Whu-oh, Microsoft trying to use PC Halo 2 as Windows upgrade incentive

[tikgnat]

Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will only work on the new version of Windows called Vista.

The decision could make it expensive for many to play the game if they have to buy the new version of Windows and extra hardware for their PC.

Microsoft has given no definite release date for Vista but it is expected to be available by the end of 2006.

Deciding to make the best-selling Halo 2 Xbox game a Vista-only title is likely driven by Microsoft's desire to get people upgrading to the new version of the Windows.

Crap. I'm not going to upgrade my OS for years...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4698072.stm

[Savanna]

Since when did Halo 2 get announced for PC?

[RabidYak]

And since when did PC gamers actually give a shit about playing console FPS games?

[Streck]

Windows XP will be five years old when Windows Vista is released. I make no apologies for this decision.

[Draven]

Windows XP will be five years old when Windows Vista is released. I make no apologies for this decision.
Good point; you don't try to play a Gamecube game on a NES.

[thefrozenred]

Good point; you don't try to play a Gamecube game on a NES.

A better analogy would be a PS2 game on a Playstation, but whatever. :p

Anyway, this sort of sucks for people like my friend, who don't own an XBOX yet love the PC version of Halo.

[Elvin Pena]

Vista's going to be great!

[Primevil]

And since when did PC gamers actually give a shit about playing console FPS games?

Because I expected buying Halo 2 for PC to be a cheaper endeavor than buying an X-Box and the game?

[TSFC]

I could care less about the game, I just want Vista. XP has been great for me, and anything that builds on that and makes it better, I'm all for it.

I hope I don't ever have to go back to Millennium Edition (which came on the restore disks for the computer) and can stick with what I've got now.

I haven't played a game on PC in years. It's too hard to keep up with hardware requirements, card rendering requirements, etc. Too expensive when you can just buy a console and the disk and be done with it.

[BigPrime3000]

I'm glad I don't play computer games cause I never buy an OS right as it comes out.

I don't see how this is too big of a deal though. There are so many FPSers on PC that most PC gamers would probably play over Halo any day.

[artiepants]

And since when did PC gamers actually give a shit about playing console FPS games?wasn't Halo developed as a PC game?

[SpazmasterX]

http://img271.imageshack.us/img271/4041/0209057yu.th.jpg (http://img271.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0209057yu.jpg)

[aksmth]

Great move by Microsoft. I love seeing simple ideas that result in a large action.

[Skor]

Not a problem for me. I love Vista so far. Granted the min specs can be viewed as slightly excessive for an OS, but I see it more as a tool than a simple operating system.

Plus the glass effects everywhere look sweet. MSDN subscriptions rock.

[RabidYak]

wasn't Halo developed as a PC game?

Apparently it started development as a PC/Mac RTS, but somehow ended up being a designed-for-console FPS.

[Boardwise]

Out of interest what is the minimum spec for Vista?

As for the topic, doesn't bother me.
I rarely play games on my PC (though C&C:General has been calling to me to play again recently) so a forced upgrade to play a game on I have on the XBox doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Though I will be upgrading to Vista

[DevilzFan]

And since when did PC gamers actually give a shit about playing console FPS games?

Amen!

I probably won't get Vista right away. (I never liked Halo anyways) but I will get it within a few months of release.

[tikgnat]

I dunno, I have bad memories of new Windows OS's.

I mean, when Windows 95 first came out, it was a pile of cack. It then got better toward '97, when all the service packs were released.

Then Win '98 came out, and that was a pile of cack, until they released the service packs for that as well.

If memory serves Win 2000 again was buggy as hell, until again, the service pack, and the same with Windows XP, I never used it a couple of years ago, and before that it was buggy.

I dunno, I don't play PC games much, and if Microsoft are going to throw their weight around in order to get me to upgrade to a (probably) buggy OS, then that just drives me further from PC games.

Microsoft are going to get my money eventually though, XBOX 360 will be mine...

[Big Nine]

I could care less about the game, I just want Vista. XP has been great for me, and anything that builds on that and makes it better, I'm all for it.

Amen to that. Except for the game part, that will rock too! I have been running XP since release canidate 1 and have had no problems at all. I can't wait for Vista!

[MegaMoonMan]

Out of interest what is the minimum spec for Vista?

http://www.apcstart.com/teched/pivot/entry.php?id=6

Here's an article I found, although a bit dated.

All I can say is, ouch. My next computer is gonna be EXPENSIVE.

No hi-def video without a new monitor that nobody makes? Shitty.

On second thought, I'll stick with XP for awhile.

[Firestorm]

Darn. I was really hoping to play Halo 2. Since I don't have an X-Box (nor do I plan to get that or an X-Box 360), and my computer when a large supply of monsters shows up in Doom 3, I'm not going to be able to play Halo 2 for, oh, five years. I am not at a point where I can buy a new computer, nor do I think I could upgrade this one.

[Gigatron_2005]

Im sorry. Im no fan of Halo or Vista, but Ive got to chime in here. That move is just plain lame. There is no reason why that game cant run on XP unless they did something crazy like overhauled the graphics and made it look like Killzone PS3. This is an ultra lame move to push the new OS that nobody really needs.

Good thing Halo sucks, and PC gamers know better than to buy it. If you're getting a PC FPS, go get Half Life 2 or FEAR or Far Cry.

[Jux]

Anyway, this sort of sucks for people like my friend, who don't own an XBOX yet love the PC version of Halo.

I picked up the PC version of Halo the other day for 10 bucks, and while it wasn't too bad, I didn't find anything special about it. Part of me hopes it doesn't compare to the console version, given the amount of hype I had heard about it.

[llamatron]

Who would ever want to play a crappy console FPS on a PC - the king of FPS games?

[The_Bardock]

Im sorry. Im no fan of Halo or Vista, but Ive got to chime in here. That move is just plain lame. There is no reason why that game cant run on XP unless they did something crazy like overhauled the graphics and made it look like Killzone PS3. This is an ultra lame move to push the new OS that nobody really needs.

Good thing Halo sucks, and PC gamers know better than to buy it. If you're getting a PC FPS, go get Half Life 2 or FEAR or Far Cry.



but i've already watched the fake IG footage of Killzone PS3 on XP. So that can't be it.

[Mike]

I just bought a copy of windows XP last year, no way im buyin a new version untill NOTHING works at all for XP anymore. XP cost me more then the whole computer, and I only bought the upgrade version

[Cruellock]

Since when did Halo 2 get announced for PC?

Since Halo was released on the PC and since Microsoft bought Bungie ages ago. Did you really think Microsoft wouldn't try to target the PC gamers ?

A really foolish move though, since PC gamers know that Halo is just an average game with nothing special. Online play huh ? Never heard of that before........ I was 14 years old.

Console FPS... Such a nasty genre.

[FreshDebesh]

I dont really care about Halo, but I'm excited about Vista. I think I might wait to get a new laptop after it comes out to get it preinstalled. Never had a problem with XP. Hope Vista is even better.

[Wreckie]

Amazing how quickly fashions come and go these days. So now it's all cool and trendy to diss Halo, hey? :)

*Hops on the bandwagon* Wheee!

[RabidYak]

Amazing how quickly fashions come and go these days. So now it's all cool and trendy to diss Halo, hey? :)

*Hops on the bandwagon* Wheee!

No bandwagon that I can see, none of the hardcore PC contingent here (or in most places) have ever had anything good to say about the game.

[BigPrime3000]

The only online FPS I've ever played was CS, which I wasn't really impressed with, so I don't really have much to compare to in the PC department. Halo as a console FPS is amazing though. The single player story sucks, but most FPS I've played on consoles have sucked since PD on the 64.

Multiplayer though, Halo is the absolute best. Aside from the hit detection, which is damn good when there isn't bad lag, Halo is the best because of all of the work Bungie took in setting up the multiplayer system. The ranking system and the party controls are what makes Halo great. You don't run into games where you either win or lose without any real competition as much as the other online FPS I've played.

[flamepanther]

I hope they take it a step further and make it only work on the 64-bit version of Vista. I'm tired of how slowly the x64 platform is being adopted.

[Omnibus Prime]

Amazing how quickly fashions come and go these days. So now it's all cool and trendy to diss Halo, hey? :)


Pff. I never understood why all the fuss over Halo. Perhaps I was jaded from the previous decade of FPS games for PC.

[Gigatron_2005]

Amazing how quickly fashions come and go these days. So now it's all cool and trendy to diss Halo, hey? :)

*Hops on the bandwagon* Wheee!

Ive been dissing Halo since the first day I played it (quite some time ago). Nothing new.

[planetjacker]

For me a new game is not reason enough to upgrade the OS that controls my entire system.

I don't diss Halo because I have never played and the reason for that is I don't do alot of online gaming and all the reviews for Halo gush over the online aspect but leave the single player very much unmentioned.

I'll be sticking with XP and my copy of Quake and Half Life. Untill I see fit to upgrade.

[FreshDebesh]

The only FPS game I truly enjoyed, was Doom II. Most of them don't really interest me, so there was no "bandwagon" to jump on.

[llamatron]

Unreal Tournament FTW! :p

[Drake]

64bit and DirectX10. That's enough right there. I'll get Vista myself because the next MS Flight Sim is gonna be designed to run on it.

[Streck]

I've seen threads about this on multiple forums - even started a few, just to test the waters - and in every case, most of the discussion has been worthless tripe that included at least one of the following items:

- I didn't like PC Halo and neither did anyone else I know, so the whole idea is dumb, even though it sold well enough to repeatedly appear in NPD's list of top 10 selling PC games and turned a healthy profit for Microsoft
- I know fuck-all about Vista but I can say with absolute certainty that there are no technological reasons for why they would have made this move
- M$ $UXX0RZ
- I refuse to upgrade, even though it's been five fucking years since XP came out, which on a computer timescale is forever

I'm glad to see 2005 be an exception to this, though, in that three of these items have shown up but not dominated.

[Drake]

Never played Halo on the PC. Got an Xbox for that. I heard the PC version was pretty bad.

[Streck]

Personally, I liked it because (1) it provided an alternate platform on which to play Halo; sometimes I just prefer sitting at the computer with a mouse and keyboard instead of on the couch with a controller, and vice-versa, and (2) it provided online gameplay for Halo in the days when Xbox Live didn't yet exist. Aside from some issues with Gearbox's networking code, the experience was an enjoyable one.

I recognize the different strengths of PCs and consoles, and I wish people would stop trying to factionalize them like they were at war or something. Among other titles, I've enjoyed Civ 4, Quake 4, and UT2004 on the PC. I don't know if that's enough to get me into the exclusive "hardcore" club I keep hearing so much about. Perhaps if I were a member, I would understand the great sin that Microsoft is committing by publishing one of its best-selling titles for multiple platforms. As it happens, I like choice, and judging by past sales, so does the general public. Guess I'd better go prepare my pot of plebeian baked beans.

[DevilzFan]

I am looking forward to Vista very much. From all I've read and heard, they've made some excellent changes to improve PC gaming. But as I said before, I just didn't like Halo. So this "news" isn't really that big a deal to me.

Even if it were a game I wanted, I've had XP for 4-5 years now, it's time to move on to bigger and better things.

[ashe5k]

Hadn't read anything on Vista. Consdiering I just went to Windows XP 2 years ago I'm not in a hurry. I was wondering why they were holding off on Halo 2 for PC though. Now I know why.