Halo 2 Only on Vista

iLogiK writes "Halo 2 will be available for PC, but only in Windows Vista. From the announcement: 'Halo 2 the game that redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action for millions of gamers worldwide, is set to explode onto PCs exclusively for Windows Vista. Halo 2 for Windows Vista will be developed by a dedicated Microsoft Game Studios team in partnership with Bungie Studios.'" That's one way to force upgrades. I thought just not releasing patches for the microsoft-worm-of-the-week would be enough ;)

Comments

Why even bother?

[AuMatar]

Whats the point of this? First off, anyone who wanted Halo 2 has it for Xbox. Secondly, Halo isn't that good a game- it got a big name as a great Xbox game because Xbox had jack shit else to play. Thirdly, noone is going to upgrade their OS just to buy a praticular game. This isn't going to push VIsta sales, its just going to kill sales of Halo 2 PC.

Re:Why even bother?

[COMON$]

First, I think you underestimate PC gamers. They would rather spend $250 to upgrade their PC, along with hours reconfiguring the OS and a ton of extra cash on the new video card they will need to run vista and a FPS. Rather than spend $120 for an XBOX and $40 for the game.

Second I would like to know exactly what Halo brought to the gaming market that "redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action..." Other than awesome marketing.

Re:Why even bother?

[shark72]

"Whats the point of this?"

The point of everything that Microsoft (and most companies) does is to make money.

"First off, anyone who wanted Halo 2 has it for Xbox."

The long-delayed arrival of the original Halo on the Windows platform was a big deal. It did pretty good business. A similar argument -- "anybody who wants Halo already has it for XBox" -- would not have proved accurate.

"Secondly, Halo isn't that good a game- it got a big name as a great Xbox game because Xbox had jack shit else to play."

Halo was decent, Halo 2 was awful. IMHO, of course. Which is, irrelevant. Both sold, which made Microsoft money.

"Thirdly, noone is going to upgrade their OS just to buy a praticular game."

Already covered by other posters.

"This isn't going to push VIsta sales, its just going to kill sales of Halo 2 PC."

I am quite sure that Microsoft has already done the cost analysis. On the plus side, they have:

• Avoiding backward-compatibility time and expense
• Incentive to upgrade

On the negative side, they have:

• Smaller audience

If the conclusion they've made from this analysis seems silly to you, keep in mind that the Halo franchise has already paid for itself severalfold. They don't really need the additional revenue from sales of Halo 2 to XP users. But they do need to build Windows Vista awareness, and this is a tool in their arsenal.

If I were the brand manager for the Halo series, I would call this "taking one for the team." It happens a lot in business.

Re:Why even bother?

[NDPTAL85]

Quit being snarky. The statement is true. The players whose world was changed by Halo did not play Counter Strike or Unreal the other FPS games.

Re:Why even bother?

[danpsmith]

Not true, I had to up to XP to play EQ2

Well if you upgraded OSes just to play one game, you are a nerd, and/or pirated the OS. A common mistake a nerd/pirate makes here is thinking the average consumer is anything like one. Nobody in all seriousness is gonna upgrade OSes to play a game.

Re:Why even bother?

[Scoth]

I'd expect the average consumer would buy a new computer with the needed OS preinstalled rather than upgrade an OS. Hardware requirements notwithstanding. I have coworkers who have thrown away fairly modern computers and bought new ones because they thought they needed more of some minor thing like drive space or memory. Doesn't even occur to them that they might be able to swap out parts. The computer is still a closed-box appliance to most people, and they wouldn't think of upgrading or modifying it any more than they'd think about putting a more powerful magnetron in their microwave or a hotter element in their oven.

Re:Why even bother?

[xerxesVII]

Second I would like to know exactly what Halo brought to the gaming market that "redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action..." Other than awesome marketing.

Had this conversation with a couple friends of mine and I think we finally hit on something. We're all approaching 30. We cut our teeth on Wolfenstein 3D, and stepped up to Doom and all that. How many nights were we up all night deathmatching? Too many to count. Doom was the greatest game of all time for us. We couldn't stop thinking about what we could do in that game and what would be possible if this or that would change and what maps were being made and wouldn't it be cool if there were a mod that did "x".

And that is our frame of reference. Quake brought us into three dimensions and from there on out it's been incremental improvements. To us, Halo is just more of the same.

But then you get a new generation of kids. The same basic stuff appeals to them now that appealed to us back then. Now they have an xbox and live (which makes the whole deathmatch thing much easier than anything on the ps2 or the gcn) and they absolutely love running around shooting their friends and getting shot by their friends and swearing like sailors and ta-da... you've got the new thing.

If you could strap them into a chair and force them to play through the same evolution of experience my age group has had, they'd see it's nothing new. But that's not going to happen and to them Halo is the most amazing game experience ever.

And then you've got people that are my age that just didn't give two shits about computers when my friends and I were playing Doom. Now they have an xbox and it's an entirely new experience for them as well.

Is it an experience I'm interested in? Hell, no. The level design is generally lacking and I don't find the balance of weapons and such to be all that attractive. But I don't stand there and complain and wonder why this game is so popular. It's the first time that lots of the current gaming audience has encountered such a thing. Of course they're impressed.

Re:Why even bother?

[C0rinthian]

Halo 2 coming to PC does not even remotely compare to the significance that Doom 3 and HL2 had on the PC gaming community.

Halo 2 is already old. By the time it is actually released on PC (relatively) few people will care.

Re:Why even bother?

[default luser]

And you will jump right into the DRM box of your dreams. Enjoy.

Why is everyone so up-in-arms about the DRM in Vista? I havn't been impressed with the DRM-protected offerings in 2000/XP, so it's not like I'll be missing out on much.

I don't plan on watching HD-DVDs on my PC, or for-pay HD movies, so the requirement of HDMI for full-resolution doesn't affect me. I've seen what HD looks like on my 19" monitor, and it is not that impressive. I did play DVDs on my computer back in the 90s, but this was back when standalone players cost much more than DVD-ROM drives. I have no desire to reprchase my entire DVD collection just to get a marginal quality improvement.

Please keep in mind, NON-DRM VIDEO WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THIS REQUIREMENT. I can still look forward to downloading all the free xvid HD rips I want, and play them back on VLC at full resolution...should I be so inclined.

I don't plan on watching HDTV on this box. I don't plan on listening to DRM-encumbered formats like DVD Audio or SACD on this PC. I don't plan on doing anything remotely attached to DRM.

So, pray tell, could you point out where the DRM in Windows Vista actually affects me?

Re:Why even bother?

[Criterion]

That whole segment will upgrade in one fell swoop regardless, just because that's what they do. They don't require a dangling carrot, just a path to move forward onto.

Re:Why even bother?

[PaganRitual]

Nail, meet hammer. That's right, right on the head. There you go.

I'm in exactly the same situation to you, although in my case I must admit to being naive to the facts at first. I heard all about how Halo was up there with sliced bread, and remember it being one of the first games I picked up for my xbox. From start to finish I was wondering what the hell I was missing. I actually kept playing just in case I was going to suddenly be awed by whatever people went on about. The few small sections with the flying vehicles were fun, all else felt like work. I actually put the game down for a couple of months because I simply couldn't stand it. It has the honor of being the very reason I nowadays simply refuse to bother playing boring games to the end, when normally I would purely because I'm already half way thru, even realising I'm really not having any fun.

The level design was, lets face it, abysmal (I'm still in awe of hearing that people have actually claimed to love the Library) and it was simply the base of the rest of what is a very mediocre game. Many a 'discussion' was had with people that all this had been done before, and much better, and that this was a very average game that they appeared to be viewing thru rose tinted glasses.

Then the exact same thing that you have said occured to me. All the people that love this game and proclaim it as the best game ever, do so because it's the first real FPS they've experienced, and the first time they seen the simple beauty of blowing your friends away in deathmatch. It's the equivalent to our generations Doom (even if level design wise Halo has more akin with Wolf3D), and it's loved just as much. And exactly as you've said, when we first experienced Doom it was the best game ever, because that simply hadn't been done before.

Now there is the problem of a large majority of PC gamers that see Halo for the standard, nothing special FPS that it is, while all the people for whom Halo is their first experience, can't understand why all us GHEY FAGGOTZZZ!!!111 don't worship at the Halo altar. It would be great if maybe they could appreciate the experience that we've had to regard Halo as nothing special, but maybe because of the apparent age bracket of a lot of Halo fans, that may not happen. Who knows.

(Sure, I lost any chance of karma with that last paragraph, but sometimes you just get sick and tired of hearing the same old HALO ROOLZ bullshit over and fucking over again. And the people that HAVE played PC FPS and STILL regard Halo as the best thing ever ... simply avoid eye contact and back away slowly. I often find circle strafing works well also, it's not like they are ever going to effectively track you with a console controller if you do that)

Re:Why even bother?

[mrchaotica]

Do I really have to drag that Niemöller quote out again? Just because you personally aren't hurt by this particualar iteration of DRM doesn't mean it isn't still evil and should be boycotted!

What incentive?

[adjensen]

Cost to play Halo 2 on a XBox: about $200.00
Cost to play Halo 2 on Windows Vista: A lot more than $200.00

Can't see this being any sort of incentive. Heck, I can't even see a big market for it.

Re:What incentive?

[PhotoBoy]

Better yet, get Halo 2 and an Xbox 360 and you can play Halo 2 in 720p which is pretty close to the resolution you could play it on the PC and it's still cheaper than a rig that would run Vista. Given how lazy the first Halo port was (presumably to make the Xbox look better) I doubt there will be any additions to improve the graphics aside from upping the resolution.

I Doubt This Will Be Vista's Killer App

[Scarletdown]

That's one way to force upgrades.

I seriously doubt that one single game is going to convince very many people to go through the expense of switching to another version of Windows, and upgrading their hardware.

Hype, nothing else

[Zed2K]

Microsoft will learn very quickly that they can't treat PC gamers like console gamers. Its a completely different world. There is no such thing as an exclusive release on the pc side. No other game developer will make a game that only runs on Vista and risk alienating the entire community.

Re:Wait...

[TubeSteak]

It might have something to do with hardware requirements.

Vista requires a certain level of 3d graphic card & cpu power... by limiting Halo 2's release to Vista, MS doesn't have to code the game to run on older hardware.

In short, they get to program for a more predictable hardware environment.

Or you could just boot Linux onto your Xbox 1, run windows Vista through an emulation, then play Halo 2.

I'm not going to Vista, I swear

[boxlight]

I've used Windows since Windows 95 and upgraded everytime, and never been very satisfied with it.

95 > 98 > ME > 2k > XP

I *swear* I'm not going to Vista. I *swear* it! I'll keep using XP until it's time to buy a new PC, then I'll buy a Mac.

Stephen

a-holes

[dchamp]

Not that I really care about Halo... but what a bunch of a-holes.

Halo redefines the FPS clone...?

[Paralizer]

Halo 2 the game that redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action

Redefined? Really? I thought the real innovations came from the Doom's and Quake's, not another FPS clone.

I always thought anyone who really found the Halo's to be truely revolutionary has never played an FPS on a computer -- there really wasn't anything unique about the game. The rendering engine was at best on par with other games of its time, and the control was less than average (I'm a keyboard and mouse guy). Story isn't terribly important when it comes to player vs player. So if it can only be played on Vista, why does anyone really care? It's an old game that wasn't anything special to begin with.

Re:I predict...

[arthas]

They are using Halo 2 to make more users switch to Vista (and to upgrade hardware). I expect more and more games and other apps are going to be for Vista only.

You have an excellent sig btw...

My theory...

[natet]

I suspect that Halo 2 on PC has more to do with DRM than with anything else. It will likely use Vista's DRM techniques, and thus wouldn't run on an earlier version of Windows. I can see this being the proof of concept for using DRM in video game development. They may also be looking at this as a real world test of Vista's DRM.

Bootable Halo "Tech" DVD

[TWX]

"Vista: Halo 2 Edition" == "Warezed copy of Vista"

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if someone made a DVD ISO of a nice, bootable Windows Vista install, stripped out to the bare essentials like those various tech/maintenance CDs, complete with a functioning copy of the game ready to run. If they did it right then it'd not need to do much more than use the HD for swap and for save games.

Has Microsoft managed to finally get all of of the Windows 2000 holdouts to switch to XP yet? I know that they're business customers mainly, but if they're having trouble with them then I don't see them having a lot more success with Vista in the business environment either. 3/4 of the computers at my employer still run Windows 98 or 95...

Re:Bootable Halo "Tech" DVD

[Haeleth]

Has Microsoft managed to finally get all of of the Windows 2000 holdouts to switch to XP yet?

Hell no. I use Win2k on my home machines (the ones that aren't running various free OSes). Why would I want to upgrade? All Windows XP has to offer me is Cleartype and SP2, and all SP2 has to offer me is a handful of security cushions that might possibly be valuable only if I were a clueless n00b. IE7 might interest me... if I wasn't perfectly happy with the combination of Firefox and Opera.

I might upgrade to Vista if I can see any compelling reason to do so, but it certainly won't be for Halo 2 ("maze of twisty passages evolved!").

Halo still is innovative in a number of ways...

[im_thatoneguy]

Halo was innovative because it pushed games into whole new areas of integration.

Besides tribes and a few other games vehicles were mostly viewed as single player feature, not a multiplayer asset. Look at just about any game now and the vehicle + dm model has really taken hold. I would say at least in a small part because of the success of Halo.

Single button grenade throw. The concept of being able to throw grenades whith a gun out was done before (Team Fortress) but nowhere to the level and integration that Halo sported. Throwing a grenade was part of combat in Halo, not just a weapon whose bullets happen to have a short range and bounce.

Single button melee attack. Halo brought the melee attack previously only found in sneaky shadow games like Metal gear to the FPS.

What made Halo the first-person that redefined first person combat were all of these things in tandem:

You're driving along in a jeep, someone throws a grenade onto your jeep. You jump out. Take a shot, they hide behind a rock. You throw a grenade over the rock to flush them out. As they come out you club them over the head.

This is an experience still unique to the halo franchise.

Here is how it redefined first person shooters

[geekoid]

without HALO, would we have RedVsBlue?

Re:Wait...

[WhiteWolf666]

There's no DirectX 10 anymore.

It's going to be called Windows Graphics Framework (WGF). WGF will be released in Vista, and will not be backported.

WGF = What was going to be DX10 + Avalon + OpenGL Emulation + Other Goop

I do expect that Transgaming will implement it for Linux; soon Linux will be a very viable gaming platform.

I'll take that bet

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

They are using Halo 2 to make more users switch to Vista (and to upgrade hardware).

Wanna bet?

Halo was a decent enough FPS, but nothing spectacular. It looks like Halo 2 is the same. I'd consider buying it if it were available for my system, but I'm not going to spend my time and money upgrading my hardware and risking a whole new OS just to play one game.

If Microsoft restrict their games pointlessly to running on Vista, that just means their competitors in the gaming markets have a free run over everyone still using XP or earlier. I'll bet there are a lot more people like me than there are mad keen types who will buy the latest and greatest graphics card and upgrading their whole system just for one title that's worth a few hours of gameplay.

Re:I predict...

[dr. greenthumb]

"They" in this case being Microsoft. Not too surprising that Microsoft is using whatever means they have at their disposal to promote and sell Vista.

It's not like every other game developer out there has to do the same.