"For a brick, he flies pretty good!"

Got Halo Wars about a week-and-a-half ago from Gamefly. Played some skirmishes, made sure to cover both UNSC and the Covenant. And I had a lot of fun. The mechanics are great: very simple and compatible with a 360 controller (only makes sense, as it was designed specifically for the 360). I didn't play it as much as I would've liked, so I didn't really get good at the controls. As such, I will keep my issues to a minimum: if there was a way I could deselect specific units, I never found it (there very well could have been; I had no manual to look to for reference). Ditto with sending detachments. If I have enemy tanks approaching, and I simply want to send just my anti-vehicle units, I would like something more specific than "all units" or "local units". Often times, I felt like I was sending far too many units toward an engagement.

And now to something else. I'm tired of the word "units".

I got a decent ways into the campaign, as well. I was really digging the story. The characters were starting to shape up very well, too. I could already tell there was probably some history between Forge and Anders. My only real issue with the story was that Serina did not seem as engaging a character. And she cannot be excused for being an artificial intelligence: Cortana, the AI from the original series, was one of the strongest personalities in the games.

Aside from that, I did have a problem with the gameplay, one that was significant enough that it sometimes had me turning off my console. That would be the save mechanic. Progress is saved automatically at the end of each level, and the player is given the option to save mid-gameplay. That's it. If you remember to save frequently, that's no problem. But guess who tends to forget that? Yup, moi. An auto-save function would have been fantastic. There are enough objectives in each level that installing a checkpoint after each one would have been a real godsend. To be honest, I'm keeping track of enough things as is. I have scouts to monitor, outbound units I have to keep an eye on, a base and resources to manage, new structures to build, new troops to train, new vehicles to manufacture, enemies to engage. The list goes on. Is it too much to ask that the game gives me a break with saving progress automatically?

Despite that, I kept returning to the game. Regardless of any shortcomings, it's still outrageously fun. And my favorite aspect of the whole game is seeing the Spartans in their prime. During one mission, I had nine (nine!) Spartans at my command. And what did I do with those nine Spartans? Why, attacked the enemy base, of course. I cycled up two MAC (magnetically accelerated cannon) rounds to take out the energy shield around the Covenant citadel, and then I let my entire army at them. I lost everything except the Spartans. Tough bastards, they. At one point, curious to see how the fight was going, I scrolled around the battlefield. I saw one Spartan getting attacked from behind by a twelve-foot-tall Hunter. The Spartan paused, turned around, and blasted the Hunter away. Then he returned to firing on the Covenant base.

I love those guys.

Good game. I heartily recommend it.