Halo Demo For PC Now Available

David Adams writes "There's now a Halo demo for PC available over at IGN, including 'The Silent Cartographer' level from the single-player campaign, as well as the 'Blood Gulch' level for multiplayer action (CTF and Slayer modes, up to 16 players online)." The ever-reliable Blue's News has a list of other download locations, and there's a BitTorrent available via FileRush for this 131mb file, as Halo.bungie.org rounds up some of the reviews for the full version of this long-awaited, generally highly-rated PC version.

Comments

Direct Torrent Link

[gmhowell]

Direct link to torrent.

Article: +1, simoniker

Halo Virgin.

[oldManSquad]

Refusing to purchase an X-Box - tho' KOTOR pushed me near to the edge - I guess I was one of the few Halo virgins that picked up a copy when it was released and have to say it is quite an entertaning fps. But worthy of the hype?

Mmm...Well I'd say yes. I felt it suffered from an over-long mid-section that seemed to "grind" on a few levels ( when following the drone, if that is the middle? as im still playing) but on the whole I am finding the two weapon limit, AI and shield system most refreshing. Also nice to see some Iain M Banks fans work at Bungie.

Definitly worth trying the demo if your an fps fan, but then I think you'd have bought it already if you were. And if your not, then maybe this might be the game that'll turn you.

Re:Halo Virgin.

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing with Halo on the PC is, it lives up to the hype that it got. It has improved graphics, better control, heartier multiplayer modes and more... That's everything that people said that the xbox version had when it really didn't...

Re:Halo Virgin.

[Yakman]

Halo PC doesn't have co-op though, which is annoying.

Multiplayer = Great fun!

[sixb0nes]

Feels about the same as BF1942 with a little more focus on the foot soldier. The physics on the vehicles are superb, and will often end up being your demise (ie. rolling/flying vehicles landing on top of you). Word is that an SDK is in development and should be released within a month. If it allows allows addition of vehicles and player models (of which you can only select *one* in the current version), the community will be around for quite some time. Word of warning: they don't have a good TK/ban system in place, and their cummulative penalty code is currently flawed, thus allowing TKers to respawn quickly.

evil empire

[Anonymous Coward]

too bad the mac version is never going to materialize....

Re:evil empire

[swat_r2]

Buy a PC for Christ sake!

Re:evil empire

[Anonymous Coward]

NO!

Re:evil empire

[swat_r2]

That's cool I guess, I'm pissed that Silent Hill 3 and Fatal Frame 2 haven't been announced for the Xbox yet.. must.. resist.. PS2.. long as possible.. :)

On a side note Mac's look extremely sexy.

Re:evil empire

[BigBir3d]

it was a Mac project for several years before MS bought them out to get a good XBOX game.

Re:evil empire

[NanoGator]

"too bad the mac version is never going to materialize.... "

Don't you think you're crippling yourself as a gamer by only using Mac? It's like buying a Playstation 2 and complaining that Metroid will never come to it.

Re:evil empire

[@madeus]

To be fair, seeing as this game was origionally FOR the Macintosh by an origionally Macintosh only developer (ala the Marathon series) it's a bit more like buying a GameCube and complaining that Metriod never get's released for it.

In this respect it's fair to bitch at Bungie for misleading people, particularly since they said for years that it would get released for Mac OS at the same time as the PC version, even post-Microsoft buyout. It's now clear that's a big fat lie. Good game most disappointed in them for that one though, they have enjoyed the benifits of hyping *rabid* fans, a lot of whom are pissed off now, being Mac users who got shafted.

Not overly impressed with the Gearbox PC conversion I must admit, it's a shoddy straight port, not an elegant one to be proud of - dispite the DX9 effects it fails to actually take advantage of PC hardware when it should have had a re-worked engine (and the netcode is worse than X-Box over the Internet with X-Box GW ffs! It's netlag all the way, I'm sticking with my hundreds-of-players-at-once PlanetSide thanks), but it's still nice to play the game again with a mouse. Lan games should still be fun.

I'd note that Gearbox were doing Counter-Strike: Condition Zero but they stopped mysteriously and it was handed to Ritual Entertainment in mid development and no reason was given by them for this. That's probably just as well (though graphically it looks alright I'm a little disappointed in it too from what I've seen).

I think GearBox can make a passible follow up (e.g. they are reasonable modders - see BlueShift, Opposing Force) but I'm not sure after playing Halo they really did a great job in this port. It's passible, but it's not anywhere near as technically impressive as the origional.

Re:evil empire

[NanoGator]

"To be fair, seeing as this game was origionally FOR the Macintosh by an origionally Macintosh only developer (ala the Marathon series) it's a bit more like buying a GameCube and complaining that Metriod never get's released for it."

What's that have to do with my argument? You're talking about 1 game, BFD! The Mac users that are pissed about it should really look at their gaming situation here. They bought a platform that just plain doesn't have a huge game library. They should be the ones with GameCubes and XBOX's.

" it's a bit more like buying a GameCube and complaining that Metriod never get's released for it."

Can't say I agree with that. With the GameCube, you have the expectation of playing lots of games for it. With the Macintosh, you have... the expectation of games never getting made for it.

Don't get me wrong, I see your point, I understand your frustration. In your place, I'd be mad too. However, I'm a gamer who doesn't kid himself. I have a PC, and I have a GameCube. I don't complain about the games that are on the PS2 that I want to play because it is my own fault I don't have one.

Re:evil empire

[delus10n0]

Not overly impressed with the Gearbox PC conversion I must admit, it's a shoddy straight port, not an elegant one to be proud of - dispite the DX9 effects it fails to actually take advantage of PC hardware when it should have had a re-worked engine (and the netcode is worse than X-Box over the Internet with X-Box GW ffs! It's netlag all the way, I'm sticking with my hundreds-of-players-at-once PlanetSide thanks)

I respectfully disagree. It's a lot more than a direct port. The graphics engine had to be completely reworked to be DirectX compatable. Depending on your card, you should get the best experience possible graphics wise. Playing Halo in 1600x1200 is gorgeous, compared to the 640x480 (or whatever) that the XBox version was running in.

I haven't had too much trouble with the multiplayer, then again I'm on DSL, and not cable/etc., so that might be part of the problem.

When Microsoft bought bungie, it should have become totally clear that a Mac version would never materialize.

Re:evil empire

[@madeus]

What's that have to do with my argument?

Because it's the entire point. This is about Halo, he's pissed about not getting Halo, that's the point. It's okay for him to be pissed about that because they promised it would be out for his platform - and at the same time as the PC version - and they have been saying that same line for years.

Don't get me wrong, I see your point, I understand your frustration. In your place, I'd be mad too

If you read my post, you'd see I own a PC (and infer that I own an X-Box too). I don't even mention if I run Mac OS X at all.

(And as a matter of fact, I don't anymore, I only run Linux on my PowerBook).

But what's what got to do with anything?

Re:evil empire

[NanoGator]

"This is about Halo, he's pissed about not getting Halo, that's the point. It's okay for him to be pissed about that because they promised it would be out for his platform - and at the same time as the PC version - and they have been saying that same line for years."

I can understand that. However, that doesn't interfere with what I said. If you enjoy games that much, you're not doing yourself a lick of good by only owning a Mac. Again, I retread that point.

"If you read my post, you'd see I own a PC (and infer that I own an X-Box too). I don't even mention if I run Mac OS X at all."

Your post does not say you own a PC or an XBOX. The only real solid assumption one can make from what you did say is that you've read a review of the game or even possibly played it on PC or XBOX. Go back and reread what you said.

"But what's what got to do with anything?"

Besides arguing just for the fun of it? Funny thing is, I don't think there'd have been a Halo 2 if it had been released on PC/Mac first. The companies who make games have to survive too.

All this hooplah over a stupid FPS shooter in a diluted market.

Re:evil empire

[@madeus]

Playing Halo in 1600x1200 is gorgeous, compared to the 640x480 (or whatever) that the XBox version was running in.

1600x1200? Not likely.

The frame rate is unplayable even on a GeForce 5900 or Radeon 9800 at that resolution, even GearBox have admitted publically on Usenet that you should stick to 1024x768 (and that Gearbox staff turn the shaders down for multiplayer).

They have said you should enjoy it because it's pretty and not expect to run it at high resolutions (so 1024x768 it is, and it's not possible to do FSAA with it because of the lame, non reworked rendering engine).

You can walk around fine if it's quiet (if you don't care to much for FPS and there isn't too much up close bump mapping going on) but you get in a firefight at 1600x1200 it's jerk city on the best card money can buy. It goes well below 20 FPS. People should check out the public time demo results if they have any doubts.

I'd love to see your time demo scores if you recon it's playable at 1600x1200! 1024x768 (in all it's non-FSAA'd dorkyness, yes, but that's it).

The graphics engine had to be completely reworked to be DirectX compatable.

That's BS! It already USED DirectX! That was one of the core selling points of the X-Box internally. The console would not exist if the games were NOT DirectX!

To be brutally honest, if your not even aware of that, you really don't know the first thing about the subject matter would to better to refrian from defending it.

It was not 'completely reworked' by any stretch of the imagination. It it had been, we could expect to see things like AF, FSAA support (and some of the damn effects like Night Vison and the Flashlight might work properly on ATI cards, as it is Night Vision is borked on lots of cards, and the Flashlight effect is usable but very inferior to the X-Box origional, and for a very lame reason that could have been fixed with a simple alpha transparent texture too! Arg!).

As for the multiplayer being laggy, it's laggy on a 2 MB ADSL. It's laggy for everyone, check the forums. Not all matches are laggy, but many are, even when they are low-ping with 5 or 6 players.

When all the players are quitting from servers and doing 'T: Laaaaag' from about half the servers I join you know SOMETHING is up. Q3A doesn't do that, CS doesn't do that, Halo PC does, even on Broadband and that's lousy. Networking was supposed to be a very big part of this game origionaly (though that's clearly been shelved now for HL2, or until an X-Box Live specific multiplayer version (which has been mentioned in offical press releases) gets released).

When Microsoft bought bungie, it should have become totally clear that a Mac version would never materialize.

You mean apart from that they kept saying it would (even after it was released for X-Box)?

Re:evil empire

[sTalking_Goat]

The only think funnier than a Linux Gamer, is a Mac server...

or a Mac Gamer

Re:evil empire

[@madeus]

The only real solid assumption one can make from what you did say is that you've read a review of the game or even possibly played it on PC or XBOX. Go back and reread what you said.

I think your expected to join the dots here for the logical bits...

FWIW, yes I've got the X-Box version, yes I've got the PC version, yes I've got an X-Box and a (decent, o/c'd 9700 Pro/1 GB DDR/SATA/AMD 2600+) PC to play them on and yes I've got a G4 if I feel the need to use it too.

I was looking forward to Halo at least 5 (possibly even 6) years ago.

Funny thing is, I don't think there'd have been a Halo 2 if it had been released on PC/Mac first. The companies who make games have to survive too.

I dont think that's true.

Apart from the fact that Halo had a cult following long before the X-Box was thought about [which was the entire reason Microsoft were attracted to Bungie in the first place]....

Bungie released their first '3D' game over 10 years ago now (full 16-bit color, 3D sound, Wolfenstien level of '3D' environment, but lanched the year before Wolfenstien).

I think they would be fine.

They had great sales too, with the Marathon and the hugely popular Myth: The Fallen Lords title.

Ironically, if it hadn't been for X-Box the game would probably look a LOT more like it did in the AMAZING initial real time trailers (before it had to be curtailed to work on the more limited X-Box).

Re:evil empire

[NanoGator]

"Apart from the fact that Halo had a cult following long before the X-Box was thought about"

The cult following was attracted to the graphics. It was a graphics demo before it was a game, and it was well beyond what was being done at the time. Today it's ho-hum. At least it was a reason to buy the XBOX.

Re:evil empire

[GMontag451]

No. The cult following was attracted to the announced gameplay features, and simply to Bungie in general.

Re:evil empire

[Anonvmous Coward]

No, that's not true. People were drooling over it long before an actual game was made of it. It had neat-o graphics and pyshics, but no game play. They attached that later.

Re:evil empire

[@madeus]

Not true.

It was billed as a huge multiplayer battle zone, with seemless boundries of rolling terrain, with ground and air vehicles. The world even had natural wildlife in it, and even 4 years ago you could see the great vehicle handling and game physics in action. This bold focus was the attraction.

All that was canned and the game redesigned to fit the X-Box and focused to a single player game.

In a word, the game they were going to deliver was PlanetSide, which is what I do with a lot of my spare time.

(We've actually had discussions about this in #planetside on Quakenet. )

Re:evil empire

[NanoGator]

"Not true."

Yeah, it is true. I remember a guy getting a $30,000 bill from Earthlink because he hosted a vid of Halo before they announced the planetside stuff you're talking about.

They wanted a game that had physics and pretty graphics.

Re:evil empire

[@madeus]

Yeah, it is true.

No it's not, as the facts clearly bear out.

I remember a guy getting a $30,000 bill from Earthlink because he hosted a vid of Halo before they announced the planetside stuff you're talking about.

And you suggesting that proves your theory how, exactly?

The game play was origionaly designed, before they had done the engine. That's public knowledge. That was in around 1996. Something more akin to their origional vision for the project was eventualy released in the form of Myth : The Fallen Lords, in 1997.

Meanwhile, the origional project they were developing was taken in a very new direction, and HALO was born. This was during that period (though it continued to evolve).

The intial video was not released until after all this (2 years after), during a Macworld Keynote speech. Reports of the gameplay were already being discussed by Bungie and being reported back from Macworld.

The initial public video was not released until that keynote in mid 1999. You can find the following on Bungie.com's website (note this is actually dated a few months later, but that's the best The Way Back machine has - it has not archived halo.bungie.com/.net):

Pursued by alien warships to a massive and ancient ring construct deep in the void, you must single-handedly improvise a guerilla war over land, sea and air. The epic single-player game is complemented by a role-based, cooperative multiplayer team game. Three players might take the roles of driver, shotgun and rear gunner of a light, fast all-terrain vehicle, roaring and bouncing over uneven ground toward the enemy fortress, ducking under a hail of fire from alien aircraft screaming overhead.

Not only was this sort of info reported at Macworld by the press (and reporting from Macworld is something I've done myself) but it was followed up immediately by Bungie with more videos and more details on the Bungie.net site (also created in 1998). And of course, details had leaked before then (and other illicit videos too).

Re:evil empire

[NanoGator]

"And you suggesting that proves your theory how, exactly?"

Because I remember when all that was going there was reporting that basically said "this isn't a game yet, it's just a demo."

Re:evil empire

[delus10n0]

I don't know if you actually own the game or an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, but I happen to.

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe v2.0
Athlon 2400 (2.0GHz)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
1024 MB of PC2100 DDR RAM
Windows 2000

1600x1200 is very much playable. True, the FPS dips a bit when the fire fighting gets heavy, but it's still playable (and only slightly under the 30 FPS "max")

I'm at work so I can't exactly post TimeDemo scores, but if you really want them, I can provide them.

The engine was using DirectX, yes, but they only had to design the graphics to work for _one video card_. They cut corners on a lot of things and used nVidia-specific shaders/paths. All of that had to be scrapped/modified in order to make it work with other video cards and be truly DirectX 8/9 compatable.

I agree that no FSAA/AF support sucks, but I have honestly never had much use for FSAA or AF. Doesn't bother me a bit. Night vision and the flashlight work properly on my ATI card. I'll admit the flashlight looks differently than it does on GeForce hardware, though. It's like the ATI flashlight is "brighter". Doesn't bother me though.

About the lag, you mentioned Q3A/CS, game engines which have been around for years and years, and which have gone through countless patches/refinements to get where they are today. I agree the multiplayer could use some work, but it is a good first effort. Better than no multiplayer at all. I'm sure they'll keep improving it.

Buy it!

[swat_r2]

Bought Halo for the Xbox when it launched and bought the PC version the day it came out. In my opinion Halo sums up the following: Good Single Player game, GREAT Multiplayer experience.

And to all those bitching about performance, turn off specular effects - I guarantee in the heat of battle that last thing you'll be thinking about is looking at the floor and wondering how they got it so shiny. I guess because I'm used to the Xbox version I found the specular effects too annoying and fake shiny - Blood Gultch should not be pretty!

Re:Buy it!

[aqua_chigger]

Agreed. This game has gotten WAAY too much negative publicity. It's a fun single player game just by virtue of the varied situational firefights as well as great vehicles. I know the sniper rifle is a staple of FPS games, but it's always fun no matter what. Yeah, the bad guys aren't varied at all, but it's no big deal. I get great performance in the game. I'll be trying the multiplayer out this weekend -- this is supposedly the best facet of the game.

Re:Buy it!

[googleaseerch]

Based off of the demo, there's no chance of me getting it. The graphics were at best on par with UT2003 on the standard settings. I had just finished reconfiguring the controls, when I walked up to a vehicle, and it told me to press E to get in. I had configured the game the way I always do, with E set to foward. I had to change my key config just to get into the thing. That kind of ignorance to quality is just stupid. And this was just a minute in to playing it! Oh yeah, and it's by Microsoft. I just had to add the obligatory M$ bashing at the end. Okay, not exactly the end. 2 other things: When I tried to exit out, it made me watch a 45 secondish "BUY ME" ad thing at the end, which seemingly can't be skipped. After exiting out, my computer ran at half speed for a good minute when I was trying to go to Slashdot.

Fast from MS' site

[hrieke]

From Microsoft's site I was getting a full 1066k for the download. 3 mintues tops for the whole thing.

Re:so now, even on our pc's...

[swat_r2]

Maybe you should stick with Pong? I mean, this game most certainly can't be a huge hit because it's amazing can it?

Sounds like someone is in bitterly in love with a man named Gordon :)

Re:so now, even on our pc's...

[UltimaL337Star]

Well, it's got a higher IQ then you if you think Halo's AI sucks, if you actually went to compare it to other games out there life half life or medal of honor, you'd see its quite good, especially and possibly the best i've seen on a console fps.

Amusing closing video ad

[Pvt_Waldo]

Love that closing "advertisement" at the end. Pretty funny !

A Mac version is in the works...

[Pfhor]

It is being ported as we speak, and should be done "any time now." The work is being done by westlake interactive, and will be sold by MacSoft.

http://www.insidemacgames.com/previews/view.php? ID =131

Disapointment

[Tukz]

I was one of the ones who waited for Halo with excitement, when they announced it wouldn't be released for PC, but for a new future! The so called X-Box, which postponed the release of the game AGAIN.

Since I never bought a XBox and never intend to, I never get to play it...untill now
And what a major disapointment.
Maybe I expected too much from this game, but I got very very disapointed.
Not at the graphics, not at the engine, not at the gameplay itself.
No, it was simply too short!

When the story begins to get really interesting, and it gets my deep attention, it's over...End of story.

Reminds me a bit of Unreal 2, except Unreal 2 was boring ALL the way, except for the ending.. Finally, it ended!

misleading..

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with a Halo demo is, you'll just get a taste of it.. and you'll think it's bloody brilliant. Then you'll buy the game, and realize that the rest of the game is basically just that demo, over and over and over.. sometimes even exactly the same (possibly with different enemies, but not necessarily).

Save yourself 50 bucks, just play the demo 10 or 11 times and it will be just like playing the complete game.

I'm sold

[Pvt_Waldo]

Just played all the way through it. I'm sold. I'll be buying it :^)

Direct MS Link

[mraymer]

They've got all the bandwidth in the world, so go ahead and try to slashdot 'em. ;)

HaloTrialSetup.exe

If for some reason the direct link doesn't work, the page is here.

Performance

[temporalillusion]

Unfortunately turning off specular effects doesn't cut it for me and just about everyone I know that tried the game (mind you we're all ATi boxes so that probably has something to do with it). I've never complained about any game before this, I know my expectations are not unrealistic. Outdoor works passably for me at 1024x768, but once action moves indoors it's very choppy, and in the first hangar with a few enemies, it's a total slideshow, single digit framerates all the way. Unacceptable. I'm not asking for 300fps. I'm asking for an average above 30 and a minimum not far below that, not a maximum of 30 and a minimum of 5. And Gearbox's stance of "people don't like the framerates from the timedemos, so we're changing the way the timedemo works to give higher numbers" is crap. As is their "we're the first to do this so we're taking the brunt of the compaints". By all accounts the leaked incomplete Half-Life 2 looks far better, is full of DX9, and runs far far faster. I was waiting for this game for so long.. thanks Gearbox, another "great" product from you. (System: 2900+ Athlon XP, Radeon 9700, 1GB RAM, etc etc..)

Not very impressive

[kherr]

If you've played this on an Xbox you might be thrilled with this. But the graphics seem pretty uninspiring and the whole thing feels sluggish. This is on a machine that handles UT2003 and SWG just fine.

I would have expected the textures and whatnot to look better than on the Xbox's now-outdated video capabilities. Too bad it didn't come out on PCs when originally planned, it would have been great.

Re:Not very impressive

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, it runs like a dog and looks worse than the xbox-version
i think gearbox did a good job with thps2/3 but this release should've been tweaked far more

But its not Marathon

[absinthe182]

Its a decent FPS with nice graphics.
But gameplay is repetitive with nothing more complex than kill the next swarm of mobs that get thrown at you (and yet it completely lacks the humor of Serious Sam).

For those who've played the Marathon series, Halo's not even close. Somebody at Bungie seriously sold their souls for mediocrity.

I was really pumped for Halo PC...

[inkless1]

Like, 5 years ago when it was supposed to be this killer, massive, online, third person vehicular/team based game.

And maybe 3 years ago, I would have settled for a similarly themed, but smaller conceptualized FPS.

Perhaps last year I would have settled for inexpensive but well done port for internet play.

Now? Why? Why would I put money down for this with games like Enemy Territory for free? BF1942 doing more vehicles and bigger scale? UT2004 just around the corner? Why spend money on yesterday's game?

I will buy Halo. When the XBox hits below $100, I'll probably pick out of the resale shelf of EB Games.

At one time, Bungie was set to be one of the most innovative game companies around. One load of Microsoft cash, and they're old news.

Skipping the demo.

[Anonymous Coward]

ALT-TAB to desktop. Right-click Halo in taskbar and choose Close. Simple. Exits right away.

Re:so now, even on our pc's...

[PaganRitual]

can the truth be regarded as flamebait?

most overrated game EVER ...