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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."
As someone who only jumped on the Halo bandwagon a week or so ago (I refuse to own a console and didn't care much for the idea of Halo, but nothing else has come out that is very exciting gamewise in AGES so I gave it a shot) -- the ONLY thing I really want to see right now is a fix for all the lag. If Microsoft/Bungie are holding this up, I am seriously pissed.
Quake3, CounterStrike and all MMORPGs that I have recently played work FINE on my network. Zero problems. Smooth as can be except for a moment or two of lag every 30 or 60 minutes. Totally okay.
Halo, on the other hand, is a total bitch lagwise. There are only two maps it is even tolerable on and most (like Prison) are impossible to play because the framerate drops to about 4 frames per second - if that. This really isn't acceptable on a fat pipe with souped-up hardware in 2004 running a video game that was made in 2001(?).
It's still a fun game. Bungie puts out good software.
Heck, most Game Boy Advance software could be considered to be roughly ten or more year old computer software, but it's still entertaining.
That being said, I can see Microsoft not having a lot of interest in improving PC Halo. They made a promise to do a release, but have little interest in really polishing it. And, frankly, PC Halo is in many ways (frame rate, lack of sitting next to your best friend and playing in cooperative mode in front of the TV, driving the vehicles with a mouse) not as nice as the X-Box release.
May we never see th
I bought HALO last month for the PC, even though I have owned it for the past two years on my XBox. Why did I buy it? Well, I was dying to play the rediculously large multiplayer maps with more than FOUR people and to be finally able to use my mouse and keyboard. Now, after playing it for a month, I am bored, and apparently so are a lot of other players given the immense amount of T'kers lurking online with Halo. Biggest question: Where are all the f'ing maps? You mean to tell me that after two years, M$ could not come up with any new multiplayer maps for HALO? Now the Halo Editor is coming out in June?!!! By then we will hopefully have moved onto Unreal 2004, HL2, and DOOM3; with Halo becoming a game that could have been much more.
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
Consider that Microsoft has allowed at least one patch through that introduced major bugs into the game. Also consider that, by Pitchford's words, we are now informed that Gearbox is only supplying the fixes, and that Microsoft is the one which is testing the patches and rolling them into an update.
And it's taking so long as to make Pitchford publicly angry.
I can see three possibilities: either the Microsoft lead for the Halo PC patches is incompetent, not enough money and/or men have been allocated to that particular project by Microsoft, or Microsoft is playing dirty with both Gearbox and the paying public. Note that the first and second explanations could also be the last, though that may not necessarily be the case.
I'm no fan of Microsoft or how it usually plays with plebs and politicians, but I have to give them the benefit of the doubt. It could simply be that the Microsoft lead doesn't know what he or she is doing in getting these patches out, that Pitchford can't get Microsoft to put a new lead in, and public pressure by fans hasn't had an effect. It could be that Microsoft simply didn't anticipate the number and complexity of the patches Gearbox has been issuing, and is now reluctant to make changes to the personnell and/or funding levels.
Hell, it could even be Gearbox trying to shift some blame in order to get out from underneath the heat that a portion of the Halo PC fanbase has been giving them.
Or (and most of you have probably been salivating in anticipation of this one) it could be that Microsoft has an ulterior motive and is malevolently, quietly, and intentionally sabotaging Halo PC and Mac updates. Reasons for this could be to boost xbox and Halo xbox sales due to a difference in the ammount of profit gained, internal politics against Bungie for making sure that an outside company did the port (or making sure the port was made at all), or any other of a number of reasons.
I'm not trying to excuse Microsoft or Gearbox here, or lay any blame at either company's feet; but if patches are being delayed intentionally, as Pitchford (and some critics) has suggested, then there is reason for anger and outcry.
What kind of outcry is left to the individual Halo PC fan / Microsoft basher.
~UP
Eat the Path.
"massive [graphical] performance boost... we call it 'fast shaders' - we're seeing a 30% to 50% [framerate] increase."
Finally, now my framerate can be 8 frames per second instead of 5 frames per second.
Bear in mind that some of us don't play multiplayer - if the single-player experience is great, then that's all that's important for us.
Yeah, but the single player experience in Halo is miserable. Hey look, this looks just like that corridor I was just in. Hey look, the bad guys are in the same exact spots they were in the last identical room.
The Library will probably go down in history as the single most worst gaming level ever.