Once again: Welcome to Halo Wars X and we hope you enjoy what we have in store for you. Cheers!

But it’s not all about the campaign mode, although obviously that will be one of the first things you plough through once you’ve stuck the game in the XBOX 360. Halo 3 boasts a rather impressive online multiplayer mode with 11 maps that allow up to 16 players to fight with various weapons and vehicles. It also allows up to four players to play co-op online, so there are plenty of options to play with.

And speaking of playing, Halo 3 has a rather special feature called The Forge which, on a basic level, is a map editor. But more than that, it is an editor which allows you to change items during gameplay, so be prepared for things to get rather interesting when playing a Forge map.

There is a lot to look forward to with this game including a range of new weapons and items as well as some new vehicles too and with its impressive online features, Halo 3 looks set to be more than a little popular in the coming months.

Those who are familiar with Halo: Combat Evolved will recognise the two new battlefields arriving next month as previously being called “Hang ‘Em High” and “Derelict” but with fresh tweaking and enhanced graphics they will now be introduced as “Tombstone” and “Desolation” respectively. They will be sold together for $4 for XBOX LIVE gold members only via the in-game content downloader in Halo 2.

Today at the X0 Conference in Barcelona, Microsoft announced that they had indeed employed Ensemble Studios, those masters of RTS who created the Age of Empires series, to work on producing an RTS game based on the Halo universe. The game will be called Halo Wars and will be an XBOX 360 exclusive, although no release date has been announced as of yet. Microsoft also showed a trailer (pre-rendered, based on concept art only and not powered by the game’s engine) and within moments of their announcement, the official Halo Wars site went live, answering questions and teasing gamers with hints of what may or may not be available in-game.

What we can tell you is that Halo Wars is set before the original Halo (Halo: Combat Evolved) began and gamers will be leading the Spartans in “all out war” against the Covenant. Ensemble, when asked if alien forces will be playable, remained tight-lipped but teasing, adopting a “wait and see” attitude.

For those more than a little sceptical about another console RTS, considering how crap they have been in the past, Ensemble are making some big promises. By building the game from the ground up exclusively to the XBOX 360, they intend to keep all the great bits of the RTS genre and none of the usual hiccups and drawbacks as has often been the experience. After all, Halo was originally meant to be an RTS game before it became an FPS (first person shooter) and Ensemble plan on making Halo Wars everything gamers expect from an RTS game.

Bungie have explained that Halo 2 for the PC will not be compatible with Halo 2 for the XBOX mainly because it would not present an even playing field for both XBOX and PC gamers alike, as well as the PC version having a map editor and new maps which the XBOX version does not have. Not to mention the fact that XBOX gamers have had more than two years’ head start on the PC crowd in terms of playing Halo 2, so really it would be unfair and rather “lopsided” to try and cross the two games in online play. However, the PC version of Halo 2 will support more than keyboard and mouse interface should gamers prefer a different control method.

A further development which Bungie mentioned in their post is the removal of the Halo 2 online clan system from the matchmaking option. Players will still be in a clan, but not with a clan rank like before. According to Bungie insiders, the system was being used to abuse newcomers to Halo 2 in order to rank up quickly whilst those in a higher ranking clan were struggling to find matches suitable for their abilities. The removal of clan ranking in matchmaking playlists would prevent this from happening in the future.

Yep, you guessed it – the Halo 3 Game Trailer, announced during Microsoft’s pre-E3 conference and available shortly afterwards for downloading via XBOX LIVE marketplace. It even outdid three playable demos of other games, so it’s pretty safe to say that Halo 3 is set to cause quite a stir when it is finally released later on in 2007.

The game will be in widescreen format using something called antialiasing which reduces the distortion of images significantly, thus enhancing the gameplay further. Split-screen mode will now be side by side instead of above and below and in case you are still unsure as to how this will all work, Bungie have said on their website: “To clarify, the ‘new’ version of Halo or Halo 2 is simply the disk you have already. Pop it into your 360 and it’ll load up just like before…both games will work immediately.”

The Halo franchise is one of the titles named as being fully backwards compatible for the XBOX 360 and all can be played at higher resolutions.

Last year Halo 2 released two version of the game – the standard version and a limited collector’s edition which boasted a variety of extras as well as a nice metal case with the Halo 2 logo on the front. But in 2002, Scandinavian company Glud & Marstrand offered their services to Microsoft to make metal cases for games. According to reports in the European game press, Microsoft and Glud & Marstrand signed nondisclosure agreements (NDA’s) and exchanged information.

The suit claims that in 2003, Microsoft contacted Glud & Marstrand saying they were looking for a company to produce the metal cases for the Halo 2 collector’s edition release. Glud & Marstrand claim that Microsoft then approached a company called Viva with the same proposal even though they are a rival company and not part of the NDA signed in 2002.

For those who do not know what an NDA really is, here’s the breakdown for you. A nondisclosure agreement is defined as a legally enforceable agreement preventing present or past employees from disclosing commercially sensitive information belonging to the employer to any other party. To further clarify, by signing this agreement both Glud & Marstrand and Microsoft agreed not to share the information concerned with anyone else outside of the agreement – namely, in this case, Viva.

So according to reports, it has been alleged that Viva used technology which is the sole property of Glud & Marstrand to produce a case for Halo 2 for Microsoft and that both Microsoft and Viva are colluding with one another. Glud & Marstrand are suing for damages and requesting an injunction against both Viva and Microsoft.