- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Cube, you raised several good points. This is the kind of stuff I've been digging for. Here are my responses.
1) Eh, I'd argue this one, but I can't find any sources anymore. For a few weeks after CE was released, people were posting their performance gains over at Gbx and the vast majority were seeing some sort of increase, whether it be significant or insignificant. Personally, the updated shaders were less than spectacular for me. I didn't experience the great boost in framerates that others have boasted about, but every little bit helps. I run an Nvidia GPU and I can still tell the difference between Halo CE and PC without a frame meter. I've read elsewhere that ATI GPUs saw the most increase in performance. However, this is not a reason for preferring Halo PC over Halo CE. If you don't experience a performance increase with Halo CE, what's the problem? You haven't seen a performance decrease, have you? And it's still the only version of the game that holds the potential for future performance increases.
2) Yup, agreed. The popular statement to this effect is that CE "introduced as many bugs as it fixed." Thus why we're pushing for a patch. But if you stop and think about it, this is the first version of CE. If Halo PC were still in the state it was when it was released, it would be one sad game. At least Halo CE is playable, whereas Halo PC was not when it first came out (particularly if you were runnning an Nvidia GPU).
3) Random leading is the single most ridiculous excuse I've ever heard someone use for not playing PC. I'll tell you why. Random leading does not occur 100% of the time. Random leading does not make the game unplayable. Random leading does not prevent you from ranking high in a server. In short, random leading will frustrate you on occassion, it will prevent you from making some kills, but it shouldn't prevent you from having fun and scoring a good game. Hundreds of people play CE every day and random leading considered, there is still a champion at the end of the game. Every day, hundreds of people come back to play CE, because they have learded how to lead with a pistol and sniper rifle.
The official word on random leading, by Randy Pitchford, Gearbox President:
The leading thing is a trade-off. Fans said make popping better, so we did. It came at a cost of leading that is affected by ping. Smooth connections don't find leading fluctations. Connections that have fluctating latency will find leading issues in one game session. You'll find different leading even on smooth connections from one game session to the next if your latency changes. At the end of the day these are the ideosyncracies one must deal with on an internet game. Only the experts notice them, then they learn the ideosyncracies and adapt. What's cool is that most of the forum guys are experts
It should be noted that no Internet connection is going to have a rock solid ping, thus everyone experiences the same random leading. The only way you will have such a connection devoid of random leading is when you are playing on a LAN (and even then I've heard some CAL players complain). The way I look at random leading is as a ratio. It cuts down on your kills as a ratio, because sometimes you can't land that last shot to finish off your opponent, but most of the time you can. No big deal. On average, you will score less than you could on Halo PC, but this is the case for everyone that plays, so in effect, nothing is changed by the time the scoreboard is displayed. What I'm really trying to say is that random leading can be a PITA, but it's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. As much as I dread to say this (because people will perceive it as a personal attack), the people that are complaining are the ones that can't take the time to adapt and get used to a new style of leading. I have no doub that random leading would see a touchup in any future patch released by Gearbox, as this has been
4) The fact that "very few custom maps are worth playing" is a godsend for you, because the fewer maps you have in your CE directory, the faster the game loads. If you don't like the custom maps, don't play them. There are still all the classic maps to be played.
5) You only have long loading times if you have many maps. Because you don't like custom maps, you shouldn't have long loading times. If you do have lots of maps and the load time bothers you in the frame of time between now and a patch, get up to get a beer or throw your clothes in the laundry or something. Be productive during those few minutes. ;)
Again, from Randy:
We have a fix for the load times and we're saving that for a patch, but we're really nervous about just farting out a low level patch for one thing. We're going to have to push and pull for Bungie's attention to release the thing and if that's it, that may be it forever.
6) I'm not sure what you mean by this. Could you elaborate?
7) Just as a clarification, this isn't a reason not to play Halo CE. It's your opinion. Opinions are fine, but it seems silly to include such a subjective statement in a list of reasons that aim to prove why Halo PC is better than Halo CE.
8) I'd tend to disagree. You can find plenty of low-latency servers in CE. Not as many as in Halo PC, but that's a function of how many players there are for each game. Choose your games wisely.
9) I just hopped online right now. There were about 40 locked servers, whereas there were about 100 unlocked servers. That's plenty to choose from, if you ask me and hardly approaches the "most servers" figure you claimed.
10)Yup. No reason not to play, is it now? This also answers the question of why there are so many locked servers. Clans need private servers for scrimages.
11)Yup. No reason not to play, is it now? In fact, this is the reason why you should be joining the CE ranks. We need the dedicated players.
12) Have you played recently? The biggest custom maps have been New Mombasa Classic and Wartorn Cove, which have survived long past their release date. Bloodgulch gets played even more on PC than it does on CE, although I'd tend to agree with you on the BG matter. That map gets old after a while.
13) I've never heard of this. Care to link to some proof? Of course, it's needless to mention that you can cheat on Halo PC, too.
14) Lol, you're going to refer to a poll on the Gearbox forums... the absolute deepest cesspool of negativity anywhere when it concerns CE? The folks over at Gearbox were the biggest fans of CE, that's why they're so bitter. They know what CE could have been and are frustrated at the lack of support and the lack of attention being paid by PC players. Most have given up because Gearbox hasn't released a patch for the game and the number of new players joining CE is but a trickle, but that's what I'm trying to change here. The reason Gearbox hasn't released a patch is the number of players and the fact that Bungie is in severe Halo 2 mode.
As per the poll, are you going to let a poll determine how you think and behave? Just because a lot of people clicked on a radio button on some obscure post in the Gearbox forums, you're going to let this affect your decision on what game to play? I definitely hope that's not what you're suggesting other people do by referring to this poll. First, the poll is worded badly and controlls the user's response in a negative way. In no way was its sample comprehensive of the entire CE population and with online polls it is easy to vote multiple times. Message board polls are virtually pointless for extrapolating hard facts from a population. The only thing that poll was good for was to reflect the current frame of mind of the Gboxers, who have just about had it with the state of Halo on the PC, due to lack of support by all the company's involved. People are frustrated and angry, but there are still plenty over at Gearbox that still play CE, me amongst them.