…is apparently how long humanity fought the Covenant over Harvest. It is not, gratefully, the amount of time you’ll have to wait for Halo Wars from Ensemble Studios to come out, since supposedly the game is now set for a release sometime in Spring 2009.

So, a little less than one… long… year.

Xbox360Fanboy has the latest Halo Wars trailer, which follows in the vein of the first in showing no gameplay whatsoever, but focusing on cinematic visuals, of the kind more appropriate for a game that actually uses those kinds of visuals. You know, a shooter, and not a strategy game.

TeamXbox also has the trailer and new screens, while the official site has 12 new shots in an “E3 2008” gallery.

UPDATE: I’ve added those shots into Rampancy’s Halo Wars gallery.

This trailer also replaces the original score of the first trailer, which was best described as trite and lackluster, and instead inserted the familiar strains of Marty’s “Halo Monks”.

Also, despite “Contact Harvest” by Joe Staten saying that Brutes were the primary foot soldiers in the first assaults on that colony, this trailer once again only shows Elites– no other Covenant units are shown.

It’s also difficult to reconcile the idea of a 5-year battle over a single world with everything the Halo series has told us about human-Covenant engagements. While the addition of the Spartans into humanity’s troop mix gave them parity, if not an outright advantage, on the ground, we’re told that the Covenant always retained air superiority, and since ultimately most colonies were wholly or partially glassed, this was always the deciding factor.

So the story of Halo Wars will have to come up with some good reason why the Covenant wait five years before glassing Harvest, or for some reason choose to assault it without ever glassing it.

One of those shots shows a good look at some of the UNSC… well, there’s nothing to call them but mechs, since that’s what they look like. Frankly, the devs can go on all they like about how the mechs aren’t Spartans, aren’t as strong or fast or dangerous as Spartans, and play a different role on the battlefield than Spartans… and it just doesn’t matter worth a damn.

You can’t look at one of those things in a screenshot and not think “wow, if a Spartan is this good and only a bit bigger and taller than an ODST, then that thing must be awesome. Its visual presence on the field demeans the Spartan, and I don’t see that being something that can be explained away.

GoW2 is set to be launched on November 7th.

This game is set for launch in October 2008.

Summary:

1) only SD videos will be offered
2) LIVE Party viewers must be Netflix subscribers
3) Netflix servers will handle the streaming
4) No downloading; just streaming
5) Not avialable for Silver memberships
6) Free for XBL Gold subscriptions

Here’s the official press release which misses some of the details above:

An exciting new home theater experience is coming to living rooms this holiday season. At the E3 Media and Business Summit, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today unveiled an exclusive partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the television via the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. Xbox 360 will be the only game system that lets users instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix. This movie watching innovation will be available to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers and will let those users enjoy streaming movies from Netflix on Xbox LIVE at no additional cost.

A growing library of more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes will be available from Netflix when it launches on Xbox LIVE in late fall, with more choices added over time. Through this agreement, along with the existing Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store, Xbox 360 will be home to more movies and TV shows on demand than any other device connected to the TV. Xbox LIVE quickly and easily connects consumers and their friends to the entertainment they want — with no PC required for viewing.

Netflix on Xbox 360 is an important component of the new Xbox experience, a new generation of games and entertainment experiences that will be available on Xbox 360 consoles this fall. The new Xbox experience, also announced today at the E3 Media and Business Summit, represents the first time in history that a mass-market consumer electronics device has been re-invented through free software, giving people more fun and intuitive ways to interact, play and enjoy entertainment content.

“Watching movies at home will never be the same. Netflix on Xbox 360 is an entertainment first, and we are bringing friends together with the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, Software and Services Business at Microsoft. “We are creating a completely new social entertainment experience, and Xbox 360 will be the only video game system where you can access your library of instantly streamable movies from Netflix and turn any room into a virtual movie theater.”

From the Netflix Web site, members simply add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will be automatically displayed on the TV screen via Xbox 360 and available to watch instantly. Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds. In addition to instantly streaming movies to the TV, Xbox LIVE Gold members can fast-forward, pause and rewind, all using either their Xbox 360 Controller or Media Remote. In all, the user interface creates a highly personalized experience that puts viewers in control.

“Netflix and Xbox 360 are a perfect combination, the leading online movie rental service and the leading games and entertainment system joining forces to create an all-in-one entertainment experience with content for everyone,” said Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of Netflix. “For Netflix, it represents an important step forward in making instantly streaming movies on the TV more broadly available to our members.”

The library of movies and TV episodes that will be available for instant streaming from Netflix via Xbox 360 includes scores of Academy Award winners and nominees, episodes from a number of popular, currently running and classic TV shows, and 24 of the movies rated by the American Film Institute as the greatest ever.

A new trailer for Halo Wars has been released.

More assets are found at http://halowars.com and the XBOX Live Marketplace.

We still have no release date for this game and it’s looking more and more like a 2009 launch.

This is an older trailer, but you can expect the same kind of graphics to be found on the XBOX 360 version.

Microsoft has revealed the set list for Rock Band 2 (due out in mid September). All songs are master tracks; not covers. This is going to rock:

AC/DC – “Let There Be Rock”
AFI – “Girl’s Gone Grey”
Alanis Morissette – “You Oughta Know”
Alice in Chains – “Man in the Box”
Allman Brothers – “Ramblin’ Man”
Avenged Sevenfold – “Almost Easy “
Bad Company – “Shooting Star”
Beastie Boys – “So Whatcha Want”
Beck – “E-Pro “
Bikini Kill – “Rebel Girl”
Billy Idol – “White Wedding Pt. I”
Blondie – “One Way or Another”
Bob Dylan – “Tangled Up in Blue”
Bon Jovi – “Livin’ on a Prayer”
Cheap Trick – “Hello There”
Devo – “Uncontrollable Urge”
Dinosaur Jr. – “Feel the Pain”
Disturbed – “Down with the Sickness”
Dream Theater – “Panic Attack”
Duran Duran – “Hungry Like the Wolf”
Elvis Costello – “Pump It Up”
Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”
Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
Guns N’ Roses – “Shackler’s Revenge”
Interpol – “PDA”
Jane’s Addiction – “Mountain Song”
Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle”
Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
Journey – “Anyway You Want It”
Judas Priest – “Painkiller”
Kansas – “Carry On Wayward Son”
L7 – “Pretend We’re Dead”
Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”
Linkin Park – “One Step Closer”
Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”
Lush – “De-Luxe”
Mastodon – “Colony of Birchmen”
Megadeth – “Peace Sells”
Metallica – “Battery”
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Where’d You Go”
Modest Mouse – “Float On”
Motorhead – “Ace of Spades”
Nirvana – “Drain You”
Norman Greenbaum – “Spirit in the Sky”
Panic at the Disco – “Nine in the Afternoon”
Paramore – “That’s What You Get”
Pearl Jam – “Alive”
Presidents of the USA – “Lump”
Rage Against the Machine – “Testify”
Ratt – “Round & Round”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Give it Away”
Rise Against – “Give it All”
Rush – “The Trees”
Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Today”
Social Distortion – “I Was Wrong”
Sonic Youth – “Teenage Riot”
Soundgarden – “Spoonman”
Squeeze – “Cool for Cats”
Steely Dan – “Bodhitsattya”
Steve Miller Band – “Rock’n Me”
Survivor – “Eye of the Tiger”
System of a Down – “Chop Suey”
Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”
Tenacious D – “Master Exploder”
Testament – “Souls of Black”
The Donnas – “New Kid in School”
The Go-Go’s – “We Got the Beat”
The Grateful Dead – “Alabama Getaway”
The Guess Who – “American Woman”
The Muffs – “Kids in America”
The Offspring – “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated)”
The Replacements – “Alex Chilton”
The Who – “Pinball Wizard”