Isabel Pack" that contains some starter cards to get you going in the new multiplayer Blitz mode. If you've got a bit of extra cash, the Ultimate edition is also available, containing everything in the Standard edition, but you also get the Season Pass which will cover you for over six months of new content with regular updates that include new leaders and abilities, new units to build and battle with, new cards for Blitz mode to crush your opponents with and even new campaign missions designed to expand on the original Halo Wars 2 campaign story. As an extra bonus, you also get the definitive edition of the original Halo Wars game.

Halo Wars is joining the likes of Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 as an Xbox play anywhere game! Early reports are stating that the game is running well on PCs, so unlike the dire launch of Forza Horizon 3 Halo Wars 2 should perform much better on launch day compared to previous PC releases.

As well as an all-new campaign, there's a new way to multiplayer in Halo Wars 2: Blitz mode. In this gametype, base building and resource management are thrown out the window, and players are instead given a deck of cards that they can use to spawn vehicles and use leader powers to their advantage. It allows players who would rather just jump into a game with an army of units ready to go and blow sh*t up to take part, cutting out the need for players to worry about base building and resource management. The beta was a big hit and 343i and Creative Assembly have made some changes based on community feedback (Locust OP pls nerf) so when the game launches next week I'm sure there will be some epic battles if the beta was anything to go by. If text is too boring for you to read, have a video:


Wars aren't always fought on the battlefield. Sometimes they're fought in the shadows, others are fought in the stock markets. Well, this war is also being fought over an armrest. Watch Cutter and Atriox battle each other in the War of Wits, where this time, battles will be fought with wit and cunning over the unlikely battlegrounds of airplane armrests and car sales. Let battle commence.



So yeah, Halo Wars 2 is out soon, 17th Feb for Ultimate Edition owners, 21st Feb for everyone else. See you on the battlefield!

"It's time to show them what power really means around here"
 
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I'll be on PC, only because I'm out of space on my Xbox for memory at the moment and there's nothing I want to uninstall. And I'm cheap and refuse to buy an external HDD.
 
I'll be on PC, only because I'm out of space on my Xbox for memory at the moment and there's nothing I want to uninstall. And I'm cheap and refuse to buy an external HDD.
I'm cheaper and found my 500 gb external HDD at a church sale for $2. :p
 
For those that wish play the game at launch allow me to show you the cheapest price for your pre-order. :)

Right now you can get the digital "Play Anywhere" version of the game (Xbox One/Windows 10 dual licence) on CDkeys at 20% off the recommended retail price.

If you're purely interested in the standard edition of the game, you can find it here for $40.89/£31.99

The ultimate edition (including the Halo Wars 1 remaster and 2 days of early access) is also available here for $63.99/£49.99

It's worthwhile mentioning that those that set up a free account over on CDkeys and grab an active Facebook discount code, can knock an additional 5% off these prices.

TL;DR? You can get the game for as low as $38.85/£30.39 or can snag the Ultimate edition for $60.79/£47.49 (meaning the remaster of Halo Wars 1 would essentially only be costing you $0.80!) :p

Enjoy ;)