Rampancy

Another review that went by the boards by us this past few days was FiringSquad's review of Halo, which is harsh. They call Halo's graphics "dated" and "blocky", and repeatedly say that such-and-such shortcoming is "a huge mistake" or "inexcusable" or "defies logic". However, let it not be said that we rant whenever anyone criticizes our favorite game; a lot of this review's points are spot-on, and raise questions that are more than fair to ask.

A quick rundown on the pro and con side:

PRO

• AI. "AI is the best in the business."
• Sound. "The music is as moody and powerful as it ever was."
• Campaign. "The singleplayer game is, for all intents and purposes, the best pure action on the PC since Half-Life, and maybe ever." (Ed. note: Sheesh, guys... play Marathon sometime.)

CON

• Weapon balance. "The sniper rifle is abusive. It dominates outdoor matches."
• No co-op. "Gearbox may not have had the full two years to put it in, but Microsoft and Bungie did. It's their fault that it didn’t make it into the game and quite frankly, it’s a huge mistake."
• Multiplayer. No boot/ban facilities; text-only chat in same window as console messages.
• Graphics. Blocky.

Of course, worst of all may be the backhanded compliments:

The abundant use of voices and voice effects is still above and beyond most any other recent game has done. From the friendly, reassuring voice of Cortana, through the chatter of marines ("hey, you stole my kill!") and the surprised yells of grunts, to the frustrated rage of elites - this is the kind of detail and character you'd expect only from a Blizzard game.

Ouch!

The remarks about graphics and co-op especially are worth attention. We've all read articles about how Halo is a "complicated beast", requiring more programmer-hours than other projects to port. I'm sure nobody believes that PC Halo took so long because everybody was on vacation.

However, nearly all these articles give us to believe that what's complicated about Halo-- and difficult to port-- are the rendering routines. When users complain about low framerates even on new machines with decent video cards, they're often told this is just a consequence of just how much work the Halo engine has to do, and the system resources required to do it.

So how then can PC Halo's graphics be blocky and unimpressive compared to other games? Basically, how can the game's engine be so complex that it causes problems for machines that are able to run games with graphics that reviewers apparently believe offer superior graphics to Halo?

Perhaps it's too technical question for there to be a simple answer, but it seems there is a basic contradiction here somewhere.

As for coop.. well, I agree with FiringSquad. The market is hungry for cooperative network play. Playing coop is the most fun I have playing Halo, and also the most fun I had playing Myth, Marathon, and Unreal.

Let's hope there's a patch. Thanks Louis Wu.