Honestly, Halo doesn?t bring a whole lot to the table that you haven?t already seen before. What it does have though is a cartload of the best stuff you?ve seen in other places. In addition to that Halo refines it all into a seamless presentation of sound, motion, and vivid action. That is why I feel the Xbox version of this game was so good; it wasn?t necessarily the next evolutionary step in shooters but it was a conglomeration of all the things we found great in others spiced up with a few bonuses like vehicular combat and fantastically huge maps.

The beta build I?ve been playing on is unfinished and therefore it is quite difficuly for me to talk about the positives and the negatives as they will likely be resolved by the time the game goes gold. What I can talk about are the similarities this version has to its console counterpart.

First off, if anyone is worried about the graphics those worries are unfounded. While playing the game at a 800x600x32 resolution the grass texture covering the ground looks photo-realistic and lacks any pixilation whatsoever. For those of you who refuse to believe me check out the attached screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

The famous Halo bump-mapping is also there in full force. In fact, looking around at the structures you?d be hard pressed to find a surface that isn?t shiny, bump-mapped, or both. If you have no idea what I?m talking about here think about how it looks in real-life when you shine a flashlight at a textured wall. Shadows appear in relation to cracks and crevices in the walls texture. As you move the flashlight the shadows move as well. With bump-mapping you are able to accurately simulate this effect on flat polygons and the end result looks very nice!

The physics engine is brilliant as well. Personally I can?t wait to see what people do with this game but I?m sure that the old ?Warthog Jump? and ?Red vs. Blue? movies will be put to shame after this release. Grenades send bodies sprawling, rockets create major carcass hang-time, and jumping warthogs has never been better.

In fact I?m half convinced that the warthogs in this build I played have another hundred horsepower over their counterparts on the Xbox. They move substantially faster and move a whole lot better. The scorpion tank feels identical to its former self, as do the ghost and banshee vehicles. Gearbox would have won some brownie points with me had they beefed up the plasma cannons on the ghosts though and they are still weak just like they were on the Xbox version.

?What about the incredible Artificial Intelligence of the original?? I can hear you asking. It?s here and just as deadly as it was before. If you want a real challenge, play on the legendary setting and be prepared to taste plasma. I fully realize that I?m going to hear from the ?uberleet? crowd that beat Halo blindfolded, with only one hand on legendary and thought it was boring, but I think that this AI is some of the best I?ve seen. The nice thing about the difficulty settings in Halo is the fact that they don?t just make enemies more resilient to gunfire, increase their accuracy and multiply their numbers dramatically ? but rather the enemies actually become smarter too. I concede that I have no proof of this and it could just be my imagination but I swear that those coven drop-teams become bloodthirsty tacticians once you?ve graduated from ?normal? to ?legendary?.

Halo?s solid multiplayer is here and it?s better than before. I was able to play 1 vs. 1 with a friend on some of the new maps and a couple of the old ones too. While the lack of cooperative mode is a definite downer all the things that made the Xbox?s versus mode excellent is present and accounted for. Not only is there a grab-bag of different game types you can also custom-create your own game mode as your tastes suit you. How about capture-the-flag with only rocket launchers, warthogs, no radar, a limited number of lives per individual, and friendly fire set to active? No problem with this powerful set of game mode creation tools.

The new multiplayer maps are pretty cool and seem to be built around the idea of using team-based vehicular combat and capture the flag (that?s really the only way to play, right?). One map in particular was so gigantic that it would have taken a few minutes to run all the way across it.

In this PC edition Gearbox will be introducing two new weapons and one new vehicle. The new Warthog sports S-Mart?s top-of-the-line 3-barreled rocket launcher (this baby is assembled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, retails for about $1,199, features a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger). Don?t worry though, the original mini-gun warthog is still present and accounted for though. The bolt-launcher fires a green explosive projectile that is about the equivalent to the original Banshee?s missile weapon. In its current state there is no reload for the weapon but it uses battery life like the Covenent green-pea shooter (plasma pistol). It fires fairly rapidly but is vulnerable to overheating much like the Covenent blue-pea shooter plasma rifle.

The newly added flamethrower isn?t really much to look at in its current state but if you get hit with it you?re dead meat. Make that dead AND very well done meat. While the range on this beast is laughable in comparison to the pistol it will set you ablaze and as of me writing this there is no way to quickly extinguish yourself. Perhaps jumping in some water would do the trick but the opportunity never presented itself.

According to Electronic Boutique, we should be seeing Halo on store shelves by the end of September. As many of the frequent readers of this site have already brought up it will be interesting to see how Halo holds up in a sea of excellent-looking, upcoming titles like Half-life 2, Max Payne 2, and Doom 3. Time will tell but I predict that despite Halo?s ripe old age of two it will still have a little something for everyone and fly off store shelves. And besides, by the look of things, Half-Life 2 won?t be coming out until November anyways. How should you be spending your time in the interim? Halo LAN parties that?s how!

#1 - Anon@203.135.0.66 - 09/11/03 @ 04:36 AM EST Forget this game man MICRSOFT has not announce RALLISPORT CHALLENGE 2 and MIDTOWN MADNESS 3 for PC MICROSOFT ass hole should bring more games for PC cause rockstar announce GTA3 and GTA vice city MICROSOFT should be nice with PC platform instead of bringing substandard and less game for PC

#2 - Anon@203.135.0.66 - 09/11/03 @ 04:37 AM EST Forget this game man MICRSOFT has not announce RALLISPORT CHALLENGE 2 and MIDTOWN MADNESS 3 for PC MICROSOFT ass hole should bring more games for PC cause rockstar announce GTA3 and GTA vice city for XBOX MICROSOFT should be nice with PC platform instead of bringing substandard and less game for PC

#3 - Anon@203.135.0.66 - 09/11/03 @ 04:37 AM EST Forget this game man MICRSOFT has not announce RALLISPORT CHALLENGE 2 and MIDTOWN MADNESS 3 for PC MICROSOFT ass hole should bring more games for PC cause rockstar announce GTA3 and GTA vice city for XBOX MICROSOFT should be nice with PC platform instead of bringing substandard and less game for PC

#4 - E-Z-STREET - 09/11/03 @ 05:49 AM EST im not sure,but i think he wants you people to forget this game man!

#5 - Fin - 09/11/03 @ 06:40 AM EST /me forgets

/ #6 - Shataan - 09/11/03 @ 07:02 AM EST "While playing the game at a 800x600x32" does anyone actually play at this low a rez anymore? LOL " it will be interesting to see how Halo holds up in a sea of excellent-looking, upcoming titles " / with absolutely no new games coming or out at Halos release, it should do amazingly well, due to this fact, and let us not forget 3 to 4 years of hype. Last Edited on 09/11/03 @ 07:16 AM EST