Microsoft has recently announced the official release dates and pre-order information for Ensemble Studio’s RTS Halo Wars, their action-based strategy take on the Halo universe.

Halo fans in North America, South America, Canada, and Mexico will finally be able to get their fill on the more strategic Halo experience on March 3rd – a few days after the rest of the world gets theirs. Those lucky folks in Japan and the Asia Pacific regions will be getting the game on February 26th, while Europe, the Middle East, and Africa will receive it a day later on the 27th. Fans who pre-order the game will get an exclusive in-game Warthog burning with a fiery paint job. (As shown above)

Hit the jump for more details on the first T-rated game in the Halo series, along with details on the Limited Collector’s Edition we’ve already told you about.
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Lead Designer Graeme Devine has informed us gaming journalists that we needed to know 3 things about their latest Halo Real Time Strategy Game Halo Wars before we got to playing: the game is about 1) fast, visceral combat, 2) an epic storyline and 3) multiplayer. Unfortunately, the game is still in its beta phase of the builds, so we’ve only experienced the first element, lightly sampled the second, and received only super cool hints about the third.

There’s no doubt the fast, visceral combat is there – but it comes at the expense of some of the more “hardcore” elements of RTS games. So, instead of being able to stay in a rather zoomed-out view where your minions are only tiny little explosions as you pump more out of your base, Halo Wars keeps the camera focused pretty far in on the battlefield so the action is in your face. The plus to this is the level of detail of the people, aliens and vehicles that makes explosions more vivid; and because your units level up to gain new abilities (instead of, say, unlocking new types of units), you become more attached to them instead of coldly sending units off to die like meat shields.

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