[Grimloq]

*shakes head* i remember very well that for some (annoying) reason, all the UTs were released 1 year before theyre name identified... so UT2003 and halo prolly came out near the same time.

meh, whatever.

[Deepblue]

I'm sorry but the UT enforcer looks nothing like the Halo pistol.

Vs.

[Ransom]

Originally posted by Grimloq
*shakes head* i remember very well that for some (annoying) reason, all the UTs were released 1 year before theyre name identified... so UT2003 and halo prolly came out near the same time.

meh, whatever.

Er, Halo had been in the making (with numerous trailers and various other things) way before a sequel to UT was even announced. This was back when it wasn't going to be on Xbox (Xbox may not even have been announced either, I can't remember)

[Swamp_Thing]

I don´t get all this commotion about the UT enforcer...
First of all, the original UT came out in 1999 (i have it), featuring the exact same enforcer as the subsequent sequels, UT 2003 and UT 2004. So there is no way Halo pinched it from UT. Second, anyone who thinks both guns are even remotelly alike, is in dire need of glasses, real bad!! They are totally distinct from each other. And the same goes to any other Halo weapon.
As for the game itself, i´m playing the campaign again, just for fun, and i can say this:
I was always surprised to see a game like that fitted onto a single 700mb CD. Sure, the levels are basicly the same played over and over (wich was the only shortcomming of the entire game), but other games could do well to take example of it. We now are faced with 3+ gb sized games, with little to show for such a huge ammount of disc space. I don´t know any other game that resembles Halo in visual graphics and gameplay, that fits onto a single CD. Kuddos on that.
And the conversion to PC was done right. Halo plays just like any other top line FPS, it looks good, feels good, and works good. So don´t trash it because you think it was a bad conversion job, because that is utterlly wrong. , i´m amazed at how poorly some games come out latelly, like Medal of Honor Pacific Assault. The mouse movement is just pittyfull, and the levels are totally bug ridden. For its time frame, Halo came out with one of the best gameplay and mouse support i´ve seen.

[aldo_14]

Remember that halo repreated a lot of textures (and I'm not sure how high-res they were).  There's also not a massive deal of variety in enemies...

Oh, and personally - the poor conversion job massively spoiled Halo for me.  Parts of I enjoyed, but an ever-dropping frame-rate made a lot of it virtually unplayable.  More importantly, it destroyed any immersion... it's very hard to suspend disbelief when your world is a slideshow (and not a particularly pretty one at that).

[Grimloq]

well, im giving halo a better chance by playing the ENTIRE campaign now, and as of now im on the covenant cruiser.

i still think its crap, but with the following changes:

the screen was pinched, you dont get the proper feild of view... it looks funny

weapons take up too much of the screen with melee and reloading.

texture quality is HORRIBLE!!!

the pelican is awesome

levels are to big, too slow, and too unbalanced.

the ships look cool though. i must admit.

i dont see what everyone likes about it so much, though i have been proven wrong about the weapons stealing.

(i meant the pistol acted too much like the enforcer, not that it looked like it. it looks only very remotely like it.)

[Swamp_Thing]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Remember that halo repreated a lot of textures (and I'm not sure how high-res they were).  There's also not a massive deal of variety in enemies...

Oh, and personally - the poor conversion job massively spoiled Halo for me.  Parts of I enjoyed, but an ever-dropping frame-rate made a lot of it virtually unplayable.  More importantly, it destroyed any immersion... it's very hard to suspend disbelief when your world is a slideshow (and not a particularly pretty one at that).

But that´s not a game issue, it´s a system issue. Its hardly the game´s fault that you have a crappy graphics card, or is it?
In my system, with a ****ty FX 5600, i get steady fps. And if i take down specular, the frame rate rises to almost 100. On my system, at least. But the point is, you can´t judge a conversion based on how it plays on your system alone. Generally speaking, Halo runs very well on most systems.
As for the enemies variety, i´ve seen worst on better rated games, so that should tell you something. I think there were enough, not too many, and not too few.
Texture wise, you are right. The level work was poor, but that happens on both the console and PC, so it´s not a conversion thing. The level editors were on stryke, perhaps.

[Grimloq]

addendum:

sry bout the pistol, i was thinking of the wrong games pistol... it doesnt look like the enforcer
BTW, can someone tell me what the specular maps do?

[Swamp_Thing]

Makes things shiny and reactive to light sources. For example, when you fire a gun, the muzzle flash lights up the surrounding walls and stuff.
I noticed that HALO´s specular feature sems to control bumpmaps aswell, as some walls appear to have them once the feature is enabled, and dissappear if disabled.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing


But that´s not a game issue, it´s a system issue. Its hardly the game´s fault that you have a crappy graphics card, or is it?
In my system, with a ****ty FX 5600, i get steady fps. And if i take down specular, the frame rate rises to almost 100. On my system, at least. But the point is, you can´t judge a conversion based on how it plays on your system alone. Generally speaking, Halo runs very well on most systems.
As for the enemies variety, i´ve seen worst on better rated games, so that should tell you something. I think there were enough, not too many, and not too few.
Texture wise, you are right. The level work was poor, but that happens on both the console and PC, so it´s not a conversion thing. The level editors were on stryke, perhaps.

a) I have the exact same card as you - FX5600 (128MB Gainward one, if it's relevant, and yes it is set at the correct apeture size & speed in the BIOS).  I have a PC far in excess of the min & recommended specs, which runs - for example - Half Life 2 faster and at a vastly higher detail, resolution & texture level. (I had to play Halo with every sound detail and graphical detail off / at min on lowest res with pixel path 1.1 to average 20-25 fps)
b) The framerate issues are very well documented and prevalent.  If they were my issues alone, I wouldn't feel I had grounds for complaint, would I?   More importantly, how can I judge it outside of my own experience?
c) I just got bored of the enemies very quickly.  Personal preference thing obiously, but I just felt they weren't very interesting or particularly intimidating opponents.

[Swamp_Thing]

Originally posted by aldo_14


a) I have the exact same card as you - FX5600 (128MB Gainward one, if it's relevant, and yes it is set at the correct apeture size & speed in the BIOS).  I have a PC far in excess of the min & recommended specs, which runs - for example - Half Life 2 faster and at a vastly higher detail, resolution & texture level. (I had to play Halo with every sound detail and graphical detail off / at min on lowest res with pixel path 1.1 to average 20-25 fps)
.

Well, that´s odd, to say the least. The Gainward cards are great (i have an old GeForce 2 TI/500 Golden Sample, that still competes with the big boys, excelent stuff), so the answer has to lie elsewhere. If it´s not the hardware, it can only be the software, wich means drivers and DirectX. I know that Halo works great on either my FX5600, or my older GeForce TI. And i play with medium to high settings. Taking down specular usually solves everything, because it is very demanding of the system.

If you think the enemies aren´t very intimidating, i sugest you up the dificulty level. Playing in Hard settings will have you running for cover. Play in Insane and there´s not enough cover to hide under.

[Ransom]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing


Well, that´s odd, to say the least. The Gainward cards are great (i have an old GeForce 2 TI/500 Golden Sample, that still competes with the big boys, excelent stuff), so the answer has to lie elsewhere. If it´s not the hardware, it can only be the software, wich means drivers and DirectX. I know that Halo works great on either my FX5600, or my older GeForce TI. And i play with medium to high settings. Taking down specular usually solves everything, because it is very demanding of the system.

If you think the enemies aren´t very intimidating, i sugest you up the dificulty level. Playing in Hard settings will have you running for cover. Play in Insane and there´s not enough cover to hide under.

There's a difference between difficult and intimidating.

I have an X800 Pro and it can run Doom 3 and Half Life 2 (which both look much better) noticably smoother than Halo. I thought it was pretty common knowledge the Halo PC port runs unusually slow.

[Gloriano]

Halo mod would be really cool actually but is there enough pictures about Halo ships.

Humans
Longsword
Pelican
Shuttle (MC uses in end first halo)
Destroyer (POA
Cruiser (amber clad type ship
Earth defence station (in halo 2

Covenant
Carrier (ship in Halo2 that Prophet of regret uses
Cruiser (normal Covenant fleet ship
Space fighter
High charity (Covenant's holy city)

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing


Well, that´s odd, to say the least. The Gainward cards are great (i have an old GeForce 2 TI/500 Golden Sample, that still competes with the big boys, excelent stuff), so the answer has to lie elsewhere. If it´s not the hardware, it can only be the software, wich means drivers and DirectX. I know that Halo works great on either my FX5600, or my older GeForce TI. And i play with medium to high settings. Taking down specular usually solves everything, because it is very demanding of the system.

Nope.  Checked all this at the time - latest patches, latest drivers (for everything), latest directX version, defragmented hard drive pre & post installations, tried all the pixel shader paths and any other command line / console args I could find,  and also tried it on both hard drives in case it was a problem with the slave-master setup.

You name it, I tried it.

Originally posted by Swamp_Thing

If you think the enemies aren´t very intimidating, i sugest you up the dificulty level. Playing in Hard settings will have you running for cover. Play in Insane and there´s not enough cover to hide under.

I don't mean hard, I mean intimidating... i.e. as in 'I wouldn't like to come against that in a dark alley'.  The Hunters came just about closest, but primary colours..... just doesn't work for me.

[Grimloq]

the covenant grunts are not at all intimiodating. i mean, if you just wait long enough, they fall ASLEEP! i mean...

plus, they say stuff like 'short people first!' and 'aah! theyre eveyrwhere!!!' and 'wake up, theyre here!!!':rolleyes:

tis hilarious, but not at all frightening

im playing on easy BTW. im too wimpy to play higher

however, im getting to hate the textures more and more. the levels are STILL huge and too much copy and pasted, and the textures tend to be low res and badly done. and theres no environment maps, which im sure were in the XBOX version...

[Jetmech Jr.]

Grunts aren't supposed to be intimidating. They're basically comic relief.

Jackals are just annoying

Elites are up there. Particularly the Gold ones.

Halo 1 hunters are weak. They look somewhat intimidating, but they're easy to kill if you know how. Halo 2 hunters are far better. Way tougher, and they got some nice attack moves. Plus, they swapped out the Fuel Rod gun for a sweet beam type weapon.

Flood are freaky.

[Grimloq]

Originally posted by Jetmech Jr.
Grunts aren't supposed to be intimidating. They're basically comic relief.

ill say

Originally posted by Jetmech Jr.
Flood are freaky.

i havnt met em yet, but ill bet you money theyre not as freaky as the Beast.

[Taristin]

I'll take that bet.

[Jetmech Jr.]

The beast was a techno-virus that subverted living matter into bio circuitry. The Flood are giant parisitic balloons that burrow into a living being's body, tap into its nervous system, and mutatess it (slowly) into a stumbling, hungry abomination (think gaping holes in the body with forked tentacles sticking out of every orifice, waving around, and with body parts like the head hanging limp across it's back).

[willy_principal]

**** the XBOX!!!
Consoles aren't made for FPS...............
i love moving my mouse to precisely aim my sniper rifle and kill an elite in one ****ing shot!!!