Halo 2 PC Version is not getting good reviews!

I have read afew reviews of the Halo 2 PC version recently because I did want to buy the game and as yet there isn't a demo available yet.

What I discovered is that Halo 2 is not getting good reviews and it seems mainly for the same reasons, the main one being it's just not up to current standard of FPS on the PC.

There are a couple I've read, PC Gamer, GameShark & Cnet.

So my concerns is that this is going to be seen as the showcase title for Vista and DX10 and if it's seen as nothing special then this is not going to be seen as a good enough reason to upgrade.

Vista is struggling in the PC gaming community because many titles are noticeably slower. The benefit of the doubt had been given to Vista because we realised that they weren't specifically written for the OS.

For my mind Vista is doing a lot more than XP did and also the drivers for XP have had a few years to mature, whilst we are on version 1.0 for Vista if we are lucky.

However for gaming under Vista to succeed it needed a killer title, which was going to be Halo 2, well it may have failed.

All I can say is that this killer title may well now be Crysis.

Halo on the PC has been a disappointment. How long will we have to wait for Halo 3. Perhaps lets not bother for the PC. Sorry if I sound a bit down about Halo but I am disappointed.

I think console games should stick to consoles, unless the interface requires the mutliple inputs that you get from a mouse/keyboard setup.

I wouldn't want to play Burnout 3 on my PC, and I wouldn't want to play Civilization 3 on my PS2.

Harlequin wrote:

I think console games should stick to consoles, unless the interface requires the mutliple inputs that you get from a mouse/keyboard setup.

I wouldn't want to play Burnout 3 on my PC, and I wouldn't want to play Civilization 3 on my PS2.

Ok I understand what you are saying. I can't see Crackdown for instances having a natural home on the PC.

It does beg the question, does the PC have a style of gaming it's best suited? If so what is that exactly? A game that is aimed at a maturer more discerning market?

Oh did I tell you I also have a PS3 ... and I hardly ever use it. Perhaps I will when games aren't £50. (Oh by the way I haven't paid more than £22.99 for an Xbox 360 game yet!)

Halo 2 Vista was never supposed to be the killer title for gaming on Vista. It (along with Shadowrun) was merely the launch title for the "Live for Windows" services and as far as i know they have delivered on that aspect.

Crysis (and now Unreal Tournament 3) has always been held up as the titles that will really launch DirectX 10 (and Vista at the same time) for gaming.

Sabot wrote:

It does beg the question, does the PC have a style of gaming it's best suited? If so what is that exactly?

Strategy, Simulator and FPS games. Not 3 year old console games.

On PC there are a lot of better FPS games than Halo: Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Doom/Quake, Stalker, Far Cry/Crysis. Thinking that Halo would have been a killer game on the PC too would be foolish.

littleguru wrote:



Halo was originally designed for the PC.

Halo was originoally designed for Mac OS before Microsoft bought Bungie. They even showed it running under Mac OS at a Macworld > 12 months before it shoed up on Xbox

I dunno guys?!

Halo 2 is actually being aimed at being the vanguard for DX10, Vista gaming and Windows Live on the PC. Don't under estimate how much Microsoft is putting into this title, they do want it to be a success.

OK so gamers like Crysis are on the way, but they aren't Microsoft titles and they won't use Live accounts.

ZippyV wrote:



Sabot wrote: It does beg the question, does the PC have a style of gaming it's best suited? If so what is that exactly?

Strategy, Simulator and FPS games. Not 3 year old console games.

On PC there are a lot of better FPS games than Halo: Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Doom/Quake, Stalker, Far Cry/Crysis. Thinking that Halo would have been a killer game on the PC too would be foolish.

Agreed. I'm an old Half Life fan and Halo has some way to go before it is anywhere near as good as this title. Ironic how Value was started by two Ex-Microsofties.

Sabot wrote:



Harlequin wrote: I think console games should stick to consoles, unless the interface requires the mutliple inputs that you get from a mouse/keyboard setup. I wouldn't want to play Burnout 3 on my PC, and I wouldn't want to play Civilization 3 on my PS2.

Ok I understand what you are saying. I can't see Crackdown for instances having a natural home on the PC.

It does beg the question, does the PC have a style of gaming it's best suited? If so what is that exactly? A game that is aimed at a maturer more discerning market?

Oh did I tell you I also have a PS3 ... and I hardly ever use it. Perhaps I will when games aren't £50. (Oh by the way I haven't paid more than £22.99 for an Xbox 360 game yet!)

Sabot, where do you get your 360 games at that price? Or do you just wait till they've been out a while?

I've been thinking about getting a 360, but when I can get most of the games I want on the PC for £17.99-£24.99 it didn't seem worth paying £44.99 for the same thing.

I've never heard of Halo 2 being touted as "The" DX10 game. Crysis is the first title that springs to mind.

 

Sabot wrote:


It does beg the question, does the PC have a style of gaming it's best suited? If so what is that exactly?

RTS games, FPS games, and point & click adventure games. So, primarily games best played with a mouse.

littleguru wrote:

Perhaps Halo 2 is THE title for "Games for Windows"?

Actually, I always heard that Shadowrun is supposed to have that honor.

Sabot wrote:

OK so gamers like Crysis are on the way, but they aren't Microsoft titles and they won't use Live accounts.

Good, I don't want to pay subscription fees to get some "extra" online functionality that other pc games give away for free. Microsoft is going the wrong direction by asking money for Live on Windows.

phreaks wrote:

LOL

Wikipedia wrote: Halo 2 for Windows Vista was originally scheduled for release on May 8, 2007, but was pushed back to May 29th. This delay was apparently due to the insertion of nudity into the game via a "content error."[65] Microsoft will be offering patches to remove the nude content and is revising the boxes to reflect this. Many retailers were not given the notification in time and have sold copies to consumers since as early as May 20th in a few United States Circuit City stores. The offending nudity was a photograph of a male's bare bottom (presumably of a Microsoft or Bungie employee) which appeared as a ".(I need to watch my language)" error when using the map editor in Halo 2 for Windows Vista[66].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_2I wonder who the jokester is?

If he wasn't a Bungie employee, he'd be fired on the spot.

Even if he were, after the Hot Coffee stuff, he may still be fired.

ZippyV wrote:



Sabot wrote: OK so gamers like Crysis are on the way, but they aren't Microsoft titles and they won't use Live accounts.

Good, I don't want to pay subscription fees to get some "extra" online functionality that other pc games give away for free. Microsoft is going the wrong direction by asking money for Live on Windows.

Other games offer multiplayer achievements, TrueSkill matchmaking, and cross-platform multiplayer?