Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo for PC = garbage (sorry, it had to be said)
  • Subject: Halo for PC = garbage (sorry, it had to be said)
Subject: Halo for PC = garbage (sorry, it had to be said)
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Well I've had Halo PC since it came out. I don't think I'm the only one who was disappointed. I'm a long time Halo fan for the Xbox, and was looking forward to Halo PC. Unfortunately Gearbox (namely Randy Pitchford), and Microsoft have done nothing but dance around the issues. Randy Pitchford says most claims of bad performances are lies, so they didn't even bother to try and fix it. Than they pointed the finger at Bungie, who passed the blame back, then Gearbox blamed Microsoft (who couldn't care less). In a classic "shoot the messenger" scenario, Gearbox suggested we try disabling FSAA, getting the latest drivers for everything we could, and download their mediocre patches. Halo still runs like hot crap, and I can run Unreal Tournament 2004 at 1024 w/ everything as high as it can go. My system is as follows:

Athalon XP 2700+
Geforce FX 5900 Ultra
1.5 GB of RAM
Nothing. It means crap. I've tweaked and tweaked, but nothing. I follwed tweaktown's guide to get Windows XP flying, and it did get better. However, it's still not as good as the Xbox version with the same resolution. This is a disgrace, and Gearbox is to blame. Maybe they were rushed, but they've made enough excuses. Halo CE isn't any better. Same crap different bucket. This is a IGN interview with good ole Randy, and no it wasn't altered in any way shape or form. He's a just bull-blam!- artist, no way he runs Halo at 1600x1200, not in this life.

IGNPC: Aside from the up in resolution, what can PC owners expect out of the graphics engine that Xbox owners did not have?

Randy Pitchford: The effort has been to recreate the Xbox visual effects as much as possible while supporting both bleeding edge and older video hardware (and everything in between). If you have a fancy new high-speed fully DirectX 9 compliant video card, you'll see our custom implementation of the Halo pixel shaders (surface effects such as reflection, specularity, bump mapping, etc). The way Gearbox engineered the visual effects for the PC version allows programmers to write custom shaders without having to rebuild the game. So, we've shared this technology with ATi and NVIDIA and they have been contributing to make the game even faster and nicer on their hardware.

IGNPC: There has been some talk of certain graphical effects needing to be reworked for the PC... What effects are these? How have they changed?

Randy Pitchford: Every single pixel shader has been rewritten for the PC. It's far beyond the scope of this interview to go into each one of them...

IGNPC: What was the hardest part of porting the game from an aesthetic standpoint? Did anything have to be omitted during the porting process? Basically, will all of the decals, dead bodies, glowing lights, ejecting brass, and flying Covenant corpses be here?

Randy Pitchford: For folks with high-end PC hardware, I would think along the lines of whatever the opposite of an omission is... Of course, while we've done a lot of work to support people with older hardware, they cannot expect the game to look as awesome as it does on the bleeding edge systems.

IGNPC: What are we going to need to run this baby at 1024 with maximum detail settings? What is the absolute minimum required to run Halo at low detail and a playable level?

Randy Pitchford: Minimum specification is still being determined. It's going to be a mid-speed Pentium III, a good DirectX 7 compliant video card and a reasonable amount of RAM for a system of that type. For the ultimate experience, get the fastest CPU you can, a top-of-the-line video card from ATi or NVIDIA and at least half a gig of RAM, then crank it up as high as your monitor will let you (I tend to run in 1600x1200, but the game can go higher). When you play this game on that kind of system when it comes out later in the summer, it will be the best possible thing you can show your friends -- and it doesn't hurt that it's just kick-ass fun, too.


Ha ha, funny joke, now go and blame the consumers for Halo PC's (and CE's) short comings. Man, what a goddamned liar. And before the flame wars start, I don't hate Halo, not even close. I love everything Halo, and I'm mad at Gearbox, not Bungie. They can't fess up that they did a hack job. Posting on their site draws nothing but critisim from the Gearbox fanboys. Bungie forums are usually more tolerant of others opinions, well I'll see in a little while. They made a product, offered crappy support, and then abandoned it like a bastard child (well they say they haven't, but they really have). Feel me?

[Edited on 7/9/2004 5:53:03 PM]

  • 07.09.2004 5:38 PM PDT
Subject: Halo for PC = garbage
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Remember, Gearbox needed the go-ahead from both Bungie and Microsoft before they could do anything. It is like Microsoft told them to develop the game, then said, "we make the decisions, you do the work." I do not, however, believe that Randy isnt part of the problem. However, Halo PC was doomed from the start (in a sense) because of Microsoft's involvement. My 2 cents.

  • 07.09.2004 5:53 PM PDT
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Eh, i don't care if the graphics aren't as good or whatever it is youre complaining about. I love playin online. It works just fine on my computer, and it ain't even a gaming rig.

  • 07.09.2004 6:04 PM PDT
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Yes, I must agree. Anything Microsoft touches succeeds, but fails horribly at the same time. That may sound contradictory, and that's because it is.

i.e. Halo PC comes out, and low and behold it's bad. It sells wonderfully though.

See? As long as the money is coming in Microsoft doesn't care, greed doesn't make for nice people. They have the worst support, Windows XP runs worse than my '87 Chevy Caprice with 200k miles. People are still buying it though, and they don't care about problems. Or they fix one just to have ten more come out, and my pc has been hit by three worms in one year. They need to test more before they ship (this applies to Halo as well, because they pulled the strings on the deadline). Gearbox is not innocent though!


And Sgt. I'm complaining about playability, or lack there of. I think I have a right to be pissed that I pay $50 for a game that looks like crap while it runs like it too (and we all know you can't return PC games). I see people all the time who say their rigs run it fine and they have "cheap" systems. Either they don't understand fluid gameplay, or mine's flawed (although for the life of me I can't tell how). You should have to buy the game, install it, play it, and have fun. Not install it, revamp your registry, tweak every bit of Windows XP you can, download all kinds of system enhancers, defragment your hard drive a million times, and get lead around in circles by the makers. I've gotta call bulls h i t.

[Edited on 7/9/2004 6:15:29 PM]

  • 07.09.2004 6:06 PM PDT
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My Halo PC has run perfectly on both this computer (whichs specs r in my sig) and another computer that i have which is 2.4 GHz celeron 512 ram and ATI 9200 128 meg graphics card. Never had to tweak and always had full decals on.

  • 07.09.2004 6:20 PM PDT
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Yeh the pc version is a bit of a let down, and if you were to choose it over the xbox version you would have to be insane.

  • 07.09.2004 6:41 PM PDT
Subject: Halo for PC = garbage (sorry, it had to be said)
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@MCPO 117

Some guy at the gearbox forum posted once there claiming he worked in the PC game department at Microsoft. According to him, Microsoft tested the game and sent back a list of errors for Gearbox to fixed and a few days later, Gearbox sent it back to Microsoft saying they won't fix it or promised to put it in the patch in order to beat the Half Life 2 release day which was only 3 more weeks after Halo was going to be on PC. In any case, the fact that I play the PC version is because with people with arthritis can't play control pads. Anyways, have fun.

  • 07.09.2004 8:01 PM PDT
Subject: Halo for PC = garbage
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Posted by: vdpd2005
My Halo PC has run perfectly on both this computer (whichs specs r in my sig) and another computer that i have which is 2.4 GHz celeron 512 ram and ATI 9200 128 meg graphics card. Never had to tweak and always had full decals on.


LOL @ alienware!!!

Did you buy this computer??? Im sorry to coin a dell comercial phrase (kinda) but "DUUUDE YOU GOT RIPPED OFF!!!"

You (or your parents) probably spent about $1000 too much for a computer. Man I hope Next time you read my post and BYOC (build your own computer). Any way for the price you spent on that computer Halo PC should run like its the best ever.. unfortunatly Gearbox sucks a fat one, and couldnt port a game if thier lives depended on it. Has anyone ever played blue shift, or oppsong forces mods of Half-Life??? They sucked soo bad compared to the original game. Why in the heck did bungie use Gearbox anyway?? Too bad gearbox had more energy aimed at thier release of brothers in arms than the Halo PC port. Randy pitchford must be sucking the protruding erect organs of bill gates to have landed such a contract. By the way brothers in arms looks to suck badly compared to call of duty. If there is a port for Halo 2 for PC I hope infinity ward does it. At least they can get something done right. Personally I think that Bungie should have kept the port of Halo PC in-house, and just done it themselves. Sorry Gearbox but I will never buy a game with your logo on it ever (unless its Halo 2...hehe). At this point I would pay $50 cash to anyone that punches Mr. Pitchfords face at the summer CPL, and $100 if you video tape it. I love Halo completely, but with all the problems that followed it, and the extreme lack of support and respect for the people that play Halo PC; Gearbox should get kicked in the rear.

  • 07.09.2004 8:28 PM PDT
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My Halo for PC actually looks alot better than my XBOX version, I have it on 1600x1200 with everything as far as it can go and it is very smooth, so smooth in fact I wish I could make the settings higher but EVERYTHING IS MAXED OUT. Now when I had the GeForce 5700 Ultra before I upgraded I could only run on 1080x960 res with everything on high and 90% of the time it was smooth.

  • 07.09.2004 11:31 PM PDT