- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Halo PC does indeed add the Fuel Rod Gun and Flamethrower, as well as the rocket hog. Map makers in the Custom Edition community have successfully added other weapons to Halo CE, such as the Plasma Sword and Battle Rifle from Halo 2. I'm sure you saw some of these in the links that Zanzibaked posted.
I've heard of 56Kers playing Halo, but I can't imagine it to be very fun. Halo operates off of server-side code, which makes lag a big issue to begin with, even with low-latency connections. Add a horrible connection into that mix and you're just asking to be disappointed, unfortunateas that is. You would be at an extreme disadvantage with such a high ping. The minimum I'd play with is a slow cable connection, but that's just me and I consider myself to be fairly competitive by nature (as opposed to professionaly). However, if you want to play Halo (any version) on 56K, I ain't gonna stop you. More power to you. :)
But the question is begging to be asked: If CE is so good, and free, why not just ship it as a bonus in the box with Halo PC?
That is precisely the question that has been posed to Gearbox on their forums. We don't get the world's best explanations over there, but a developer has apparently posed this idea to the Powers That Be, but we were told it was rejected. It would appear that Microsoft and Bungie aren't putting a whole lot of effort into the survival of Halo for PC at the moment, doubly so in the case of Halo CE. Shipping Halo CE with Halo PC would probably do wonders for the Halo community in general, but alas... It might be worth it to note here that CE is technically free only to Halo PC owners. You still need a CD key to play it, although Halo CE uses none of the files from Halo PC. Remember that it was originally slated as an update to PC, but turned into its own entity when the filesize entered the picture. This is technically where ALL Halo players should be, but the fact that it is a separate download has made the conversion challenging.
So, most people talking on this PC forum about "Halo" are talking about "Combat Evolved" (in other words, they do not know about or prefer not to play "Custom Edition")?
You would be correct in assuming this. I think the vast majority of players don't know what Halo Custom Edition is, despite it being mentioned in the Message of the Day when you start Halo PC multiplayer. Also, there are a lot of people who have downloaded CE, gotten their butts kicked, and gone back to regular Halo where it is much easier to find people who are worse than you. The fact that so many people either don't know about CE or choose not to play it is part of the reason you've been seeing more and more posts about it on this forum lately. We have to get more players into CE, so Halo can get some much-needed updates. Because we LOVE Halo! :)
And I still think it is unbelievably stupid (or customer abusive, if done on purpose) that Gearbox picked "Custom Edition" to have the same initails as "Combat Evolved."
Agreed, but nothing can be done about that now. Also, keep in mind that Gearbox doesn't always have the luxury of doing exactly as they envision. They have to run everything past Microsoft and ultimately Bungie, as this was their original creation. Coulda been a Gearbox goof, or maybe not...