Halo 2 for Windows out soon!

[Elliot B.]

Who is excited? I sure am :p

Kind of annoyed I have to buy Vista but oh well, I'll have to upgrade eventually...

[Sophism]

i wont use vista for a while so unfortunately im not. Soon as someone hacks it to play on xp ill purchase a copy and use the hack though

[Elliot B.]

i wont use vista for a while so unfortunantly im not. Soon as someone hacks it to play on xp ill purchase a copy and use the hack though

I guarantee it won't work the same/as well.

[Tech Star]

Can't wait. I already have Halo 2 for my 360. I just want to buy it for online game play on my PC. :D

[benac]

Why is it Vista only? Does it use DX10? If it can run on an xbox, I'm sure someone can force it to render with DX9 if that's the case.

[Elliot B.]

Why is it Vista only? Does it use DX10? If it can run on an xbox, I'm sure someone can force it to render with DX9 if that's the case.

I assume it will utilise improved features only offered by DirectX 10.

[ck2k01]

Cool, didn't realize it was so close to release.

[goatsniffer]

This is MS trying to force people to upgrade to Vista. Seems very fishy to me that they are forcing the move to Vista like this.

Geometry Wars for PC was a Vista only game and it was cracked almost immediately for other OSes, so I don't immagine this game being Vista only for long.

It doesn't have DX10 graphics, just input and the Live for windows stuff.

[1Frothy]

I guarantee it won't work the same/as well.

:p Why shouldn't it?! It's not like Halo 2 uses DX10 so it's just a Microsoft marketing ploy.

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

just pre ordered on play.com :D

[Miuku.]

I guarantee it won't work the same/as well.

I guarantee it will just as fine - the only reason it's tied to Vista is to force people to upgrade. Technically is has absolutely zero reasons.

[Lingwo]

Knowing gaming performance on Vista, a hacked to bits Halo 2 would probably run better on XP :p

As much as i like Halo 2, i will not install my copy of Vista until Crysis arrives. I could dual boot but that would be too easy.

[ObiWanToby]

Knowing gaming performance on Vista, a hacked to bits Halo 2 would probably run better on XP :p

As much as i like Halo 2, i will not install my copy of Vista until Crysis arrives. I could dual boot but that would be too easy.

Some games actually do perform better in Vista...

http://www.driverheaven.net/articles/Vista%20XP/

[Miuku.]

Some games actually do perform better in Vista..

Try looking at the nVidia equivalent?charts and come tell me that again.:pp

[Xerxes]

Why is it Vista only? Does it use DX10? If it can run on an xbox, I'm sure someone can force it to render with DX9 if that's the case.

I could be completely wrong, but I was under the impression Halo 2 for Windows is a Dx9 game (considering the original version ran on a modified version of Dx8 wasn't it?). The only reason I can think of, for it to be Vista only is a diabolical attempt on MS's part to get people to upgrade to Vista.

[Elliot B.]

I could be completely wrong, but I was under the impression Halo 2 for Windows is a Dx9 game (considering the original version ran on a modified version of Dx8 wasn't it?). The only reason I can think of, for it to be Vista only is a diabolical attempt on MS's part to get people to upgrade to Vista.

It will work, simple as.

[jbrukardt]

Im pretty sure itll work fine on XP, the several prior "vista only" titles (geometry wars, etc) were all just installer flags. Bitchslap it with orca and bam, XP + halo2

[azz0r_wugg]

This is MS trying to force people to upgrade to Vista. Seems very fishy to me that they are forcing the move to Vista like this.

Geometry Wars for PC was a Vista only game and it was cracked almost immediately for other OSes, so I don't immagine this game being Vista only for long.

It doesn't have DX10 graphics, just input and the Live for windows stuff.

The difference being that Geomatry wars doesnt use many directx functions. Whereas Halo 2 Vista will feature alot of DX10 specific functions.

Anyone going "ye it'll be crack' is wrong. It will not run on XP. Feel free to come back in 2 months and quote me.

[TheFlusher]

Halo 2 is the first pc game to have achivements for vista with windows live.

Neat.

[goji]

^ That adds into your Xbox Live account! That is sweet!

[shakey]

The difference being that Geomatry wars doesnt use many directx functions. Whereas Halo 2 Vista will feature alot of DX10 specific functions.

Anyone going "ye it'll be crack' is wrong. It will not run on XP. Feel free to come back in 2 months and quote me.

From bungie's mouth:

"First and foremost, Bungie has confirmed that even though gamers will need to upgrade their operating systems to play, they might be able to keep using their old graphics cards. While Halo 2 will require the upcoming Windows Vista operating system to play, it won't need a card compatible with Vista's 3D-graphics-generating counterpart, DirectX 10."

so yes, it will be cracked, and i will be playing agianst you in 2 months.

[GuJu]

why would i get this piece of **** when i have Halo 2 on xbox and i have a halo 3 Beta Ticket

BTW i have vista too =)

[Flash]

Halo 2 doesn't make me want to install vista. If it was crysis then I'd go change right now

[Meshuggah]

And they wonder why pc gaming is dead..... over 80% of this thread is filled with people openly talking about stealing the game.

I just finished playing through the first two levels of Halo 2 on Vista and man do I feel sick.

I don't know if it's an age thing, an increased graphics thing, or a "I suck" thing, but after playing for about an hour my head is feeling loopy and I feel like I'm going to throw-up.

But besides the whole getting sick thing, I kinda liked playing the game on the PC. While I'm a big fan of console shooters, I do feel more comfortable still when I play with a mouse and keyboard. It's probably because that's how I learned, but it was nice to shoot though a bit of Halo 2 with this set up.

The Live set-up was interesting. While playing I was getting my normal unobtrusive messages and alerts. If I wanted to jump to them I could just press the Home key and it would pause the game and jump me to the Live screen, which looked just like the screen from the console version of Live.

I tried to find someone to play with online, but it appears that none of the people with early versions of the game were online.

The graphics did look a tad more crisp, but nothing amazing. There were some near features for the PC version. You can, for instance, pop the game in and play it straight off the disc without having to screw around with installing. A very nice feature.

The game also has two new multiplayer maps, District and Uplift, and most importantly, Halo 2 for the PC comes with a map editor. I expect some pretty amazing maps to hit the PC version of the game shortly after it arrives next month.

[blackhorse]

why would i get this piece of **** when i have Halo 2 on xbox and i have a halo 3 Beta Ticket

BTW i have vista too =)

How do you know its a POS? The game hasn't been released yet. The Xbox version rocked, PC version might too.

And it will be bought by PC gamers, if any, who didn't get their hands on Xbox version. Its will also be bought by hard core gamers who like to play shooters with their keyboards and mice and don't like controllers.