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We're well into February and I'm still having more fun with demos and trailers than any of the full games rolled out to stores so far in 2009.

After spending hours growing ever more unimpressed with The Lord of the Rings: Conquest and Skate 2 this weekend, the rest of my gaming time was taken up with the new trial version of the PlayStation 3-exclusive Killzone 2 (it can be obtained through pre-order at EB Games) and a demo for the Xbox 360-only strategy game Halo Wars (now freely available over Xbox Live).

Killzone 2 has probably earned more ink than any other title slated for release this year. It's been on gamers' radars for nearly half a decade, ever since the debacle that took place at the Electronic Entertainment Exhibition in 2005 in which Sony tried to pass off pre-rendered game footage as dynamic, in-game play, and was subsequently busted.

However, despite the negative press that began the game's PR campaign the PlayStation gaming community's anticipation of this long gestating sci-fi shooter has only grown. And it seems they won't be disappointed. Even though the game won't release for another three weeks, Metacritic is already tracking more than 40 reviews from gaming publications around the world, and has critical consensus pegged at an impressive 93 per cent.

I only played a single mission this weekend, but I liked what I saw. The game's graphics are simply extraordinary. The level began on the home world of humanity's enemy, the Helghast (has a better name for a villainous faction ever been conjured?), where I tread through the war torn ruins of a futuristic city, taking shelter wherever I could-via a smart and simple covering mechanic-as I was attacked from all directions. From from the bank of a nearby river I had a panoramic view of the fighting going on elsewhere in the city, including anti-aircraft fire streaking towards the heavens, massive explosions beyond the city's skyline, and drifting plumes of smoke. Rocket detonations were a breathtaking combination of fire, smoke, and debris, and character models were beautifully rendered and dynamic (I particularly enjoyed popping off my foes' glowing-eyed helmets with single gun shots, causing them to flail in shock for a couple of seconds).

What's more, my only real criticism of the original Killzone-that the enemies were no more clever than swarming ants-seems to have been addressed in the sequel. The bad guys I faced down made expert use of cover, flanked me whenever they could, and even tossed grenades to flush me out if I spent more than a few seconds cowering behind a wall.

The controls felt a bit cumbersome and graceless to start (my soldier moved more slowly than I expected, and I had a tough time with the hyper-responsive camera controls), but I felt as though I'd gained my bearings by mission's end. Long story short, February 27th-the day the game hits store shelves-can't come quickly enough.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, Killzone 2's release, scheduled just four days ahead of Halo Wars, could end up overshadowing Ensemble Studio's long-awaited strategy game, which is based on Bungie's popular Xbox-only shooters.

I began the Halo Wars demo by going through the tutorial, which is unfortunately bland and basic. If you have previous experience selecting units, moving them, and building bases, you can safely skip it and figure out the control scheme on the fly while playing the game.

Happily, things improved once I launched a campaign. Set a couple of decades prior to the original Halo, it seems Halo Wars will focus on the battle to liberate a disputed planet crawling with Covenant-Halo's default, many-coloured, multi-sized alien bad guys. Halo fans will feel as though they are in familiar territory the moment they begin the first mission, commanding Warthog jeeps to leap over crevasses and either shoot or run down Covenant grunts and elites. Indeed, the game's graphics, physics, and atmosphere-including an orchestral score inspired by the franchise's original theme-are all safely categorized as vintage Halo.

But while the art and action might appeal to Halo fans, I wonder whether it will satisfy strategy game lovers. I'm no RTS addict, but I do enjoy the occasional game of Supreme Commander or Command and Conquer. And from that viewpoint, the  Halo Wars demo seemed a bit flaccid.

For starters, the control layout, though simple and intuitive (a rarity for console-based strategy games), impedes players looking to carry out advanced commands. I wasn't able to split my combatants into several multi-unit groups that I could command separately, which sometimes kept me from implementing the sort of strategies I wanted to use. And without a mouse I found the act of moving the camera around the environment to be laborious and slow.

Also, I never had more than a couple of dozen units under my control, which, again, puts a limit on the sort of tactics one can devise and employ. Games like World in Conflict and Company of Heroes managed to make the minimal units tack work, but they didn't involve resource collection or anchor players to bases, as seems to be the case in most Halo Wars missions.

Of course, these beefs might be rectified later in the game-this is, after all, just a brief demo showing off the initial missions-but I have a sneaking suspicion that Halo Wars will end up feeling like real-time strategy 101, and that it will prove satisfying only to console gamers with little RTS experience. We'll find out March 3rd.

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