Windows

Halo: Combat Evolved

Scoring 93%, Halo's faults are few and far between. Admittedly there are reports of some people having difficulty playing the game at all, but all we experienced was glitchy sound and excessive slowdown in places. Had it not been for these, Halo could have scored a lot higher, as the game is a classic and still at the top of its genre. It's worth noting that the game is still receiving patches. If you're concerned about technical issues, then wait for the demo.

Kun Xbox tuli markkinoille, sitä myytiin pitkälti Halon voimalla. Myös minun oli saatava Xbox ja pelkästään Halon takia, sillä se oli rakkautta ensi silmäyksellä.

I held off on purchasing an Xbox, afraid that it was just some passing phase Microsoft had unleashed upon the world. But it caused me to miss out on many of the great hits of our time, including HALO. In fact, it has been the most successful Xbox game ever, selling over three million copies. Granted, this little “I won’t succumb to the powers of Xbox” charade didn’t last long, and I immediately purchased HALO. Talks of releasing it on PC were taking place before the Xbox version was even out, but it seems as if the delay was more of a blunder than a strategic maneuver for obvious reasons. First, any other game that would try this stunt would probably find itself laughed out of the gaming world. But that’s all history. How does the PC version compare to the original?

Hardcore fans will enjoy Halo PC as another release of their favorite game, and first-time players will revel in the story and action that the single-player experience offers, but for everyone else Halo is just a fantastic console game that is late to the PC party.

Halo is quite simply one of the greatest games ever made. I’ve been playing this game for two years and I’m still not bored of it. Halo is the definitive first person shooter on the PC, at least until Half Life 2 finally arrives.

At first, Halo may look like a general shooter. The proof to the contrary is in the polish in all the right nooks and crannies that makes this the best first-person experience you will have. Of course, this is assuming you have a powerful PC to compensate for the high amount of resources this port requires, which is a disappointment. Nonetheless, even at 800x600 with the bells and whistles turned lower, it's still the Halo everyone knows and loves. And the new multiplayer maps are guaranteed to please. Once Gearbox releases stability and lag patches, everyone will be addicted to multiplayer. I can't see how we won't.

When Microsoft released its Xbox game console in late 2001, easily the best launch title for the system was Halo. Originally announced way back in 1999 and slated for release on the PC and Macintosh, this first-person shooter became an Xbox exclusive after Microsoft bought the developer, Bungie. Halo for the Xbox has gone on to sell more than 3 million copies worldwide--which isn't proof of the game's superior quality, but certainly is evidence of it. Yet, the game was never officially canceled for its originally intended platforms, and at long last, it's available for the PC. For the most part, this new version of Halo is a straight port of the 2-year-old Xbox game. You'd think a high-end PC could handle such a game easily, but this port, which was done by Gearbox Software, is surprisingly taxing even on very fast PCs with tons of RAM and the latest video cards. Halo for the PC also loses the original version's much-vaunted cooperative play mode.

Even with all its minor and more significant shortcoming HALO is still one of the most enjoyable FPS games I've ever played. The single-player is immersive, well-told and at times simply brilliant. With a powerful enough rig, all PC shooter fans will definitely want to own this game. It may've come a bit later than we had hoped it would, but let's just be grateful that it's finally here.

Le visuel tient toujours la route, mais certaines textures accusent le temps (2 ans, quand même). Quelques ralentissements sont toujours présents, mais voilà Halo reste Halo, c'est à dire un excellent titre. Je suis juste déçu que les développeurs n'aient pas optimisés le jeu pour le rendre plus proche des capacités réelles d'un PC haut de gamme. D'un autre côté Halo sur PC me semble beaucoup plus lisse que sur Xbox, mais cela est dû aux moniteurs qui sont supérieurs en résolution par rapport à une simple télévision. Un achat très chaudement recommandé, à condition que vous ne l'ayez jamais terminé sur Xbox.

Was lange währt, verliert meist ein wenig an Faszination. So auch Halo. Die Texturen und die Spielgeschwindigkeit hauen mich nicht vom Hocker, auch die Spielfigur läuft mir zu lahm. Trotzdem ist das Spiel sein Geld wert. Schade, dass die Gearbox-Mitarbeiter im Eifer, den Netzwerkcode zu optimieren, glatt den Kooperativ-Modus vergaßen. Das hätte die Mehrspielerwertung in den 90-Prozent- Bereich katapultiert. Was bleibt, ist ein klasse Ego-Shooter für Weltraum-Junkies ohne Xbox.

Ein Blick auf die Munitionsanzeige verrät: nur noch 20 Schuss, das reicht kaum für mehr als einen Gegner und bis zum Treffpunkt mit dem Team ist es noch ein ganzes Stück. Das blaugrün beleuchtete Tunnelgeflecht wirkt beklemmend, hinter jeder der zahllosen Ecken könnte ein Alien lauern. Die orchestrale Hintergrundmusik wird lauter und intensiver, der Puls steigt und hinter einer Tür sind bedrohlich schwere Schritte zu hören. Schauplatz: Halo, eine Art ringförmiger Todesstern, dessen Oberfläche überwiegend aus palmenbewachsenen Küstengebieten besteht und sogar verschiedene Wetterbedingungen (Schnee, Regen) aufweist. In der Rolle eines genmanipulierten Elite-Soldaten (der so genannte Master Chief) besteht Ihre Aufgabe darin, diese Superwaffe vor dem Zugriff durch die Alien-Allianz Covenant zu schützen.

Drehen wir das Rad der Menschheitsgeschichte um zwei Jahre zurück. Zwei Jahre, das sind doch nicht viel, wird sich der ein oder andere denken. Aber in der schnelllebigen Welt der Video und Computerspiele sind zwei Jahre wie eine Ewigkeit. Vor allem wenn man auf einen heiß ersehnten Ego-Shooter für den PC wartet. Und so ging es auch vielen PC Spielern die auf nur eines warteten. Auf die Veröffentlichung von HALO, von den Entwicklern der Bungie Studios. Doch schon vorher hatte ein riesiger Softwarekonzern (Name wird hier nicht genannt ;-)) aus den USA die Idee, beflügelt durch den Erfolg der Playstation2, selber eine Spielkonsole auf den Markt zu bringen. Und was braucht so eine Spielkonsole? Natürlich eine Killerapplikation. Und in Halo sah der Konzern, der übrigens seinen Sitz in Redmond hat, die Chance sich einen eben solchen für seine Konsole zu sichern.

The “Game of the Year” for the Xbox two years ago, and for all consoles, has finally landed on its original home, the PC. First slated as a Mac game, Halo turned directions when Bungie decided that the PC might be a better home. Then, with the announcement of the Xbox, Microsoft bought the publishing and developing rights to the game and turned it into an Xbox exclusive. PC fans were crushed having seen the game that was the catalyst to revive PC gaming, go onto the Xbox and become a bestseller. The two year wait is finally over, and fans of Halo have been expecting a lot of the PC port. With new weapons, new maps, and multiplayer, Halo has certainly found its way back home.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last two years, you've already heard about Halo: Combat Evolved. Easily one of the best launch titles for any console and still one of the best games available for the Xbox, it's a game that transcended the market. Though it hasn't quite enjoyed the same visibility in the public consciousness as titles like Grand Theft Auto or The Sims, Halo is, nevertheless, one of the industry's premiere titles. As we said in our Xbox review, it's the excuse to buy an Xbox and vice versa.

So it's the technical issues, and the lack of the Xbox's Co-operative multiplayer, which lose Halo a couple of points. That is hardly going to have an effect on sales though, but it would have been nice to have been telling you that this game is the complete classic shooter. It's not, but it's still excellent in spite of the unpopular Library level and the tech issues and multiplayer limit.

Après pratiquement 2 ans d’attente, la version PC de Halo est enfin dans les bacs. Nous avons entendu pas mal d’avis négatifs sur cette nouvelle version. Les joueurs Xbox fidèles à leur PAD n’apprécient pas forcément la combinaison clavier + souris et ne voient pas l’intérêt d’acheter le même jeu qu’ils possèdent déjà sur leur boite noire. A contrario, les joueurs PC quant à eux ne voient pas l’intérêt du PAD Xbox pour un FPS (First Personnal Shooter) mais semblent perplexes sur l’âge de ce jeu qui commencerait à dater.

Halo was supposed to revolutionize PC games. It was supposed to replace Half-Life as the pinnacle of what first-person shooters could do on PC. But then Microsoft had to go and make Xbox, and, of course, it needed good launch titles, yada yada yada.... So it's 2003, and the game finally shows up on PC, after all the die-hard PC gamers bought Xboxes so that they could play it two years ago.

Before the flame wars kick off again, I thought Halo was a great game, a true classic that deserves its lofty status as the Xbox's killer app. It still stands as the best console FPS and nearly two years on still looks ahead of its time with benchmark AI, great visuals, a credible sci-fi tale, great soundtrack, cracking multiplayer including the superb co-op mode. But it wasn't perfect.

Halo a vieilli, il accuse son âge, inutile de se le cacher. Le titre à des atouts, son IA développée et ses comportements différenciés ou sa campagne solo prenante. Malheureusement, il a aussi de sacrés handicaps à commencer par son level design plus que léger en comparaison de sa concurrence actuelle ou encore son moteur 3D poussif qui met à mal les plus grosses machines pour un résultat pas à la hauteur. Sans compter que le titre est loin d'être un gros challenge pour les habitués du genre qui pourraient se lasser de dégommer des brochettes d'aliens, si futés soient-ils. De FPS excellent, Halo est devenu un FPS sympa mais tout à fait dispensable. Une réalisation plus soignée lui aurait sans doute valu un bon point de plus mais là, y a un peu d'abus quand même.

He wait has been long, but the promises made long ago have finally been kept. Sadly, the promises of yesteryear don't quite add up to excitement today—the release of Halo for PC is hardly the event it could have, should have been.

"Halo" não deixa de ser um jogo de tiro extremamente competente para PC. Mas depois do lançamento de "Unreal 2" e com jogos como "Doom 3" e "Half-Life 2" chegando, ele já não tem mais a mesma força de antes.