Halo 2 Activation?!

[Andy]

Quote from the Halo 2 Privacy Statment regarding activation...

"What this feature does

Activation is aimed at reducing product counterfeiting so that Microsoft
customers can receive the product quality that they expect. Once your
product is activated, a specific product key becomes associated with the
computer (the hardware) on which it is installed. After association is
completed, use of that product key may be prevented on other computers."

So if I activate my Halo 2 on this PC then later I decide to upgrade my
video card, then I can never play this game again? I am SO glad I got System
Shock 2 working, I'm returning this game before I get stuck with it.

Nice try Microsoft. It's bad enough we have to give you an extra $50/yr to
play online, but now we can't upgrade our systems without jumping through
hoops, or worse, we just can't upgrade period? Now on an XBox 360 I can
understand, but ahhh, i'm loosing it.

Oh, check this out...
"For more information

If you have questions about this privacy statement, contact us by submitting
your questions online to Privacy Feedback using our Web form. (The link
doesn't take you to a web form, it takes you

Or by postal mail:

Privacy Statement for Halo 2 for Windows Vista Features
c/o Microsoft Privacy Response Center
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052"

Who uses postal mail?!

 

[Dale White]

I suspect it will work the same way as Vista, in that if you do a hardware
change, you will have to re-activate that copy. What totally amazes me, is
that they are treating Halo 2 for the PC has if it's a Godsend, rather than
a 3 year old game. I really hope Halo 2 completely tanks in sales. Selling a
old game at full price is just crazy, Heck I bet System Shock 2 with your
updates is a better game, with a better Story.

Who uses postal mail?! >

Those conspiracy freaks who don't want to be tracked down by the man.

 

[Andy]

Haha, conspiracy freaks... true true.

Just played the first level, OMG, 3 years and they can't even get MOUSE
control fine tuned.

4 mouse look speeds, 3, too slow, 4 just weird stuff. Since I didn't
activate the game it said I had to quit til I activated it. When you start
the game it all but forces you to create a Windows Live account, and if you
have an existing account you can't use it until you put in your halo 2 key.

TOO MANY HOOPS Microsoft!

Game is designed around the 360 controller too, everything is press A to
Select and B to go back. I really want to play through Halo 2, maybe now's a
good excuse to pick up a used copy of halo 2 xbox.

I'd give it a 2 out of 5, if I GAVE A RATS ASS!

-A.

 

[Dale White]

Unfortunately, the Lost Planet Demo was the same. Though the mouse controls
where fine. But all the buttons had A B X...etc..etc.

I'm afraid, I can't suppose any game that they only half way port over. They
have to make me feel like they love me as a PC gamer, not a button masher.

 

[BigJim]

what the hell is MS worried about no one will pay retail price for a 3 year
old game.
with all the xbox sales of the game they should charge 19.99 for it. Come to
think of it
49.99 is about a tank of gas for me. Someone should clue them in on what's
going on
outside of MS.

 

[Andy]

I'm pretty sure I know why this is, Did you ever download the Visual Studio
Express version? (basically a free version of C++) They have this new XNE
game development platform, and it's kindda nice. You can make x360 games,
and it also makes a Windows version with little modification. It came with a
sample game (space war, love it) and the interface is straight out of that
XNE system. The game plays on PC, but it looks like a x360 game.

You know what Microsoft could of done to make the Halo 2 PC package easier
to stomach? throw in a 360 gamepad (wireless preferred).

Console games have their place, but there are some Genres you don't mess
with, namely FPSs and RTSs.

I will say one thing though, LOTR: BFME 2 on 360 was well done. sigh, is
nothing sacred anymore?

-A.

 

[Andrew]

You know what Microsoft could of done to make the Halo 2 PC package easier
to stomach? throw in a 360 gamepad (wireless preferred).

What on earth for? The whole point of playing it on the PC is so you
can use a proper control system, not a god forsaken (for FPS games)
gamepad.

 

[Andy]

You know what Microsoft[trimmed]? throw in a 360 gamepad (wireless
preferred).

What [trimmed] earth for? The [trimmed] point of playing it on the PC is
so you
can [trimmed] control system, not a [trimmed] forsaken ([trimmed] FPS
games)
game[trimmed].
--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
Help make [trimmed] a better place: English is read [trimmed],
please [trimmed] top post. [trimmed] quote only relevant text.
[trimmed] ask[trimmed] an obvious question.

(Moved my response "Downwards") (Oh shit, gotta trim the response...)

You missed the point, if you check out the game it doesn't play that great
with mouse/keyboard, and clearly the UI is designed with the 360 pad in
mind. If Microsoft wants us to adopt the pad the least they could do is
throw in one. (I like free, sue me)

FYI, I like the 360 pad, it one of the things I really like on the 360, I've
plugged one into Windows as well, works great. Don't really have any games
that utilize it, but it is a well designed controller.

-the other Andrew

 

[Guest]

Activation helps keep people legit. You can blame it on file sharing programs
like Kazaa and Limewire.

 

[Guest]

This is very frustrating. I payed full price for it from Amazon after
watching xboxers play it for years. I loved the first game so much. Now, all
I read about is poor graphics and poor control. Activation is not that big of
a deal, Steam has been doing it for years and every other MS product requires
activation, I just really really really want to like this game and now I am
afraid my experience will not be what I hoped for.

Mark

 

[Andy]

This is very frustrating. I payed full price for it from Amazon after
watching xboxers play it for years. I loved the first game so much. Now,
all
I read about is poor graphics and poor control. Activation is not that big
of
a deal, Steam has been doing it for years and every other MS product
requires
activation, I just really really really want to like this game and now I
am
afraid my experience will not be what I hoped for.

Mark

Game looks great on my system, but I'm not a graphics nut, I play games for
stories, content and fun. Halo 2, at least the first level, was pretty fun.
If you liked the first Halo, try to look past the activation stuff and play
the game. I figure within a couple months Microsoft will fix the issues
everyone is shouting about and it'll be as good as xbox 360's setup. If not,
hopefully a refund will be issued.

Only thing I don't like in Halo 2 is "Hold Q to swap for (weapon name)", or
the other weird things ya gotta do to get the right weapon in your hand. I'm
also not used to having 2 fire buttons (left-mouse, fire left weapon,
right-mouse, fire right weapon when dual weilding).

A minor quip, but I won't really know because I returned the game, just not
worth the $$. I loaded up Halo 1 PC for a couple hours then I was satisfied.

-A.

 

[Andrew]

This is very frustrating. I payed full price for it from Amazon after
watching xboxers play it for years. I loved the first game so much. Now, all
I read about is poor graphics and poor control. Activation is not that big of
a deal, Steam has been doing it for years and every other MS product requires
activation, I just really really really want to like this game and now I am
afraid my experience will not be what I hoped for.

Activation tied to a specific PC is a very big deal, which Steam
certainly does not do.

 

[Guest]

Hi Andy,

My son has recenty got the UK Version and within 1-5mins it outright crashes
everytime, so, he can't even set his character's armour colour.
His machine's set up doesn't have any problems with e.g. WoW, Fear, Half
Life 2,
Darkstar One and Master of Orion 2 there was a missing dplay.dll which he
placed into the windows system 32 directory and this game worked fine after
that, but since he doesn't play the game on the Network, just on Single
Player, he doesn't know if it works in Vista.
Shock Horror his Halo2 came yesterday 8th june and it just will not work .
He is quite knowledgeable with the computers and his elder brothers are as
well
one being a programmer, but still no joy, frustrating all round.

Just in case anyone asks, he has a home built Machine with the following
hardware:

AMD Athlon64 4800+ X2 (2.4GHz)
2GB DDR PC3200 (Corsair Platinum Dual Channel)
Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 320MB (BFG Brand)
200gig sata11 & 2 usb seagate 320gig.
He is seriously thinking of shelving the game indefinately, so lets hope
there is a patch or work around for the game shortly.
Any help Folks.

Thanks in advance,
Sandy

 

[Alfred Kaufmann]

You missed the point, if you check out the game it doesn't play that great
with mouse/keyboard, and clearly the UI is designed with the 360 pad in
mind. If Microsoft wants us to adopt the pad the least they could do is
throw in one. (I like free, sue me)

FYI, I like the 360 pad, it one of the things I really like on the 360, I've
plugged one into Windows as well, works great. Don't really have any games
that utilize it, but it is a well designed controller.

-the other Andrew

Once you are used to using a mouse or a ball for aiming, this
controller is useless. Maybe Microsoft should make a mouse the
vibrates?

Al

 

[Guest]

Hi Andy,

My son has recenty got the UK Version and within 1-5mins it outright crashes
everytime, so, he can't even set his character's armour colour.
His machine's set up doesn't have any problems with e.g. WoW, Fear, Half
Life 2,
Darkstar One and Master of Orion 2 there was a missing dplay.dll which he
placed into the windows system 32 directory and this game worked fine after
that, but since he doesn't play the game on the Network, just on Single
Player, he doesn't know if it works in Vista.
Shock Horror his Halo2 came yesterday 8th june and it just will not work .
He is quite knowledgeable with the computers and his elder brothers are as
well
one being a programmer, but still no joy, frustrating all round.

Just in case anyone asks, he has a home built Machine with the following
hardware:

AMD Athlon64 4800+ X2 (2.4GHz)
2GB DDR PC3200 (Corsair Platinum Dual Channel)
Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 320MB (BFG Brand)
200gig sata11 & 2 usb seagate 320gig.
He is seriously thinking of shelving the game indefinately, so lets hope
there is a patch or work around for the game shortly.
Any help Folks.

Thanks in advance,
Sandy

Hi there,
We have resolved the issue with Halo 2 Andy, Microsoft were very
helpful
also, but my Son in the end went back to his XP, but he is hoping to go back
to
Vista later. He loves the look of it.
He just did a clean install of Vista and everything was okay. The Halo 2
then played fine.

 

[Andy]

Once you are used to using a mouse or a ball for aiming, this
controller is useless. Maybe Microsoft should make a mouse the
vibrates?

Al

Umm, I guess you missed the memo that came out 7 years ago...

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/172/1183&cl=us,en

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/473/821&cl=us,en

Actually had one of these "Immersion Tech" mice, it was great. the vibration
motor activated depending on the kind of "surface" you were dragging your
mouse over. Like when you cross window borders it made a slight bump. Some
games like Black & White have support for it, was a great mouse.

Console games rock with vibration, espically survival horror, when used
right.

As for Halo 2, I figured out if you set your mouse DPS too high Halo aiming
just gets messed up. you have to set it lower then adjust it in-game.

As for the whole Joypads suck vs. mouse/keyboard. I've been getting
throttled regularly in Shadowrun games with XBox players, the learning curve
on joypads may be higher than mouse/keyboard, but there are a LOT of
dedicated console gamers out there.

-a.

 

[Andy]

Hi there,
We have resolved the issue with Halo 2 Andy, Microsoft were very
helpful
also, but my Son in the end went back to his XP, but he is hoping to go
back
to
Vista later. He loves the look of it.
He just did a clean install of Vista and everything was okay. The Halo 2
then played fine.

Yeah, well anyone who thinks they'll install a new OS and be up and running
in an hour or 2 is fooling themselves, as you've discovered. Thankfully that
resolved the issue. It could of been much worse.

Congratualtions, have fun wiping out the Flood.

Remember when the game asks for your game CD, just quit out of Halo,
restart, click campaign an "Select Level".

There's a bug where at the end of one level the game won't let you continue,
but if you restart the game and choose the last level it'll load and you can
continue. No word on a patch.

-A