I've taken on the first three or four levels of Halo Wars over the last week along with the first few hours of Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. I'm finding Halo Wars to be a difficult game to get the hang of, notwithstanding the complaints from the RTS snobbing elite that the game was "dumb downed"for the console crowd. Plume on the other hand is an interesting take on the RPG genre (being my first Valkyrie game) with an interesting twist tossed in that has peaked my interest.

With respect to Halo Wars, it's likely my lack of experience showing through, but I'm just finding the controls somewhat difficult and clumsy for the tasks at hand. The tutorials are pretty basic (even the advanced tutorial) and the game just throws you in to situations that progress at a greater rate of acceleration than my skills do. After re-playing the third or fourth level (Avalon City, I think) the fourth time I was starting to feel the sense of let-down that the game just doesn't translate very well into an RTS, particularly in terms of the scope and the story - not to menion the frustration of failure! I finished the level, and then the following level (which wassignificantly easier) and then put the game away for later play. I'm going to finish the game, being a big Halo fan (yes, I'll admit to reading most of the books), I still believe that there's a better than odds on likelihood that I just suck at it, and as I get better at the game and master the controls that there's a good, ne great game in there!

Plume on the other hand just hits at all of the levels that a strategy RPG of this sort should - an interesting battle system, a nice twist at the beginning, some weird other wordly events taking place that putsour character right smack dab in the middle of the action. It's still way too early to really have a great sense of the scope and the story arc, but I can tell that it's a game that will likely suck me in for a while.