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Halo 2 PC Dated...Again

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Halo 2 for the PC has a new street date. Originally scheduled to hit store shelves today, Halo 2 will now ship to retailers on the 22nd of this month.

Halo 2 will now ship to retailers on May 22, i.e. in two weeks, letting PC gamers experience the joy of blasting Brutes and cruising on Games for Windows LIVE! The game was initially derailed from today's launch because the Games for Windows folks wanted to tweak the install experience (you can play and install at the same time, pretty cool) and to address "other" technical issues.
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We've been playing this for the last month and honestly, I'm not sure what has to be "tweaked" it plays awesome now (map editor, tray-n-play, etc. etc. )
 
Better than to be delayed and fix bugs, than to rush it like that Vanguard MMO.
 
My guess would be they are waiting until after the spring update fro 360 and the launch of the Halo 3 beta to make sure Windows Live works properly for vista users
 
I wasn't too suprised. When sunday/monday rolled around and the Games for Windows live site was the same (i.e. no option to sign up for it) I guessed it was going to be delayed. Only when Games for Windows Live's actual website goes up, I think we can be reasonably sure we are getting close.
 
jimmer411 said:
Thats because it uses the windows live service. Something that isnt available in XP.
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So why can't it play on Windows XP without multiplayer (using Windows Live)?
I'm not too sure about the play while installing component, that might be a Vista only thing as well.

There's no reason it can't, it uses DX9. This game could easily have been made to run on XP.
This is another MS push for Vista is all it is. If they redid the graphics with DX10 features, I could understand.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
So why can't it play on Windows XP without multiplayer (using Windows Live)?
I'm not too sure about the play while installing component, that might be a Vista only thing as well.

There's no reason it can't, it uses DX9. This game could easily have been made to run on XP.
This is another MS push for Vista is all it is. If they redid the graphics with DX10 features, I could understand.
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I agree, they are trying to get more people to migrate over to Vista. Like every other business they are out to make money. Halo 2 is a good oportunity for MS to show off its Windows Live service, since Halo 2 is among the biggest Xbox Live games.

Allowing it to run on XP would just be bad for business, since the goal is to get more people to switch to Vista. I run Vista on my laptop and Im waiting for more Vista compadible games (100% comp.) before I switch my gaming rig to Vista. Even then Ill still dualboot XP for older games.
 
how many games have we seen that use both DX8 and DX9? i remember nexus:jupiter incident included two separate .exe's. one was for DX8 support and one was for DX9. this is just more marketing crap to get people to buy vista.
 
im waiting for a patch that would let me play this game on xp, i hate vista with a passion right now
 
I love all the comments along the lines of "there's no reason for it to be vista only" and then subsequently state that "it's all to sell vista." Way to answer your own question.
I am surprised that anyone is surprised that they linked Halo2 and Vista. It is in their best interest to shift as much software over to Vista compatibility as possible.

You/we may not like it, but if any one of us were in charge, we would do the same thing. It only makes business sense. And to hate on the OS because of this is bologna.
I know I will be buying Halo2 asap, as it will be a worthy addition to my single player game library, but mostly so i can whup on some consolers.
 
Modred189 said:
I love all the comments along the lines of "there's no reason for it to be vista only" and then subsequently state that "it's all to sell vista." Way to answer your own question.
I am surprised that anyone is surprised that they linked Halo2 and Vista.
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When I said there's no reason for it to be Vista only, I specifically mentioned in my post that I was referring only to the compatibility aspect.
I believe this is how many people feel about the game, since many people are not willing to upgrade to Vista at this time, but still want to play the game.

Also, MS does not need help selling Vista. Despite Dell allowing XP installs on their machines, MS has sold 20 million copies so far compared to 17 million copies of XP in the same time frame (Max PC, June 07). Granted, the computer market is much larger now than it was in 2001, but Vista IS SELLING.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
When I said there's no reason for it to be Vista only, I specifically mentioned in my post that I was referring only to the compatibility aspect.
I believe this is how many people feel about the game, since many people are not willing to upgrade to Vista at this time, but still want to play the game.
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That's my point, MS does not really care about how happy people are about this. Games for Windows Live is a new platform, and what better game than a Halo game to introduce it. I think that there is a concerned effort within MS to 'cut the fat' if you will, in regards to legacy support (i.e. the dropping Win98, ME and 2000 support in a relatively short period of time). As a result, I think we will see alot of this new vista-only compatibility when it comes to games and other segment specific software.

CaptNumbNutz said:
Also, MS does not need help selling Vista. Despite Dell allowing XP installs on their machines, MS has sold 20 million copies so far compared to 17 million copies of XP in the same time frame (Max PC, June 07). Granted, the computer market is much larger now than it was in 2001, but Vista IS SELLING.
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Among OEM integrators, yes, but not so much among upgraders. if i find thelink I will post it, but I remember reading that though there are more copies of Vista being sold, a larger percentage is in pre0built systems. By requiring Vista for segment specific titles, that can push the upgrade numbers higher, after all, this is where the real margin is.
 
Modred189 said:
That's my point, MS does not really care about how happy people are about this. Games for Windows Live is a new platform, and what better game than a Halo game to introduce it. I think that there is a concerned effort within MS to 'cut the fat' if you will, in regards to legacy support (i.e. the dropping Win98, ME and 2000 support in a relatively short period of time). As a result, I think we will see alot of this new vista-only compatibility when it comes to games and other segment specific software.


Among OEM integrators, yes, but not so much among upgraders. if i find thelink I will post it, but I remember reading that though there are more copies of Vista being sold, a larger percentage is in pre0built systems. By requiring Vista for segment specific titles, that can push the upgrade numbers higher, after all, this is where the real margin is.
Click to expand...
The only way I think they will allow Vista only games, is if they were published by Microsoft to begin with. Other than that, they can't control what the other companies do. If Vista Only spread to other games, they might just kill off PC gaming rather than revive it.

If MS had a few "killer apps/games" that were Vista only, then it might sell Vista. MS won't push upgrade numbers higher with Halo2. If someone in their marketing department thought that would work, I want what they've been smoking.

If any game might push the adoption of Vista, it might be Crysis. I can only remember a couple games in the past 5 years that made people want to upgrade, and those were Far Cry and Doom3.
 
-edit-
" If 'Vista Only' spread to other games, they might just kill off PC gaming rather than revive it."
to add and clarify:
Only if "Vista Only" was forced upon gamers and enthusiasts before Vista had been adopted by the majority of them.
 
Well despite all the negativity I am highly looking forward to this game. I do not have a console, I am a PC gamer. I played Halo 1 on the PC and enjoyed the game immensely. I cannot wait to play Halo 2.
 
You're not alone. Despite 2/3rd of my buds "hating" this game, I will be playing the crap out of it, just like Halo 1. There's no other game I played MP more, long live the pistol!

Now...back to Halo 1 SP for more story. :D
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
The only way I think they will allow Vista only games, is if they were published by Microsoft to begin with. Other than that, they can't control what the other companies do. If Vista Only spread to other games, they might just kill off PC gaming rather than revive it.

If MS had a few "killer apps/games" that were Vista only, then it might sell Vista. MS won't push upgrade numbers higher with Halo2. If someone in their marketing department thought that would work, I want what they've been smoking.

If any game might push the adoption of Vista, it might be Crysis. I can only remember a couple games in the past 5 years that made people want to upgrade, and those were Far Cry and Doom3.
Click to expand...

I think you have forgotten about Games for Windows Live. Consider how popular XBL has been with the whole achievement system, plus the arcade. Imagine if Microsoft adopted this same model for the PC. STEAM, while terribly annoying and often buggy, has been a relative success in digital content delivery, and being that MS already has the distribution licenses for all those XBLA games, it should be easy to make them available to PC users. If they use a similar system to Steam, where the games are dependent upon the platform, they really can't lose.

Plus, think about it, this type of direct delivery, especially if they include the TV shows and movies that are on XBL, is directly in line with their continuing motion towards the digital home. How cool would it be if you could buy a show on XBL, and have it available to dl on your PC, or say you surfed the interweb and picked out an XBLA game and bought it, only to have it dl directly to your 360, automatically. The media center functions of the 360 and the PC are already made for streaming and sharing as well.

The infrastructure for such a system is already there (you already share your XBL profile with your Games for windows Live), it needs only to be ported to the PC... which is not so different than a Xbox360.



The only hitch? Xbox Live can be easily shortened to XBL/XBLA.
Games for Windows Love? GWL? Too clumsy.
 
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