[swaaye]

Ok guys, I have another set of vids here from CES. This time, Halo 2 PC. This game was set up in similar booths next to the other games I and Berek posted. They had a deathmatch MP session set up on 6 comps I believe. The game was running very smoothly. You could play with KB/mouse or a USB 360 controller.

Visually it looks a lot like the Xbox version. I couldn't really tell if it was improved or not. It looked like the FOV was still set up like the console version which I found a bit annoying. I remember this with Halo PC as well (and that a hack showed up to let you increase the FOV).

More Dell XPS hardware pumping out serious heat from inside a little shelf.


Halo 2 PC video 1

Halo 2 PC video 2

[AlStrong]

There were tweaks to the armour... it seemed a lot more glossy. The environment textures were pretty much the same as on the Xbox (some low-res stuff here and there). I'll vouch for the smoothness. I'd like to say it was 60fps because it seeemed a lot smoother than what I'm seeing on the Xbox in the same map right now... but it's not a "certainty". I wouldn't be surprised though. One thing that *really* bugged me was that no one turned on AF (and there was no in-game setting for that). The best part though is that the LOD system was not in effect so things weren't popping as you moved closer. It was full-on polygons. The HUD seems to be fixed in the widescreen mode. On Xbox, the HUD would be stretched even though you were in 16:9 mode. Weapon view-models seemed to be improved (subtle), especially the covenant carbine.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but with Halo PC without the 30fps limiter, it wasn't all quite smooth... the animations seemed to be going at 30Hz. It was jittery motion even though aiming and changing the view (aiming around) was smooth. That wasn't the case for when I was playing at the showfloor there.

I played for a little while... the mouse was great for sniping. I tried using the 360 controller, but the invert y-axis wasn't working for the 360 controller for some reason. I checked out the settings and it was running at 1920x1200 and there were ingame settings for anti-aliasing.

Let me just get some photos of the settings as evidence...

AA modes
Resolution

[swaaye]

Originally Posted by Alstrong

I don't know if anyone noticed, but with Halo PC without the 30fps limiter, it wasn't all quite smooth... the animations seemed to be going at 30Hz.

Yeah I remember that now. It reminded me of the original Quake, with its limited number of animation steps. That was before keyframe interpolation I think. Was odd to see it in Halo.

Halo 2 was definitely running great, like you said. Though it is looking a bit aged as well. Nice to see we'll get AA this time around.

[AlStrong]

I wasn't around for the Live Anywhere demo... did they show this off? I didn't get a good look at the out-of-game menus and I'm curious as to how it works.

[swaaye]

Dunno. I missed that too unfortunately.

[Skrying]

That stunning piece of game is Vista only too, how amazing.

By amazing I mean bullshit.

[icecold1983]

do they rly expect halo 2 to sell well at this point in time, especially when it requires vista? does anyone even care aout this game?

[AlStrong]

Well, I just wonder when they plan on releasing Halo 2. If they want sales for the game, they might want to wait awhile longer for people to pick up the OS... but then the game gets even more dated. If they release alongside Vista... yeah... not so good anyway.

I agree with both of you though, Vista-only is silly. I'd rather they get an optional DX10 path that would be nicer for all involved. I think the main impetus behind it is the Live Anywhere functionality in MP, but even then... It might have been bad PR to have a disabled MP for XP and then full functionality in Vista, and to get around that, they'd have to come up with a different sort of MP option from scratch since Halo 2 was (clearly) designed with Live.

[icecold1983]

even if it was dx9, why would anyone buy halo 2 at this point in time, the game is soooo outdated, and not just in terms of graphics.

[AlStrong]

Because there are a lot of fans? Halo PC sold quite well despite being released late. Although, they may be more weary of another port because of what Gearbox did or rather didn't do with Halo PC despite H2V being handled by a Microsoft internal studio, and clearly showing to be a much better port.

Graphics isn't everything indeed, but hey, I'm sure Joe Blow with unflattering hardware wouldn't mind jacking up the resolution and using AA/AF with high settings for a "newly" released game that isn't half-bad looking overall.

Gameplay-wise, you can't really deny the popularity of the game on Xbox Live up until Gears of War. MS is probably betting on the popularity there.

Oh and don't forget the modding community. There is supposed to be something released with H2V to help facilittate user-created content.

[icecold1983]

uhhh i cant imagine halo 2 being played too much at this point in time on xbox, its even harder to imagine people playing it on the pc when the gameplay is sooo outdated and theres so many more/better options

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

Gameplay-wise, you can't really deny the popularity of the game on Xbox Live up until Gears of War.

It looks like you're saying the same thing..."outdated"... uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Is it so hard to imagine that a fan of the game will pick up the PC version for the chance to play at higher res and with a mouse? But hey, i'm not here to convince you to buy it. You've clearly made your choice, and you don't seem to care about the game anyway.

[icecold1983]

Originally Posted by Alstrong

It looks like you're saying the same thing..."outdated"... uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Is it so hard to imagine that a fan of the game will pick up the PC version for the chance to play at higher res and with a mouse? But hey, i'm not here to convince you to buy it. You've clearly made your choice, and you don't seem to care about the game anyway.

its hard to imagine any meaningful number of people will. i will be shocked if this game sells any reasonable number of copies

[pjbliverpool]

Originally Posted by icecold1983

its hard to imagine any meaningful number of people will. i will be shocked if this game sells any reasonable number of copies

There are a lot of people who own PC's but didn't own the xbox. It will be those people who first played Halo on the PC and havn't had the chance to play Halo 2 yet. I for one can't wait.

I agree its graphically outdated but I don't think you can really outdate gameplay like that of Halo and the fact that to a lot of people its now an old game really doesn't have any baring on me to whom its completely new.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by pjbliverpool

There are a lot of people who own PC's but didn't own the xbox. It will be those people who first played Halo on the PC and havn't had the chance to play Halo 2 yet. I for one can't wait.

I agree its graphically outdated but I don't think you can really outdate gameplay like that of Halo and the fact that to a lot of people its now an old game really doesn't have any baring on me to whom its completely new.

Problem is that if you've got the kind of system to run Vista and a DX10 game like Halo 2, why would you choose it against other similar games? Sure, it's got the franchise name, but it will be going up against the likes of UT2007, Quakewars, Crysis, etc. I'm certainly more interested in playing all three of the games I've just mentioned a lot, lot more than a port of a two year old X-Box game.

And while gameplay as such can't be outdated, gameplay is often designed within the limitations of the hardware you expect your target audience to have. Is the PC version from two years later going to have more players, bigger, more detailed maps, more complex gametypes, etc? I know those other games will, because they are designing their gameplay for today's PC hardware, not for the console hardware of a couple of years back.

[Monty]

Well I'll be getting Halo 2 on the pc, not because I dont have a 360 and cant play it, but because its one of the few games I cant hack the gamepad with.

Besides, I thought it look pretty good in them videos, nice high res and AA.

[pjbliverpool]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

Problem is that if you've got the kind of system to run Vista and a DX10 game like Halo 2, why would you choose it against other similar games? Sure, it's got the franchise name, but it will be going up against the likes of UT2007, Quakewars, Crysis, etc. I'm certainly more interested in playing all three of the games I've just mentioned a lot, lot more than a port of a two year old X-Box game.

And while gameplay as such can't be outdated, gameplay is often designed within the limitations of the hardware you expect your target audience to have. Is the PC version from two years later going to have more players, bigger, more detailed maps, more complex gametypes, etc? I know those other games will, because they are designing their gameplay for today's PC hardware, not for the console hardware of a couple of years back.

Good points, I too am more interested in those games (apart from maybe QW as im not big on multiplayer) but I really loved the first Halo so certainly don;t want to miss the second. Hell, im just gonna get them all, this year is going to be a good one for PC gaming

[Polygon Crusher]

Originally Posted by pjbliverpool

Hell, im just gonna get them all, this year is going to be a good one for PC gaming

I'll second that anytime!

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

Problem is that if you've got the kind of system to run Vista and a DX10 game like Halo 2, why would you choose it against other similar games? Sure, it's got the franchise name, but it will be going up against the likes of UT2007, Quakewars, Crysis, etc. I'm certainly more interested in playing all three of the games I've just mentioned a lot, lot more than a port of a two year old X-Box game.

But see, it's not a DX10 game, at least it doesn't require it, so it should run quite well on hardware at least a couple years old. On even mainstream hardware, it should run quite well compared to the other games, and it's different from those other games. The biggest problem, of course, is that you need Vista.

Is the PC version from two years later going to have more players, bigger, more detailed maps, more complex gametypes, etc?

Well, we're just going to have to wait and see, won't we? In regards to the number of players, it's likely going to be kept at 16 people as maximum. What kind of "complex gametypes" Halo has never had assault-type maps or objectives ala MP focused games like QW. Beyond the usual CTF/DM, Halo 2's got many variations on king of the hill, take the bomb to their base etc. Customizations also had to do with how you wanted to play in terms of what weapons and vehicles were on the map in addition to having cloak or a specific target who was super powerful. "Complex" can mean several different things, could you clarify

Question: would you have considered playing the game if it had not been released on xbox two years ago, and just now coming to PC? The game is what it is.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by Alstrong

Question: would you have considered playing the game if it had not been released on xbox two years ago, and just now coming to PC? The game is what it is.

Based on the pre-release info of the other three big games I mentioned and the info we have on Halo 2, the other three games interest me a lot more, regardless of the fact Halo2 was an Xbox title. The trailers for the other games are just a lot more compelling and interesting to me than the ones for Halo 2. The other games just are aiming for a lot more, and of course they were not designed with the lower bar of the console FPS (compared to the PC FPS)

I'm quite likely to pick up Halo 2 for it's single player game (as I like storyline driven FPSes), but I expect to play it, hope it doesn't have some of the repeats and blandness of Halo 1, and then put it to one side to play some of the other games as a more long-term online commitment. That's something that Halo 2 will probably not be able to provide me from looking at the previews and the previous game.

I just think that Halo and Halo 2 have been hailed as this massive title on the consoles, but because of what the FPS market is like on consoles, Halo 1/2 is a big fish in a little pond. In the PC FPS market, the pond is much, much bigger - and it's full of bigger, newer fish.

[swaaye]

Well I wouldn't count Halo 2 out just quite yet. It has a great SP and a really cool sci-fi atmosphere. Great vehicles, fascinating weapons, and some really cool enviros. I am more of a PC gamer than Xbox, but I do believe the game definitely has value for FPS fans regardless of platform.

[hoom]

I for one would really like to buy Halo 2 PC but well

The biggest problem, of course, is that you need Vista.

and I'm buggered if I'm going to buy Vista just to get Halo2

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by hoom

I for one would really like to buy Halo 2 PC but well and I'm buggered if I'm going to buy Vista just to get Halo2

Oooh yes. Forgot that, it's a major show-stopper. The question then for me is am I going to be interested in Halo 2 in 12-24 months when I think Vista has had the bugs ironed out and has given everyone enough time to catch up with drivers?

There's certainly no way that Halo 2 is the killer app that is going to make me go out and spend £300 on a new OS. Those other big games are more interesting and don't need Vista.

[tongue_of_colicab]

Are there actually still people interrested in paying 60 euros for a game wich wasnt even that good when it came out on xbox like 2 years ago? I played halo1 on pc and I thought that sucked bigtime and halo2 is supposed to be a worse game. I never understood the halo hype anyway, the whole game smells like a B movie to me. The only thing I really liked was the music in the halo1 menu.

Besides that, people owning vista probably will have a beefy system, I doubt they are interrested in a game like halo2 when you got about a dozen better FPS looking games available along with better gameplay.

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.

Based on the pre-release info of the other three big games I mentioned and the info we have on Halo 2, the other three games interest me a lot more, regardless of the fact Halo2 was an Xbox title. The trailers for the other games are just a lot more compelling and interesting to me than the ones for Halo 2. The other games just are aiming for a lot more, and of course they were not designed with the lower bar of the console FPS (compared to the PC FPS)

Fair enough.

I'm quite likely to pick up Halo 2 for it's single player game (as I like storyline driven FPSes), but I expect to play it, hope it doesn't have some of the repeats and blandness of Halo 1, and then put it to one side to play some of the other games as a more long-term online commitment. That's something that Halo 2 will probably not be able to provide me from looking at the previews and the previous game.

I won't spoil the game, but if there is one thing they did well is that there isn't much blatant copy/pasting of sections (there's still some...just not so much that the one room becomes an entire level ). They also didn't re-use levels nor make you go backwards through the level and say it's a new level.

As for the story, I enjoyed it despite the obvious reason Halo 3 is being made; there's about an hour's worth of in-engine cut-scenes which were very well done, and it can be quite cinematic if you just sit back and watch.

Legendary can have you pulling your hair out in some areas. You may want to even start out on Heroic just to get a feel for the game since the mouse will no doubt skew things...