Brutish new concept art from Halo Wars

Scavengers that we are, we are obligated to post everything, nay, anything related to Halo Wars, the upcoming real time strategy game from (soon to be defunct) Ensemble Studios. With this slavish devotion to duty in mind, we present you with concept art of the game's Brute units. Brutes, for the three of you unfamiliar with Halo, are huge, muscular, gorilla-like soldiers with the kind of grim determination usually reserved for freight trains. The Brute uniform in Halo Wars -- which takes place before the first Halo -- looks decidedly different than the uniforms in any of the Halo games. Our heads are filled with all of the nerdy reasons for -- and implications of -- the differences. We won't jump down that rabbit hole just now (though we hope Ensemble gives us a few hints).

Instead, we simply direct you to the images, which you can find in the gallery below. Our biggest question: At what point between Halo Wars and Halo 2 did Brute beards go out of style?