There’s a small waiting atmosphere around the Ensembles Studios’ project Halo Wars, especially after the closure of the Studios three months ago. Now, however, some of the unlockable objectives for Halo Wars have been revealed and we’ll list it at the end of this article.

This real-time strategic will be based on the Bungie-created world and made famous by Master Chief, that became somehow an icon for the game.

Halo Wars should be available from February 27th, 2009 on. Below are the list of objectives that will be able to be unlocked on the game. Enjoy.

* Adjudicate the Arbiter 30
Complete the Campaign on Heroic Difficulty
* Detour the Great Journey 50
Complete the Campaign on Legendary Difficulty
* Momma’s Boy 5
Get a Gold Medal on any mission
* Crushed Colors 10
Improve your Score in any Campaign Mission
* Mr. Punctual 15
Finish all missions under Par Time on Heroic difficulty
* Own Worst Enemy 20
Get a Gold Medal with all Debuff Skulls Active
* Wall of Recognition 30
Get a Gold Medal on every Campaign Mission
* Epic Grinder 40
Obtain a Lifetime Campaign Score over 1,000,000
* Everything’s Better with Bacon 5
Mission 1: Ram 50 Grunts with Warthogs
* Endless Fun 5
Mission 2: Destroy every Methane Tank
* Covenant “Hot Drop” 5
Mission 3: Kill at least 5 Covenant Units with the Bridge
* The Real Winner 5
Mission 4: Save Adam
* He’s Got The Jack 5
Mission 5: Jack 6 Covenant Vehicles
* Rhino Hugger 5
Mission 6: Successfully protect every Rhino
* Micro Manager 5
Mission 7: Do not destroy any Power Node
* Ramblin’ Man 5
Mission 8: Use Elephants to train 100 Infantry
* Sweet Naptime 5
Mission 9: Put every Colony in Hibernation Mode at the same time
* The Procrastinator 5
Mission 10: Disrupt all Tractor Beams
* Battened Down the Hatches 5
Mission 11: Save all the Airlocks
* Handy with Tools 5
Mission 12: Repair the Power Core in less than 4 minutes
* Beaming with Pride 5
Mission 13: Destroy 25 units with the Scarab
* Didn’t Get To Second Base 5
Mission 14: Don’t claim an extra base
* Thinkin’ about My Doorbell 5
Mission 15: Open the Doors in order
* Backscratcher 10
Complete any Campaign Mission in Co-op Mode
* OMG BFF FTW 40
Complete entire Campaign in Co-op Mode
* Playin’ the Field 15
Win a Skirmish Game with every Leader
* Gallivant around the Galaxy 25
Win a game on every Skirmish Map
* Empire Builder 5
Win a game in every Skirmish Game Mode
* Titan 15
Get 20,000 points in any Skirmish Game
* Big Al’s Scooter 10
Win a Heroic Skirmish Game against the AI in under 10 minutes
* My Virtual Friends Love Me 10
Win a 3v3 Skirmish game with 2 AI Allies
* Walk-Off Winner 30
Use one of the 6 Major Leader Powers to destroy an enemy’s last unit
* 2 Bugs are Better Than 1 10
Win a Skirmish Game with Dual Scarabs
* Penny Pincher 10
Get a winning High Score with 10 or less Squads against the Heroic AI
* N00b n0 M0r3 10
Win a Matchmade Skirmish Game on Xbox LIVE
* So Lonely at the Top 20
Win and have the Highest Score in a Matchmade Skirmish Game on Xbox LIVE
* Basically Naive 10
Obtain the Recruit Rank on Xbox LIVE
* Officer on Deck 30
Obtain the Lieutenant Rank on Xbox LIVE
* Running the Show 50
Obtain the General Rank on Xbox LIVE
* Alas, Poor Andrew Thomas 5
Collect your first Skull
* Graverobber 30
Collect all Skulls
* Halo Academic 15
Unlock 20 Timeline Events
* Halo Historian 40
Unlock All Timeline Events
* Ready for the Sequel 75
100% Completion
* 24 Hours of Quality 20
Play Halo Wars for at least 24 Total Hours

Secret Objectives:

* Secret Achievement 10
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 40
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 50
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 70
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 70
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.

The Volition staff has annouced the launch date for the PC version of Saints Row 2 on the game’s  official forum. The game will be finally available for PC on January 9th, 2009, bringing the wait of those players that do not have a console to an end.

In another post on the same forum, the moderator has also declared that a low-impact DRM system will be used. It should be based on Steam but mild enough not to cause any problems that have been found in other games.

Sega is preparing to offer some of their classics on XBox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The titles should be well-known, such as Gunstar Heroes, Phantasy Star II, Comix Zone and Sonic The Hedgehog 3.

Some of the Sega old games are already present in the Virtual Console listing for Wii, but it seems the company has decided to enlarge their target. Prices and dates should be available in the next few days, so stay tuned.

The first F.E.A.R was somewhat “ruined” by the Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate expansions and their respective console conversions that were done by other Software Houses. At least according to Dave Matthews, from Monolith, in an interview to CVG.

“[TimeGate] took the story in a direction that we didn’t intend. We look at Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate as an alternate universe, a ‘what could have been’, and because of that it doesn’t necessarily diminish the story that we were trying to tell. F.E.A.R. was about Alma, F.E.A.R. 2 is about Alma, and we wanted to continue the story the way we originally intended”, says Matthews.

Besides criticizing the expansions, Matthews also shares some negative opinions about the technical quality for the console conversions made by Day 1 Studios, affirming that they never sold as well as the PC version.

Matthews reassures players, however, that the XBox 360 and PlayStation3  conversions of F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin will be a lot more faithful to the PC counterpart. F.E.A.R 2 will be launched on February 10, 2009 for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.

One week left until the release of Rock Band 2 for Wii, Harmonix has announced that the downloadable contents for the game will arrive in the first months of 2009. Contrarily to what it was previously announced, since the company had stated that they would be available from the first week after the launch.

The pack features 20 free songs, plus 30 more from the first Rock Band. The new songs will not be the same as those available on PS3 and XBox 360 and no further details were released about the “old” ones.

Harmonix has also declared that the test period is at its last phase, and they’re working hard in completing it for the next year.

After the announcement about the usage of the HeroEngine and the first video that was published, a good number of new images from Star Wars: The Old Republic were made available, amongst those, many Concept Arts.

The new LucasArts/BioWare MMO seems to awaken some interest inside the fan community, also because it’s inspired in a world that seems to resist the effects of time. In the expectation to know more about the game and its launch date, here are some of the images.

Enjoy!

According to what was reported by IGN, it seems that the announced DSi success is a fact now, perhaps even bigger than was expected.

The number of units sold in Japan has reached the one million mark, according to some data released by Enterbrain. These numbers were updated on December 21st, and considering that the portable console was launched on November 1st in Japan, it’s quite a remarkable result for a simple revision of the current DS model.

The DSi has no launch date for North America and Europe yet, except for a very vague “2009″.

After revealing the system requirements and posting a new video about the game, it’s yet another time for The Sims 3 in our blog, thanks to other images that were distributed by the developers.

It’s worth reminding that the biggest new feature on the third chapter of the series will be the possibility of exploring the local neighborhood, visiting buildings such as stores, bars, libraries, gyms and even other houses, giving the possibility to spy other Sims.

The launch date for The Sims 3 is scheduled for February 2009. In the meantime, here are the new screenies. Enjoy.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

The development team for F.E.A.R 2 has released a few screenshots for the new F.E.A.R sequel that will be launched next February 10th for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.

There’s not much more to say except: enjoy some of the screenshots below!

Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

Slightly earlier than what was announced, NCSoft has already made Tabula Rasa free to play and download, instead of waiting until January 10th as it had been previously established.

Unless things change once more, the game will see its last day on February 28th, the day when NCSoft will close the official servers definitely. In order to play Tabula Rasa, even if for just a few days, players will need to download it from the official game site, then use the code obtained from PlayNC’s website upon creating an account. Even though everything’s now free, a credit card is still required in order to prove one’s identity.