Leveling Down

Yet another conflict in the war with the Covenant, but this time there’s no Master Chief

It took forever, but I finally finished downloading the Halo Wars demo Thursday night and got to check it out. As a big fan of the Halo Universe, I’ve been looking forward to some backstory, and am also cautiously optimistic about what Ensemble might be able to do with a RTS game built specifically for the console. The demo contains two playable levels from the campaign and a taste of the skirmish mode, which is what I assume online multiplayer is gonna be like. In the demo you can only choose from two commanders (one Covenant and one UNSC), each with their own special abilities and special unit.

Since I’ve been in an e-mail thread with some friends about the game, I’ll just give my impressions in the form of a FAQ after the jump.

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Xbox 360
3 Month Live Gold Starter Pack [$19.99 Best Buy]
13 Month Live Gold Card [$38.99 Amazon] [$38.99 Newegg]
Assassin’s Creed [$23.99 Amazon]
BioShock [$23.99 Amazon]
Blue Dragon [$12.99 Newegg]
Call of Duty: World at War [$49.99 Amazon]
Dark Sector [$9.99 Newegg]
Grand Theft Auto IV [$43.99 Amazon] [$39.99 Newegg]
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned + 3 Month Live Gold [$19.99 Amazon]
Guitar Hero World Tour [$49.99 Best Buy]
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [$49.99 Amazon]
Tom Clancy’s EndWar [$36.99 Newegg]
All games 30% off [Circuit City in-store only]
All Xbox 360 systems 20% off [Circuit City in-store only]

Playstation 3
Dark Sector [$9.99 Newegg]
Guitar Hero: World Tour [$49.99 Best Buy]
Haze [$16.99 Amazon]
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction [$41.99 Newegg]
Saints Row 2 [$36.99 Newegg]
Sonic Unleashed [$26.99 Newegg]
All games 30% off [Circuit City in-store only]

Nintendo Wii
All Star Cheer Squad [$29.99 Best Buy]
Guitar Hero World Tour [$39.99 Amazon] [$39.99 Best Buy]
LEGO Indiana Jones [$39.99 Amazon] [$39.99 Newegg]
Mario Party 8 [$40.99 Amazon] [$40.99 Newegg]
Mario Strikers Charged [$40.99 Newegg]
Mario Super Sluggers [$36.99 Amazon] [$36.99 Newegg]
My Fitness Coach [$19.99 Best Buy]
Pokemon Battle Revolution [$40.99 Newegg]
Samba De Amigo [$14.99 Amazon]
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip [$39.99 Amazon] [$39.99 Best Buy]
SimAnimals [$39.99 Amazon] [$39.99 Best Buy]
Super Mario Galaxy [$34.99 Newegg]
Wario Land: Shake It [$29.99 Best Buy]
All games 30% off [Circuit City in-store only]

PC
Call of Duty: World at War [$39.99 Amazon]
Mass Effect [$16.99 Amazon]
All games 30% off [Circuit City in-store only]

Not much in terms of new game deals this week except Amazon has the new GTAIV expansion + 3-month Gold subscription bundle for $20. This is a pretty good deal if the GTA IV DLC delivers since the 3-month Gold subscription amounts to about $7-$11 (depending on if you can find the 13 month subscription for $30-$50). Since we’re all generally subscribed to Live Gold anyway, why not get 3 more months paid with the GTA IV expansion? Also a good deal this week is Best Buy’s 3-month Live Gold starter pack. This kit contains 3 months of Gold, a headset, and 400 MS Points. I might get this myself since my current headset seems to be having problems. Note that this is the new headset model with the mute switch on the cable itself.

Also of note is that Circuit City has all games for all systems on sale for 30% off. Some good deals can be had if your stores have anything left. Note however that some prices are still higher, so even with the discount it might not be too attractive. I went looking for a copy of Team Fortress 2 for the PC, thinking 30% off $20 would make it worth it, but it was going for $30. Crysis was also going for $40 instead of the usual $30 retail. But 30% off $60 console games, that’s not bad if you want Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, etc. They also have 20% off all consoles, but PS3′s and Wii’s are most likely already wiped clean at your local stores.