1up is reporting via their E3 coverage that Halo Wars, the upcoming RTS set in the Halo universe, is definately locked into a 2009 release date. They received the news from Dave Pottinger, the game's lead designer, with whom they have a huge interview on their site which can be found here. Be sure to check it out if you're looking forward to the game, which will be available for the Xbox 360 and PC and is being developed by Ensemble Studios, the minds behind games like Age of Empires.

Halo Wars" is being developed from the bottom up for the Xbox 360 and its control scheme to ensure that we deliver a groundbreaking console RTS experience. Given that, we have no plans to develop "Halo Wars" for Windows Vista at this time.

Disappointing news for Master Chief friends today, as the Halo movie (if it's still in the works at all) has demoted MC to a supporting cast role instead of focusing on him as the main character. If you ever played a Halo game and noticed how MC sort of... lacks anything that would make people think he was a human (ie, a personality), this probably makes sense to you.

• Peter Molyneux's stated ambition as a designer is to make FABLE 2 a landmark game. In order to achieve this three big design features have been added. The inspiration and rational behind these features will be discussed along with their evolution throughout the development process. The wider context of their impact and influence on the RPG genre with also be examined as the ambition is also to evolve the genre itself. The talk will be supported by retrospective videos as well as live game examples.

• Game stories can matter, even in first person shooters. But first we're going to have to give up a lot of our preconceptions about what people care about when playing a game. For too long, games (especially first person shooters) have been stuck in a "game sequence followed by story sequence" mentality. Ken Levine will tell the tale of how the BIOSHOCK took a pointy-headed idea about a pseudo-objectivist utopia and turned it into one of the most compelling and succesful game worlds in recent history. What were the tools used? What compromises had to be made? Where did the shooter end and the story begin? How did we make people give a crap? How did we use story and narrative to become perhaps the most talked about game at the super-crowded E3 2006? What does this all mean for stories in games? And must of all, what hell does "Mise En Scene" mean?

• The online multiplayer mode of HALO 3 features an automatic matchmaking system to place players into games. Players may join individually or with parties of friends, and are quickly matched into groups. This presentation describes the algorithms behind the peer-to-peer matchmaking model, and its implementation over Xbox Live. It examines the impact of matchmaking on the HALO online community, and provides techniques for shaping the player experience and discouraging cheaters. The tradeoffs of an automatic matchmaking system compared to traditional multiplayer game browsers will be discussed, and illustrated by some results from the first months of HALO 3's operation.

• This session will offer a look into key areas of CRYSIS development that markedly depart from Crytek's first project, FAR CRY. Main topics include Nanosuit design and gameplay, creating a rich, destructible/non-linear world, and peopling it with dynamic, believable AI enemies that challenge and entertain the player.