After eight years, you can finally buy Ensemble Studios’ Halo real-time strategy (RTS) game for mouse and keyboard. Only, it wouldn’t be a Halo PC port without a massive catch.
This time, it’s that you have to pre-order Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition just to play it. Effectively, this makes the barrier of entry for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition a whopping $80 toll. That said, you can cancel your Halo Wars 2 pre-order before it arrives on February 16, if you’re so inclined.
Nevertheless, those who pre-ordered the top-end Halo Wars 2 flavor by December 14 should expect to receive their voucher for Definitive Edition by end-of-day on December 20. The 25-digit download code is redeemable on either Xbox One or Windows 10 PCs.
If you have one of each of these devices, you’ll be elated to know that Halo Wars: Definitive Edition is graced by the Xbox Play Anywhere program. This means that you can swap freely between playing Halo Wars on PC and on Xbox at no extra cost, all while retaining the same save file through the cloud.
The PC version, helmed by 343 Industries, introduces new achievements, graphical enhancements, and access to all the DLC from the original game. To install it, head on over to the Windows Store, click on your profile icon left of the search bar, and select the option to redeem a code.
As this is an older game, the minimum requirements for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition are fairly basic. At the very least, you’ll need a 64-bit Windows 10 PC equipped with an Intel Core i3 processor along with Intel HD Graphics 4200, or the Nvidia GeForce GTX 740M, or an AMD Radeon M240, with 512MB of VRAM.
Even so, Microsoft recommends against integrated graphics if 1080p, 60 frames per second (or greater) is your desire. Instead, you’ll want to aim for an i5 CPU or higher and 1GB of VRAM. Of course, if you want to take advantage of the PC-exclusive 4K Ultra HD resolutions, you’ll want to do so with significantly more capable hardware.
