PC Games Review : Halo 2 Vista

Players:2 - 16
Price: $49.99

Platform(s):PC

Developer: Bungie

Publisher: Microsoft Game StudiosESRB: MatureWebsite:Microsoft.com/Games/Halo2

Why don’t I sum up this entire game experience by saying Halo 2 on the Xbox is one of the greatest console shooters for the Xbox. Despite issues with the story and single-player level designs, you have to admit that it contained straight-through solid gameplay features and one of the biggest multiplayer experiences of all time. So what does that make Halo 2 Vista? Unfortunately it’s a pseudo remake of a great game.

With a painless, almost too user-friendly installation and play-as-the-game-loads setup, there’s nothing burdening about getting Halo 2 Vista up and running. I mean, if you actually upgraded to Vista you’ve already jumped over a freaking boulder, so the games should be painless to install, right? Of course.

I won’t waste time about nostalgic experiences, etc., etc., so I’ll just get right to it: The story is the same space opera as its console counterpart, as Cortana and Master Chief return to battle the Covenant and the multiplying zombie horde, the Flood. If you honestly never played the game on the Xbox (or Xbox 360) I’m not going to give too much away, but I will say that playing the Arbiter in Halo always seemed a bit odd. Simply given that while it added new direction and focus to the story, it took away from the integral foundation of Master Chief as a lead character. That’s like Arnold in the movie Commando needing help from a British SAS soldier, fighting from within the bad guy ranks. See how strange that is? Yeah, well take that concept and apply it to Halo 2 and that’s how the story sort of feels. Regardless of peeves, at least the dialogue and plot consistency stays on track. It would have been nicer to still have more fleshed out stages on Earth, as opposed to jettisoning off into space to fight the Covenant once more. But then again, this is a remake not a redo.

The single-player gameplay (if you honestly don’t know) consists of first-person shooting, with the ability to independently dual-wield select weapons. And there’s several new vehicles...well, old vehicles in comparison to Halo 3, but new vehicles in comparison to Halo 1. The Warthog comes in two formats; one with a mini-gun and one with a gauss cannon. There’s the available Spectre, Wraith and a few other playable Covenant vehicles that can be manned and used against the enemy. Hijacking is something that never gets tiresome, and should be further exploited in newer games, despite being a feature that’s three years old. And the new weapons and modifications to old weapons are more miss than hit (the original M1 assault rifle should have stayed put, but that’s what Halo 3 is for, I guess).

I still can’t get over the fact that Marines can’t be directed or controlled on the battlefield. It’s a pain not being able to setup formations. But then again, the stages would require better designs to utilize tactics that you might execute in a game like Rainbow Six Vegas or Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Realistically, though, I always hated the single-player stage designs in Halo 2. You can rant and disagree all you want, but Ghost Recon, Half Life 2, Metroid Prime, Max Payne and many other shooters out there on the market have better single-player maps than Halo 2 and subsequently, Halo 2 Vista. That’s not to say that some of the stages weren’t fun, it’s just that I still find the Covenant level designs to be tedious and repetitive.

Now some people have been punching down hard on H2 Vista’s graphics. But truthfully, it doesn’t look much worse than Halo 3. Some of you can complain, riot and protest, but the model designs and some of the lighting, shooting and explosion effects aren’t very far off from the soon-to-be-released H3 for the Xbox 360. I’m actually convinced Halo games stopped being visual top-dogs after Halo 2 for the original Xbox. But that’s just my take on the matter.

As for the audio, one can’t complain. The sound effects are on par with being clean and most of the weapons have [fairly] appropriate kickback, as necessary. But look, I have to be honest, Halo has one of the best soundtracks around – and the single-player campaign, while shoddy in its creativity, at least has a veritable soundtrack with the sweet, sweet sounds of Marty O’Donnell. Say what you will, but I’m a sucker for a good theme song. This saved H2 Vista a half-a-star right here (and it brought Pirates for the PS2 down half-a-star for not having the original Hans Zimmer theme song from the movie...live and learn).

Even with the new multiplayer maps, Halo 2 Vista is a bit too constrained in its attempt to open up the series to PC gamers. There needed to be more weapons; there needed to be more customization tools for players to easily edit or change the characters they play and not just logos; there needed to be more vehicles; there needed to be better physics adjustment and there needed to be a slight redo of some of the single-player levels that suffered from sameness. Perhaps the map editing tools and user-content will widen the floodgates to ensure that the game feels more “PC oriented”. But by that time there will probably be flashier and fancier games already available and better suited for hardcore PC gamers.

I think, though, for the price in which it was released, Halo 2 Vista lacks the ingenuity to live up to its current retail tag. For anyone who never played Halo 1 or Halo 2 on the Xbox – or you just don’t fancy owning a console, but want to play console games – you might want to wait for this game to drop down to a budget price and then have a go at it.

Console : Sony Claims 1 Million PS3s Sold In Europe

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) boss David Reeves has claimed that the PlayStation 3 has now sold over one million units in Europe and other PAL territories, since its launch on March 23rd this year.

In an editorial for British trade magazine MCV, Reeves claimed the figures were sell-through, rather than simply shipped to stores, saying: “Early last week we went through the one million mark on PS3. And we did that in nine and a half weeks. That was faster than both PS2 and PS one. And I think that the analysts out there will also realize that it’s faster than our brothers and sisters in the competitive world.”

Reeves also claimed around two million units of first party software have been sold “into the channel”, with Resistance: Fall of Man selling around 600,000 units in Europe and MotorStorm just over 500,000. Reeves also notes that around 460,000 users have registered to the PlayStation Network in European territories.

With regards to the PlayStation 3’s recent lack of major releases, Reeves states that “our big bangs will be arriving around September and October”, indicating that Phil Harrison would be announcing a series of new releases at a later date, which would be “in the arena of social gaming as well as more traditional games”.

With no independent hardware sales figures ever made available in Europe, and figures from console manufacturers only released sporadically the implication of these figures is difficult to ascertain. It is known that Sony made one million units available in Europe for the console’s launch, which suggests that this initial shipment has only just become sold out.

It is, however, impossible to be certain where sales of the PlayStation 3 console stands in terms of comparison with the Xbox 360 and Wii. PlayStation 3 software can certainly be seen to have had less impact on the European software charts compared to its rivals, though, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that the PlayStation 3 hardware has never been in short supply.

Console : Xbox 360 sweet spot is $199

Lower price and targeting the console at the family group is key to lifting Xbox 360 success above that of Xbox.

Speaking to Bloomberg, group product manger David Hufford has revealed that Microsoft is well aware of the price at which the Xbox 360 will begin to be an attractive proposition for the family audience.

We are well aware that the sweet spot of the market is really 199 bucks," said Hufford. "When Mom walks into the store and sees she can get a console with a game for USD 250, she sees it as a USD 300 value. They've done a good job."

However, if the Xbox 360 is to compete in the same segment as the Wii, a price cut is only half of the puzzle. New family orientated titles and a strong marketing push will be just as important.

"If we don't make that move, make it early and expand our demographic, we will wind up in the same place as with Xbox 1, a solid business with 25 million people," said Xbox boss Peter Moore. "What I need is a solid business with 90 million people."

Institutional Investor's analyst Heather Bellini estimates that Microsoft could make a price cut to the console as early as September, ensuring they have enough consoles in the market to drive huge sales of the biggest titles.

"If they really are going to have a good Christmas games line-up, then they just have to have the largest number of boxes out there so that they sell the largest number of games," said Bellini.

The latter half of 2007 will see the release of numerous blockbuster Xbox 360 titles from Microsoft, including Halo 3, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Mass Effect.