Halo 2 - first impressions (mostly good!)

[Mark]

Having had my copy of Halo 2 for a few days now, I thought I would post my
impressions in case anyone is thinking of purchasing the game. Note that
this covers only the game and single-player campaign, I have not attempted
online or Live at all.

Installation:

This is the first game to offer Microsofts new high-speed startup system. It
really worked well, I put in the DVD, entered my code and was playing the
game within 60 seconds. I have a decent system (4.4 rating) and did not
notice any slowdown or chugging as it copied the files in the background.

It installs a big icon in the game explorer (much larger than the others)
and shows a "recommended rating" and "minimum rating" which I thought was
nice. Interestingly the ONLY place you can see that it was installed is the
game explorer, it does not install anything in the program files menu. I
wonder what would happen if you were running the classic start menu instead
of the Vista-style one.

Once installed it does not require the disk to play, which is a wonderful
thing and one I hope others adopt (Doom 3 is also like this).

The game:

The whole "Live" thing still has a lot of rough edges. At the beginning of
the game you are forced to create a online player profile ID with very
little explanation of what it is or does, and it doesn't matter if you plan
to play online or not. I just clicked through the defaults. You then had to
create another Character Profile (similar to the Halo 1 system) and
fortunately I could just click through the defaults on this as well. It
complains every single time I start up that I am not connected to Live and I
can't record my achievements...apparently the thought of someone playing the
campaign just to enjoy it is a foreign concept, but at least it lets me
proceed.

The video configuration doesn't specifiy widescreen but it offered a video
resolution that matched my desktop. My son has played the xbox version and
said the graphics were "incredibly better" than on the xbox. I found that
they were very mediocre and pretty subpar, about equal to PC games from a
few years ago. Items had no shadows and no specular lighting (i.e. the whole
plane of a wall has the same brightness) and the poly level was pretty low.
It looks a lot like the first Half-Life to me. Not even as impressive as
Halo 1 but I actually haven't compared screenshots.

Sounds are strange. Playing in 5.1 gives uneven results as some objects such
as voices are clearly heard in surround, but others such as fire are not.
The sounds seem kind of washed out and wimpy to me as well but are certainly
adequate.

There is no head-bob and without it, its like skating along rather than
walking. Its a small thing but I am amazed how much it affects the feel of
the game.

Of course the game itself is great, and its nice to be back in the Halo
universe again. So far I have not had a single crash or problem with it
although I have not tried any of the online stuff. Occasionally when exiting
the game I get a popup that the display driver has crashed and restarted but
it doesn't affect anything and I expect that to go away as the drivers
mature for Vista.

So there you have it. Was it worth $49.95? certainly not for the graphics,
but for someone who has drooled over the xbox screenshots for 2 years
waiting to play the Master Chief again, I am willing to overlook a few
things to be back taking on the Covenent.

Mark

 

[Dale White]

Interestingly the ONLY place you can see that it was installed is the game
This is actually part of the Games for Windows requirement. And I disagree
with it.

they were very mediocre and pretty subpar, about equal to PC games from a
few years ago.

Halo 2 is what 3 years old now ? I don't know that they did much of anything
to improve the graphics. Unlike Say the XBOX360 only halo 3

Was it worth $49.95? certainly not for the graphics, but for someone who
has drooled over the xbox screenshots for 2 years waiting to play the
Master Chief again, I am willing to overlook a few things to be back taking
on the Covenent.

That's a major sticking point for me. I'm not paying full price for an old
game. I do have the advantage of not really liking Halo that much and so I'm
not compelled to forgive and overlook this. Personally, I don't see how Halo
fans are more pissed about it. you get a game years later then the Xbox, and
you're asked to pay full price. Obviously Microsoft is banking on your brand
loyalty. And the fact that they made it Vista only, is just another slap in
the face to Halo fans

This isn't hating Microsoft. I don't play consoles, but I did play Gears of
War and I actually liked that game,despite the clumsy controls. But if in 2
years, they come out and try to sell me that game at the same $60 price with
no improvements made, I wouldn't consider it for a second.

Looking at the stats, there are 217,000 Halo 2 players in the last 24 hours.
So there is a huge base out there. And my personal belief is Microsoft is
milking them. But I guess it's all on how you look at it. I see it as an
insult, others see it has a Godsend.

 

[Mark]

This is actually part of the Games for Windows requirement. And I disagree
with it.

Hmmm, I wonder how they are going to handle readme's and editors and setup
programs and things

Mark

 

[Paul Smith]

This is actually part of the Games for Windows requirement. And I disagree
with it.

Yeah, especially considering Search doesn't index the Games Explorer.
Highly annoying.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Paul Smith]

Hmmm, I wonder how they are going to handle readme's and editors and setup
programs and things

Command and Conquer 3 does the same thing (not Games for Windows), doesn't
leave anything on the Start Menu, all the extra bits and bobs are available
from the Games Explorer, right click a game and you have all the other bits
and bobs.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Frenchy]

Hmmm, I wonder how they are going to handle readme's and editors and setup
programs and things

Mark

Is this available as a Vista only Download of a demo version? Couldn't see
even the full version on MS site or the "Official" Halo Page

It certainly doesn't seem to be released in the shops here in New Zealand,
yet.

Frenchy

 

[Cy!on]

Having had my copy of Halo 2 for a few days now, I thought I would post my
impressions in case anyone is thinking of purchasing the game. Note that
this covers only the game and single-player campaign, I have not attempted
online or Live at all.

Installation:

This is the first game to offer Microsofts new high-speed startup system.
It really worked well, I put in the DVD, entered my code and was playing
the game within 60 seconds. I have a decent system (4.4 rating) and did
not notice any slowdown or chugging as it copied the files in the
background.

It installs a big icon in the game explorer (much larger than the others)
and shows a "recommended rating" and "minimum rating" which I thought was
nice. Interestingly the ONLY place you can see that it was installed is
the game explorer, it does not install anything in the program files menu.
I wonder what would happen if you were running the classic start menu
instead of the Vista-style one.

Once installed it does not require the disk to play, which is a wonderful
thing and one I hope others adopt (Doom 3 is also like this).

The game:

The whole "Live" thing still has a lot of rough edges. At the beginning of
the game you are forced to create a online player profile ID with very
little explanation of what it is or does, and it doesn't matter if you
plan to play online or not. I just clicked through the defaults. You then
had to create another Character Profile (similar to the Halo 1 system) and
fortunately I could just click through the defaults on this as well. It
complains every single time I start up that I am not connected to Live and
I can't record my achievements...apparently the thought of someone playing
the campaign just to enjoy it is a foreign concept, but at least it lets
me proceed.

The video configuration doesn't specifiy widescreen but it offered a video
resolution that matched my desktop. My son has played the xbox version and
said the graphics were "incredibly better" than on the xbox. I found that
they were very mediocre and pretty subpar, about equal to PC games from a
few years ago. Items had no shadows and no specular lighting (i.e. the
whole plane of a wall has the same brightness) and the poly level was
pretty low. It looks a lot like the first Half-Life to me. Not even as
impressive as Halo 1 but I actually haven't compared screenshots.

Sounds are strange. Playing in 5.1 gives uneven results as some objects
such as voices are clearly heard in surround, but others such as fire are
not. The sounds seem kind of washed out and wimpy to me as well but are
certainly adequate.

There is no head-bob and without it, its like skating along rather than
walking. Its a small thing but I am amazed how much it affects the feel of
the game.

Of course the game itself is great, and its nice to be back in the Halo
universe again. So far I have not had a single crash or problem with it
although I have not tried any of the online stuff. Occasionally when
exiting the game I get a popup that the display driver has crashed and
restarted but it doesn't affect anything and I expect that to go away as
the drivers mature for Vista.

So there you have it. Was it worth $49.95? certainly not for the graphics,
but for someone who has drooled over the xbox screenshots for 2 years
waiting to play the Master Chief again, I am willing to overlook a few
things to be back taking on the Covenent.

Mark

Personally? Love Halo1, hate Halo2.

The vehicles all seem to move a lot slower than the original, the hogs never
seem to tip over unless something big hits it, so there's none of that
"tactical" driving about to avoid tipping over, you cant run then crouch and
crawl along without stopping, then pressing crouch and carrying on (a carry
over from the xbox where you could only crouch at slower speeds), there's no
"hit feeling" for guns, its all a lot more cartooney and less ..... i hate
to say realistic as halo1 is NOT in any way realistic, but its the only word
i can think of.

The online in 1 is usually very team based. People stay back and defend,
cover the flags and you can generally tell where people are going to be
covering. In 2, every game i have seen so far is just a load of people
running around like headless chickens with person one shooting person two
who is following person three who is following person four and so on.
Either that or it's a sword server.

and i really wanted to love this game....

 

[Andy]

Installation:

This is the first game to offer Microsofts new high-speed startup system.
It really worked well, I put in the DVD, entered my code and was playing
the game within 60 seconds. I have a decent system (4.4 rating) and did
not notice any slowdown or chugging as it copied the files in the
background.

Same, though it took me 45 of those 60 seconds to get past the Live for
Windows prompts (I didn't want to login).

It installs a big icon in the game explorer (much larger than the others)
and shows a "recommended rating" and "minimum rating" which I thought was
nice.

I like this feature, even if the whole rating system is a bit flawed. It
would be nice if you could submit box art to Microsoft for lesser known
titles. Ah well.

Once installed it does not require the disk to play, which is a wonderful
thing and one I hope others adopt (Doom 3 is also like this).

That's because you have to have a unique CD-Key to play the game and you
have to register the Key online. It doesn't matter if you pirate the game,
you still need a valid key, so this isn't a good thing, it's just instead of
putting the copy protection on the CD, they put it on the Internet. (Hope
your connection doesn't go down). Doom 3 required the CD until the first
update 4 weeks after release, most iD titles follow suit mainly because
after the first month software sales plummit.

The game:

The whole "Live" thing still has a lot of rough edges.

That's like saying the world is round dude. (God my jokes suck)

The video configuration doesn't specifiy widescreen but it offered a video
resolution that matched my desktop. My son has played the xbox version and
said the graphics were "incredibly better" than on the xbox.

3 year old game that used to run at 720x480p (assuming you had an HDTV back
then) and now runs much higher, yes, looks better. For fun drop your screen
resolution to like 720x480 and see if it looks any "better" or different.

I found that they were very mediocre and pretty subpar, about equal to PC
games from a few years ago. Items had no shadows and no specular lighting
(i.e. the whole plane of a wall has the same brightness) and the poly
level was pretty low. It looks a lot like the first Half-Life to me. Not
even as impressive as Halo 1 but I actually haven't compared screenshots.

I thought it looked ok, but I still enjoy System Shock 2. As I've said, I
play for the story, not the graphics.

Sounds are strange. Playing in 5.1 gives uneven results as some objects
such as voices are clearly heard in surround, but others such as fire are
not. The sounds seem kind of washed out and wimpy to me as well but are
certainly adequate.

What sound card? Try Onboard if you are using a Sound Blaster, and get a
sound meter from radio shack so you can properly calibrate your sound
settings. OR, just use headphones.

There is no head-bob and without it, its like skating along rather than
walking. Its a small thing but I am amazed how much it affects the feel of
the game.

Head Bobbing makes me motion sick. I always turn it off.

Of course the game itself is great, and its nice to be back in the Halo
universe again. Snore...

So there you have it. Was it worth $49.95? certainly not for the graphics,
but for someone who has drooled over the xbox screenshots for 2 years
waiting to play the Master Chief again, I am willing to overlook a few
things to be back taking on the Covenent.

3 years, and I returned the game, but kept the install code. (Kidding, I
kept the game, like a tool)

I paid $39.99 for mine, but I had to drive 10 extra miles costing me an
extra $3 in gas and travel time, but it made me feel better.

Live for Windows = Crap
Vista = Meh
Halo 2 PC < Halo 1 PC < Halo 1 or 2 XBox

GamerTag = Android8675309
Add me and i'll add you!

-Andy

 

[Andy]

Hmmm, I wonder how they are going to handle readme's and editors and setup
programs and things

Mark

Right click on a game icon and select Edit. Notice there's 5 or 6 shortcuts
you can associate with each icon. If you Right-Click on Halo 2 you get Play,
Readme, mapEd, etc.