While Halo was originally developed for the Xbox by Bungie, the task of bringing it to the PC was handed to Gearbox Software, no stranger to working on big titles or PC conversions, responsible for creating the Opposing Force and Blue Shift expansions for Half-Life as well as bringing Tony Hawk 3 for the PC.

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Not wanting to mess with success, Halo's single-player game is essentially untouched and the same one that graced the Xbox. Set hundreds of years in the future, you play Master Chief, a supermarine fighting a future war against a group of alien races collectively known as the Covenant. After a Covenant fleet boards your ship, the Pillar of Autumn, you're forced to evacuate and crash land on a bizarre planetary ring locked in orbit above another planet, called (what else?) "Halo." Apparently the Covenant are searching Halo for ... something, so with an AI construct named Cortana on board, you set out to defeat the Covenant and unlock Halo's mysteries. Suffice to say there are a few, and when you find out what they are ... things get even more hairy.

Overall, I enjoyed Halo's story when I played it the first time, and I still enjoy it today. It's nothing revolutionary and hardly Oscar-worthy, but there are several twists and turns that will keep you hooked through until the end. If anything, I have a better appreciation for it now that I've read Eric Nylund's novel The Fall of Reach, which acts as an official prequel to the game and contains loads of backstory barely hinted at by the game. (I'm still hoping Microsoft will contract Gearbox to develop a mission pack based on the events of that novel ... but that's a topic for another day.)

Graphical Distortion

Visually, Halo is an enigma. On the surface, it looks like the Xbox version, and yet on close inspection you'll notice lots of differences ... some good, some bad.


A scenic shot of Halo rising up into the distance.

On the PC, you can crank Halo's resolution up to 1600x1200, and some of the visuals are simply stunning. Many of the textures have subtle effects that make them look bump-mapped, and the game retains its unique look, with lush green fields and breathtaking outdoor scenes with Halo's surface stretching up into the heavens. The player models, on the other hand, have clearly been reconstructed and don't look that great -- they certainly don't look as good as on the Xbox, something that becomes glaringly magnified during cutscenes.

But the biggest problem with the graphics -- and the entire game, for that matter -- is that you'll need a pretty powerful PC to run Halo at a steady clip. My main machine is a P2.54 GHz P4 with a GeForce 4 and 1GB of RAM, and I've been running new releases like TRON 2.0, Jedi Academy and Call of Duty at 1024x768 without so much as a stutter -- and that's with all the eye candy cranked up. But even at 800x600 with some of the details turned down, Halo still feels sluggish -- disappointing for a game that looked fantastic and ran fairly well on the Xbox two years ago.

(Editor's note: Gearbox president Randy Pitchford contacted us to clarify that although color and contrast will vary depedning on your television settings vs. your video card settings, the PC models are identical to the Xbox version.)

Read the rest here - http://www.gamespy.com/reviews/septe...pc/index.shtml

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\"Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.\"

aka molle

Cool, but I am waiting for Killzone, being released on PS2 By Sony. This game has been hailed as the Halo Beater and is due for release late next year

GOD BLESS

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GOD BLESS

Um... I can't wait.

Just lying. I hate this game. It's horrible. Go spend your money on Smash Brothers Melee.

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\"If you were looking for Maelshire, then I\'d say you found worse. I am in the image of Death itself. Now, I introduce you to Kalipsin. My blade.\"
-Supreme Commander Teed Lohkabre; Army of Kiirtan, Maverick Division.

Nothing wrong with the game.
It's great IMO.

Completed it on X-Box.

Sounds like you dislike FPS games, CL.

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\"Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.\"

aka molle

No you didnt just say that, I would rather spend $50 on a Barney movie than get SSBM. Halo is an all out master piece and I cannot wait for the PC to come out.

*spews* I hate Nintendo. Well, early nintendo was great but then they focused on a goddamn plumber..... Next we will have a Bob the Builder RPG. xD. :| O dear god, what if that happens :|

Just to make this on-topic, nothing is wrong with Halo! It rocks! just don't grenade your mates. That will wreck a friendship if ye friend have no sense of humour...

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I played Halo for PC. It´s good and it has a multiplayer mode.

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I write/draw parodies and I write stories.

How often do we have to upgrade our computers to play real good games? My suggestion to the game creators, is that they keep the graphics at a G-force 4-level. It is nothing but stupid to make a game that cannot be used by ordinary people. Thats why I like RTS-games for PC, and not those so-called "mindblowing graphics". Well, try playing Morrowind with todays ordinary PC. It will crash even on 640x320, it's a shame really. And sad. But anyway, great graphics can be designed for consoles, while great stories and stuff, can be created for the PC. Anyway, Halo is a great game, but it will always be best on X-box. Unless you are the owner of Bill Gate's personal computer. Thanks for the attention.

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K.O.

I totally agree with Ken Ove in this case. I have a computer with a Radeon-videocard, 1,5 ghz and lots of good stuff. But it never seems to be good enough. I wonder where the warning level came from, but it is people with dirty hands that in the end will save this world, not us clean fantasy freaks. Just look at cloud (FF7), or Jack (MGS2). Thank you, Ken Ove, and thank for a good Halo X-BOX-game...

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linking clouds, please wait...

I hate to tell you but halo 2 on xbox will be out next year and will beat any game sony has on its playstation 2. It has the best graphics, and it can now be played over xbox live.

I have both halo for PC and halo for xbox. Xbox is more reliable because the PC version has issues with certant graphics card.