i hope MS gets it act together for HALO2 or they wont be getting my £39.99 there is something buggy about the game or DX9b using the console and FPS it never goes above 30 FPS only down thats trying all different settings in and out of game and thats on 640x480 ! it seems fixed permanantly on it or less once u add the extras or go up in res, its the only game thats remotely slow on my machine and some of the machines here are monstrous and they have the same prob and i have a fully patched 1.03 game too.

and add some coop play would be nice over lan
and some huge huge huge ass maps with 64 players would be cool

hers a tip
Goto game folder and look for config.txt using ur device ID EG=(DeviceID=0x4e44) u can get this from timedemo u can get card and see if they force 1.4 on it or other fixes or cards that are unsupported.


]

GOTO start menu/run
type regedit [press enter or click ok]
find reg key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Halo

look at the right
PID XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXX# (right click/modify)
change the # to another number 0-9 ( i just added 1 )

then goto
DigitalProductID (right click modify) opens in binary click the right side then del/type the last number and put the same number as above


this works for me to play on a LAN as long as the game loads up.

Mods shouldnt delete this as it wont circumvent online play which is the only reason to buy 2 copies( i mean give MS more money for another product shipped with problems- i think MS call it "progress")

if this doesnt work unisntall on 1 machine delete this reg if it doesnt when unisntalling then reinstall using a serial(try a few) from the net these are banned Ids so dont try em on the net

My GF 3 card still kicks ass and runs this game perfectley.
Yes i was the guy putting down the GF card not being able to run Halo, but that was a beta copy of the game now that i have purchased the full game its runs like butta.

I took back the radeon 9800 card and slapped back in my GF3 and you know what theres little difference in the speed and the GF card has better SHINE factor in games more so than radeon.

Oh yeah the quality in games like Tron and Jedi Academy looks vastley better on a GF card I guess tis why they have a Nvidia logo upon start-up, not to flame the radeon cause the only thing it does and dose good is alow you to play games with FSAA turned on but even so the brightness factor is better on GF card by a mile.

Specs AMD 2000 XP Asus-80Gig HD WesternDigital-GF3 card Visiontek-Audigy Card Creative-1 gig memory 1600DDR Kingston.

No games on the market gives me slowdown.

This comment was edited on Oct 7, 15:09.

i'm having trouble with even getting the game to run properly with my video card. i have a geforce4 mx 440 64 MB.

do i need to upgrade to the geforce fx series?
if not, what do/should i do?

The GF4MX series of video cards was a joke. They were branded as GF4, yet they were less powerful than GF3's. Someone even said theat they were souped up GF2's with a couple of extra fucntions.

Personally, I think the sweet spot is the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, or if you can wait a month, an ATI 9600 XT. They're about $200, which isn't bad for a video card (it's not cheap, but you get a lot of bang for your buck). If you are willing to spend 400-500 USD on a video card, then the ATI 9800 Pro/XT is a safer bet.

Then again, it all comes down to preferences. I was an nVidia zealot for a long time, but have recently changed my preference to ATI due to picture quality and less-recent benchmark shinanigans than nVidia (though they too did it in the past and got caught).

gamecopyworld.com has server fixes. try those. I've lanned it with a few friends with no problems. good luck.

I wish n00bs would quit comparing the XBOX to the PC. The XBOX is a console get over it! If its a PC, then where the hell do I plug in my printer???

i'm having trouble with even getting the game to run properly with my video card. i have a geforce4 mx 440 64 MB.

do i need to upgrade to the geforce fx series?
if not, what do/should i do?

re: #135
I played a bit of the demo but was quickly turned off by my team mate's constant whining whenever I got more than 5 feet away.
Is the rest of the game like this? Side kicks, in general, suck. In some games I've actually had to go back to an earlier save because my `helpers' got stuck, wouldn't get out of my way or some other BS.
The marines in Halo were some of the least sucky team mates I've ever dealt with. I busted a gut when one accidentally hit a team mate and said `Sorry, my bad!'
And they could die off and not end the game.
Now that I've finished halo, I need something to play until Deus Ex 2 comes out.

cx

I will agree with you on a lot of points, and I don't want to seem like I'm totally ragging on the game as I do love the storyline, cutscenes, music, AI, sound FX, etc. and the weapons seem prefectly fine to me. Overall it's a very good, solid FPS.
But one thing I totally hate in games is tedious repetition. It's really disappointing to go through the early levels which are quite fun, only to hit the Search for the Control Room/Index levels, where it quickly becomes NOT fun. You know every 5 steps or so the Flood will come jumping out of every wall vent, the only question becomes - "when is this shit gonna get over with so I can continue with the fun parts?" There's no sense of progression indoors since everything looks the same, so it doesn't feel like you're getting anywhere.
Boy, if I ever become a mad scientist, I will design my lair so that all hallways and rooms are exactly the same... so any intruders would quickly become bored and leave (or get confused, and starve to death when they can't find the way out...).
I'm still glad I got the game (haven't tried multiplayer yet though) but I can say I'm disappointed as it could have been so much better. Oh well, bring on Max Payne 2!!!

---------------------------------------------
Supporter of the "a happy fredster is a fredster smoking a cigar in a bathtub full of gasoline" fanclub.

I totally agree that this SUCKS. I also want to play on a LAN with my son. I have tried all the patches I can find, but while they do defeat the CD media check, I have not found any so far that defeat the duplicate CDKey check.

On the negative side, the lack of variety in level design and enemy placement is simply inexcusable. The repetitive level design reminded me of those tunnel missions in VietCong. What kind of madman game designer would want the player to undergo such drudgery? I haven't seen such overt reuse of content since... I dunno Wolf3D. Sometimes you can bypass entire rooms of Covenant by simply hiding from them, as if the devs knew that you no could longer be bothered to fight. Surprisingly this notion came to me earlier in the game before the library mission (The Libary became quite fun once I figured out how The Flood was triggered.)

On the positives, I and others have commented once on how the combat in Halo "just clicks". The somehow it provides an action experience that goes beyond the sum of it's parts. Well after playing through more than half of it I now feel qualified to clarify such a statement.

It's certainly not primarily due to the more tangible aspects of graphics, physics, and sounds.

Some weapons such as the autorifle and the explosives do deliver a bevy of effects and enemy reactions, and feel powerful to boot with associated recoil. But others such as the shotgun and the plasma rifle fail to project much in the way of destructive momentum on the enemy. Besides, we've all seen these before.

The ringworld of Halo is inspiring and impressive, but ultimately looks dated with a relatively sparse number of props and vegetation. Internally it redefines the word "generic", with novelty bump mapping effects.

The sounds have since been eclipsed in terms of quality and content. Technically however I believe Halo has the best positional 3D I've ever heard. Even with my horribly mismatched 4 speaker system I can accurately localize sounds coming from the sides. EAX support is subtle and more ambient in it's approach. Clearly the devs didn't want it to distort the sounds too much. The doppler effects really shine with needles or plasma projectiles.

I believe a good deal of the great action involves the enemy AI. while not truly intelligent it does convey a good impression that it is. While the types of Covenant opponents are few compared to most action games, their evasive movements and excellent use of cover make almost every battle truly unpredictable and keep you on your toes at all times. To survive in Halo you really to be able to think and react quickly to the given situation.

So far I think it's deserving of it's current Gameranking rating.

What card are you using?
Looking at the ground at an angle could be ugly due to fubared aniso filtering. Face on to a tree wouldn't need AF to look good.
Or not :-)

WRT 2yr old game, gearbox stated that they rewrote all of the shaders. Could be they just did a bad job. I dunno if when you run the PS1.1 code you get the original gf3 PS or if they were rewritten, too. Using -use11 should scream since that will be a load similar to the xbox.
3G Athlon + 9800P256 should be >> 700M p3 + gf3.

cx

re #137:
Can your 16x12 friend post a timedemo?
I have a 9800P256 and need to run in 1024x768 to get 40fps (in timedemo)
tx,
cx

CD crack can usually be found at megagames.com

Sorry if I shouldn't mention this, feel free to delete this post, mods.

This is the 2nd time i've played this on Legendary, and does anyone else notice how much harder it is on PC than on xbox? Without any coop mode whatsover, and auto aim turned off (which really isn't a problem, but at long ranges the scope gets really fuzzy) its really easy to get stuck and have no wait out, doomed to repeat the same checkpoint over and over again. Anyone know a way around this, better strategies? Grenades are practically useless now(as every covenant in the game jumps like mad, wish I could say the same about the marines, who like to scream "come get some" waving thier gun in the air as they're being shot and completely oblivious to the grenade at there feet), and the only single weapon capable of killing an elite with one full clip (or overheating) is the needler... what really stinks is the moment I leave my firing position, i'm surrounded by enemies from all sides, including 2 elites that come right behind me.... sigh

Where can I get a Crack? I'm not "net" savy. It sucks that they won't allow a single copy while on a dedicated LAN. I understand that the multiplayer mode for the internet should require a unique "registered" key in order to play, but on a private 2-computer LAN! come on. Now... where can I get this crack!!

no you dont. just get the crack.

nwn is like that too. i believe raven shield is too?

I bought a single copy of HALO. I have a LAN and I installed this copy of HALO on one machine, then the other. When I try to join a LAN game started on the machine downstairs, one the machine upstairs, I get a message that says " You have the wrong CD KEY". I called microcrap and they told me I have to spend another $50.oo and buy a second copy and install it on the machine upstairs in order to play on my own LAN with my son. This is total bullshit. This is the first game ( and I have unreal t 2003, quake3, sold fort 2, motoGP, nascar...etc) that I have ever had to buy two copies of in order to play on my LAN. Insane!!

"Where the SP shines is in the excellent AI and the great humour that has been injected into it by the sound designers (all the comments by the grunts and marines). Some excellent writing too, and a strong story - something very rare in a FPS. "

So I've heard. A sound bug cut out about 75% of the dialogue - I could see that dialogue was supposed to be happening in cutscenes, but only a few words came through. The patch fixed that, so I heard everything that happened in the control room, and after, but....no way am I going to play through what I missed all over again, to hear the dialogue

Got Halo over the weekend and have to say it's been fun so far....BUT....

I agree with people ref the graphics. The whole game seems to be a mixed bag, with some scenes looking amazing and running smooth as butter - but other scenes that run like a 1 legged dog. One thing that struck me was the grass in the otside levels - if I crouch and look at the ground it's all pixelly. Does everyone else get this as it looks awful. Stranglely, I can go up close to a tree and the detail stays sharp - I find it odd that the ground textures used are so low.

With ref to the performance - Something has gone very wrong here somewhere !.
I'm sure that many people remember when Halo was headed for a PC before MS sngged it for the Xbox - Well, all the videos we saw at the time were supposedly running at 1024 x 768 and were smooth as butter - and this was on 3yr old technology !!!. I believe that the HW that Bungie used to demo the game at that time was a P3 1Ghz with 256MB mem and a nVideaTNT2 Ultra (64MB) graphics card - Hardly speedy at all by todays standards.
I know that they've added pixel shaders into the game but has this really causes such a performance hit compared to the original HW platform that it was intended to be released on? Looking back at the original vids of the game I can't really see any effects that PS have added that warrants such a performance hit.
I'd have rather had higher detail textures (Especially the grass).

Don't get me wrong - I'm really enjoying the game, but something's gone wrong with the port somewhere along the line - and as mentioned, Halo was originally going to released on the PC over 2yrs ago so I'd imagine that they must have had approx 30fps at that time on much older HW.