Halo 2 and Gears of War for PC

Xbox.com has both Halo 2 and Gears of War for Windows. I know both the Halo frachise and the GoW franchise are really thought of first and foremost as console games, but are the PC versions any good?

 

Halo looks really dated now. Graphics are awful and gameplay feels old.

 

back in their own timeline, GoW is an awesome game with intensive graphics, my laptop is taxing alot back then, but if you play it now its pretty much okay. since the level of maturity and gameplay progresses, you might find the gameplay (as of today's modern experience) a little bit outdated, but for me the game is still worthwhile. Gears was one of my favorite games in PC, shame that they didn't even bothered to continue the series on PC.

 

GoW is a very sluggish game. The controls on mouse and keyboard are not very good, Epic Games didn't put much time into it IMO. Have you played the first Dead Space game? The third person mouse controls in GoW are nearly as bad. Nothing like ME2.

 

Yea definitely better with a controller much much more

 

Gotcha, I was afraid of something like that. I haven't played Dead Space 1, but I have played Arkham Asylum, and you could really tell it wasn't made for mouse and keyboard. Mass Effect 2 feels like it was built for the PC...really nice execution.

 

Halo 2 is good...I wouldn't buy it if you've already played it on Xbox, though; multiplayer is dead.

 

Never played either in XBox, and I'm looking primarily for single-player. Is the single-player of Halo 2 worth $19? Would I need to have played Halo 1 to get what's going on? (I haven't).

 

I think Halo 2 is by far the worst installment in the series (not that I think the Halo series is particularly good). I wouldn't pay 20 bucks for it.

 

Opposite for me. Arkham Asylum was excellent on keyboard and mouse.

 

I'll give it another shot then. I didn't spend much time on it, and maybe I just didn't get used to it in time. And maybe I need to just remap the cloak-spin that's default-mapped to the central mouse button (which in my mouse, isn't in a comfortable place for regular use).

 

I can't map anything to my middle mouse button anymore. I've been using that as my "push to talk" key for like 7 years.

 

I thought Gears of War on the PC was great fun...I didn't play with keyboard and mouse though...an old Saitek P2600...some of the functions didn't map correctly, but I could live without them...I imagine using a 360 controller with a PC would make the gameplay experience at least as good as the 360...

Gears of War 2 was much better than the original, but, as mentioned, never made available to the PC...

I haven't played any of the Halo games on the PC...however, I've had to play through them all on the 360...Halo 3 then ODST then back to Halo 2 in compatibility mode and then Reach, and now my son and I are plugging our way through Halo Anniversary...I never owned an original XBox and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about...I thought the PC had better shooters and a better control scheme...my brother-in-law said "Check out the vehicles in Halo 2" and I showed him the vehicles in UT2004...point for the PC..."Well, check out the story in Halo 2"...and then I showed him Half-Life 2...two different games for the PC, but the PC titles were head and shoulders better than Halo 2 in certain areas...

The Halo stories have grown on me, and the control scheme is very intuitive...I'm still better aiming with a mouse, but tossing grenades and meleeing is much easier with the 360 controller...

If you love shooters and you've played all the better shooters for the PC then Halo/Halo 2 might be worth it, but to answer your question, I don't know how well Halo 2 translated to the PC...

Gears of War is a very different animal and worth a play if you've never tried it...it feels more tactical (slower paced?) than a typical shooter...

 

maybe its just in my case, im always now used to a keyboard control, even while playing nba 2k series my fingers are more comfortable on keyboard, granted i never used (or tried) the game pad.

but honestly with the steep exception of the bugs and glitches, i love the play style of GoW, (tactic cover and shoot plus squad control).

they had me at fear 3 by the way

 

Ask yourself: is a seven year-old console port of a game that is mostly known for its multiplayer worth $20 to you if you're only going to play single-player?

If the answer is yes, check the FPS section of Steam's store and ask yourself again.

For $5, maybe, but for $20 I'd take my money elsewhere. I would agree with whoever it was that said that Halo 2 is the worst game in the series as well. Really, after the first game, I don't think any of the Halo games are particularly worth bothering with. Maybe it's the fact that Halo was only the third console FPS worth bothering with (Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Halo), but novelty or quality, none of the later games have seemed very good to me.

 

I would definitely play through Halo: Combat Evolved before Halo 2. I think they have awesome campaigns and I had a lot of fun with both. The first one had some extras on PC, and multiplayer is actually still relatively populated.

But either way, Halo 3, ODST and Reach were never released on PC.

 

just make sure you have Halo 1 for PC,thats the only Halo you need, and the multi is still alive for the most part