Halo Wars April update talks strategy, music

The monthly Halo Wars update for April is up. Unfortunately, there isn't much news concerning gameplay (sorry folks, no playable Covenant or Flood yet), but that won't stop us from detailing what was there. What little info there was regarding gameplay centered around the cancellation of Ensemble's internal tournament. The tournament is still coming, but the team decided to wait for a few more things to be implemented in the game. Said things are referred to as "really cool stuff" and should complete "the game's full arsenal," so the team thought it would be best to wait. Other tweaks are also being made to air vehicles which are apparently a little too effective for hit-and-runs. Oh, and Scorpion tanks, while resource-intensive and slow to build, are proving quite popular among the Ensemble staff (imagine that). The update also details a rather effective counter to an opponent that favors building Scorpions (hint: go Marines!).

The rest of the update focuses on the game's music. Essentially, Music and Sound Director Stephen "Big Al" Rippy is currently walking a tightrope between making sure the game's music holds true to the Halo universe while still being able to expand upon the work already established by Bungie's Marty O'Donnell (who likes Rippy's work, incidentally). For what it's worth, Rippy says all of the music for Halo Wars is now in the can (assuming there are no more significant changes). Let's hope that means we can get a closer look at the full game soon.