Halo 2 PC slips

Previously set for release today, port of Bungie Software's Xbox first-person shooter gets pushed back a couple of weeks.

PC gamers with a penchant for first-person shooters have already waited two and a half years for the Xbox hit Halo 2 to be ported to their platform of choice, and Microsoft has confirmed they'll have to wait a little bit longer. The release of Halo 2 for the PC, previously scheduled for today, has been pushed back a fortnight to May 22.

According to a Microsoft representative, the game was pushed back "to make some improvements to the install experience and address other technical issues."

Originally developed by Bungie Software, Halo 2 for the PC has been entrusted to internal Microsoft studio Hired Gun. As for new features not supported in the Xbox version of the game, Halo 2 for the PC will feature a map editor, achievement points, and support for Games for Windows - Live, Microsoft's PC counterpart to the Xbox Live subscription service. However, Halo 2 will run only on Windows Vista.

For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

250 Comments

  • SoberWarock

    Posted Jun 1, 2007 1:57 am PT

    man I like eating dinner

  • DarkManiaN_1979

    Posted May 28, 2007 11:47 pm PT

    Rubbish. If they're gonna be that way about it i'll stick to the Xbox version

  • supafly101

    Posted May 23, 2007 8:27 pm PT

    http://nikon.bungie.org/news.html?item=18626 yay for XP!

  • BoltonTech

    Posted May 23, 2007 11:56 am PT

    Microsoft just released a new statement for post on www.deadlytech.com relating to the delay of the release. Check it out at: www.deadlytech.com/?p=367

  • jimjim350

    Posted May 23, 2007 10:15 am PT

    it dident get pushed back i see it at bestbuy all the time

  • Char_Zeon

    Posted May 21, 2007 7:42 pm PT

    wee got pushed back again to april 1st

  • f789790

    Posted May 18, 2007 2:06 pm PT

    Who cares about the vista requirement. I am sure somebody will make a hack to play on XP. If they can fully hack Vista and allow people to pirate it easily I'm sure someone can remove the vista requirement.

  • pkdorx3

    Posted May 16, 2007 2:26 am PT

    I got to say that I really really hope that it works well on vista specially since its the only way to play it (hopefully not for to long). I know that its an old game compared to other better looking newer PC ones. but its a great old game, and even though I played it on Xbox before I'm still getting it for vista, for 3 reasons ; Games for windows live, Achievements, and better graphics then before, in that order. And also hopefully free user created content

    I'm really excited about GFWL, sure that PCs have had online gaming for ages before consoles, better pings and all that but live is just so easy to use all in one kind of community that easily rivals or exceeds any other PC service of that type, even for a fee its just outstanding. Beyond halo 2 i really hope that PC games start to really use this service. Not to mention that in the not so far future the opportunity to just totally own controller user on a FPS ( even if is not Halo 2) and settle the what I like to call "non-dispute" of the KB+Muse vs Controller issue officially. I believe that the GFWL concept should of started a long time ago, I mean if its that easy to use with a controller, hell a mouse and KB on GFWL should be even better, I say let the PAWNAGE BEGIN!!!!

    On one final note. Its ironic that the reason why I use XP over Vista like 95% of the time is the reason why I'm going to HAVE TO use Vista in the end "GAMING".

  • theKSMM

    Posted May 15, 2007 10:38 pm PT

    The XBOX franchise was virtually built around Halo in concert with XBOX Live, so there's no surprise that Microsoft would again use the brand that they paid for to reap some additional benefit. Within a couple of years, Vista will be ubiquitous, but if they can dangle Halo 2 in order to get a few high-tech early adopters on board, why not? Hopefully you'll get accustomed to Vista (or maybe even like it...gasp) and tell your friends who will then upgrade also.

  • elrod92

    Posted May 15, 2007 4:28 am PT

    You'd be surprised izod...

  • thunder350

    Posted May 14, 2007 4:24 pm PT

    Well said izod91 and Hipac. But most the people bashing Vista are Mac fanboys.

  • izod91

    Posted May 14, 2007 11:59 am PT

    All the previous comments about Vista being fine is true, for the most part. I agree that it was bad on Microsofts part to release this game only on Vista, but the new OS does work pretty well, and is not too different from XP apart from the "Aero" interface. As for incompatibilities, I'm sure that Microsoft will fix them one by one in Windows updates. It's not like if you buy it you're screwed; no company is dumb enough to make a couple million customers that mad.

  • Hipac

    Posted May 14, 2007 1:58 am PT

    y does everyone have to complain about it comeing out on PC. MAN do u think they were targeting xbox players that already had the game. GROW A BRAIN. vista is fine. just all u noobs out there dont know how to use it...so stop complaining

  • XDanyboyX

    Posted May 12, 2007 7:22 pm PT

    that is SO BULL ON WINDOWS VISTA COME ON!!!!!!! i perfer on XP thats way BETTER!!!!!!

  • KnottAnneEmo

    Posted May 12, 2007 3:52 pm PT

    WTF!!!! i am gunna have to install dual boot system just so ican run old games on XPH and halo2 etc on Vista!!!????!!???

  • kappareign

    Posted May 12, 2007 4:36 am PT

    what kind of idiotic company makes products that only work with their newest software? wanna play halo 2 on PC? ok, do you have vista? better get it. got vista? wanna play your older games on vista? too bad. wish we had made a better more compatible OS with the hundreds of programmers and billions of dollars at our disposal? i bet so

  • jgon_9

    Posted May 11, 2007 9:42 pm PT

    Why would I want to play an old FPS, when there are a ton of new games out there to play? Sure mouse and keyboard support is awesome, but Halo 3 is coming out for Xbox 360. I'd rather get that and plug in a mouse and keyboard

  • jimbo6923

    Posted May 11, 2007 9:10 pm PT

    Vista is too new and unstable to even be considered as a purchase.... but Microsoft made a great move by forcing people to buy it so they can play the same mediocre game that 12 year olds around the world have been playing since 2004! There's a reason why Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world, he works smart, not hard.

  • thunder350

    Posted May 10, 2007 10:19 pm PT

    @ c0de_red999...
    Buy it on xbox/360 with bad graphics..... or buy it on PC with great graphics/res.... hmmm thats a hard choice....

  • Kodo_Beast

    Posted May 10, 2007 9:57 pm PT

    @ c0de_red999

    Not to mention a Map Editor, the biggest addition by far. Look at RTS games such as Starcraft or Warcraft III or Elder Scrolls editing program and how popular those editors are. It'll add a whole new aspect to Halo 2.

  • c0de_red999

    Posted May 10, 2007 5:40 pm PT

    not to diss anybody who dosent have a 360 or xbox but why do u want to spend 50 more bucks on a game that u have all ready played. the only thing this game has that the xbox version dosent have is better graphics and resiluition

  • sargemat

    Posted May 10, 2007 2:25 pm PT

    lol. Some realy silly people. I hope for your sake you are taking the piss

  • dannyabal85

    Posted May 10, 2007 2:20 pm PT

    HALO WARS the rts is coming out this friday this is tight im psyched. Ign has all the info gamestop leaked they were selling it on their website. Its out for mac ps3 ps2 psp ps1 gameboy advance gameboy color gizmondo wii gamecube snes ps5 atari 8500 ngage. Im so amped im getting it for every system. ill be pwning noobs all day. i love ngage it makes me want taco bell. This humorous comment brought to you buy danny abal inc

  • mooseman721

    Posted May 10, 2007 5:30 am PT

    How long do they need :{

  • combat1818

    Posted May 10, 2007 4:19 am PT

    mmm be carefull people there is some piece of excrement on here who keeps reporting anyone who posts something this piece of excrement doesnt like

  • thunder350

    Posted May 10, 2007 12:24 am PT

    lol good luck at getting it to run on a mac jack4571

  • DoctorFu

    Posted May 9, 2007 9:37 pm PT

    I'd rather them fix any and ALL problems before releasing. Just look at what happened with the Certain Affinity Blastacular Map Pack!

  • jack4571

    Posted May 9, 2007 8:09 pm PT

    aww man if you do this with halo 3 i'm useing a mac

  • zoo3

    Posted May 9, 2007 8:03 pm PT

    i'm sure someone will make a crack, so it works on xp. heck, halo and halo 2 were running off of a windows NT clone on the xbox or so my IT friends tell me.

  • Blaster2k7

    Posted May 9, 2007 7:06 pm PT

    Microsoft, this is such B$. You disappoint me.

  • chaoscontrol489

    Posted May 9, 2007 6:43 pm PT

    postponing is LAME!!

  • thunder350

    Posted May 9, 2007 6:14 pm PT

    @andrew_ribbons, well said

    @Chainblast, some aspect of the game do run on DX10. If you have a DX10 Video card. Do your research next time.

    @ Drmario57, All due respect I bet you don't even have a copy of Vista, I can play my games perfect. HL2,CSS,DODS,Dark Messiah M&M, BF 1942, BFV, BF2, BF2142, CoH,SC,EAW:FoC,etc.

    And thats on a x600 SE, not the greatest video card.

    But i will give the benefit of the doubt that its a problem with your setup.

  • combat1818

    Posted May 9, 2007 6:02 pm PT

    like i said in an earlier post IF YOU REALLY ARE INTO YOUR PC FPS then this game shouldnt even bother you it is 2 YEAR OLD TAT but plz stop moaning about vista IT IS THEE NEW OS IT IS HERE IT AINT GOING NOWHERE------JESUS ITS ONLY £65--OR MAYBE YOU COULD GET IT FREE SOMEHOW?

  • DrMario57

    Posted May 9, 2007 4:45 pm PT

    no one get vista, im just about to format mine... going back to XP, all my good games like HL2 don't run on Vista well, so i shouldn't get Vista to play games

  • Chainblast

    Posted May 9, 2007 4:27 pm PT

    "I'm sure they would have released it for XP JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER FRANCHISE THAT THEY ARE TIED IN WITH if it could run on XP."

    What the **** are you smoking man? Of course Halo 2 is capable of running on XP. It's absurd to think otherwise. MS wants to create as much exclusive content for Vista as possible to encourage sales among gamers. Much like Nintendo did with Twilight Princes and Super Paper Mario for the Wii. If you want to see what DX10 can pump look at Crysis. Halo 2 as a Vista/DX10 game is ****ing absurd.

  • bka4u2c_basic

    Posted May 9, 2007 4:11 pm PT

    Yea, what he said.

  • andrew_ribbons

    Posted May 9, 2007 4:08 pm PT

    @ the_real_VIP :

    Oh sorry mate, must remember not to have an opinion in future, cos it might annoy YOU! Ha, the irony! You call me a supremacist, your name is "the_real_VIP" and then you state "(all the wrong companies)" at my opinion. Good skills being hypocritical there!

    To be honest, does it really matter whether or not it comes Vista only? In all fairness, other games will follow suite in a not-too-distant future. Already most new releases are prefering Vista over XP, such as MS FS X, Crysis, Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander. It's only one more step to stop supporting a 6 year old OS, which has now become redundant for games, in the wake of the oncoming DX10, which doesn't work on XP. I think there is a very serious "claw the rock you're sat on" mentality with PCGamers now, that WILL inhibit them in the future. If you were running a Geforce 3 Ti, which came out around 2001, same time as XP, in this gaming day and age, you would be the laughing stock of the community. Not only does that card not run modern titles, it doesn't even run recent one's properly either. So why, therefore, is a big fuss to update your OS after 6 years, when it's cheaper to do so than get even a mid-range graphics card?

    I know it'll die down in the end, people will realise that their stubborness isn't paying off and will probably pay up. Or just get a console. Good luck to them, i say.

  • skirlnik

    Posted May 9, 2007 4:06 pm PT

    The "if you don't like it, don't buy it" is my primary problem with Microsoft. Even if I don't want a new (MS) operating system, it will be forced on me eventually. New computers no longer have the option of preinstallation of XP. I work with the public, in a library, so MS constantly shoving a new OS down your throat gets a little old. How does a new version of Office improve my life? It doesn't. In fact, it makes things harder for most people, because the majority are Reggie Fils-Aime's "have-nots" who have a hard enough time with what's already there. Just to clarify, on my part - I don't like it, I'm not buying it.

  • BloodMist

    Posted May 9, 2007 3:55 pm PT

    Better security.Hehehehe, don't make me laugh.Well, too late but.....right there i knew you really had no valid point, and you don't.

    BTW I have an Object Desktop theme that looks a hell of a lot nicer than Vista does.

  • malmeid2

    Posted May 9, 2007 3:52 pm PT

    You could always buy an xbox for $30 on ebay and Halo 2 for another $10? And what's the difference between releasing a game for a specific console and releasing one for a specific OS? Sounds like the same idea to me. I don't see you crying about Nintendo releasing Warioware for Wii instead of Gamecube. There's probably certain aspects of the game that are dx10 required (due to the massive graphics update and additional content). I'm sure they would have released it for XP JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER FRANCHISE THAT THEY ARE TIED IN WITH if it could run on XP. Let's face it, more people would have bought the game on XP (in terms of money, not copies sold) than upgrade to Vista and MS knows this. Do you think they would forfeit that chee$e just to try and "force Vista" onto people when M$ knows that people aren't going to upgrade until they're good and ready and not just for Halo 2 (which I think that 99% of gamers who wanted to play it have already played it). Unless I am missing something here. People are always complaining about anything that MS does. Just grow up. You sound like a **** dude.

  • Dilan120

    Posted May 9, 2007 3:43 pm PT

    stupid freakin idiots microsoft is for doing this i mean i havent played it on xbox so i was gonna buy it for the PC but i have XP

  • thunder350

    Posted May 9, 2007 3:35 pm PT

    BloodMist you have soooo much wrong,

    #1 They aren't forcing you to buy anything. And as for no one buying it... on release they sold 20% more then they sold of XP on release.

    #2 Vista has better security, better features, more stable, looks alot nicer, and comes with DX10, which is by itself amazing. Also 11 GB's? Where you get this info from mac.com? You can choose what you want installed and not to make it bigger size, or smaller size.

    So no advantage over XP? lol... sorry but your just plain wrong. Also They aren't releasing DX10 for XP. But it is backwards compatible.

  • bka4u2c_basic

    Posted May 9, 2007 3:33 pm PT

    Bloodmist:
    1. True, if you want to play Vista is does require Vista so if you want to play you have to acquire Vista. But I have yet to find a game that I have to have no matter what. If I want to play it i make sure my PC meets the requirement's.

    2. You can't be further from the truth on features in Vista. I've already passed my Vista certification(70-620) so I'm full aware of Vista advantages over XP. I took the test for job security since I work in for a college. We we be teaching it in the fall and we have to prepare. I will simply paste the same thing I posted in another thread. These aren't all the features but ones that come to mind right now:

    1. Search feature - The best new feature in Vista for me. Searches everything and quickly. (Sometime too much)

    2. Performance and Reliability Monitor - Just take a look to see why your system has slowed down, who installed what and when, among other things. For tech support this is great.

    3. Windows Meeting Space - This is just too sweet, share your desktop and files with others and make corrections to share. Definitely beneficial in a work environment. 4. Control Panel - much more organized than XP (I always switched to classic view in XP, no longer) 5. Windows Mail - Formally Outlook Express - much improved

    6. Windows Calendar - Easily usable

    7. Superfetch - Speeds things up 8. Imagex - So much easier to create images without third party software

    9. UAC - Although a pest for me, great for people who just click yes to everything that pops up

    10. User directory is now much more organized instead of everything in My Documents.

    These are just a few items that I enjoy using Vista, granted I work in IT and know how to turn off certain things to optimize Vista but its still a great OS out of the box. Before Vista I turned indexing off in XP because it really served no purpose, now its so beneficial with the search feature in Vista. Don't get me wrong, XP is still a great OS and people can be perfectly happy using it. But when people only have the argument that Vista is eye candy, I know either they haven't read about any other the real features of Vista or they installed it, look at it and only saw the new UI. Either way it makes people sound ignorant about Vista when you don't have a point as to why Vista is garbage.

    So lets hear why the features of Vista are garbage with some valid points. I could care less what other people use, I only know what I like.

  • BloodMist

    Posted May 9, 2007 3:04 pm PT

    Heh, bka4u2c_basic:

    1:MS is FORCING you to buy VISTA of you wanna play Halo 2 on the PC, for absolutely no good reason whatsoever.There is no reason for it, other than they want more people to buy Vista, because hardly anybody is buying it.

    2:The only advantages Vista has over XP, are already available on XP via free apps you can download over the net.And if they're not, they're useless filler.Just like Vista.11 gigs of HD space, for THAT?For an OS that really, seriously, when you think about it, offers nothing noteworthy of value?Alright, enjoy your 400 dollar piece of bloatware, dude.

    Nothing in your post above me would justify buying a new OS for, they're either slight improvements on already existing things, or they can indeed be found via third party apps, such as for the system performance diags you mentioned, loggers, calenders, and ect.Hell you could change the entire configuration of the GUI to your very whim using LiteStep if you really wanted to get into it.BTW i like how you avoided the whole Halo 2 Vista only issue by basically avoiding it completely.That was great.

    And yeah, i'm using XP, you bet your ass, XP is a great OS that offers a lotta advantages over the previous versions of Windows.Vista has no advantage over XP, in any way, shape, or form, that really means anything to anyone.It's the new WinME, really.I am, BTW, gonna be FORCED to buy Vista for DX10, for, once again, no reason.Unless MS caves and releases DX10 for XP, which, the way things are going, just might happen.

  • omegakie

    Posted May 9, 2007 1:47 pm PT

    Vista is the worst. Long live xp

  • bka4u2c_basic

    Posted May 9, 2007 1:27 pm PT

    Wow, what a bunch of whiners and complainers. Its real simple, if you don't like vista, don't buy it. If you don't want to play Halo2, don't buy it. Nobody is forcing you to do anything. I find it absolutely hilarious that people bad mouth Microsoft yet they still use their products. I bet everyone here who downplays Microsoft, including using "$" in the name, are NOT posting from a LInux PC with Open Office and OPERA/Firefox. It doesn't matter if its pirated or not you are still using their product. If I felt strongly as some of you about Microsoft I wouldn't be caught dead using any of their products. So please go cry on a "I hate Microsoft but I still use their products" forum.

    Vista is a good OS in its current state, you just have to know what you're doing. Which is obvious some of you do not. Nobody even has a valid point about why they don't like Vista. Anyways, I've been using Vista since beta and love it. No way am I going back to XP. I use vlite to slipstream my drivers(chipset, video & sound) and to remove all the stuff I don't use. A clean install from a slip streamed DVD using vlite runs perfect. Can't wait for Halo 2 to be actually released. I don't own a newer console so I have never played it but I did play Halo 1 on PC. It was entertaining and worth the money but didn't hold much replay value. Hoping Halo 2 will be as good or better.

  • darth-revan

    Posted May 9, 2007 12:32 pm PT

    MS has done the one thing no console maker wants to do, alienate thier consumer base. They shouldve had Halo 2 come with Windows Vista and sell it to people who have XP. Look up Burned in the dictionary and you'kll find someone who bought and opened Halo 2 thinking it plays on XP.

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