GH Review: Halo 2 (Vista) - PC

Zardon

Read The Review Here
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Making a two year old Xbox game the first Vista only title was probably one of the most bizarre decisions made by Microsoft lately. First of all, Vista is supposed to be a next-gen operating system, so using a game that barely has any DX9 functionality is kind of dumb. Secondly, from the millions of gamers out there the majority of those who wanted to play Halo 2 already did it on the Xbox. That leaves a relatively low number of PC only gamers as potential buyers, but even then only a fraction of them are running Vista. So what was Microsoft thinking I ask you?

REGENERATION

I tried Halo 2 for Vista for a hour, and I must say I’m not impressed. First of all, the graphics aren’t that good and based on DirectX9. The story is a bit stupid and too odd and it feels like they are aiming with this game to 10 years old kids, even the creatures design proves it. I’d give it six or seven out of ten, but since Microsoft is playing Vista tricks, and using it illegally to promote Vista, I’d reduce the score even more. Why the hell you’re forced to use Vista to play this game? It is not based on DirectX10, and the graphics are a joke.

Zeph

I'm sorry, but I have to laugh at this review. From the moment I read, "using a game that barely has any DX9 functionality is kind of dumb," I prepared myself for an utterly painful experience. The reviewer's perception on game play, history of the series, user interfaces, and even basic technology is poor and flawed. It saddens me that such a thing can be found in a subdirectory of driverheaven.net other than the forums.

Early on, the reviewer talks about the titles original success saying, "Halo 2 refined the original formula, threw in some new features and dropped most if not all of the shortcomings the original had." Halo 2 in no way refined the original formula. It's actually as far away from the original one could be without changing over into a new intellectual property. In spite of the reviewer's particular love for the dual wielding feature, it was one of many things that changed the title in a way the developers of the game realized all too late to, for lack of a better word, fix. Combined with a physics overhaul, the only recognizable aspect to the game was the design language and characters. Vehicles, characters, weapons, and even the fundamental basics of movement were changed from intuitively bounded limits based on ball and spring physics to a declared flaw.

In context with what the reviewer lists as problematic with Halo 2, it surprised the hell out of me when he/she said, "Microsoft still managed to make this port better than the original Halo port (which was a complete catastrophe)." With the only gripes about the Driver Heaven review of Halo for the PC being driver related and AA/AF*, I have to ask where did that come from? I know the reviews were by different authors, but that just came out of the blue with nothing backing it up.

The reviewer for Halo 2 Vista says the title needs pretty 'beefy' hardware to run. The so-called-catastrophic Halo port was optimized by the engineering team of Gearbox Software, contracted by MGS, in less than six months. In the process, they essentially lowered the minimum requirements of the port to the absolute bare minimum needed to display the polygons and base material skin the game uses. This allowed a next-gen Pixel Shader 2.0 title (yes, it was very next-gen at the time) to be enjoyed, albeit enjoyed at a much less vibrant look, by legions of users with integrated graphic solutions. The equivalent is far from being true with Halo 2 Vista, even with the luxury of more than twice the development time and much more support to work with. In the incredibly short amount of time Gearbox Software was contracted to port Halo, they also managed to include hooks to change individual settings such as shadows being turned on and off, texture quality being high or low, and choices for various audio solutions. This catastrophe of a port seems to possess, and execute perfectly, the very things the reviewer finds problematic and wishes to have with Halo 2 Vista.


Any time the reviewer talked about the user interfaces, aside from issues regarding controllers and aiming magnetism, I have to wonder if it was written in as an after thought, completely made up, or the reviewer simply paid no attention to it as he/she played. Video settings, audio settings, server browser option, dedicated server options, mouse acceleration, and much more are nerfed to a point where they’ve nearly lost all functionality. Video resolutions are limited to only a few choices; leaving out widely used settings such as 1280x800 and1440x900. The entirety of audio has been summed up into a single master volume meter, not allowing a user to simply turn down individual audio streams such as game music. The reviewer simply describes the server browser as “working”. He/she is essentially correct, but highly misleading when saying so. There are no filters to be found in the browser. There’s also no way to refresh an individual server, so if you want to try and grab a seat in a full server the entire list will have to be repopulated and that individual server will have to be found again. Or, if the user feels like subscribing the Live service, he/she would be able to bookmark that server and have to sort through a much smaller list. I’m also really surprised this didn’t make it into the review, as having to pay for features that are standard and free in the PC world is unheard of; especially when they’re limited such as in H2V.

Running a dedicated server is another problem in itself. Thanks to a massive shortcoming in the initial design of Live being integrated in Vista, only one instance of the service could be active at a time. At this time, the service has been updated where one instance can be run per user, but this is still annoying. In order to run a dedicated server and then play on it them self, a user has to be running the dedicated server on a different user account than the one Halo 2 Vista is being played on. Once running, the dedicated server can not be remotely controlled while playing in the game. Mouse acceleration also is problematic. The title ignores any mouse setting the user has specified through the operating system. After reading the reviewer’s reference to Far Cry, which also implements mouse acceleration similarly, I’m not surprised to see his/her affection for the mouse controls in Halo 2 Vista over other titles. Se la vie.

I might not have formal training in journalism, but I do know that things such as reviews should be as objective as possible. This review is a joke and is ridiculous that someone is allowed to talk about things they don’t know about, or seemingly take an effort to learn, under the sponsorship of the domain’s name. For everyone’s sake, take it down and replace it with a proper review.


*AA/AF wasn't included in Halo PC. I honestly have no idea why it was covered in that review, seeing how there's no options or command line hooks to change AA/AF settings. Any attempt to force AA/AF through the drivers would end up with no-effect and simply give the CPU/GPU more to do.

coldfrontt

I'm enjoying the hell out of it right now.

WhO_KnOwS

Judging by your signature and this post you obviously know a lot more about Halo 2 than I do. I would like to hear more about this so called flawed perception of mine though? Care to elaborate (outside of what is written below)?

I just fired up the original Halo (for the PC). As you said there are some differences outside of the faster camera movement, but they are not as big as to be worth mentioning (at least in my opinion). The changed physics are hardly relevant, as only somebody with such indepth knowledge as you seem to posses will notice them (again, I just fired up Halo and I do notice them. I would never have (and didn't) noticed them otherwise).

Back when the first Halo port was released it was next to impossible getting it to run at high settings on even the best machines. I am not sure what the Halo reviewer wrote in his review, but my experience with Halo 2 was far less painful than the experience I had with the original.

As mentioned in the review the only things players can affect graphics wise are the AA levels and the resolution. That said, as I just pointed out a few lines back, the game does perform better on currently high-end machines than the original Halo did on high-end machines from the time it was released in.

To my knowledge payment is not required to play online. The fact that the browser is not state of the art might deserve a mention, I admit, but I have a different approach. If the browser had any fatal flaws or any features worth pointing out I'd have said so. But as you said it yourself, the browser "just works" which is exactly what I said.

I'm not sure where you see the connection between my Far Cry reference and it's mouse acceleration technology!? I did not test the dedicated server of the game, so I am unable to comment on it. If what you describe is true (and I have no reason not to believe you) then it does indeed suck.

As I said before, you seem to be very knowledgable about Halo and Halo 2. With that in mind I am not all that surprised that you have a different view on the subject. Just as half of the WoW playerbase disagreed with the WoW:BC reviews and how I wince every time I'm at the local computer store and I listen to the shop assistant speaking about stuff he knows very little about, you seem to be having problems swallowing my review. I don't mind being called a bad reviewer, but keep in mind that no review in this world can be as detailed or in depth as something you (or any other fan of a specific game) can come up with. That's not even the point of the review. The point is presenting the game to somebody who knows nothing or very little about the product in question. I believe I did an ok job of pointing out the games major shortcomings and the best features. If I missed anything (and I obviously did) I'm sorry, but I can't dedicate weeks upon weeks to only one game, making sure I know it as well as you do.

Halo 2 has AA settings available in the video menu, which is what I said. Not sure why you are bringing Halo 1 into the picture here.

Zardon

Your post is long winded, rude and overly aggressive, Just because you are clearly a Halo buff and obviously have plenty of issues with the PC version, does not give you the right to come onto the forums and rant about editorial training and journalism and calling the review a joke. Your views of Halo 2 might not be the same as a casual gamer. I know I personally have enjoyed the PC implementation (and im talking about the often missed "playability" aspect so sadly lacking in many games..... and I beat the original xbox version many years ago - in fact both halo and 2. (which incidentally had its own share of issues such as framerate and bogging down on later levels, this doesn't happen on the pc version).

Ill take it down if you send me a review that is better. Put your money were your mouth is. you have my email address, easy to find. However if your review is as boring as your post it wont be going up, there is a fine line between boring people with fine details and expressing an opinion and in fact reviewing a game. We are here to cater to the masses, not extremely fanatical and exclusive gamers in specific fields.

interspaced

The game comes with a free month of live gold true? Do you have to pay only to play with 360 users?

Would be grateful for any response

Erroneus

I was so dissapointed by it's GFX quality, seems very 2004'ish to me.

brutusmaximus

I got something to say. I liked this review, it gave me enough information today and I went out and bought this game based on the review. I knew I wasn't going to get good graphics but I wanted a game maybe a bit like the old star trek first person shooters of old and I got exactly what I thought. The game is a lot of fun and plays really well.

Zeph, I think you are in need of some serious help man, if I wanted to read all that crap you wrote I would be hanging in a Halo clan forum or something but I have a life and I want a game that I can play without too much complications. I miss the old days of good solid gameplay rather than HDR out the ass, and all sorts of slow down graphic effects which add little to the game. I actually think companies should make games on older hardware so the game plays and flows well, rather than concentrating on getting 40 thousand graphical effects in one room.

Halo 2 on vista is a refreshing game and it plays well, for god sake Zardon don't let Zeph put up a review, it would probably be 40,000 words, 10,000 of which deal with the history of the flood and some boring crap no one wants to read about.

I like your review who_knows, they look well, read well and generally have enough information to give me an idea on whether the game will personally appeal to me.

GutterPunk

Nice review, I wasn't too impressed. Halo 3 demo ruined me of halo.

BlueMak

I like the review. To the point and without writing an essay on the fine point of physics in space. I am not going to get the game since I have it on the xbox, but still it looks like an ok fps.

Zeph, I do not doubt you are correct on everything you say, apart from the "this review sucks" parts. You are over alalysing the game. Too many details do not make a good review. Or too much whining about the details of a game. You remind me of people in the 90s bitching about the authenticity of combat flight simulators. People that would write endless letters and later emails and forum posts about how a particular missle doesn't have a range of 4.2 as it should, but 4.5. Over reacting and making too much noise that in the end ruined a whole type of games. While this is not going to happen with FPS games (too popular), your attitude towards reviews needs adjustment. A review of a game is not an analytical examination of a graphics card.
People get bored.

Zeph

I'll start off with the thing you said which prompted me to rant. Halo 2 Vista barely using DX9? Why dont you try forcing DX9 to be disabled on a few games?


Odd, you seem to be very knowledgeable about the game yourself, with your talk about bump maps, pixel shading, dynamic lights and all . I wouldn't begin to say I have indepth knowlege, unless you consider noticing that things move and interact differently between the two games. Honestly, I haven't taken the time to do so nor will, with the various limitations I found the game had. Anywyas, the last time I checked, two vehicles colliding in Halo 1 looked incredibly different than it would in Halo 2. In response to things you didn't seem to directly reply to, reiterating my point, the ability to wield a second weapon and changes with physics drastically changed the game. I mean, try to jump off a ledge in both games and see what happens. I doubt anyone would say Counterstrike Source 2 would be a refined version of the first if the sequal included dual-wielding and removed fall damage by default.


You just had bad luck then.

Good job mentioning that in your review.


No it's not required, but the free membership is incredibly nerfed. I'm surprised you were actually able to get into a game right now with the free membership. A lack of filters is a serious flaw in my opinion. Assuming the title ever kicks it off and starts getting users, there's potentially one server for every online user. Knowing that wont ever happen, lets try to make it more realistic and suggest one eigth of 25k people had their own servers up and 500 clan servers sit unpopulated. That's more than 3500 servers a person would have to sift through without filters available to aid them.

Far Cry uses, at least as far as I can tell, mouse acceleration the same way as H2V; Halo 1 does not. You found Halo 2's camera system more preferable over a title which does not use it. The english language is quite forceful and bland without transitions, so I looked back on something I could use and Far Cry was it. I probably wouldn't even have mentioned it, but I recently found a copy of the title to buy and had trouble aiming due to the acceleration. You're one of the few people I've found to think mouse acceleration like that is attractive in gaming, so there it was. If I was wrong, I apologize. If not, so is life.


I'm not one to expect an incredibly detailed review covering miniscule details, nor have I ever seen an incredibly detailed review of a game. Not to say you didn't do that at all,

Because you referenced Halo 1 PC as a catastrophe, yet it had the very things you wanted in Halo 2 Vista. As far as I know, suprscripts would be disabled should I try to use them here. With that being the case, an asterick took its place.


The english language and the internet typically make such things appear so. Halo buff or not, I still stand by my points I made. I fall into the latter category and only enjoy the first game's multiplayer. If you wish for me to rewrite my critisism into a title-neutral piece, I'll do so for you the next time I have an hour and half downtime while waiting for my car to be serviced. Should be Tuesday afternoon.

<3. I dont believe I've ever the word fanatic be used quite like that before. It's somewhat ironic, seeing the names of the forums in your ownership. At least I do believe you are the one who owns this site. I'll take you up on it, for as it stands, your average reader is missing out on quite a lot.

Heaven forbid you read the actual review, which was about twice as long as my short rant. It was essentially scratch paper for what I've had to write for my classes.

Dont get me wrong, I understand the reactions of the staff here. I've run into the same kind of thing in my days of staffing news/review related boards. While many simply shout profanities to express something is bad, I at least try to explain myself. Were you one of those who simply flamed and trolled your way around without reason or more like myself, listing reason to madness? If it's the ladder, then I think a big "uh-oh" is in order as I doo indeed enjoy the news portion this site has to offer.

Your opinion. You see me as over-analysing the game, I see myself worrying about why people cant play the game at 1440x900 or why a person who pays for a service cant play a multiplayer match with his friend, even when he's putting forth the bandwidth as host.



I wish I enabled threaded or even hybrid mode before I started that.

SFOSOK

Dual wielding sucks. I'm sorry but it ruined Halo 2 for completely. Halo 1 had the perfect balance making use of grenades and melee attacks. Its 16 player LAN is much, much better than what Halo 2 ever had to offer online. I have played Halo 2 on a Vista machine and I like it on my 360 better but even that doesn't mean much.

Halo 2 was horrible imo because of dual weilding and I am happy that it is either not as important in Halo 3 or not there at all.

I agree with everything on the review except the gameplay score. Dual wielding dumbs down the experience ruins Halo for me. It pretty much just turns into who sees who first.



Then again I'm mostly a sniper but I did love the new assault rifle. Though I wish it was single shot and more powerful.

Tipstaff

<yawn>

You know, agree or disagree, that's everyones prerogative. If you agree, great, if you disagree, then at the very least tell me why (doing so with much respect as you would want in return), so that I can understand and discuss your reasons. No need to over analyze, no need to argue, no need to be disresepctful. Just state your opinions, and let us decide to either agree or disagree with you. But above all BE RESPECTFUL!

So, with that, keep it clean, SHORT, to the point, and respectful, cuz I, for one, will not backup anyone elses opinion if they aren't the least bit respectful of another persons opinion... even if they are right.

brutusmaximus

Seriously dude, please don't. I think the staff have explained why the review didnt contain quite the amount of information you desired and I as a reader have also disagreed with you. I feel the review would appeal to 90% of the readership on this site. Equally so perhaps 25% of guys on halo forums like yourself - this is a game review site, not a clan or game obsessive support site. This is publishing a review for a specific audience, and you in this case are not that kind of audience. After all with all the gaming reviews on this site, have you ever felt they didn't offer enough information. Obviously the fact you appear to have never replied before would answer that. The simple fact is, you are a halo fanatic and this review didn't suit your tastes, it is written to the same standards as all their other reviews and this is the first time you have commented in such detail. This is clearly the actions of a specific title "fanatic". Surely you can even see this yourself!


I Disagree, and you ignored my last post. I am an "average" reader, and the game presented enough information to me to warrant a purchase. I have played the multiplayer, it runs fine on my machine and I have had no complaints. If on the other hand you had reviewed the game I more than likely wouldn't have bought it as I would have closed the review in 2 minutes. I want to read reviews which are concise, to the point and give relevant information without going into infinite detail. I will lose interest, most of the public would.



Again, it is not the quantity of the writing, it is the wording and content. Again I do apologise for generalisations, however you do appear to me to be the kind of guy sitting in a room with a master chief action figure in Halo 2 PJ's. With Halo artwork all over his room. This is not meant as an insult, just an observation, and this is certainly not the person I want to be reviewing this partcular game on any site. The information would be extremely clouded with emotional responses, much like your forum posting.


Well the fact you seemingly haven't been banned and are still debating it, while the other guy who obviously is an idiot has been, shows the moderation on the site is pretty spot on. I don't think you are a flamer, I just think you are totally missing the point of a review on a gaming site, not a clan site.



I have been playing multiplayer on it, perfectly fine and it runs fine on my machine. As a member of the public and a reader I stand by this review. It didn't miss anything I needed and I bought a game I am enjoying on the basis of the review.

Sandok