Halo is a pretty poor game?

[TheBlueRaja]

I have recently played a fully patched and uptodate version of Halo for the PC, and i have to say i found it a bit boring and repetitive.

So i have to ask is there much of a difference between the PC and XBOX version? I want to know because they were going on for ages about how good that game is, and in some respects still are. It just seems pretty poor IN MY OPINION compared even to Half-Life or Unreal Torunament (originals) all that time ago.

Or is it just a bunch of console owners getting excited about nothing?

:shrug:

Anyone out there played both versions and can give a comparision?

[Bulky]

i have played both pc version and x-box and to tell you the truth the pc version is pants, the ai is all messed up, it runs like crap, the online multiplayer is the best thing about it, as for the x-box version, up until recently it was my favourite fps ever :)

[Tristan]

Actually, at the risk of being flamed by every XBox owner on the board, I too thought Halo was overrated. It's good, yes, and worth having, but it's nothing that special.

It's certainly nowhere near in the same league as Half-Life and Goldeneye were when they were released, as some XBox owners have claimed.

[TheBlueRaja]

Actually, your right Tristan, Goldeneye was a cracker of a FPS, i have been a big FPS shooter fan on the PC for a while but the N64 grabbed me by the nuts with that game.

And definately better than Halo.

Bulkylad, have you played Halo with the latest patches, that pretty much fixes all the initial problems. The game played OK on my machine, i just found it boring.

[ic14]

XBOX owner walks in thread.

I thought Halo was overrated too.
Im one of the few people who got there xbox cus of another game, in my case Jet Set Radio Future.

[jamesclarke555]

Halo was awful, especially on PC...

Did have fun on multiplayer split screen though :)

[Matuka]

Its weird that they are still selling Xbox's with this as the main game bought with it.

Its time something newer became the bundle pack for it.

It was a good game, but that was 2 years ago.

[Tristan]

It was a good game, but that was 2 years ago.

And Microsoft are still charging £40 for it, steadfastly refusing to put it in their budget range, even though every other game in the range is newer.

*******s.

[mattfrn]

Its in the budget range now (according to play)

[SOSAGES]

shooting games like that dont work on consoles u need a mouse and keyboard :)

[hawkseye000]

This is the oddest thing ever.
What makes me laugh at this is if the first guy had said that Halo was good, you would all have agreed with him.
Halo for the Xbox ranks in my top five games of all time... and certainly i think that it was as good for it's time as Goldeneye (also in my top 5 list) was when it was released.
However, i must say that i have played the pc version online and it is dire, the graphics stink and it froze for 5 seconds every ten seconds.
Maybe the 1 player on the pc is better... i'm not gonna try it cause it gave my pc a "serious error" as XP told me after i restarted it after it shut itself down.

So stop bashing this game just because everyone else on this thread does. (and i'm not flaming anybody here, neither am i a fanatical xbox owner, i prefer the PS2 and pc)

[TheBlueRaja]

I didnt have any problems with Halo on my PC it plays fine.

I just dont rate the game as all that good, Goldeneye was sooo much better it dosent even compare in my opinion, and i have played many PC FPS that just kick it into touch.

[jonboy080269]

I got halo for pc - people at work were raving about it.

And to say I was disapointed is an understatement.

Its going to make a swift appearance as a sell item on my ebay account.

[Tezcatlipoca]

The original XBox version was excellent - not the best FPS of all time, but still *very* good. Definitely one of my favourite games (along with KOTOR, Deus Ex 1 (PC) & 2 (PC/XBox), & various others).

The PC port was a bit...crap. I'd rather play Half Life or Far Cry


EDIT: GoldenEye? Ah, another one of my fave games of all time. Classic game.

[Bifta]

This is the oddest thing ever.
What makes me laugh at this is if the first guy had said that Halo was good, you would all have agreed with him.
Halo for the Xbox ranks in my top five games of all time... and certainly i think that it was as good for it's time as Goldeneye (also in my top 5 list) was when it was released.
However, i must say that i have played the pc version online and it is dire, the graphics stink and it froze for 5 seconds every ten seconds.
Maybe the 1 player on the pc is better... i'm not gonna try it cause it gave my pc a "serious error" as XP told me after i restarted it after it shut itself down.

So stop bashing this game just because everyone else on this thread does. (and i'm not flaming anybody here, neither am i a fanatical xbox owner, i prefer the PS2 and pc)

Halo (PC) single player is absolutely sh*t, the multiplayer however is very good, most enjoyable.

[TheBlueRaja]

I see a lot of people here saying the PC version was crapy - but WHY? What was the difference on the XBOX that made it so special? Are all you people playing it out of the box on the PC or are you playing the patched versions.

Its the same game isnt it?

[Richard M]

If anything, the PC version is better due to higher resolution graphics and faster framerates.

[Bulky]

I see a lot of people here saying the PC version was crapy - but WHY? What was the difference on the XBOX that made it so special? Are all you people playing it out of the box on the PC or are you playing the patched versions.

Its the same game isnt it?


somehow in the pc port they completely messed up the AI, played both versions and the x-box single player was better than pc, the multiplayer however (which x-box didn't have apart from using xbox-connect) is FAR superior on the pc, in general though the pc version was very badly ported and if i put all graphics on max it runs like crap in the indoor sections, very badly coded :(

[ZrByte]

This is the oddest thing ever.
What makes me laugh at this is if the first guy had said that Halo was good, you would all have agreed with him.
Halo for the Xbox ranks in my top five games of all time... and certainly i think that it was as good for it's time as Goldeneye (also in my top 5 list) was when it was released.
However, i must say that i have played the pc version online and it is dire, the graphics stink and it froze for 5 seconds every ten seconds.
Maybe the 1 player on the pc is better... i'm not gonna try it cause it gave my pc a "serious error" as XP told me after i restarted it after it shut itself down.


for the game to freeze that often it sounds liek you where playing it on a Pentium II or something, I get better frames than that on my Radeon Mobility (R7500).

[hawkseye000]

for the game to freeze that often it sounds liek you where playing it on a Pentium II or something, I get better frames than that on my Radeon Mobility (R7500).Athlon XP 2600+
Radeon 9200 256MB

[Richard M]

Athlon XP 2600+
Radeon 9200 256MB

The Radeon 9200 is a pretty poor card IMO - DirectX 8, slow performance and a totally pointless amount of board RAM.

[TheBlueRaja]

Agreed.

I have had this before, admittedly, i dont think its too much more expensive with 256Mb of RAM, so nothing lost really, its just that the 9200 is a pretty low standard card.

Having the RAM is great, but because you only have a small number of pipelines (4?) then the only thing which would use a higher amount of RAM, very high res textures, would be crippled by the fact that the card would not be able to process them quickly.

[Richard M]

Exactly my point. ;)

[Bulky]

The Radeon 9200 is a pretty poor card IMO - DirectX 8, slow performance and a totally pointless amount of board RAM.


pentium 4 3.2ghz
1gb ddr400 ram
radeon 9800pro @425 core 355 memory (nearly as fast as an xt)


yes the Radeon 9200 is a pretty poor card but that still doesn't account for it running like crap on my system its just a VERY bad port, when playing Far cry i get far better framerates with everything on maximum (water ultra high) it very rarely drops below 35fps and most of the time is 50-70 fps but in halo on i have had framerates drop as low as 10-15 fps, check out what they say about it on the rage3d forums :)

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33754095&highlight=halo

[Richard M]

pentium 4 3.2ghz
1gb ddr400 ram
radeon 9800pro @425 core 355 memory (nearly as fast as an xt)


yes the Radeon 9200 is a pretty poor card but that still doesn't account for it running like crap on my system its just a VERY bad port, when playing Far cry i get far better framerates with everything on maximum (water ultra high) it very rarely drops below 35fps and most of the time is 50-70 fps but in halo on i have had framerates drop as low as 10-15 fps, check out what they say about it on the rage3d forums :)

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33754095&highlight=halo

My framerate does drop in that game sometimes but that's probably because I run all my games at 8x AF, I like the sharper textures...on an Athlon 3200+, 1GB PC3200 DDR, Radeon 9600XT here.


I can get 30+ frames with AA and AF in Far Cry 1280x1024 but in HALO i get constant 30 frams @ 800x600 and when flashlight is on it goes to 10ish...what is wrong with this game?
This is a quote from that link, he probably doesn't know that unless you change it, the framerate is locked to 30fps. It's in the video settings. :dozey:

[Macready]

Halo failed to impress me on the PC version. Thought it very poor.

[ZrByte]

Athlon XP 2600+
Radeon 9200 256MB

I see, how much RAM do you have?? In my experience halo is a lil Memory hungry. Though I think it might be the famous video card problem Halo has with a lot of the newer generation vid cards, the problem affects a lot of the R9XXX series and the Geforce FX series.

Ive got a commandline that may fix the problem for you,
1.) copy the shortcut for halo of your start menu and paste it to your desktop.
2.) Right click on the icon and select properties
3.) Add the -use20 command line to the file (Think its on the line that says target, though cant remember properly since its been so long since ive done it)
4.) Click ok and then try to launch the game, you may well be pleasently supprised.

if it still doesnt work you could try the -use14 command line instead

Note: this actually reduces quality slightly because you will be using the 2.0 or 1.4 PS shaders instead of the (3.0? ) that is intended for halo to be run with. Though im sure you will agree it is about 99.9% un-noticable and the improved frames are well worth it (At least they have been on every system I have tried it on)

[zoombini]

I dont think that they have yet invented the PC that is capable of playing Halo well, AFAIKR it runs like a dog on most..:D

On the Xbox, although it is an old game it is still a good one to play, esp with the kids in 2 player+ modes.
A simple shootemup game, with varying degree's of difficulty. Makes for excellent fun whn playing with my eldest lad on its hardest setting & now that he has his own Xbox & copy, when I manage to link them it will be the first game we play as system link.

[John Smiths]

Well, i have never played halo on the pc, but IMO it rocked on the xbox. Probably the best FPS ever...goldeneye was also great for it's time, but after playing halo even that seems pants.

[Richard M]

Note: this actually reduces quality slightly because you will be using the 2.0 or 1.4 PS shaders instead of the (3.0? ) that is intended for halo to be run with. Though im sure you will agree it is about 99.9% un-noticable and the improved frames are well worth it (At least they have been on every system I have tried it on)

Actually, the 9200 will only be capable of 1.4 pixelshaders because it's a DirextX 8.1 card, DirectX 9 cards can use 2.0 and 3.0 isn't even used by any games yet (only the new GeForce 6800 has this capability and not even the new Radeon R4xx GPU can do this!).

[zoombini]

Wether 1.4, 2 or 3 its still pants on the PC :D

[TheBlueRaja]

Pixelshader 3.0 support isnt even in DirectX yet. Its not due to be added until Direct X 9.0c.

[ZrByte]

Actually, the 9200 will only be capable of 1.4 pixelshaders because it's a DirextX 8.1 card, DirectX 9 cards can use 2.0 and 3.0 isn't even used by any games yet (only the new GeForce 6800 has this capability and not even the new Radeon R4xx GPU can do this!).

I may have gotten my V nubers mixed up but I do know its the pixel shaders wich are causing problems in a lot of cases.
Its because of this I can play halo smoother on my AGP4X 64MB GF4 Ti4200 than most people with AGP8X 256MB R9800 Pro

BTW I could have sworn the R9200 was a DX9 card, infact I was alost certain the whole of the R9XXX series was, your the only person I have heard say otherwise (Im not saying your wrong but could you maybe fix me up with some linkage so I can see for myself? Ta :), I would rather know about it if im wrong you see :) )

[TheBlueRaja]

I may have gotten my V nubers mixed up but I do know its the pixel shaders wich are causing problems in a lot of cases.
Its because of this I can play halo smoother on my AGP4X 64MB GF4 Ti4200 than most people with AGP8X 256MB R9800 Pro

BTW I could have sworn the R9200 was a DX9 card, infact I was alost certain the whole of the R9XXX series was, your the only person I have heard say otherwise (Im not saying your wrong but could you maybe fix me up with some linkage so I can see for myself? Ta :), I would rather know about it if im wrong you see :) )

I had the same argument recently on this site and lost becasue i too thought it was a Direct X 9 Card, in fact if you serch in Google for 9200 and Directx 9, you will see a number of places claiming it is. But if we goto Ati's site

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9200/index.html

You can see its Direct X 8.1 only, very misleading though.

[Richard M]

Yeah, very misleading - someone I know bought one because they assumed the 9 in the name means DX9. :(

[ZrByte]

Yeah, very misleading - someone I know bought one because they assumed the 9 in the name means DX9. :(

I had the same argument recently on this site and lost becasue i too thought it was a Direct X 9 Card, in fact if you serch in Google for 9200 and Directx 9, you will see a number of places claiming it is. But if we goto Ati's site

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9200/index.html

You can see its Direct X 8.1 only, very misleading though.

Very misleading indeed, I thought the whole point in the 9XXX series was for DX9 support until now.
I'll bet ATi wanted it this way aswel, for example who would buy a 9200 to replace a GF4 Ti or high end MX since it is hardly any faster, unless it had a technical advantage.
Offcourse for legal reasons they state what it is in thier technical specs but I have never seen this mentioned in any of thier advertising.

[Bifta]

BTW I could have sworn the R9200 was a DX9 card, infact I was alost certain the whole of the R9XXX series was, your the only person I have heard say otherwise (Im not saying your wrong but could you maybe fix me up with some linkage so I can see for myself? Ta :), I would rather know about it if im wrong you see :) )

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9200/index.html

Straight from the horses mouth, directx 8.1 support.

[ZrByte]

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9200/index.html

Straight from the horses mouth, directx 8.1 support.

Yeah, we allready covered that, see above ;) thanks anyway though :D

[TheBlueRaja]

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9200/index.html

Straight from the horses mouth, directx 8.1 support.

LoL.... :D

[hawkseye000]

this is getting a bit technical for me... but the fact that it is a directx 8.1 card and most games are 9.0b or whatever... what does this actually mean for a user of the card? I mean i know that i can play 9.0b games, so what is the fuss about? do you lot just mean that the performance is gonna be pants?
also, would new ATI drivers give it 9.0b support or is that a physical limitation?

[TheBlueRaja]

Its a physical limitiation, you will still be able to play Direct X 9 Games, but you will not get the graphical features that Direct X 9 provides.