GamesBloggo - Your source on game news! January 2009

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.

Ensemble Studios has released 46 new images from Halo Wars, the real-time strategic based on Master Chief’s universe that will be released exclusively for the Xbox 360.

The launch date for this game has been confirmed for February 27th in Europe, a few days earlier than the American market that will only be able to experience it from March 3rd on.

Here are some of the images. Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

After Diablo II, it’s StarCraft 2’s turn to show itself through some new images that picture a Zerg rush from the new chapter of the strategic series, that shouldn’t be launched before 2010.

According to what was revealed on the last BLizzCon, the game is going to be composed by a trilogy, which each of the 3 episodes will be dedicated to the many races in the game. The trilogies will be called Terran: Wings of Liberty, Zerg: Heart of the Swarm and Protoss: legacy of the Void.

Here are some of the images. Click on the thumbnails to see the full version.

According to what was reported by IGN, Ubisoft should release new downloadable contents for Tom Clancy’s EndWar tomorrow. EndWar is a real-time strategic for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (as well as portable consoles) characterized by the use of the vocal commands.

The expansion is called “Escalation Pack”, and it includes four new maps, three new updates for the units and 10 new objectives and trophies for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. All this can be downloaded for 800 Microsoft Points or $ 9,99 on the PlayStation Network.

Contemporarily, there’s also the arrival of a patch, downloadable for free, that fixes some problems connected to the online game and that takes the maximum number of connected players from 4 to 8, allowing 4 against 4 battles in the Skirmish and Theater of War modes.

Codemasters has announced the official release dates for Rise of the Argonauts, after the announced delay in the launching, that was originally scheduled for November. The game, inspirted on the epic features of the Argonauts, will be released in Europe on December 12th, except for the English territory, which will be postponed to the first weeks of 2009, for unknown reasons.

According to Eurogamer.net, “close sources to Square Enix” would have affirmed that Chrono Trigger DS is to be expected to be launched in Europe in February.

The remake of the famous Squaresoft RPG, originally launched for SuperNES on 1995, has already been launched in the Japanese and American markets, receiving good responses from critics and public, a clear demonstration on how the game is still loved by fans.

Chrono Trigger DS has remained the same game as ten years ago, but besides the new loading scenes signed by Akira Toriyama’s Bird Studio (introduced for the first time on the Playstation reedition), there is also a new dungeon, a new finale, the double screen visualization, touch screen control and the possibility of a multiplayer mode through the Wi-Fi connection.

We’ll be waiting on eventual confirmation on the launch month for the European market.

The development of Supreme Commander 2 was officially announced by Square Enix, that will be in charge of publishing the game as well. The title is the sequel of the very good RTS developed by Gas Powered Games, that got many good critic reviews due to its particular approach.

The publisher didn’t release much details (not even about the aimed platforms), limiting to inform that the “development has begun”, and that it represents an important strategy mark for Square Enix towards the western markets, according to Yoichi Wada, Square Enix’s boss.

Supreme Commander, for those not familiar with it, is a strategy game that allows players to guide an Armored Command Unit, a gigantic mech able to fight and build units, but that needs to be well protected against enemy attacks. The battlefield extension and the great number of units to be controlled are two other particular features on the game, and we suppose those will be seen on the second chapter as well.

Stardock and IronClad Games have communicated the postponing of the first expansion of Sin of a Solar Empire. The update is called Entrenchment, and it was scheduled for launching next week, but the developers decided to first launch a public beta version in order to better test it. The beta should be available for those who pre-ordered the expansion.

Entrenchment introduces several innovations, particularly on the defense combat system, with a new series of guns and units. Also, new space bases and ships can be built, and there has been a general enhancement on the graphics.

The good real-time strategy game from Capcom, Age of Booty, will soon be arriving on the PlayStation Network, after having been launched on the XBox Live Arcade. The official Capcom blog reveals, in fact, that the scheduled launch date in North America is November 13th, and even if it hasn’t been decided yet, it is likely that it will arrive the same day also in Europe. The blog in fact says that there are good possibilities for Europe and Asia and they hope to be able to bring the game to those markets the same day as for the American one.

The price hasn’t yet been revealed, but users can have an idea of what it will be, comparing with the Live Arcade version, that can be downloaded for 800 Microsoft Points (less than €10).

Microsoft has announced the first title that will use the XBox 360 avatars in game, as playable characters within the game. The title is A Kingdom for Keflings, a title developed by NinjaBee for the XBox Live Arcade, that will be available on Microsoft’s digital delivery on the same day as the New XBox Experience launch: November 19th.

The game allows players to build cities in a SimCity style (with a more simple approach), with the possibility of playing with up to 4 players in the online multiplayer mode. The avatar can be used as “giants” that are in charge of creating the city, while giving the “Keflings”, the small inhabitants of the cities, many different tasks.

A Kingdom for Keflings will cost 800 Microsoft Points.