TGR: Could you talk to us a little bit about the music? It’s done by a different person, but will it still have the traditional music?

DP: So, the music was written entirely by Stephen Rippy, who you know is one of the infamous Ensemble Rippy brothers. But the great thing about it is that it’s Halo-esque. We have obviously talked to Marty a lot and been up there and down here and all of that stuff. It’s got the same kind of rock vibe to the music that kind of sets off against the mox and the champion. It’s all in there. Again, it’s Halo Wars. We have a different sort of four-note iconic theme in our game. But it definitely feels like Halo. When you roll your army into battle, the guitars and the drums kick on and it feels like you are playing Halo, but it is all in our music. That is one of the coolest things about the game: listening to music. It is different, and you can tell it is different, but it still evokes the same sort of hair on the back of your neck craze when you go into combat. It helps to really set the Halo vibe for people.

TGR: Very cool. It was announced that the Limited Collector’s Edition is going to come with two unique vehicles?

DP: The LC actually has one: the Honor Guard.

TGR: Oh, I am sorry.

DP: The Honor Guard Wraith and then if you pre-order...

TGR: If you pre-order you get the...

DP: You get the Fireball Warthog.

TGR: So could you tell us a little bit about those and why they are being--

DP: Well yeah, you know it is equivalent. I think of it in terms of how we plug into an IP and have the things that we think about (people have the vanity armor in Halo). That is what these essentially are.

TGR: Okay.

DP: Functionally, the gameplay works the same. It’s a strategy game, so we can’t let people who pay more have an advantage.

TGR: Yeah, the balance...

DP: That would be a little bit of a screw, but it’s just some bling; just a way to have fun. The Honor Guard Wraith is a play on our version of the Leagues that are in the game. So, the Lead Star would be a unique unit for the Prophet. Because of that, we were able to actually help you pull back a little bit more of the lore.  You can actually build, as an Elite Unit, the Honor Guard Elites. They are kind of like the Red Storm Troopers who guarded the Emperor in Star Wars; they’re secret service guys. The Honor Guard Leaders are the guys who guard the Prophet. We were able to pull out a little more of that lore and give people some liturgy on that. They rate it just as good or better than the regular old Elites. In that sense it is just their hot ride. And on the UNSC side, if you pre-order you get the Fireball Warthog, which is a Warthog, and is bad ass. You want the flames on that.

TGR: Very cool…

DP: Yeah, it is just a way to have fun. If you have those codes, you can unlock them on the Skull Picker ( I’m sorry, we’re not supposed to call it that anymore). If you go to the Skull Selection Screen, just like you would to turn on the Skulls, you just collect those. So, it is a way to have some fun, and I admit it, they do look cool. They are bad ass. But it is a strategy game, and we can’t really do too much from that standpoint. Otherwise, people would be at the doors of our office with burning pitchforks saying, "what the hell!?"

TGR: Well that is actually all that I have, so I would just like to thank you for your time. Do you have any closing remarks for our readers?

DP: I would just generally say, I think that people will be happy with the game. It has been a labor of love for us for a long time. We started with one of our more powerful passionate ideas, actually. You have the idea, "hey, we love this game, let’s go put it on the console," which is a pretty organic way to start a game. It was born out of that. It was originally a small 10-person team and now we have a hundred people working on it. There was a lot of love poured into this game and I hope people will pick it up. I think that it is a great way to look at Halo in a different way, again looking close. Hopefully we will get plans and maps up on Live, and you will see. It could have a long life on Live, and hopefully we will start up a new genre on the console.

TGR: Thank you very much.