[ChrisRay]

I never played Halo to be honest. So I hadnt had a chance to see it. I got the game a few days back and it was to be used in my upcoming 6800GT SLI analysis. Well I've been playing it and actually enjoying it. Theres no anti aliasing in game so I just set it to 1600x1200 and play it there.

The graphics arent "amazing" but I wouldnt say they are bad. Has some neat lighting effects. But most importantly the game is smooth feeling and rapid paced. I think I'm gonna enjoy this one more than I should when doin the review. And I'm gonna keep in on my hard drive to play later!

 

[GryphonKlaw]

I found the mouse sensitivity to be too floaty. Halo is best played on the XBOX with the proper controller because it's best suited for that. I didn't really like the game on either system though... :-/

 

[ChrisRay]

I guess I could use my Saitek Rumble Pad. If that would produce a better experience anyway.

 

[hushypushy]

i tried it with a pad. it sucks. it's sooooo much better. and for the mouse sensitivity being too floaty? you can do one of two things. make a file called, i.e. "mouse.cfg". in that file, make it say "mouse_acceleration 0" without the quotes obviously. in your halo shortcut put -exec mouse.cfg. that will help a lot. of course, if you want to do what any serious FPS gamer should do, go to ftp.thecpl.com and get mouse_fix.zip and install that registry tweak and restart. voila mouse probs fixed

anyway back to the game. Halo is damn fun, one of my favorite games ever. the single player game is great, i'd rather play on Xbox with co-op though. but Multiplayer...man that's where it's at. LANing halo is amazing

 

[Typhoon 01]

Halo is great, the single player had a pretty good story IMO and mp is a blast.
I just love those sticky grenades in mp, just stick and run and prey he doesnt comes running after you.

 

[Player-X]

It's rather easy even on legendary, you can always play "5 second duck and cover" and expect to walk away from the most intense firefight undamaged

 

[RF]

Halo is awesome Though the PC version needs some tweaking it is very fun to play, though the multiplayer runs a little dry sometimes.

 

[CD]

It's rather easy even on legendary, you can always play "5 second duck and cover" and expect to walk away from the most intense firefight undamaged

Play Halo 2 legendary. Where snipers never miss ;x

 

[Katsuya]

Halo for PC looks best if you force it to DX9 render mode.

 

[GryphonKlaw]

make a file called, i.e. "mouse.cfg". in that file, make it say "mouse_acceleration 0" without the quotes obviously. in your halo shortcut put -exec mouse.cfg. that will help a lot. of course, if you want to do what any serious FPS gamer should do, go to ftp.thecpl.com and get mouse_fix.zip and install that registry tweak and restart. voila mouse probs fixed

If I ever need to install the game for any LAN parties I'll be sure to do that. Thanks for that.

 

[Raziel]

Halo for PC looks best if you force it to DX9 render mode.

Given it runs by default in DX9, you don't need to force it

 

[Katsuya]

Given it runs by default in DX9, you don't need to force it

Actually, you do.

Halo has different rendering paths, PS 2.0 for DX9 based cards, PS 1.4 for ATi DX8 cards, PS 1.1 for GF3/4 based cards and Fixed Function for DX7 cards. By default, Halo runs 1.1 or 1.4 an even lower quality rendering path can be chosen for better performance. To force the game into one of these modes you can use one of the following command line switches

-use20 [For PS 2.0] [the best]
-use14 [For PS 1.4] [looks good]
-use11 [For PS 1.1] [it’s ok, just like on XboX]
-useff [For Fixed Function] [looks crazy bad]

How to use command line switches:

Right click on the Halo shortcut and select properties
There is a box that says target field and there will be something similar to

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe”

which would need to be changed to

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe” –use20

Note that the command line switches are outside of the quotes and you can add as many as you like. Other command line options include

–screenshot [allows screencaps with printscrn in game]
–console [enables console with ~]
-width1024 [forces 1024x768. -width640 forces 640x480 etc etc]
–nosound [disables sound]
–help [lists even more commands!]
–timedemo [benchmark]

 

[cooliscool]

You only need to force it on FX cards as developers recognized its damn near inability to pump out long shaders at a useable speed.

Here's a good comparison pic (shamelessly stolen from nVnews ):

 

[Katsuya]

well, I tried it on my 6600gt and it was only runing 1.1 so I had to force it to use 2.0 (much better)

My friend Kyoko said she had to do the same thing. (She told me to buy the game. as she needed more skilled team members :lol: )

Here's a good comparison pic (shamelessly stolen from nVnews ):

Umm, that doesn’t really show anything much.

The best way for me to tell what mode it was in is by looking at the water (at that one island level)

when in the jet I could see the change in water with 2.0

 

[Talbain]

Actually, that pic shows a lot. Is there anything that actually uses pixel shader 2.0 stuff yet? ATI and nVidia have been ranting and raving about how great it is.

Also, I played some Halo on different systems, and it's not bad. I personally prefer the PC because I like binds and so forth, but whoever said the controls are floaty was dead on. It takes a lot of tweaking to get good, sharp responses from the controls, and until you do tweak them, you move as if you were going to sip some tea instead of kill a guy who has a rocket launcher.

 

[cooliscool]

PLENTY of games use PS2.0..

To list a few:

Half-Life 2
Far Cry
Doom III
Juiced
Star Wars: Republic Commando..

..and so many more it'd be about impossible to list. PS2.0 has its benefits for sure (almost infinite amounts of shaders at once, among other things) has been put to very good use since its debut, no thanks to the GeForceFX line.

 

[Katsuya]

PLENTY of games use PS2.0..

To list a few:

Half-Life 2
Far Cry
Doom III
Juiced
Star Wars: Republic Commando..

..and so many more it'd be about impossible to list. PS2.0 has its benefits for sure (almost infinite amounts of shaders at once, among other things) has been put to very good use since its debut, no thanks to the GeForceFX line.

Far Cry can also use 3.0 (ver 1.3 patch)

 

[cooliscool]

Yes, but there's not much of a visual improvement aside from HDR, really. That and speed.. but you're right.

 

[D.D.]

funny...i think ps 1.4 and 2.0 look pretty much the same, with 1.1 looking like its got HDR XD

 

[cooliscool]

Halo really doesn't use the longer shaders to much extent. Only in basically minor things, possibly water according to Katsuya.