dg
April 9th, 2007, 06:18 PM
I originally wrote this letter back on January 15th, 2007 and I have yet to see any sort of reply from Bungie. I'm not angry at all because I understand they they are busy, I might have sent it to the wrong place, etc. Anywho, I thought that I might just post it here to listen to your input on it. :-)
__________________________________________________
To: webmaster@bungie.com
Date: Jan 15, 2007 10:41 PM
Subject: Halo 2 Vista Developers / Public Relations
Webmaster: I searched around and I could not find any other way of contacting the development team directly, so I'm sorry if this is the wrong place. If this is not correct, could you kindly forward this to the right people? Thanks in advance!
Why hello there! First off, my name is Daniel G (why the fuck do you all want to know?) and have been following Halo 2's development on Vista for quite some time. I have been very interested in Bungie's work ever since Halo PC was announced and released. Due to my unwillingness, and lack of time to justify the expense, to buy an Xbox for quite sometime, I throughly enjoyed every part of Halo PC from installing to complex mods using community based tools. I was a little disappointed at the lack of development tools available, but my dreams were soon realized by Gearbox releasing the unsupported Halo: Custom Edition. Ever since, I have been testing things out, creating my own content, and even using tools to help the import/export process of 3D creation and other things made by community members. Unlike others, I am very happy with the current tool set that was provided, along with some "hacked" versions edited by a certain individual. I would not consider myself a "editing guru," but when I have the time I like to try and push the limits. :-) Either way, I would just like to thank you for creating such a masterpiece and allowing Gearbox Software to port it to PC. People can say what they want about the port, but thanks again for the great game.
Getting on to the point, I have been tracking Halo 2 Vista's development and I am very impressed. I ran across some footage of it that was recently demoed at CES and I am very impressed. Everything looked very high resolution (1920x1200 if these photos (http://www.futurelooks.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/12453/cat/528) are real) and the mechanics of the game seemed to have changed for the platform. I had one concern, however. In this forum thread (http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=9699494), the creator states that "Shacknews posted that the auto aim will be the same from the Xbox version if you choose to use a 360 controller ... " I followed the link (http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/011007_halo2_pc_1.x) and indeed the article says that,
"I didn't perceive any particular grand advantage over my controller-wielding foes; this is likely partially due to my unfamiliarity with keyboard/mouse Halo 2 (in some respects it does actually feel like a different game), but presumably Bungie also kept the game's auto-aim enabled when users have selected the controller method."
I was very alarmed to hear this due to many reasons. First off, if you had not heard there has been an aim bot released for Halo CE/PC. Many users have started to become increasingly more aware of this and have taken measures to try and deter this from happening, ala "Sight Jacker" which can watch players screens. This leads into the whole argument about they might consider this unfair. I for one do not, but I am trying to show what the players might say. Secondly, with the former in mind, I would not be surprised if once the game is released, an "emulated" Xbox 360 controller might be released to trick the game into giving the player auto aim even though they are using a keyboard/mouse. I am not a programmer, but I would think that this is quite feasible due to the 360 controller running through USB connections, which might be like using a "virtual gamepad." I would also like to point out that I have no knowledge of this and I don't know if it's even possible either because of complexity of the input or Vista's security features, but I am simply trying to help point out a could-be bug/exploit.
I hope that I have not bothered you too much with my ramblings, but I just felt the need to say something to someone who might be able to pass along my message. ;-) Again, thank you so much for all the hard work that you all have done in the past years and I see nothing in your way to give us another amazing game. Thanks and have a great day!
-Dan G.
If you would like to respond, please use this email address because my ISP provided email seems to be down at the time.
__________________________________________________
Meh. I thought it was pretty professional, but what do I know. :-)
~dg945~
__________________________________________________
To: webmaster@bungie.com
Date: Jan 15, 2007 10:41 PM
Subject: Halo 2 Vista Developers / Public Relations
Webmaster: I searched around and I could not find any other way of contacting the development team directly, so I'm sorry if this is the wrong place. If this is not correct, could you kindly forward this to the right people? Thanks in advance!
Why hello there! First off, my name is Daniel G (why the fuck do you all want to know?) and have been following Halo 2's development on Vista for quite some time. I have been very interested in Bungie's work ever since Halo PC was announced and released. Due to my unwillingness, and lack of time to justify the expense, to buy an Xbox for quite sometime, I throughly enjoyed every part of Halo PC from installing to complex mods using community based tools. I was a little disappointed at the lack of development tools available, but my dreams were soon realized by Gearbox releasing the unsupported Halo: Custom Edition. Ever since, I have been testing things out, creating my own content, and even using tools to help the import/export process of 3D creation and other things made by community members. Unlike others, I am very happy with the current tool set that was provided, along with some "hacked" versions edited by a certain individual. I would not consider myself a "editing guru," but when I have the time I like to try and push the limits. :-) Either way, I would just like to thank you for creating such a masterpiece and allowing Gearbox Software to port it to PC. People can say what they want about the port, but thanks again for the great game.
Getting on to the point, I have been tracking Halo 2 Vista's development and I am very impressed. I ran across some footage of it that was recently demoed at CES and I am very impressed. Everything looked very high resolution (1920x1200 if these photos (http://www.futurelooks.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/12453/cat/528) are real) and the mechanics of the game seemed to have changed for the platform. I had one concern, however. In this forum thread (http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=9699494), the creator states that "Shacknews posted that the auto aim will be the same from the Xbox version if you choose to use a 360 controller ... " I followed the link (http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/011007_halo2_pc_1.x) and indeed the article says that,
"I didn't perceive any particular grand advantage over my controller-wielding foes; this is likely partially due to my unfamiliarity with keyboard/mouse Halo 2 (in some respects it does actually feel like a different game), but presumably Bungie also kept the game's auto-aim enabled when users have selected the controller method."
I was very alarmed to hear this due to many reasons. First off, if you had not heard there has been an aim bot released for Halo CE/PC. Many users have started to become increasingly more aware of this and have taken measures to try and deter this from happening, ala "Sight Jacker" which can watch players screens. This leads into the whole argument about they might consider this unfair. I for one do not, but I am trying to show what the players might say. Secondly, with the former in mind, I would not be surprised if once the game is released, an "emulated" Xbox 360 controller might be released to trick the game into giving the player auto aim even though they are using a keyboard/mouse. I am not a programmer, but I would think that this is quite feasible due to the 360 controller running through USB connections, which might be like using a "virtual gamepad." I would also like to point out that I have no knowledge of this and I don't know if it's even possible either because of complexity of the input or Vista's security features, but I am simply trying to help point out a could-be bug/exploit.
I hope that I have not bothered you too much with my ramblings, but I just felt the need to say something to someone who might be able to pass along my message. ;-) Again, thank you so much for all the hard work that you all have done in the past years and I see nothing in your way to give us another amazing game. Thanks and have a great day!
-Dan G.
If you would like to respond, please use this email address because my ISP provided email seems to be down at the time.
__________________________________________________
Meh. I thought it was pretty professional, but what do I know. :-)
~dg945~