It's it's a Spartan Blitz: Halo Wars 2 open beta live

Halo Wars 2 [official site], the RTS spin-off from Microsoft's Xbox FPS, is now in open beta on Windows 10. Until January 30th, all Tenners can check out the multiplayer 'Blitz' mode for free. That's nice, as Edwin Evans-Thirlwell says Blitz is one of the more interesting parts of Hwar so hey, good for us. Blitz is a team-based mode where, rather than building armies and bases, units and powers are doled out by cards from a deck you build. Yeah I'm up for that.

As Teddy explained, Blitz mode has players pick a general, who determines their starting units, then goes into battle with a customisable deck of 12 cards that'll be doled out as you play. Sounds like it's pretty neat:

"The consequence is a game of pure micro and 1000 mph reversals that can be either a carefree distraction or a serious test of reflexes and tenacity, depending on the commitment and expertise you bring to bear – an experience in which army compositions shift moment to moment, as defenders are nuked and reinforcements conjured from the ether. At one point I was muddling along with a gaggle of jump-jetting Brutes, ponderous Wraith tanks and fast-moving Choppers, only for half of them to be wiped out from off-screen by entrenched Kodiak artillery. Frenzied, I hurled fistfuls of cards at the battlefield and somehow ended up with a platoon of scurrying Locust death-ray machines, who promptly deep-fried the Kodiaks like so much brie. All this in the space of around 10 seconds."

Okay, the beta started on Friday, but I was getting ready for the weekend, all right? The wood alcohol doesn't restock itself.