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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 ;)
Vista to become the most popular download on gaming torrents sites... ;)
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Does this mean DirectX 10 will be available exclusively on Vista? Or are they simply introducing an artificial restriction here? If the latter is the case, I imagine someone will work around it fairly quickly.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
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.
"Vista: Halo 2 Edition" == "Warezed copy of Vista"
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
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.
> noone is going to upgrade their OS just to buy a praticular game.
Not true, I had to up to XP to play EQ2
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Anyone gonna release a 'compatibility patch' for H2 after it comes out? :)
The guy that runs the crackpot science site has proof that Microsoft is secretly working on a Linux port.
:-)
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
That would make sense, except Halo 2 was released a long time ago for the original XBox, not the 360.
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.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Secondly, Halo isn't that good a game
What do you mean... didn't you read the article? This is the game that redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action for millions of gamers worldwide! How much better can you get??
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
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.
FOR SALE
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The only thing that Halo 2 redefined was hype. If these guys think that Halo 2 - which has been on the Xbox for months now - is going to be a selling point for Vista, they're sorely mistaken.
i really doubt that halo2 will be exploding onto the PC market.
I think we've all learned what to expect from a year-late ports of mediocre games.
and what exactly is it that halo2 will require that xp can't provide? is the engine more demanding than doom3 or source?
thanks for selling out, again, bungie...
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
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.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
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.
IANAL... But I play one on
Here's the deal:
If you want to watch any commercial video that is "hi-def" in full resolution, you must have an HDCP-compliant monitor. No exceptions.
If you do not have an HDCP-compliant monitor, you are at the mercy of whoever created the video. If they are generous, then they will instruct the codec to downsample the video to at least DVD-quality, if not lower. If they are assholes, they will flat-out prevent the video from playing.
These limitations are absolutely 0% technical.
It seems stupid, but it's all part of plugging every single hole they can find. It works together with the "Trusted Computing" requirements (encrypted and obscured I/O and memory) that are continually on the verge of being brought into force.
For the last 3 years, Microsoft has said that they're extending their XBox Live service to Windows when Vista comes out. (No, I don't know why nobody has reported it either; maybe because it still seems so far off. The usb version of the XBox 360 controller [announced at the same time] has already come out.) Anyway, Halo 2 comes to mind when I think of a game that utilizes XBox Live well. It makes sense that they'd use that title to highlight the new features of Windows Vista.
Notice, btw, how they're reinforcing their overall position by leveraging their two platforms in tandem. When some people say cross-platform they're thinking Windows/Mac/Linux. When other people say cross-platform, they're thinking PC/Console. Microsoft is creating an enticing proposition for the content developers.
"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...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
You just said Windows ME is greater than Windows 2000.
Speech fails me.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
I would like to know exactly what Halo brought to the gaming market that "redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action..."
Limited turn speeds, large rings which don't affect gameplay, and duh.. Master Chief.
But really, for the first 30 minutes of the game, I thought those little aliens were on my side. I mean, they looked cute and harmless, they made cute little noises, and since they weren't shooting me, I thought they were providing cover fire for.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
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.
"We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
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.
Halo 1 Easter Eggs Scroll down abit.
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?
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
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.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Nail, meet hammer. That's right, right on the head. There you go.
... 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)
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
No, they are not.
What happens right now is that if you dont have a hardware accelerated driver for OpenGL installed, windows will use a 100% software OpenGL implementation (which implements pretty much no extentions or recent GL features).
On Vista, the software implementation will be replaced with an implementation that implements more of the core GL features and extentions but does it on top of Direct3D.
In both cases, if you install the drivers from NVIDIA or ATI or whoever, you will still get full hardware accelerated OpenGL with all the extentions your vendor has chosen to provide. But, on Vista, using that will disable some of the 3D Accelerated Aeroglass UI crap.
Even more to the point, the display vendors say it should be possible to build a driver that can handle both the Aeroglass UI AND OpenGL at the same time.
Me, I just swore to avoid Windows XP because it doesn't offer much over Windows 2000, and so far I've had no issues with that. Now, Vista I will probably buy, but not because it supports Halo 2 (couldn't care less). I'll buy it because its an excellent upgrade for Windows 2000. When you skip an entire release, Microsoft's OS products are a lot more enticing :D
K ernel/default.aspx
r nel.mspx
Actually this is a sad myth in the Windows world, a lot did change with WindowsXP, stuff that would be important to almost everyuser, and from your level of knowledge especially you.
Things from several fairly big performance, but also stability changes are in WindowsXP, and were worth the upgrade, sorry that you didn't ever move over. However at this point, I agree you should just wait for Vista if XP would cost you to upgrade in the meantime.
However for people that think XP is only Win2K with crayon buttons, do a bit of reading, there are things that would surprised a lot of people.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/01/12/XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/kernel/xp_ke
Win2k was a massive milestone in the Windows world, so XP got overlooked, and this is where you will note a lot of things that the 'average' journalist just don't get or didn't understand well enough to report on. Also remember than WindowsXP is basically the newer Windows 2003 Server code base, (as long as you have SP2 installed).
PS To add to the above thread about Halo2 being used to FORCE users to upgrade to Vista, that is about insane. If that was MS's intent then the WPF and all the other Vista technologies they are making available for XP would not be available for XP users. Why would Microsoft bother?
Secondly, Bungie is the developer of Halo2, they actually make the decisions on the platform and graphics requirements, Microsoft doesn't micro manage their work.
So all the people with the conspiracies need to get a life.
Take Care,
TheNetAvenger