Halo PC Hands-On

Bungie always said that a PC version of Halo would be out sometime after the Xbox release, but it wasn't until late last year that Microsoft confirmed a studio had been contracted to start working on the conversion. The developer, Gearbox Studios, set out to faithfully convert the game to use high-resolution DirectX 9 graphics and to rewrite the network code to make online play possible. We had a chance to play the result of Gearbox's labor at E3, and the news is good.

Jumping into a familiar single-player level gave us plenty of opportunity to see just how good the game feels with PC mouse-and-keyboard controls. Aiming with a mouse seems to make the game a little easier, given that the lock-on reticle system is the same. The elegant Xbox control scheme translates over to just a handful of keys, with the grenade throw assigned to the right mouse button. Perhaps the one moment we missed the Xbox analog controls was when we climbed into a warthog, but the driving controls were still quite intuitive.

Halo is known for its high production values and for the fact that its rich 5.1 audio matches its lush visuals. Although it's perhaps more rare for gamers to have really good 5.1 speaker setups on a PC, if you have one, you'll be able to put it to good use. The PC version of the game has 3D audio support via Creative's EAX standard. As for the graphics, playing the game at high resolutions on a computer monitor naturally means that it will look crisper, but it's a relief to see that the texture detail, though unchanged, still looks pretty good.

No first-person shooter can expect much success without good multiplayer support. Gearbox has put plenty of work into getting the competitive multiplayer options running smoothly for Internet matches, but unfortunately the cooperative mode that Halo was known for will likely be missing in action. Bungie's producer for the game told us that it might still happen, but it's looking less and less likely, as the team hasn't been able to meet the level of performance that we'd expect. The difference between the competitive and co-op modes is that co-op requires exact synchronization between the players' systems to keep the AI and scripting in lockstep--and that's prevented by the higher latency that Internet connections exhibit.

Nonetheless, Halo's PC multiplayer options have been beefed up to include six new maps, three new vehicles, and one new weapon. The online multiplayer will allow many more players to compete together, so many of the new maps are large. One map we saw was a huge forested expanse with rolling terrain and team bases on opposite sides. This map included what might be mistaken for a regular warthog, but it's really the new rocket-launcher warthog, which can fire up to three rockets before requiring a lengthy reload. The same map included another vehicle not present in the Xbox multiplayer, the tank. We saw the third vehicle, the banshee, on a map that featured a bridge crossing a foggy chasm. Having players dogfighting in the map's three flyers will add a new dimension to the competition. We also saw the one new weapon that's sure to be in the game--the formidable fuel rod gun that the huge covenant elites carried late in Halo's single-player game but you couldn't pick up. Finally, to round out the multiplayer options, there's a new interface that can be used to create many more custom game modes.

The PC version of Halo is due out at the end of the summer. Bungie expects to conduct a beta test of the online multiplayer at some point before the game's release.