Halo 2 Vista is a flop. My review

[Snowy]

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or download the high-quality version (http://files.filefront.com/Review+Halo2Vistawmv/;8111100;;/fileinfo.html)


<link (http://forums.haloonwindowsvista.com/forums/thread/3996.aspx)>

[randreach454]

eh I love halo, and im a big fan of using the editing kit, so while I must say your review was pretty spot on, i still love it.. :-p

good job

[Skyline]

Hmm, the difference between xbox and PC is that you can have external programs. I can adjust my field of view easily to 80 - 90 degrees.

[jahrain]

H2v a flop? Old news...

[FireDragon04]

Nice Review. 100&#37; Agreement!

[Flyboy]

I'm going to tell you exactly what I did on the bungie forums.


Posted by: No Refunds

1. You sound like a robot.

2. The FOV can be increased by going to widescreen. Don't have a widescreen monitor? Window it.

3. You act like Halo 2 on the xbox was a bad game. This includes the same features as the xbox version. "It's just the xbox version with a bunch of bugs." You make me laugh because it's the same bugs on the xbox version. The BxR or there x combo's don't have much of an effect on gameplay as it is. The quickmatch feature might be a little buggy, but remind me, why do we need a quickmatch when we have a browser that will get us servers twice as fast?

4. The mod tools are limited yes, but what they can do is amazing. The controls are simple, placing spawn points, vehicles, weapons, targets, objects, even someone with no experience can make a halfway decent map. Along with the fact that both of us know about the "hackers" improving the software, and who have already done an amazing job on editing bipeds.

5. Halo PC had all the same problems if not more. The graphics weren't improved at all, in fact they were made worse. You can't tell that H2v has been improved for the simple reason your looking at a 640 x 480 screen from six feet away on your xbox. If you took the same textures from the xbox version and put those on a 1280 x 1024 monitor while sitting only a few feet away, it would look terrible. Gearboxes netcode is also one of the worst netcodes in PC gaming...ever. H2v improved on everything in the xbox version, just not drastically. Gearbox made everything worse, drastically.

6. The fact that you need to pay to get specific features on Live sucks. However, the fact that you need to pay to do ANYTHING on the xbox version sucks more.

[randreach454]

I'm going to tell you exactly what I did on the bungie forums.
Hmm, never thought about it that indepth, and I totally agree with that more <3

[Snowy]

I'm going to tell you exactly what I did on the bungie forums.

I read it, replied. And I'll post mine, but after, let's just keep it on one forum.



It sounds like you're protecting the game. (fanboy maybe?)

1. Ok, awesome, I'm glad you think that. It's what I was going for.

2. If I paid $230 for my LCD monitor a few years ago, why should I be forced to only use half of the pixels because the developers were lazy?

3. Honestly, Halo 2 on the xbox wasn't the best of games. The vechiles and weapons are incredibly un-balanced. It carries over to the PC version. There's much more bugs than just the quickmatch feature I listed.

4. The editing tool left out many of the shaders and examples that were in the tutorials.

5. You're right, Halo PC did have a lot of problems. But they really didn't need to have AF or AA because half of the video cards couldn't run it at a decent framerate until a year later. (Remember the 9700Pro was the most powerful at Halo's release). Ok, you might be right about if you were comparing textures directly... but even then, they wouldn't look too much better. And if you can't see it in-game, it doesn't matter. Halo 2 Vista's netcode was an improved net code from the xbox version? Hm, maybe, maybe not, I'd like to see some proof. But I didn't mention it in the review, so I don't know what you're getting at. Gerabox made the netcode worse? How? They didn't have anything to start with.

6. I agree

The standards are different on the PC, and tossing in a 3 year old console port in 2007 to promote your new "Games for Windows- LIVE" isn't going to cut it.

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by No Refunds
Got it, I'll stick here.
What he said

[InnerGoat]

2. If I paid $230 for my LCD monitor a few years ago, why should I be forced to only use half of the pixels because the developers were lazy?If you don't have a widescreen, then you don't get the wider FOV. Simple as that.

[Flyboy]

Yes you can, you can window it. Try it yourself.

[Snowy]

If you don't have a widescreen, then you don't get the wider FOV. Simple as that.

Um, not true. In a lot of other games, you can adjust your FOV without having to use half of your monitor.

[et_cg]

I don't think you mean as an in-game setting?

By the way you guys, isn't all this bickery childs play?

The review's just his opinion, so leave it at that.

[Flyboy]

We wouldn't have forums if we didn't argue. Or politics.

[DOMINATOR]

Yes you can, you can window it. Try it yourself.
i dont have the game but as far as i know FOV doesnt change just because you window it... i know it doesnt for HPC/CE so unless they added some crazy shit to h2v... you are wrong.

[Halo2Vista]

I read it, replied. And I'll post mine, but after, let's just keep it on one forum.

well when halo 3 does come out, it should be great since h2v and Vista itself was horrible but i'm not saying vista is horrible and it has its uses too but come on! a service pack already?!?! quality always beats fast-paced quantity

[et_cg]

well when halo 3 does come out, it should be great since h2v and Vista itself was horrible but i'm not saying vista is horrible and it has its uses too but come on! a service pack already?!?! quality always beats fast-paced quantity

Vista: SP1 Is just being spoken of about a beta right now. It seems more recently that either a closed invite only beta has been proposed by inner sources. But nothing to be quoted upon, or an open beta. It seems the latter of the two would be their first choice. But there has been the new open beta trend seen from Microsoft lately, so who knows?

Final statement; they will focus on quality, from my experience both SP1 and SP2 for XP did a tremendous amounts of good things. At least for stability, not speed. Now that I'm using Vista, I have noticed any real hiccups or loss in performance, they did a pretty good job, provided you have the PC power to back it up. People only complain it sucks because of past experiences, and not having capable hardware.

[Flyboy]

i dont have the game but as far as i know FOV doesnt change just because you window it... i know it doesnt for HPC/CE so unless they added some crazy shit to h2v... you are wrong.
I'm not taking about just windowing, you need to make it widescreen. But because many people lack a widescreen monitor, windowing is the best option unless you like really tall marines.

[DaneO'Roo]

"even someone with no experience can make a halfway decent map."

rofl

[InnerGoat]

Yes you can, you can window it. Try it yourself.Why should I run 1920x1080 in windowed when I run it fullscreen as is? :eyesroll:


Um, not true. In a lot of other games, you can adjust your FOV without having to use half of your monitor.I know that, but that was not my point. It is good to see widescreens getting a bigger FOV in H2V though. That is the whole point of gaming with a widescreen, after all.

[Snowy]

Ok that's true, you get a slightly better FOV when you're in wide-screen mode. But why in the world should I only use half of my pixels when I paid $300 for my 1600x1200 monitor? Because of lazy development?

[Nick]

I wonder if I could convince TheGhosty to make a "Halo 2 Vista Bitching" forum. Hmm, but then I guess no one would have reason to post anywhere else - damn.

Nick

[xExus]

I agree with you in a lot but also agrees with Flyboy that you made your review in a little negative way like "just same as the old, crappy xbox version" and so on.

[Zeph]

I disagree with the score. I'd only consider giving it that low of a score if it was being compared directly with the xbox version and other games that have multiplatform support across the PC and consoles. It works and deserves a passing grade for that.


well when halo 3 does come out, it should be great since h2v and Vista itself was horrible but i'm not saying vista is horrible and it has its uses too but come on! a service pack already?!?! quality always beats fast-paced quantity

Erm, you know how long it was before XP got its first service pack?

edit: I have a good feeling this kid doesn't know, so I'll save the time of having to wait for him to reply. XP's SP1 came out about 11 months after release. Seeing the utter mess of the gold release of XP, I'm suprised it didn't take them longer, then again they saved a good large amount of things for SP2. Vista has been out for about 8 months now and the service pack should be released in less than 3 more months. If you add 8 and 3, you might just get a number that's been mentioned before.

[InnerGoat]

Ok that's true, you get a slightly better FOV when you're in wide-screen mode. But why in the world should I only use half of my pixels when I paid $300 for my 1600x1200 monitor? Because of lazy development?
You should use them all and wait until a FOV hack comes out, and I wouldn't call it lazy devs, more like clueless devs that don't know how a low FOV affects gameplay... :eyesroll:

Despite having the widest FOV in the game, I too want it to be wider. The current one gives me headaches sometimes. This is similar to Half-Life 2 making people ill because of the tight FOV it used.:(

[Nick]

Ok that's true, you get a slightly better FOV when you're in wide-screen mode. But why in the world should I only use half of my pixels when I paid $300 for my 1600x1200 monitor? Because of lazy development?You only paid $300 for a monitor, oye. How about this: Why should they spend development time giving a better FOV to cheap bastards?

Nick

[Flyboy]

Why should I run 1920x1080 in windowed when I run it fullscreen as is? :eyesroll:

You don't need to. If you have a widescreen, by all means use it. The game should get something along the lines of a 6.5 or 7. A 4 is for a game you hate playing. And seeing as half the people mod here they would agree with me that they don't hate the game. Do they love it more than games like Half-Life or CSS? thats a different story.

[Wakeboy1337]

What he said

Lol

[spookers622]

I think it's well worth the money. How limited it may be, the editing kit makes it worth it and is the reason i bought the game (although i dont have halo 1). As TheGhost and Kornman have shown, microsoft we're wrong to think the editing kit could be actually kept limited. Also, H2Vista's graphics may not be directx10 but i still a noticable improvement over the xbox version (which i own). Last, but not least, the server browsing makes it a lot easier to play custom games than halo 2 xbox because you no longer have to wait half an hour to an hour for your friends to join your custom game.

[Chromide]

nice job....i totally agree