Halo 2 and Gears of War are coming to a PC near you
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Long time XBOX and XBOX 360 only titles, Halo 2 and Gears of War will be making their debut on PCs very soon. But users should know what the catch is that you need to be running a version of Vista in order to play Halo 2. Halo 2 will not be released for earlier versions of Windows such as XP or 2000; the reasons are not very obvious.
It was initially thought that this was due to the fact that Halo 2 under Vista would take advantage of DirectX 10 and would be a DirectX 10 only title but it is not. In fact Halo 2 is DirectX 9 so there is really nothing preventing it from running under earlier versions of Windows in that respect.
But, Halo 2 does support a new feature of Vista called “rapid install” which allows you to play the game just like a console game where nothing is installed and is instead loaded into memory and installed in the background while retaining the features of Halo 2 on the XBOX such as friend tracking, gamerscore, XBOX Live and more.
One could also assume that these same restraints apply to Gears of War on the PC but the fact is, since this was just announced not a lot is clear about Gears of War on PCs except that the game is “mostly functional”. It is almost certain that Gears of War will be available for Vista users only.
It remains to be seen when either game will be make their debut on PCs. This much is certain, the games will come on DVDs only and you will need Vista to run them. Hopefully, Halo 2 will be released on PCs before Halo 3 comes out. I’d rather have the PC version of Halo 2 because I have a XBOX 360 and while I hear Halo 2 will run, I’m hoping the graphics on the PC version will be slightly improved. Of course Halo 3 is going to be graphically awesome because it’s on the XBOX 360.
I don’t blame any of the companies for making Vista exclusive titles, some may see it as forcing an upgrade but like it or not Vista does have newer technologies such as rapid install and DirectX 10 that make it a necessity when it comes to newer applications but mostly applies only to games (for now).
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March 24th, 2007
Direct X 10 didn’t have to be Vista exclusive. Which means Halo 2 don’t have to be Vista exclusive. It’s forcing an upgrade and i’m not falling for it when the other operatnig system will be out in 2009. Not upgrading to vista when Micro$oft plans on bringing another OS in less than 3 years. I mean what are they up to? Just want more and more and more. Xp is a great operating system. They need to bring DX 10 there..
March 25th, 2007
I couldn’t say for sure if DirectX 10 could be ported fully to XP or not. Microsoft says it can’t. Developers say that maybe with a complete overhaul XP could support it. We’re talking an overhaul more extensive than SP2 was. I’m not disagreeing with you, I think they should at the very least release variants of the game for Windows XP.
March 25th, 2007
For those who are interested it seems a rather intense discussion is or was taking place over on the Gamespot forums, http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25469843 and since I’m too lazy to set up a Gamespot account, I’ll respond to the primary issue that seems to be bugging everyone.
Yes, I know Halo 2 was on the original XBOX, I never had the original XBOX and I really can’t think of anyone (that I know) that still has theirs, I played Halo 2 on my XBOX 360, therefore if I said I was playing Halo 2 on XBOX, I’d be wrong. I always and got used to telling people that I played Halo 2 on XBOX 360. Technically it is not a XBOX 360 title but I fail to see what is so wrong about saying that it is, seeing as how it runs just fine on the 360.
And yes, I know its old news but cut us a break, this site has been live for about a week so its going to be a mix of old and new for a while.
March 25th, 2007
“Long time XBOX 360 only titles, Halo 2………..”
What are you smoking? Halo 2 is an Xbox title. Not Xbox 360. Don’t feel too bad, though. You almost had the first line without error.
Ah, who am I kidding?
March 25th, 2007
Well, just to suit you, I’ll fix it. Halo 2 plays on both the XBOX and XBOX 360, I’d like to know how you would’ve handled that title. Gears of War = XBOX 360, Halo 2 = XBOX. It could’ve gone either way.
March 26th, 2007
He said XBOX and XBOX 360. Learn to read