Product Description

Please note: The game requires Windows Vista

The entertainment phenomenon that conquered the digital universe is once again out to save the planet as the award-winning, best-selling Halo 2 is coming to the Windows Vista platform. Optimized for the advanced gaming features in Windows Vista, Halo 2 promises to revolutionize the first-person shooter experience for Windows gamers, as it did for consoles. With its classic story, enhanced visual presentation, multiplayer excitement and all-new Map Editor, Halo 2 for Windows Vista offers more game customization and new content than ever before.

Windows Vista gamers will be able to experience the epic story of Halo 2 as Master Chief delves further into the mystery of the Covenant in the aftermath of Halos destruction. What he discovers will soon threaten the fate not only of Earth, but of the Universe itself.

• Epic Narrative: The saga continues with Halo 2, the international award-winning sequel to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. In this sequel, the battle comes to Earth, and Master Chief, a genetically enhanced super soldier, is the only thing standing between the relentless alien Covenant and the destruction of all humankind.
• Exciting Single-Player Gameplay: Experience first hand the epic struggle between Master Chief and the Covenant armada. Brandish dual-wield weapons Covenant arms and pilot human and non-human vehicles and aircraft to battle intelligent AI alien enemies.
• Unmatched Online Gaming: Halo 2 for Windows Vista will tap into the power of Live Anywhere, a service similar to Xbox Live, to deliver online matchmaking for PC gamers. The service will enable Windows Vista gamers all over the globe to connect via their PCs and play on an innovative and competitive online forum.
• New Multiplayer Map Editor: The game will also feature the all-new new

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #716 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2007-06-08
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows Vista
• Dimensions: .32 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
The entertainment phenomenon that conquered the digital universe is once again out to save the planet as the award-winning, best-selling Halo 2 is coming to the Windows Vista platform. Optimized for the advanced gaming features in Windows Vista, Halo 2 promises to revolutionize the first-person shooter experience for Windows gamers, as it did for consoles. With its classic story, enhanced visual presentation, multiplayer excitement and all-new Map Editor, Halo 2 for Windows Vista offers more new content and game customization than ever before.

Windows Vista gamers will be able to experience the epic story of Halo 2 as Master Chief delves further into the mystery of the Covenant in the aftermath of Halo's destruction. What he discovers will soon threaten the fate not only of Earth, but of the Universe itself.

Key Features:
Please note: This game will only run on Windows Vista

Epic narrative - The saga continues with Halo 2, the international award-winning sequel to the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. In this sequel, the battle comes to Earth, and Master Chief, a genetically enhanced super soldier, is the only thing standing between the relentless alien Covenant and the destruction of all humankind.

Exciting single-player gameplay - Experience firsthand the epic struggle between Master Chief and the Covenant armada. Brandish dual-wield weapons and Covenant arms, while piloting human and non-human vehicles and aircraft to battle intelligent AI alien enemies.

Unmatched online gaming - Halo 2 for Windows Vista will tap into the power of Games for Windows - LIVE to deliver online matchmaking for its Gold account members. The service will enable Windows Vista gamers around the globe to connect via their PCs and play in an innovative and competitive online forum.

New multiplayer Map Editor - The game will also feature the all-new Map Editor, guaranteeing new fan-generated content in the future. The Halo 2 community will be able to tap their endless creative potential to develop an unlimited number of user-created multiplayer levels.

Never-before-seen content - Inspired by their favourite portions of the original Halo 2 for the Xbox, Hired Gun has included two new multiplayer maps, District and Uplift, which can only be found on Halo 2 for Windows Vista.

Complete community freedom - Halo 2 for Windows Vista offers gamers the freedom to host their own dedicated servers for maximum multiplayer action.

Superior presentation and cinematic excellence - Bring the vast, imaginative world of Halo 2 to life on the Windows Vista platform through higher-resolution textures and improved lighting effects. Experience the unmatched cinematic quality of Halo 2 through the power of Windows Vista.

Technological simplicity - Until now, Windows gamers had to install each game completely to their hard drive before playing, taking more than an hour in some cases. Halo 2 for Windows Vista utilizes new Tray and Play technology, allowing gamers to put in the game disc and be on the battlefield in minutes. The game loads as you play - just like on the Xbox 360.

Customer Reviews

A real shame
Having played Halo 2 on the X-box when it first came out, I can vouch for it being both fun and immensely addictive. Playing through the single player campaign is good on its own, but co-operative mode and multiplayer are where the game really comes alive.

It's a real shame then that co-operative mode has been ripped out and that, a first for PC gaming, multiplayer services will be charged for. Add to this the insane decision to restrict the game to Vista; the graphics have been improved somewhat but in no way approach DX10 or even moderately-high DX9 levels.

So why buy a version that has less features, hidden costs, and requires you to shell out for a whole new operating system when you could buy an x-box and the original version for around £[...]? Well, some might argue that Vista is an inevitable purchase. That may be so, but gamers shouldn't be arbitrarily forced into purchasing something they don't need to run the game.

Great game, terrible marketing agenda.

Halo 2 - Worth Looking Into
I have always been a fan of the Halo series, I have both halo 1 for PC and xbox and halo 2 for both PC and xbox.

Halo 2 for PC should have been a good game. they have changed little bits here and there from the xbox version and it plays a lot better and you will think it's great at first (if you have played the xbox version) but then you will start not to notice the changes. The AI has been upgraded and is now smarter which makes a real difference in the game, your enemies are smarter and so are you allies which seriously helps during combat. They have also played around with the movement settings so you have cleaner movements on the game and have changed the enemy settings so your enemies will move more realistically, will speak to each other when they don't know you're there and will work together more in combat situations.

The main problem with this game is that it's Windows Vista only. However, that doesn't mean you cant get around this. There are many places you can find software to run halo 2 for Windows XP, I don't have Windows Vista and run it on XP fine. A simple Google search will find the software (be advised, if you decide to run halo 2 on XP be sure that you search the internet for a "gravemind fix" for level 12, otherwise the game will keep asking for the original DVD, even if it's in the CD tray)

Running Halo 2 on win XP does have some problems. The single player runs flawlessly, I cant fault the performance in any way but the multilayer wont let you connect to servers without vista. If you get this for XP, you will only be able to use the single player functions only.

The graphics have been improved from the xbox version but only slightly on high settings. They could have done more to make the game look better, it still has some of the old xbox graphics glitches that should have been sorted by now.

This gets 3 stars from me because they could have done more to make it a better game, what they have done makes it a great game without a doubt, but there is so much more they could have done to make it a superb game. However, when you are playing the campaign, I cant say it's not fun, despite the multilayer not working (due to XP, it works on Vista) I would play the campaign again and again.

This is well worth getting if you are really into the halo series.

A slap in the face.
I'm giving this one star for the following reasons:

1) The graphics show no inclination of being any better than the xbox version as far as I can see. Direct X 10 is not necessary at all.

2) No game for PC I have ever seen before has been necessary to require a new windows. Games are still being produced that are Windows 98 compatible.
It's a gimmick to sell a buggy operating system that nobody who knows what they are doing will look at until it has at least one service pack.

3) Games For Windows Live? Paying to play games online? If it's anything like Xbox live, no thanks. PC Gaming has been doing online play better for nearly 2 decades now.

4) Some dude below me gave it 5 stars simply becaue other people were giving it lower reviews purely to bump it back up. So I'll oblige and bump it back down again.