After about a six-month downtime (we've all been there... well, all of us except Louis) Haloplayers has returned posting regular news as of the end of last week. "real" is still in URL, but gone from the design (when did that happen?). Anyway, put 'em back on your bookmark list.
Louis Wu at HBO pointed out a BBC article wherein is mentioned some show-stopping bugs in PC Halo that apparently are causing BSODs in Windows XP, which they claim is a rare occurrence. Interesting.
HA|aD Monkey has created a Windows XP/2000 app that allows you to connect to Halo servers using a halo://server.name address. You can find it at the Junkyard. Thanks Louis.
Enemy Down and Europe: ClanBase are adding Halo ladders for players in Europe. Thanks Louis.
BOLL is ready to bring his Halo-hacking madness to everybody with his Helpful Halo Hacking Tool. Thanks Louis.
HEY ! i was just wondering before the HALO 2 E3 DEMO.....HAS THE PELICAN GOT WHEELS because of that lump underneath the pelican.
i stood under the pelican just as it was about to land, then i went into the pelican like a glitch and i saw the gun inside the lump but another time i done it the lump looked like a wheel..... CAN SOMONE PLZ TELL ME WHAT IT IS !!!
plzzz reply to this.
When you first start off on the maw level, turn around
then jump out aim for the smooth big like a hill and you should slide down. It only takes a bit of health
off if not any and it may take a few trys but i can gaurentiee it WORKS !!
OH and another cool thing to try is wait at the start of the level for the sentinels to come and blobk them from getting through, they dont shoot you because they are still in travel mode I KNOW I KNOW this is point less but its just something to try.
Two years ago, Microsoft's Xbox console debuted with its first must-have game, "Halo: Combat Evolved."
That's the opening line of Associated Press writer Matt Slagle's review of Halo for the PC, appearing now in Yahoo News and, no doubt, in newspapers around the country. Those two years might have been used garnering information pertinent and useful for writing a review of Halo (or indeed for any computer game). Sadly, Mr. Slagle seems to have been doing something else with his time.
The review ranges from the merely inaccurate...
You play as Master Sergeant, an armor-clad space marine in the crosshairs of a war with an advanced collective of aliens called The Covenant.
Master Chief, guy. Look, it's even got fewer letters! It's easier to type than Sergeant!
... to the glib...
I can't remember the last time an action game had me checking my watch so often.
... to the insulting...
After all, the Xbox is essentially a mid-range PC wrapped inside a black plastic case. Perhaps Microsoft didn't want to crimp sales of its marquee Xbox game. Whatever the reason, Halo on the PC is too little, too late.
The Xbox's processor and hard drive might qualify it as "mid-range", but its GPU is not-- and certainly was not when it was launched a full two years ago.
... and finally the contradictory...
For owners of extremely fancy, high-end computers costing thousands of dollars, Halo's graphics are sure to dazzle.
Hold on a second here. At first, the author wonders why Halo took "so long" to come to the PC, since the Xbox is basically a "midrange" PC, and then he complains that the system requirements are too high, because most users don't have the horsepower to see the dazzling graphics?
Here's a clue, Mr. Slagle. The Xbox version was for those people. The PC version is basically for people with high-end computers costing "thousands" of dollars. (Last time I checked, almost all the computers worth having cost "thousands of dollars". If your budget runs more to the "hundreds of dollars" range, and you want to play Halo, buy an Xbox.
And for you, dear readers? Well, if anyone else feels like (politely, please) letting Mr. Slagle feel that he was perhaps ill-prepared to produce this review, then perhaps sending him a nice email would do the trick.
Have a nice day!
Thanks to GlennKM in the HBO forum who pointed out this review.
UPDATE: Shishka, over at HBO, noted that he emailed Slagle, who said a corrected article has been submitted. No note of what (other than the Master Sergeant flub) would be changed. At this moment, the original article is still available.
Louis Wu at HBO writes that all seven "instant win" trinkets in the Scavenger Hunt were found in less than 24 hours. In addition, a team of six got together and solved the puzzle already, claiming the grand prize in the process.
However, there are still 27 prizes left, so good hunting!
John Petrick at AEG, a company that seems to be doing PR for Microsoft's game studios, sent us an email that mentioned SketchFactor's post at Bungie.net that the new Halo client patch v.102 needed to connect to the Dedicated Server v.
hey this cheat allows you to be invinceable.
when you collect an over-shield it takes about 4 seconds for it to go up, at that very moment in time you are invinceable YES !!!!!!
you can try grinage jumping with it and get really high and try it with a warthog, just park it next to a over shield do the grinage jump to the warthog and then grab the over shield and jump in the warthog you have to time it just right.
i will be makeing a movie on it soon so stick around for it !!!!!!!!!!
OHHHH yer one more thing.
If you are afraid of Chelsea Bridge, you've probably got a specific opinion about which of the new maps in Halo PC you like best. If so, head over to Bungie.net and vote in their latest poll, noticed by Ross Mills and Louis Wu.
HBO also notes (thanks again Louis Wu) that if you don't like the GameSpy matchmaking interface, there is an alternative that some like better, although it isn't free. It's called The All Seeing Eye, and it supports CounterStrike, Quake 3 Arena, BF1942, and now Halo. There's a 21-day trial and the price is $10 per year or $30 for a lifetime (assuming the business lasts as long as you do; the service has been around now for over 2 years).
Louis Wu at HBO points out that version 1.02 of the Halo Dedicated Server is available; but server administrators are warned not to install it yet, as the Halo client also needs a patch to work with this server version, and that patch isn't out yet.
Found another review of Halo PC it is mostly positive and says "...this is the game you want to own.", the review is found on a risque website that does contain nudity and adult material, so stay away minors. On another note Narcogen is sure that he's read this or something similar posted earlier. Check it out, if yer old enough here.