Well, its been a long time coming, and now, finally, Bungie has come out of the shadows and has spoken the words everyone has been waiting to hear. No, not their next project, but rather the inevitable port of Halo 2 to the PC. Announced today, one of the Microsoft Game Studios subsidiaries will be working to port Halo 2. This comes as no suprise, as everyone has been expecting this, but here’s the kicker: its for Windows Vista only and will not be backwards compatable with any other Windows operating system. There is no word on a Mac version.
The complete singleplayer campaign and all the multiplayer content released up until now is being ported over, and though there will be no new official content released by Bungie for multiplayer, the ability for gamers to develop their own content and levels gurantees a most interesting experience. While the matchmaking system from XboxLive will not be present, a new system is being developed to work just as well.
Though Bungie is still preoccupied with the development of their next project, they will be working with the unnamed studio to create as fluid and vivid a port as possible. No release date has been announced, but judging from the fact that the project has been in development alongside Vista, I wouldn’t be suprised if a release was made within the first six months of the operating system…
Here’s the official press release:
Master Chief Dual-Wields His Way to Windows Vista
“Halo 2,” the award-winning sequel to the instant classic “Halo: Combat Evolved” to make its PC debut on the Windows Vista platform
“Halo 2,” the game that redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action for millions of gamers worldwide, is set to explode onto PCs exclusively for Windows Vista. “Halo 2″ for Windows Vista will be developed by a dedicated Microsoft Game Studios team in partnership with Bungie Studios.
Only for Windows Vista, “Halo 2″ will offer gamers both the single-player campaign and multiplayer experience of the original, as well as the additional maps offered in the “Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack.” Gamers will also have the exciting opportunity to build, create and customize their own multiplayer levels.
“Halo: Combat Evolved” and its sequel, “Halo 2,” have achieved phenomenal success on the Xbox video game platform as gamers around the world follow the saga of Master Chief in his battle against the Covenant forces. In 2003, the original “Halo” roared onto Windows PCs. In “Halo 2″ for Windows Vista, the action picks up where the first game ended. Master Chief, with the help of a small group of marines, has destroyed the religious artifact and artificial world known as “Halo,” and is making his way back to Earth. There, he and the last surviving Earth forces will mount a titanic struggle against the marauding Covenant enemy. To date, the Halo franchise has sold more than 14.5 million games worldwide with over 600 million hours of multiplayer action logged across Microsoft’s Xbox Live online gaming service.
Source | Bungie.net
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