Halo Wars goes gold, demo detailed

Putting the finishing touches on Halo Wars must be bittersweet for its developers. The long-awaited RTS game for Xbox 360 has gone "gold" today, just a few days before Ensemble Studio shuts its doors at the end of the month.

In addition to announcing the game's gold status, Microsoft released further details on Halo Wars downloadables. A video documentary that goes behind the scenes of the game can be downloaded from Xbox Live today. (Also available after the break) The playable demo will be available on February 5th at 5AM EST (2AM PST).

The demo will include beginner and advanced tutorials and the first two campaign missions from the story mode. The demo will also include "Chasms," one of the 14 multiplayer maps included in the full game. Players will be able to battle against the computer AI in Skirmish mode, playing as either the UNSC or the Covenant. No online play was mentioned in the release.