Halo Wars could be a gaming breakthrough

Microsoft's much awaited latest game in the Halo series - Xbox 360's

Halo Wars

- is out on February 26 - and judging by the demo of the first levels, it's going to be great.

It looks as riveting as the precious Halo series but there's something new. Halo was a great first person shooter. Microsoft Game Studios partnered with Ensemble Studios (Age of Mythology and Empire fame) to now create a real-time strategy.

Check out a developer demonstration of the gameplay.

So does its conversion to an RTS work on a console and so finally persuade some RTS fans to move from a PC to the 360?

Halo Wars covers an earlier period of the Halo story - 20 years prior to the events covered in the first Halo Xbox release - and involves early battles between the UNSC and Covenant. There is no Master Chief, but expect spartans to arrive in the full game.

It follows the basic pattern - you build a base (a single base with building slots that can place structures at specific locations and upgrade them) getting resources based on the number of slots Supply slots. You play as the UNSC and head out on the colony ship Spirit of Fire for a planet to attack the Covenant.

Single player campaign mode is entertaining, with an hour of play in the demo though no multiplayer - eventually this should allow 3-vs-3 online play. But the problem in past attempts to give us a satisfying RTS on a console has been in mastering a control system without a mouse and keyboard.

As a gamer used to dragging and clicking when playing an RTS on a PC, it took me a while to get the hang of the 360 controls here as you use the controller buttons, basically the left analogue and the face buttons.

The developers have gone for gamers having to use fewer controls and without hot key buttons. You scroll through using the thumb stick for the options in the circle menu, which is fast enough and definitely a smooth way to do it. Unit selection is done with single-click, hold with paint-selection for a small group, screen-selection and all-units - actually quite an intuitive way to play.

On the basis of playing the demo levels, the controls seem to be at last nailed - no easy achievement - although final judgment should await the full game when you have to deal with more intricate situations.

This may be an RTS, but Halo fans will be pleased to find a lot of familiarity with their beloved Halo franchise including unit similarities and hero units (like Sergeant Johnson) with those pesky Hunters always causing havoc for the morale of the USNC troops.

The Halo world is looking wonderful with a glowing brightly-coloured plasma look, good on the big screen but 480p is a low resolution for an entire game. The sound effects and music as well as weapons, structures, vehicles and environment are in keeping with the impressive original Halo.

It's as absorbing as any Halo game and fun to have the franchise move in an exciting new direction. I can't wait for the full game.

Are you hanging out for it too?