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Halo PC Updates Delayed, Much Desired
Thanks to VE3D for its article reprinting comments by Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford regarding future Halo PC patches. Pitchford, seemingly irked at Bungie/Microsoft testing and approval delays, notes the enhancements Gearbox "...has generated between launch day and now is amazing in quality and volume. Thus far, just a fraction of that work has made it into the official updates." These prospective updates, mentioned last month, include the HEK (Halo Editing Kit), the lack of which is preventing substantial modding from taking place, and a waiting-in-the-wings "massive [graphical] performance boost... we call it 'fast shaders' - we're seeing a 30% to 50% [framerate] increase."
Heck, most Game Boy Advance software could be considered to be roughly ten or more year old computer software, but it's still entertaining.
It has the slight advantage that there isn't anything much better available when you're on the move. The market for retro games on the PC is much smaller, since there are actually more modern titles available to play.
Your forgot one: the patches are so buggy that not even Microsoft would release them. (okay, Microsoft has gotten a lot better in the last 10 years, so this can just mean bugs that most users would consider minor)
1.the stuff Gearbox has been sending for QA is too buggy to release (and after learning from the flak MS got from the last buggy patches for the game, they are listening).
2.The people running halo QA at MS are incompetent
3.Not enough money or personell allocated to halo QA.
or (the conspiricy theory) 4.Microsoft doesnt want the editor and the "patches that make the game better" to appear since that will make Halo PC better than Halo XBOX and lead to more sales of Halo PC and less sales of Halo XBOX (and therefore potentially less XBOXes).
I suspect that Microsoft is waiting for the (XBL enabled) Halo 2 to appear so that people wanting a good halo online experience are forced to get Halo 2 (plus an XBOX and an XBL subscription) and then, once its been out for a while, then release the patches.
Ultimatly, the only reason MS wanted Halo was because they wanted "a game that would sell XBOXes". Thats why they screwed gamers with the PC/MAC ports and thats why they continue to screw gamers with the patches and the editor.
BTW, I was able to play completly through the PC version of the game (forget which difficulty level though) with (as far as I can remember), no major crashes or lockups (this is on windows XP).
Co-op would be good, as would bots for multiplayer. The single player in Halo is a bit dull. The multiplayer would be good, except for having to play with the great unwashed. Besides, bot teammates don't tend to get pissed when you shoot them:)
Halo is too little, too late really. If it had come out when it was supposed too, it would have been great, but then MS bought Bungie and it all went to hell. Still, at least Bungie are more than capable of making a good game. (Made my favourite of all time: Myth 2). And yes, I know Gearbox did the PC version.