Halo 2 coming to PC this year... finally!

[Rabbitrunner51]

For all the gamers out there that actually liked the PC version of 'Halo' as i did , the game is finally coming to PC. Gamespot has the scoop....

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halo2/index.html ;)

[Bigjakkstaffa]

For all the gamers out there that actually liked the PC version of 'Halo' as i did...

You'd be the only one then ;)

Bear in mind your gonna need Vista, and the game isnt going to be taking advantage of any Direct X 10 features. Plus the original X-Box version was a great big bundle of c**p IMHO, redeemed only by a frankly average MP element

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

Darn.. you may be right in some ways Jak... I forgot we discussed this some time back and remember the Vista thing.

Personally, i am not one of those who is going to jump out and get Vista.. ;at least not for awhile. I suppose eventually I'll get it... thats after like four or five computer upgrades and additions i want first...

Tell me the truth... did you even like the original or are you just being Jak and paw
pawing the game just because you do not like it?

In truth the screenies look like do..do.. from waht i saw.

Just for the record..Jak. I downloaded SC Double Agent demo , now that i can play the darn thing. My take is i do love the lighting and environment effects, but i gots to play a bit more to get a feel for it.

Loving this new video card. Now i got HDR 3.0 great FPS and double my 3D mark 03 score ( 12172 ) LOL

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I've already got Vista through MSDNAA and i've had a play with it through VMWare, other than it wantin got hold the users hand too much i quite like it and will probabyl switch around March time when its had time to mature a little in terms of driver support and app compatibility.

As for the Halo games, theres a massive differentiation that one must make when comparing Halo to other games, in that Halo is a console FPS, Console FPS have always been a bit of a ginger stepchild, in that the best Concole FPS games are often comparable to only mediocre PC FPS games, simply because the PC with its Keyboard and Mouse is the natural habitat for FPS.

As such, you tend to find that what are regarded as good Console FPS games are pretty mediocre when they are ported to the PC or compared to PC titles. This is true of Halo 1, which was a decent enough console title (up until the last few levels which were horrendously repetetive). It also want aided in its plight to stand up to the big boys of the PC FPS world by some truly terrible coding by Gearbox on the port.

Halo 2 is another kettle of fish entirely, even on it's native Xbox i found the SP Campaign of no real interest, as hard as i tried to like it - it was plain dull. Halo 2 MP is pretty decent but its never going to rival Goldeneye for your "Four post-pub blitzed mates at 2AM on a Saturday morning" MP gaming needs.

Given the relatively poor experience that was Halo on the PC, i personally cant see the IMO inferior Halo 2 being much to get excited about, particularly having seen initial screen (although recently released gameplay footage looks better, it's still no beauty queen IMO).


Splinter Cell: DA isnt a bad title, but when you go back and play SC or SC:PT you realise that a lot of the gameplay mechanics of the Splinter Cell series were changed in it, and not necessarily for the best. Throw into the fact that Ubisoft seem to be gunning for the crown of "Worlds Worst PC game Publishers" recently (despite stiff competition from reigning champions EA), as evident in what is a ridiculously badly bugged port, and you can see why many many people are very very unhappy with SC: DA (as with Pandora Tomorrow - seems all even numbered Splinter Cell games done quite do the trick)

--Jakk:t

[rockinup1231]

I just ordered Halo from RadioShack, it should show up soon. I heard it was a great game, so after much debate I got it. Also, the other reason is because it is the only FPS I can run without lowering graphics quality. I probably have the worst system on this site

:(

[Bigjakkstaffa]

http://www.gametab.com/news/781574/

http://www.gametab.com/news/781573/

Some video's for y'all

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

Good write ups Jak as always.... You are one of the few gamers or computer affectianotos that actaully say something definitive and precise in your analysis, unlike just the normal points of view we all seem to gather.

After reading what you wrote , i won't even attempt any effort in try8ing to get the game. ( Maybe shareware later on?? )

The Port thing is something i don't have much experiece in. I just like the keyboard and mouse. Controllers are for racing and like minded games period for me. Even some known PC games that can be configured as such do not appeal to me at all. Thats just me.
For kids , teens, or the younger set, consoles provide a great avenue for gameplay,as the need for a computer becomes mute and overall ,even the PS3 or XBox 360 are nice systems and won't break the bank...

Halo for PC was very decent IMO . I like the gameplay and it fits into my style. Graphics were decent also for that time period. Thats just the way the game looks and plays.. console discussion is another point.. I do agree Jak that near the end it became repetitive. The only thing i hated in the game, was fighting those darn mutations... near the end they come in droves and droves and it becomes very repetitive.

I did not like the SC DA menu interface at all. Why in the world diod they think they needed to change that to something that responds worse?? Gots me on that one. Just another case of taking something that worked, and thinking we need change and in the end..fialing miserably. The HDR and effects are nice, but too often those areas are the main context and all other seems to suffer in retrospect.

Big hype and it seems like from the start if is fading fast. If not, everybody would be playing and talking about it right? Not even any website are marketing this very much... A shame for one of my favorite games I loved.
PT was decent, but its oftenn hard to make follow ups that live up to any originals. Some do... as was COD2.. COD was good but looking back ( i replayed it two weeks ago after three year layoff. ) and the gameplay is very basic and simplified. Great for the younger set LOL Also, i replayed United Offensive and its amzing that that game seems to be better looking and all around than COD2. Whats even more amaing is it is one of the better online MP games, and they made this not too long after the first. Maybe they lost some good in company personel ??

I always thought Ubisoft awas the cream of the crop for publishers. Jak, you probalby have more up front knowledge of the gaming happenings. Things change, as do company,business, people moving on or quiting..etc... Just the way it is i guess.

Nice to hear that the game i am wanting the most 'Crysis' is coming to PC by the end of September 07. (Q7) after that.

[RamonGTP]

I got halo 1 for my PC when it was released and I found it quite average at best. If they do as crappy of a job with porting Halo 2 as they did with the original one, you'll need a 8800GTX to get decent frame rates and sub par graphics.

[CrazyCrusher]

I bought it first when it came out for PC Halo1, I am pretty persistent when it comes to getting my money worth and beating it now matter how hard it is, but in all honesty I couldn’t play it on my PC for more than a day and sold it on eBay it was an absolute disaster. You couldn’t get a high-end PC to play it and get good FPS and mine was pretty high back then.

[Rabbitrunner51]

This is the first i've heard about the PC version having bad FPS. That seems strange. My other ( last system ) , i ran it on a P4 2.8 MHZ CPU with the same memory I use now. I got terrific framerates.. using the FX5900.

To each thier own i guess... Most of you play console games presently or in the past. No idea what it looked or played like on that system. Have to take your word for it... I stil think it had a very decent storyline. Everything worked well and I just thought the overall scope of the game was good also.

I just think that putting out sequels or porting to PC must not be one of the areas that MS wants to spend too much time on. This is truer for alto fogames out there also.

With ever so many games out for both PC and consoles, in the end i could care less.Way.. too many good titles to choose from anyway.

I won't back down when i say that MS has put out some really good games, so i know somebody is making some effort there.
I also think we tend to be overly critical at times , just because we as gamers are like that. If somethngs not perfect we complain alot..

I was going through some things today.. and noticed my game (boxed up for storage ) KOTOR aws there. Tried to play this game like a few times .. and thought it was one of the worse disappointments i ever paid good money for. But whats funny is it got so many awards and quite a few of you thought it was the cream de crem od PC games at the time.
When i tried to sell it after just one time in use... one place said they would give me like $3.00 for it.. WHAT! kind of tells you something heh?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Nah, Gearbox really botched the code with the port of Halo 1, performance was pretty much horrendous on most systems, even the machine i was running (which for the time was a ninja-bast) bogged down in places. What was really alarming as well was the fact they couldnt manage to add any AA options.

If you can get Halo 2 on Demo or try before you buy, then give it a go and see what you think - but going on the XBox version and past experience, it wont be much to write home about.

2004-2005 Ubisoft were probably the top publisher in the industry, they had most of the big franchises at the time (Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Brothers in Arms, Prince of Persia amongst others). However over the last 18 months they have suffered a MASSIVE fall from grace.

They lost one of their flagship dev's Crytek who have moved to EA. Ubisoft have split development between multiple locations, namely Shanghai and Motreal - indeed, part of the biggest problem with SC: DA in terms of its buginess is the fact that half of it was coded in Shanghai, the other half coded in Montreal.

Add into this the fact they have shifted their focus towards the consoles seemingly to the point of not caring about the PC - all recent UBI PC releases have been ported versions of console code (if you poke around the SC: DA code you can actually find specific XBox code still in there), which in itself is a mine-field for code performance and bug issues. Thrown in with this is the fact they seem to be the main force behind one of the more recent "worrying trends" in PC gaming, "The Day 1 patch" - simply because of the shoddy buggy state they are letting many of their games out in. Rainbow 6: Vegas was decent, i'll give them that, and i've got high hopes for BiA: Hell's Highway - but other than that Ubisoft aint very high up my Christmas card list.

As for COD 2 - that was decent wnough the first time you played it through, but you soon realised it was just more of the same from Infinity Ward - thankfully Call of Duty 4 which is coming to the PC looks as though it'll be something of a fresh breeze content wise (read: it's not WWII again)

KOTOR I and II were okay, not really my "type of game" tbh, theyre not the sort of title i woudl have paid money for, but i got a coupel fo hour sout of them before giving them back to my flatmate never to want to play them again. Generally speaking, Star Wars games (even the good ones like the "Jedi Knight" series) never quite sit right with me though, so who knows.

--Jakk:t

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Oh, and word is that Bungie have gimped the controls on the PC version of Halo 2 in order that the console kiddies dont get too badly owned by PC Gamers on keyboard/mice in online play.

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

Once again.. Jak you the man. Quite the gaming guru of useful info and such.. thanks for the input. i really enjoy reading what you have to say. kind of feel quilty s i don't snooop around site and obtain nearly as much info as you seem to aquire.

Even with Halo 1 i knew it was more of a kiddie game. its quite obvious unless you are just so young you cannot see this... fun game though.

I have Jedi Knight 2 ,which was actaully not only popular but a big seller and quite good. Still, it is a Starwars game and has its own style and feel to it. Some love them and some do not. Thats ok though... choices are a very good thing. LOL

COD2 was good and looks and plays much better with my new card, but i see your points.
Just waht is COD 4 going to imulate?? obvioulsy it will be ablout some war.. which one then?? This is the first i have heard of it..from you in this post.

I really want to get 'Rainbow Six Vegas'. I've seen most of the screenies and read most of the reviews... and.... I just loved that whole series..,but have only played like two of the titles.. Team squad gameplay is another one of those genres that not everybody likes.. but i do if done right. Gosh, this makes like the sixth or seventh installment of that series, so it must be very opoular with somebody.

Ghost Recon , the original and the follow up Thunder island were pretty good (haven't played them all the way through.. challenging though for that type of game.
On that note i guess now i have the specs to play the latest version, but i keep hering how its badly done and some other. Now they are going to release another one in the future that apparently is getting better pre- reviews than the former.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

CoD 4 is aiming at a more contemporary setting, namely present day Middle East combat environments - at present little more than that is known. This version will be making it onto the PC though (unlike CoD 3)

"Vegas" is Rainbow Six: 4 (not including expansiosn like Athena Sword etc) and is different from the previous titles - its more action orientated, like Lockdown was, but unlike Lockdown it doesnt suck. It's very reminiscent of Gears of War on the 360, although massively inferior graphics wise (Vegas doesnt do the best job of Showcasing UE 3.0)

GRAW was probably the most dissapointing PC game of last year for me, simply because it had so much potential. I tried extremely hard to like it, but in the end the plethora of bugs and extremely "twitchy" gameplay just annoyed me too much.

To divulge more on the "gimped controls" in Halo 2, they've made the aiming movement speed of the player character the same as it was in the console version, this basically prevents keyboard and mouse users from being able to twitch aim like they usually do in PC FPS

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

Kind of figured that COD 4 would be in the middle east region. Makes sense. I guess with all the wars our country gets into at once, it could have been anywhere these days.. "Good luck with that one Gearbox"

I will get 'Vegas' someday for sure. Writeups and reviews wer good enough to warrant a look and playthrough for me.

You know .. i have to agree with you about GRAW. I remember not playing it for like four years.. loading it up and honestly, i came away with just about the exact same asessment as yourself. very hard to get used to..,twitchy as you mentioned, and not as user friendly as one would like. Of course back then you had to follow more of a linear mode thing.. ,and it always bugged me that boundries were set like invisible walls.. remember this was a 2001 game ( maybe 2002 not sure)

Even though its different, the 'Rainbow Six' sereis was alot better i thought. That worked well for the most part.. simple but effective.

No.. i would not care for Halo 2, if thats the case with aiming and controls..

Since i gots my new card a couple of days ago, i'm loving it more and more. What a huge difference ( for me anyways ). Shadows , lighting, gameplay effects, and FPS are great. Graphics and detail are amazing.
I played both F.E.A.R. and its add on 'Extraction Point' to check that out, and its so nice to be able to shoot and all other at closer to full speed with no lag. Really makes one realize just why eveybody ran out and upgraded their video cards.
Such a smal card and it does not need a power hookup either. That opens one five pin molex for something else.

[alucard0234]

Finally. Hope they don't screw this one up. I was addicted to the Xbox version for the longest time (at least until F.E.A.R came out)

I'll gladly pwn y'all n00bs 8D

~Alu

[rockinup1231]

Oh, and word is that Bungie have gimped the controls on the PC version of Halo 2 in order that the console kiddies dont get too badly owned by PC Gamers on keyboard/mice in online play.

--Jakk:t

Make them stick to the X-Box :rolleyes:

[Rabbitrunner51]

FEAR is one of my most favorite games also. Wrote a post about the expansion, and replayed and finished that again last night. If anyone does not have that( Extraction Point ), its my opinion that it is alot better than alot have claimed. I tink the graphics, eerieness, and other are somewhat better and improved, esp. if you have current graphics card. I surte do love that game alot. more so for the particle physics, ragdoll and all, and just how it works overall. Well done... IMO

Darn!.. lost my original 'Halo' installer. Wish someone here could fax that to me somehow.. ( I do use shareware ) Most a Italian, french or german though ;)

[RockNRoll]

Sorry Jakk you're mistaken... I also liked Halo PC. IMO playing shooters with a gamepad is just wrong lol.

I wonder how they're going to manage dual-wielding on the PC. How will you fire each gun...

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Sorry Jakk you're mistaken... I also liked Halo PC.

Alright, so that makes two of you...

--Jakk:t

[Rabbitrunner51]

LOL :eek: :t

[rockinup1231]

The second guy is me, or what?

[Rabbitrunner51]

No.. actually quite a few liked the game on PC. Jak just seems to be more critical than some others would.. That as it may... he is a pertty smart guy who does his homework and personal opiion is just that.

I'm very much a harsh critic of PC games in the whole. Games that translate from consoles is more why he is less laudable than it so seems. LOL

[RockNRoll]

I suppose the reason I liked the PC version much better is that I never owned any consoles other than a NES. I played everything else on PC with a keyboard and mouse, so when somebody says "here take this dual-analog game-pad-majigger and use it to aim run and shoot" I go... um, haha no thanks. I tried it with my friend and the level of frustration from being owned over and over and over again just made me explode lol. Then I had him get the PC version and we went head to head and I owned the living smarfloffers out of him. :D It was very pleasing. :D:D

[Rabbitrunner51]

LOL Meeze too !