Halo fans will have to upgrade their computer if they want to follow Master Chief's adventures on the PC. Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will only work on the new version of Windows called Vista. The decision could make it expensive for many to play the game if they have to buy the new version of Windows and extra hardware for their PC. Microsoft has given no definite release date for Vista but it is expected to be available by the end of 2006. Power play Deciding to make the best-selling Halo 2 Xbox game a Vista-only title is likely driven by Microsoft's desire to get people upgrading to the new version of the Windows. Minimum specifications for Vista (formerly called Longhorn) will be released in the summer but information gathered from reviews of pre-release versions have given clues about its hunger for computer power. With Vista, Microsoft has made big changes to the way it handles graphics. Unlike other versions of Windows, it will need an advanced video card to get the most out of it. It is also likely to demand a lot of computer memory and a sizeable hard drive. While these requirements are likely to be met by dedicated players who want to get the most out of games, many less keen players could struggle to comply. The decision to make only a Vista version of the best-selling Halo 2 game could significantly stunt the game's appeal. The Vista edition of Halo 2 will offer single and multi-player versions of the game, extra maps from add-on packs as well as software tools to create new places to play. To date Microsoft has sold more than 14.5 million copies of the Halo games. Players have also racked up more than 600 million hours of multiplayer Halo gaming on the Xbox Live service. Source: BBC News
What a shameless attempt t sell more copies of Vista..bad move by Microsoft thats gotta be bad for PR
HAH!!!! Boy oh boy, just when you thought Microsoft was stabbing you in the back with windows XP......heeeeeere comes Vista! Personally i hate Xbox and Halo altogether; however one has to be a wise consumer. Why buy windows vista and pc version of Halo2 when you can buy a used Xbox and Halo2 for a fraction of what vista will probably cost. Thats about USD130 for the xbox and about USD40 for Halo2. 170 grand total! Windows xp was expensive as hell when it came out; hell, home edition right now is about USD100; I can only imagine what Microsoft will be charging for vista. Too bad, as AT said, people will buy it anyway.....fools, foolsI say! and on a side note, I saw a video clip where a reporter asked a Microsoft employee about vista; all the guy was showing was a new menu in the start menu where all your games will go once they're installed.....thats it? we need a new upgrade for that? aren't there Windows skins that do that for free? what a world we live in today...what a world. edit* just to inspire some giggles on a friday night- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/default.mspx
Yeah it seems like, just as it was with XP, that MS just pushed a visual upgrade in our face and charged a couple hundred bones for it. Sweeeet... One thing I can't understand is, if Vista will have the insane system requirements it's rumored to have, how will bargin Dells and HP's be able to bundle it with their integrated graphics clad computers, and somehow keep the $500 computer in sight.
The Vista OS requires a minimum of a 1 GHz CPU and at least 512mb to run, though actually running software on it obviously requires a bit more. If you want to run the high-end Aero Glass GUI, you need a DX9c compatible video card.
MS has really out-done itself now. I believe this tactic will actually work considering Halo2's success on the xbox. But what I'd like to see is how people will react to vista's high hardware requirements after they pay a few hundred for the OS.
Well I guess highend system requirements might be of some benifit in the long run as companies will actually stuff more than 256MB in their boxes. Though by the sound of it, it will still be dog slow.
The first thing I'm going to do when I get hold of Vista, is to switch it to classic view! Just like I have done with XP
