PC : Halo 2 gamers face Vista upgrade

[D3ads]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4698072.stm

Halo fans will have to upgrade their computer if they want to follow Master Chief's adventures on the PC.

Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will only work on the new version of Windows called Vista.

The decision could make it expensive for many to play the game if they have to buy the new version of Windows and extra hardware for their PC.

Microsoft has given no definite release date for Vista but it is expected to be available by the end of 2006.

Power play

Deciding to make the best-selling Halo 2 Xbox game a Vista-only title is likely driven by Microsoft's desire to get people upgrading to the new version of the Windows.

Minimum specifications for Vista (formerly called Longhorn) will be released in the summer but information gathered from reviews of pre-release versions have given clues about its hunger for computer power.

With Vista, Microsoft has made big changes to the way it handles graphics. Unlike other versions of Windows, it will need an advanced video card to get the most out of it.

It is also likely to demand a lot of computer memory and a sizeable hard drive. While these requirements are likely to be met by dedicated players who want to get the most out of games, many less keen players could struggle to comply.

The decision to make only a Vista version of the best-selling Halo 2 game could significantly stunt the games appeal.

The Vista edition of Halo 2 will offer single and multi-player versions of the game, extra maps from add-on packs as well as software tools to create new places to play.

To date Microsoft has sold more than 14.5 million copies of the Halo games. Players have also racked up more than 600 million hours of multiplayer Halo gaming on the Xbox Live service.

Ouch...

[Tequila]

I wonder if the PC version will include, you know, an ending?

[D3ads]

I wonder if the PC version will include, you know, an ending?

Not played it..

MOH:AA style eh?

[Defrag]

I played Halo2 at the same time Half-Life2 came out and found it to be pretty .. boring.

[rockdude86]

then they better make good use of direct-x 10 goddamnit!

[Tequila]

I wonder if the PC version will include, you know, an ending?

Not played it..

MOH:AA style eh?

Not quite that bad, but the pacing is terrible and it leaves you hanging in the most negative sense.

[Izuno]

Interesting strategy. Gamers are both cutting edge and risk adverse. While we like to try out new technology and a bunch of us will flock to Vista when it comes out, many more of us will be wary of anything Microsoft V 1.0, and Vista is 1.0 of their new OS technology.

Looking back (and I've said this before in mapcore)

Iteration 1 of MS Windows - 16 bit

- Windows 1.0 -

Oh how it sucked. Barely ran, crashed all the time. Not easy to use.

- Windows 2.0 -

Better than 1.0, but still had major stability problems.

- Windows 3.0 and 3.1 etc -

Finally 16 bit windows were "stable" enough to actually use, but still, it sucked. You could network it, as obtuse as that was... (So this is version 3 of iteration 1, and the best of iteration 1.)

Iteration 2 of MS Windows - 32 bit

- Windows 95 -

Wow a real interface! Still glorfied DOS shell, but it worked...but still crashed all the time. Better features than Windows 3.1...

- Windows 98 -

The mainstay of gamers for a while. Still had problems, but a big improvement. Windows Millienium was under this era, what a piece of crap but nothing else needs to be said about that.

- Windows XP -

We're all using this now. Sure, it still has problems, but it is a lot better than 98 for average gamer and it is the most overall stable of the mass market consumer PC OSs. (So this is version 3 of iteration 2, and the best of iteration 2.)

Iteration 3 of MS Windows - 64 bit

- Windows Vista -

Version 1 of iteration 3....I'm sure it's going to be visually and conceptually very very cool. It will do great stuff, and will probably be more stable than Windows 95, but it's going to have major problems, especially with all the new 64 apps that will have to be written.

So the rule of 3 with Microsoft is recursive.

[Kosmo]

Izuno, I would make Win2k to be the version two on the Iteration 2, and that would break the formula, since Win2k is easily better than XP. XP just has fancy things, Win2k has real power under the hood.

Oh, and just to add, judging by the articles written by the beta testers and the information trickled from MS itself (Vista not being a total rewrite and all that), Vista is going to suck big time.

[rockdude86]

ms better make vista better than xp... theyre allready heading towards their doom seeming more and more people start using macs or switch over to linux. so i dont think vista will be that bad cause they simply cant afford it to be fucked, as simple as that, they arent stupid at ms you know *ok maybe just al lil* but i guess time wil tell

[jayrabbit]

when do they wanna release halo2, 2007?

they would definitely need to massively update the graphics (replacing all models, maps, effects - EVERYTHING)

even if they released it today, it would still look outdated compared to PC games nowadays.

good luck microsoft

[rockdude86]

agreed

[Fletch]

If it weren't for the fact that half my programs wouldn't work on it, I'd still be using Win2K.

I won't upgrade to Vista for a while, mainly because I'm sure that I'll need $500+ in hardware upgrades.

[IR]

personally i think its a compleet sell wagon, forcing people interested in the game without an xBox to buy a new expensive OS that just cant do that much more then your current, halo2 is never going to use dx10 features to the max, and it doesnt have to its just to get people buy the new OS, nice stratigy but its a compleet and utter scame and it kinda pisses me off that companies are doing this.

[rockdude86]

yeah that will probably be the way it wil go, too bad the mainstream will buy it anyway...

[Izuno]

personally i think its a compleet sell wagon, forcing people interested in the game without an xBox to buy a new expensive OS that just cant do that much more then your current, halo2 is never going to use dx10 features to the max, and it doesnt have to its just to get people buy the new OS, nice stratigy but its a compleet and utter scame and it kinda pisses me off that companies are doing this.

well...yeah.