- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
1. Halomaps.org, as mentioned.
2. Ugh. You've got a laptop. And not just that, a Dell laptop. Sorry, but if you want to do some serious gaming, you've gotta ditch that thing for something much better, either a newer model laptop (which is what I did) or just build your own computer. Your graphics card is integrated, and not just that, but an Intel, meaning that you won't be able to handle Halo, a 4-year-old game. Worse, laptops are built such that most of their parts, such as the graphics chipset, are non-replaceable. Dells especially allow for no expansion room, sometimes not even for a measely RAM upgrade. (Sorry if that sounded bad, but it's the truth.) It would be pointless to suggest a card unless you're planning to construct a tower or buying a new laptop, but as for cards, there should be a pretty recent Buyer's Guide to Graphics Cards at the top of the forum...check the Forum Guides Sticky to find it.
3. See above. Then read this: You will need Windows Vista to run H2PC, that's the next generation in the Windows OS. Your specs are a tad low for that OS, as mentioned, you'll need a better graphics card, a bit more RAM (Vista requrires 512) and I'm pretty sure you'll need a slightly faster processor if you want to run anything aside from Basic. (Yes, there are editions of Windows coming. The basic requirements means you can run the most basic version, that's aesthetically no different from a reskinned Windows XP.) Here you go for full system spec requirements. And here's more info about Vista itself. You'll need Vista to run H2PC. XP won't do it.
4. Good mouse, but I would see if there's a laser mouse avalible. I've heard that for gaming, it's superior to optical mice because of better precision and sensitivity. Oh, and make sure the surface you're using is good, since that affects the performance of any mouse.
5. Nope. H2PC is handled by some "quasi-pseudo-para-joint-strike-collective-organization-b etween-bungie-and-Microsoft." And yeah, you can thank Gearbox each time you "headshot" someone and realize that you've missed them by a good 4 feet.
6. No, actually. The best you can get is H2 sims using the H1 engine. For example: dual wielding in those maps comes out wrong. You can duel wield, but it's basically tricking the H1 engine to think it's simulating 1 gun when in fact youre "using" two guns. Because of these limitations, there's no swap-and-pick combos you can choose.
Whew. Hopefully I've helped some...