Halo 2 - Retro PC Time Capsule vs OG Xbox - The Infamous Windows Vista Edition Revisited

[@f4micom]

rip john halo

[@roc6d]

And his bulletproof head

[@solanumtuberosa]

rip live action ass shots

[@Zorklis]

May he halo in heaven 😢

[@eSuaz]

He died at the end of halo 3

[@AL2009man]

rip master cheeks

[@LateNightHalo]

Another thing that was quite heavily downgraded in the transition from halo CE to halo 2 were the sparks and particle effects system. The impressive sparks from CE’s grenades, ricochet and explosions are nowhere to be seen. They were replaced with essentially a 2D gif of a spark

[@kendric_BUF]

When this vid dropped immediately thought of your vid on the lighting shadows in H2. Good to know there's a community mod in development to restore the intended lighting/shadows

[@Spendingryan]

Did you guys notice the mini-city cutscene part is missing all shadows on pc? And the covenant supercarrier is like half the size of the xbox version.

[@okankyoto]

First thing I noticed upon playing 2. Those tons of sparks and particles (along with the sound design) contributed to making CE feel really solid in a way that 2 does not.

[@Spendingryan]

@@okankyoto yeah, I miss driving the warthog on halo 1's second mission, and having the like the big particle rock crumbs with sound effects created by the warthog wheels when on certain rocky surfaces.

[@Ultizer]

Halo CE also has better shaders, the guns and other objects have a nice shine to them. Halo 2 is more flat.

[@AlexanTheMan]

“Hired Gun, you mind telling me what you're doing with that terminal?” “Sir, finishing this port” *_Run Time Error_*

[@f4micom]

I mistakenly called the new forza games “pay 2 win” for a sec here and i would like to apologise since that is not the correct term for what i meant really (i am not used to recording off the cuff while playing so i mixed my words up): what i meant really is that i don’t enjoy the entire system of game as a service/vip passes/rng wheelspins i think it’s detrimental to the experience as a whole and genuinely prefer the “old way” before the entire games as a service was forced on almost every new title

[@AlexanTheMan]

Oh I'm sure it was an innocent mistake. Games as a service are a bit different, they're "pay 2 lose" ;)

[@all-range-mode]

You were so great on this video! Instant sub to your channel 🙃

[@JuanLeon-oe6xe]

I mean, that's what we get for not gatekeeping akira "super snowflake" toriyama out of gaming.

[@ScottAhearnShipbuilder]

Real missed opportunity with this port to implement the stenciled shadows they intended to use on the xbox. The art assets would have really sung!

[@quietnumber2317]

That's pretty much impossible without an engine rewrite or at the very least a custom rendering pipeline. Even with community made shaders meant to replicate Halo 2's intended real time lighting with enhanced retail shadow maps there are performance and graphical issues that are simply inherent to how Halo 2 is rendered and cannot be fixed. The best we could hope for realistically is a public release of a Halo 2 PStencil build, though that too is kind of a moonshot.

[@Tailslol]

glad a fan is doing it on mcc steam.

[@Marchochias]

The remake for halo 2 is very good, though? Unlike the halo 1 remake anyway

[@Deliveredmean42]

We are not talking about the remake here. Some folks really want the Halo 2 OG stencil ligbting to see the game to what could have been. Especially when most models and background where indeed design aeound it to a degree.​@@Marchochias

[@mrpiratefox4497]

Its impossible. The stencil engine was scrapped entirely. The few dynamic shadows that exist in the game are shadow maps. What is still in the game files but isnt used is the per-pixel dynamic lighting

[@EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

Halo 2 and Breaking Benjamin.. I didn't think today could get any better than a damp quali session at Spa, but here we are :)

[@patrickdeucharsgk]

Is it better with or without lyrics? I could never decide

[@CAL1MBO]

lmao

[@Resist_Oppression]

I love spa francorchamps! My fave circuit.

[@xboxnerd4759]

John sounds kinda different

[@mr.selfimprovement3241]

It's just the fact that he's playing on a non-oled panel and without a RetroTink 4K - without his expensive toys, john shrinks and becomes a small boy again. *_THAT_* is why john needed to wait for Steam Deck OLED! lmao. 🤣

[@JuggernautAlpha]

That' s not John Linneman. That' s Lohn Jinneman.

[@granglerarcade1950]

sundslike he is flirting best part of the video becouse the rest is crap.

[@mr.selfimprovement3241]

@@granglerarcade1950 Alex is *DEFINITELY* not flirting with her. SHE is not his _type_ if you know what I mean. 😉

[@granglerarcade1950]

@@mr.selfimprovement3241 ah did not know no luck for him then lol

[@Interference22]

If I recall correctly, Halo 2 is locked to 60 FPS because a lot of things, in particular AI calculations, are bound to the framerate. Even now, in the Master Chief Collection, it's still locked to 60. Amusingly, the original was at 30 and no effort was made to adjust the AI when the framerate was raised, meaning higher difficulties are now noticeably harder to play at 60 FPS because enemies react faster. The Jackal snipers in Halo 2 on Legendary are comically absurd. As for the PStencil renderer, you can tell from the design of textures, levels, and enemies that they built everything around stencil shadows and really panicked when they realised that it couldn't possibly work at the scale they wanted. The sheer number of characters with overhanging armour parts that would create deep shadows in a stencil renderer (and don't in the final one) are readily apparent. Remember how the Master Chief has a baked in shadow on his visor for the prongs sticking out of the front of his helmet? They removed that in Halo 2 because they thought they could make that real-time. Finally, yeah, the enhanced graphics on Halo CE are amazingly bizarre. Numerous scenery objects have details that don't fit the original collision properly, meaning if you attempt to snipe something close to a pillar you might end up shooting the wall because the original model moves past the point you're shooting through. Worse, that's not the only issue: there's a whole wall in The Library in enhanced graphics that shouldn't be there and is hiding an alcove in original graphics. You can literally walk through the wall. Also, try switching between the original and enhanced art in The Pillar of Autumn and marvel at how all the colour suddenly vanishes from the walls, doors, and crew uniforms in the new graphics. Like, why did they do that?

[@aleksanderziobro5221]

Halo 2 MCC is entirely uncapped in Classic Graphics but has bad framepacing issues in Remastered Graphics, almost as if the game is hardcoded to 60 in some places(on PC).

[@TheJayson8899]

@@aleksanderziobro5221that's not what he's referring to. He's referring to physics and AI.

[@alexsilva28]

​@@TheJayson8899No, read again. They literally started their comment by saying Halo 2 is locked to 60 even on MCC which is false

[@AzraelGFG]

jep halo 2 on legendary with 144fps is like dark souls on crack.

[@Interference22]

@@alexsilva28 That's what I said, yeah. The original AI code was locked to the a framerate of 30 FPS. When it was released on Vista the framerate cap was upped to 60 FPS but that same code wasn't adjusted to compensate, meaning enemies react twice as fast. I'd assumed the MCC was basically doing the same thing but, as it turns out, it's a little more complex than that. The framerate is now uncapped but the tickrate for AI updates etc. is STILL 60, meaning that it's twice as fast as it's meant to be, like the Vista version, but doesn't get any worse if you're running the game at a higher refresh rate.

[@davidescobar9309]

The Breaking Benjamin intro was onpoint

[@Gametism]

absolutely!

[@AlexanTheMan]

The most explosive music collaboration in the series

[@alexsilva28]

Alex and John know exactly what music to use for every single video 💯

[@krzysztofzaborowski8132]

what od you mean by intro?

[@Space_Australian]

It always hits close to home when I hear someone say they only had internet via some USB device instead of a router. I remember playing for years on a Sprint USB hotspot! Dark times

[@JayJapanB]

"gamma-ness" Hilarious

[@megapro125]

what does "gamma" do. It changes the gamma-ness duh...

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

It feels as if someone on the QA complained about "gamma correction" sounding too technical, and whoever was assigned to "correct" that decided to have a laugh.

[@Chasm9]

Aahh, the good old 8800GT in SLI... The best GPU of 2007 from those times when even 2 of these beats couldn't run Crysis maxed out at reasonable frame rates. 😅

[@JayJapanB]

GTX sli! Even beefier

[@sandman8920]

Was there a 9800 or something 🤔 I’m sure I had something like that was like 500 megs of ram.

[@PabloB888]

My 2007 PC (Q6600 3.2GHz + Geforce 8800Ultra 768MB) was able to run Crysis 1 with max settings at around 30-40fps at 1280x1024 in windows XP in DX9 mode (+DX10 very high settings mod), and I found the game to be a joy to play. My friends were amazed at how smoothly the game ran on my PC, so I think the combination of a CRT monitor (even 30fps looks perfectly sharp on CRT), plus awesome motion blur and my old 250Hz (4ms) gaming mouse made even 30fps games perfectly playable. I had Windows Vista, but I never played Crysis in DX10 on 8800Ultra, because it was VRAM limited (Crysis 1 needs about 1GB VRAM to run properly in DX10 maxed out settings). The game started at 40fps, but the longer I played, the worse the fps got due to insufficient VRAM. In 2012 I bought i7 3770K and a GTX680 2GB and I could finally play crysis 1 in DX10 settings in windows vista at 1920x1080 at 70-80fps. Except for the resolution the game looked the same and I thought I had not missed much when I first played the game in 2007 on my 8800Ultra. I even think my 8800U was CPU limited in crysis, so I wonder how much better performance I would get on much stronger CPU. I saw YT gameplay on i7 and 8800Ultra at 1080p and the game ran at 50fps at 1080p on medium settings, so I think i7 would allow me to get 60fps at 1280x1024 on high settings. People usually think crysis 1 was GPU intensive game, but I think it was extremely CPU bottlenecked game.

[@sandman8920]

@@PabloB888 I think we had a Q6600. I’m sure my card was a pny with some fancy image on it. I actually had to buy it for cod 4 because when we got the pc it wouldn’t run it then I found out that I needed a graphics card something I’d never had to buy before even though previous pcs were owned had no issues playing games like sega rally etc

[@jonny-b4954]

I've still got a 9800 GTX+. Haha Back when they still did the PLUS thing for a few years. It's got 512 MB of GDDR3 and still uses PCI 2.0. First graphics card I ever bought myself, had a couple cheap AMD cards my parents got me when I was a teen, but it still works actually. I've been planning on putting together my 2008 PC actually. Still have a 720p monitor and everything for it. Just been lazy. Only upgrade I would do would be to use my spare 250 GB SATA SSD as boot drive.

[@GuiOmania]

You guys should do a DF retro on Black on the original Xbox and Ps2 made by EA !!!

[@AndrewWheelerJr]

Has been a long time favorite of mine!

[@mbsfaridi]

Sadly Alex don’t do console, would love to see it though.

[@GuiOmania]

@@mbsfaridi i ask for the chanel i am sure John would love to do it !!!

[@mbsfaridi]

@@GuiOmania Yeah John would love it, hope they get Oliver to team up for such a great game.

[@CrunchgTime]

Riddick seemed like it used stencil shadows and also is still super fun till this day

[@TheJayson8899]

Just dynamic shadows as far as I'm aware

[@SimonBuchanNz]

I distinctly remember stencil shadows?

[@JockeSohls]

@@SimonBuchanNz Riddick absolutely used stencil shadows! I have worked together with (and still am) with many people who made that game, and the stencil shadows was definitely a point of pride. It was also one of the first (if not even the first) game that used normal maps! A super cool game in general :)

[@Хорошийигровойканал]

​@@JockeSohlscan you share some cool stories about development of Riddick?

[@JockeSohls]

@@Хорошийигровойканал Riddick was before my time at Starbreeze, so any stories are I have from that time are only ones that have been told to me by others, and I don't want to share stuff second hand, as I'm sure you'll understand. I got in on an internship on the tail end of the Assault on Dark Athena and remake project (I barely contributed anything on it), and the only game I worked on while there full time (that was released anyway) was the Syndicate reboot.

[@nhand42]

The Xbox dying was funny but also so worrying for the future of these retro consoles. I've got original Xbox and original PS2 and they've both needed repairs. Lucky I have some electronics experience and managed to fix them. But the majority of people will give up and possibly throw their broken consoles into the trash. It's getting harder and harder to keep retro consoles alive. It highlights the importance of emulators and game preservation.

[@jonny-b4954]

Yeah, I had to replace the belt on the CD drive for my Xbox 360 r ecently. And had to replace the laser on my PS1. I've had pretty good luck really though. Still running my original HDD for my OG 2005-2006 Xbox 360. My original Super Nintendo from when I was like 4 or 5 is still running too. Never had to do a single thing to do. Though the power cable input is broke, so it kind of just "sits" in place instead of the friction of the port holding it in.

[@CommanderZx2]

This video doesn't really feel like a comparison between the Vista and Xbox versions of Halo 2. Very little comparisons between the two versions of the games are made in the video.

[@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu]

I like it the port runs really well and better than the xbox version. So the conversation strayed to more of a discussion taking you back to that time period and give us context to what the gaming landscape and pc releases were like at the time. Explaining the context of its release.

[@ahmedtheshark2968]

​@@DaRkLoRd-rc5yu I see missing post processing effects on PC.

[@CommanderZx2]

@@ljh453 I preferred their comparison videos from the past of like the Max Payne games where they went into intricate differences between the versions of the games.

[@craigsampson3386]

​@@CommanderZx2 same.

[@hermes_job_observer144]

Sold out. Unfortunately, feeling IGN's negative impact already...😒😮‍💨

[@RaySpark]

The city landing scene looks so much better on the xbox, despite all texture popping. Looks like the windows version has broken lighting or something. Sad thing, this version is the base for all the ports we're having now.

[@86Fallowcp]

Yeah but they did go back and fix the graphical errors it had, plus adding some sandbox things missing as well

[@RaySpark]

​@@86Fallowcp oh, thank god!

[@felidiazbo]

@@86Fallowcp Did they fix most of the port errors? I'm holding on to playing it with the original graphics because of it

[@koigoi]

Yes, they did. It's safe to say that the MCC version is definitive now.

[@Ultizer]

The vista port was indeed dog shit despite it's high requirements.

[@Those2menoverthere]

The only way you should be playing Halo 2: Vista, is through the Project Cartographer client. It has fully uncapped FPS with proper frame interpolation systems in place for all animations. It can also do 30-tick rate like the OG Xbox version ran at, so it's possible to be able to do the original physics glitches again.

[@Nolasco.]

Thanks both of you 😊 P.S Alex, you made me laugh when you said "not John but someone special" 😅😂 that was such an unintentional burn 😂

[@KutieKatelyn]

Whoever edited that ending - you are great.

[@Nihongames]

I generally love Digital Foundry's videos, especially those that talk about retro games, but this episode deserved a better guest, calling someone who hasn't even played Halo 2 to talk about Halo 2 is quite contradictory, plus Alex Battaglia is excellent for covering PC but when he has to talk about consoles he shows a lack of knowledge and if there is a guest who doesn't know as much, then it gets complicated. These retro episodes need and deserve to be done by John, Alex can complement but John needs to be the host

[@markrobertson2301]

Amen. It felt more like a video about the era rather than Halo 2 specifically.

[@zeumai]

Yeah, I got the impression they'd both rather be talking about Half-Life.

[@hermes_job_observer144]

Sold out. Unfortunately, feeling IGN's negative impact already...😒😮‍💨

[@pobbityboppity1110]

Wrong

[@bungleprosy]

Ngl not many comparisons were made in conversation and the technical difficulties strayed the conversation a lot. F4mi seems very very nice and genuine, and I’m sure her videos are entertaining, but I was bummed that a video on Halo 2 feels sort of burned up by this. Halo 2 is a nightmarish pc port and I was excited to hear you and John talk about everything it did wrong, and maybe even mention the modern MCC port.

[@pobbityboppity1110]

Nah man

[@ilmc922]

Wow, I was so pleasently surprised to hear F4mi in a Digital Foundry video. This makes it 1000 times better.

[@chronossage]

My favorite feature Halo 2 Vista had that doesn't work now but I got to experience back in the game was the live install. This was a thing that I wish picked up but Microsoft added the ability to Vista to let you play the game streaming off the disk (like how consoles played off the disk) while it's installing. Halo 2 Vista was the only game to support this, and it did still worked on Windows 7. But it was so cool to just put the disk in you drive click like twice to confirm your install path and then the game just starts, and you could start playing the game as the opening streams off the disk and the first thing it installs is the first mission so you can instantly play the game while it just installs in the background. Just imagine is we could do that today and as you download these 100GB+ games the first thing downloaded is the tutorial and first levels so you can start playing with only 10% downloaded.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

I just saw it with Diablo 4, where you can start playing after... 40GB. But that's pretty much just that it hasn't downloaded the optional 4k textures yet

[@kamilciura7953]

Pretty common on PS5 with digital downloads. No idea what's keeping developers (Valve?) to use what they already have coded when it comes to installing the game to PC too.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

@@kamilciura7953 steam does manage the download, but the Halo Master Chief Collection only loaded Reach by default, and you could select and start the other games inside the collection while playing, so I don't think there's *technically* anything blocking it.

[@scriptablecat]

Y'all failed to mention TimeSplitters when talking about console FPSs at 20:40!

[@FrankLeeYoung]

That old Xbox was on life support 😭 Also wild that the Vista version still required Live??

[@halo2warfare]

Hope that Halo MCC on PC and Xbox had the map editor, Halo 2 Vista game with a map editor and never got ported over to Xbox or PC, also if they had a few more years on Halo 2, most of the cut content would have made it to the final release of Halo 2!

[@Lucromis]

GTA IV port for PC ONLY WORKS on high-end period correct hardware within a year or two when it came out. I had a phenom ii 965 + GTX 480 and it ran great. Every PC after it ran worse and eventually was nearly broken before fan patches and even an update in the 2020s removed multiplayer and didn’t fix the major issues. One of the worst PC ports of a good game ever. Nah it’s the worst.

[@AndrewWheelerJr]

Oh man. This takes me back. I never had an original Xbox but always wanted to play Halo 2. Machinimas were already being made despite no KZbin and they made me love the game. I remember seeing the system requirements and seeing "Windows Vista", then remembering that my sister's laptop had Windows Vista thus must be able to play Halo 2! Little did I know that her laptop was effectively just a web browser. Regardless, I got Halo 2 on PC but actually never got the opportunity to play it. It's cool to see what could have been.

[@peterbradshaw5272]

I loved this. So good to watch. Brought back so many memories. Oh gosh using Vista on day of release was PAINFUL. Using the nVidia version 100.54 drivers were so unstable. Went back to XP untill Vista 64-bit came out with refined drivers and that was really good. Infact lots of people who liked Win7 on release would of also like Vista 64-bit.

[@sevbaileyify]

Don't worry John, you're special too ❤️

[@offspringfan89]

I wish you went deeper on comparisons like PC Retro Time Capsule videos go when John is present, but at least it was entertaining to hear about how different the video games industry in 2007 was, very nostalgic! BTW, RIP f4mi's Xbox, gone but not forgotten.

[@hermes_job_observer144]

Sold out. Unfortunately, feeling IGN's negative impact already...😒😮‍💨

[@offspringfan89]

@@hermes_job_observer144 Gosh, I hope not 😥

[@hermes_job_observer144]

@@offspringfan89 we'll see...🤷

[@Texshy]

33:14 Yep I prefer Burnout 3 over Paradise. Mastering the tracks is heaps of fun.

[@rafsanrahman2302]

I just finished Halo 2 for the first time today and boy was it an experience !!

[@mr.selfimprovement3241]

You should have been there playing it in 2004: for a year there it was the biggest thing on the planet in pop-culture and gaming! 😍 It was a great game, but what truly made it a phenom was the entire vibe of the moment that it was released. Sure the graphics and sound design were 'next-gen' and absolutely destroyed anything that had ever been on console - but it was the 'scene' around Halo 2's reveal, launch and first year that was the real event/drawl that people mostly remember. Xbox CEO Peter Moore even rocked a fake Halo 2 Tattoo for a few months there. Can't tell you how many movies and TV shows at that time had Halo 2 playing in the background of a scene. It really was the biggest Halo every was in pop-culture and active player base, regardless how good (better) Halo 3 sales would go on to be. I wish I could go back and experience that launch again, and the following year of Halo 2 hysteria. 😔 Halo 2's campaign was great, but the real game was in the multiplayer and all the LAN parties. Even with MCC, that is all a faded memory at this point. I don't know if you where there at that time, but as a Halo fan, it was unbelievable the brotherhood and comradery that existed for a short moment in time amongst us fans. 🦾

[@rafsanrahman2302]

@@mr.selfimprovement3241 i was four in 2004 xD

[@mr.selfimprovement3241]

@@rafsanrahman2302 lmao. 🤣Well, I hope your enjoying the series now anyways!

[@alexsilva28]

Hell yeah! Now you gotta work your way to Reach (anything made afterwards is not worth your time, trust me)

[@jonathantodd9906]

Most hilarious ending to a df video ever!

[@azzaprime7257]

343's remaster of Halo 2 in MCC is incredible, you should do a video on that soon

[@hab9514]

8800gtx in sli... mann back in hs you would be A ROCKSTAR among the nerds, a myth, a legend. Every kid would be your friend.

[@robertgreally]

Please do a time capsule of GTA IV. There is a lot of rose-hinted nostalgia, but this game played awful on 360, PS3, and PC at the time. It's only recently that the PC build has become bearable, and the 360 port benefited from an unofficial FPS boost.

[@pobbityboppity1110]

Good idea!

[@straubulous9511]

You guys definitely forgot return to Castle Wolfenstein

[@FreeTheTaint]

Project Cartographer is where it's at

[@Those2menoverthere]

I was looking to see if anyone mentioned it.

[@Those2menoverthere]

Edit: I meant to leave this as a general video comment, but I messed up. That’s what I get for doing this right before going to sleep…. The only way you should be playing Halo 2: Vista, is through the Project Cartographer client. It has fully uncapped FPS with proper frame interpolation systems in place for all animations. It can also do 30-tick rate like the OG Xbox version ran at, so it’s possible to be able to do the original physics glitches again.

[@jasonw1776]

Omg, I keep telling people Halo 2 for Vista existed and they wouldn't believe me!

[@alexsilva28]

They don't have Google?

[@dmer-zy3rb]

​@@alexsilva28not everyone can afford google!

[@DuelingPeaks]

It should have been XP at that time, right? I have no idea about PC gaming of that era.

[@ragingwhisky]

@@DuelingPeaks The unofficial XP patches were great back in the day "how is this running on XP?!?! Microsoft said I needed VISTA!!!?!"

[@Renk1]

I bought the physical version of Halo 2 Vista because I wanted the achievements, got the 1000/1000 but never went back to that version of Halo 2. Xbox was so much better. And these days, Halo: MCC.

[@wizchrills2889]

When I was younger we had a PC running Vista and I did get Halo 2; it ran horribly. My PC was the minimum requirements for Vista so running this game was terrible. I eventually went back to XP and got a few community patches for Halo 2 to run on XP; actually ran better but still around 10 fps

[@djayjp]

I REALLY want to play the original version they showed with stencil shadows and dynamic lighting!!

[@kohlmannj]

Thank you Alex and @f4micom for what I can only describe as, tremendous content. RIP John Halo

[@BROTRRer]

I see that The Chronicles of Riddick shortcut, Alex! You are clearly a man of culture

[@churibman]

Ohhhhh yeah, the Breaking Benjamin really sets the tone

[@MakoTenseii]

Well PERSONALLY I played Halo 2 on windows xp through fan patches. Couldn't connect to Live, but ey I could play it! I eventually did buy a legit copy in like 2011 tho and got to earn achievements for it which was the most appealing part honestly.

[@samuskayharding]

Its fun to hear about the first version of halo 2 I had access to. Fun fact for fans of red vs blue (which microsoft officially supported and helped with often), I believe when they were recording season 17 which used halo 2 for some parts they had to use a cracked version of halo 2 for vista since the normal activation process didn't work anymore. I never got vista so I had to use the launcher workaround. I believe for a later level (I may have not been running a fully legal version) you had to have a text editor open or something to prevent the game crashing. I also remember getting the dodgy ps3 input to x360 input program so i could use a controller since by default at least the mouse felt horrible.

[@brunocar02]

i did NOT see f4mi coming when i clicked on this video lol collabs for these kind of slower videos is awesome

[@theoathman8188]

This is probably the longest voice crack by John in recorded history.

[@Enratic]

I miss Halo 2 Vista, I never had OG Xbox Live and only ever got to play Halo 2 online on PC. Halo 2 Vista had achievements for anyone unaware and they are still on your Xbox profile.

[@Agtsmirnoff]

One of my most proud gaming milestones is getting all 1000 achievement points in halo two PC version before the servers closed down

[@chriskeith8462]

Just finished halo 2 on master chief collection, the enhancements on that are beautiful

[@samvimes9510]

I never had an original Xbox, so the PC ports of Halo 1 and 2 were what I grew up with (still own the physical boxed versions). Never did play multiplayer since all I cared about was the campaign, but I do have bad memories of Games for Windows Live. Eventually I had to get a 360 when it became clear that the rest of the Halo series would never come to PC.

[@waaghals]

It is a face off between the two versions; only the strongest will survive.

[@rowegardner9673]

RIP John Halo. Taken too soon.

[@nathane5287]

I remember upgrading for Vista solely for Halo 2, I found it a frustrating experience filled with crashes, poor performance, and interesting bugs, but ultimately I fell in love with Halo 2, sure we had awesome FPS games on PC in 2007, I loved Half-Life 1-2, I religiously played the idtech4 games Doom3, Quake4 & Prey, FEAR was awesome, Crysis was awesome even when I could only run it at 15-35fps, I had childhood favourites like Aliens vs Predator 1-2 that always stayed installed, and Max Payne 1-2, but I loved Halo 1 (yes, the Gearbox port...) which gave me something slightly different than many of the other ones, AI almost on par with FEAR, better 'predator' simulator than AVP with the fancy cloak shader and AI that had more interesting panicking, investigation behaviours, fun melee-grenade-vehicle focus and big battlefields like in SW Battlefront which did also enjoy at the time, then Halo 2 came along and brought not only dual wielding but mixed dual wielding, and just the sandboxy nature of stealing vehicles and picking up anything and mixing and matching and duelling fun AI with great personalities, just fun. (Not to mention one of the best OSTs) Would have been cool to see a 3rd screen with MCC version on PC as it is today next to the Xbox & Vista versions, since 343i have tried to fix most stuff from Vista era and what also broke even more with Saber's Anniversary edition coupled with PC-re-port(?) That they then did fix to a large extent, but of course some minute differences remain. Modders are working on trying to at least mimic the OG shadowing, though stencil shadowing seems to be completely gone from the code players can access in the SDK, at least we can more liberally try and get the shadow mapping to work and place it more prominently into levels than what they could back in 2004 on Xbox. RIP F4mi's XBOX (again)

[@tulikube]

I remember buying countless copies of this game in 2012 or so, because my local game store had it on clearance sale for something like 2€, and because it included 1 month of games for windows live that would also work for my xbox 360 live (which by itself was something like 8€). I got big savings thanks to this. 😄

[@sneakingelephant]

One interesting quirk about halo 2 was its weird widescreen aspect ratio which wasn’t a true 16:9. It kind of makes for a bad look tbh compared to playing it in 4:3

[@crithon]

sigh, rest in peace OG Xbox, rest in peace

[@Maya_Ruinz]

Yea old consoles need a lot of love to keep them alive, my OG Xbox is still going strong but I have taken it apart many times to clean it just to keep it from overheating.

[@chronossage]

Don't forget about needing to open it to take the timebomb clock capacitor out that every Xbox but the 1.6 revision has. It will go off and take the Xbox with it and everyone with an original Xbox needs to know.

[@Corran123]

​@@chronossage checked my 1.0 model because of your comment. Multiple capacitators have been leaking hard for a while. RIP my Xbox. Just when I thought about replaying a few games.

[@zzzzUS]

7:45 Amen to that brother: mid-2000s were so bad for PC gamers. While there were amazing games on PC at the time, sooooo many games were console exclusives. I joined OG XBOX party (vs PS2) and it was amazing that I could play so many games that weren't available on PC. Then I borrowed friend's PS2 with MGS3, Ace Combat 5 and Final Fantasy X...

[@Killersnake432]

Ah yes Halo 2 Vista... Good times I bought it just to play Halo 2 online after the servers was shutdown on Xbox... As well a week before I graduated high school. On my shitty PC too with 8400GS OC, 1GB of DDR2 ram at 800 while a AMD Athlon 64 3800+ singlecore running at 800x600 high settings in singleplayer while 1024x760 at the highest setting with x2 MSAA... Good times.

[@madezra64]

Well shit, I was literally just doing a rewatch of John's Halo 2 E3 demo rundown, that is until I got a notification on my phone for this drop!!

[@yankeesfan8]

I'm a simple man... I see Halo 2, I like.

[@Seinfelf]

I remember getting a GPU with 128mb of VRAM just to play the PC port when I was younger. Yes it was cursed. It was the lowest possible specs, but it’s how I experienced Halo 2 for the first time and I loved every moment of it. I remember even messing with it and playing on Windows XP when people were desperate to not use Vista… that was a nightmare but it worked.

[@SkylerHuse]

I think this was the first time I was really burned by DRM. I was always tinkering with stuff so I would reinstall my OS every now and then. I think after 3 times I just couldn't play the game anymore, it had been activated too many times. Forever left a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to DRM.

[@yusofplayed]

I had just gotten my first ever PC and playing the vista version of Halo 2, and everything on the orange box, was one of the most formative gaming experiences of my youth. I had no clue it was a maligned version, I was just having fun getting my ass kicked online.

[@Makusensu]

The E3 demo was not complete bs, there is a video from 343 from a few years ago where they got back an old devait with various versions of the demo still on it and they played multiple times, trying breaking scripts and fun, really fun.

[@GlobalGaming101]

The original Xbox was my childhood 😊🥹

[@Cricis11700]

Nothing on PlayStation can even begin to sniff any of the trilogy's ass, nothing got even close to the popularity and masterpiece that was the original trilogy! What a god send this game is!

[@MikkoHiiri]

Thanks, I enjoyed this a lot. Played halo 2 many years after release on PC and was somewhat disappointed, time had truly moved on.

[@The90sGamingGuy]

I played Halo on a friend's Xbox shortly after original release. After years of waiting i have an XB copy of Halo 2 to play on XBOne. Great video guys!

[@danielrock04]

I remember those days, AND I remember there was a "patch" to run Halo 2 on windows XP...(and I've played a ton of it this way)

[@vrubayka]

I used a Flatout UC cd key (Steam version used to give it to you to activate GFWL multiplayer before the recent update) on Gears of War 2007 PC version and it unlocked all the features for me including multiplayer and achievements. Not sure why they did this authentication server thing for Halo 2 when GoW worked just fine. Until MS shuts down Xbox 360 services, youll be able to play GoW PC online provided you still have the cd key from your physical copy or some other method like i did. I did it in 2023 so it definitely works. I even played some online coop.

[@Tron08]

If you're interested in an OG Xbox definitely recommend going the modded route. Stock Xbox's are, as the commentators implied, starting to age-out with failing components. And it sounds like F4MI is experiencing many of them. Most models need to have the clock capacitor removed, and generally it's becoming more common to need to recap the CPU capacitors. Disc drives are also failing lately which a mod-chip will be able to bypass. And earlier model Xbox's are also notorious for having bad power supplies. Unfortunately this isn't as easy to replace but there is still an active hardware modding community looking into modern replacements.

[@Lysuko]

No way her Xbox died at the end lmao 💀💀

[@GalactusTheDestroyer]

I had a modded Xbox (we called The Wall Box) with a modded Halo 2 install. I'll NEVER forget modding the sniper rifle to be automatic and shoot nades at hyper speed. It was a glorious time! Also all of the modding worked with local play so testing crazy ideas with my brothers was so dang fun! BTW The presentation and graphics and everything are superior on the OG Xbox vs Windows Vista. Xbox all the way baby!

[@AmericansMarryCousins]

Whoever that person is ruined this video. ''whatever nvidia could cobble together'' it was a geforce 3 with some geforce 4 features. Easily the most powerful of the 6th gen machines

[@somatyk]

Nice to hear a new voice. I've two og's behind me. Both broken. And both have their own problems🤣

[@bigzgaming9487]

What a way to end the video, witnessing the death of another OG Xbox in real time. A real warrior's death: dying while playing Halo 2.

[@KingSigy]

I remember getting Halo 2 to run on Windows XP and even had Games for Windows Live functioning, but I could never load past the first level. It would just die after that.

[@manosgtr]

We playing Halo 2 on original Xbox Live with insignia!

[@MrXmoda]

Halo 2 and PGR2 on Xbox Live were some golden years man...

[@JustinsaneS222]

If you think about it, it's impressive that Halo 2 exists at all, since by E3 2003 they apparently have nothing else finished/worked on. For them to then release the game the next year in a complete package ready for xbox live multiplayer with all the features that had, I don't think we will see such an innovation of a single game like that again. The halo 1 and halo 2 pc ports I think were a crime to not push those games even further and closer to the limit.

[@Tron08]

I think it's interesting there was actually quite a few noticeable differences in the cutscene lighting at the end of the level. It almost seems as if the Vista version is missing some light sources? For example: When the elevator is going down it's missing the red flashing light on the exterior shot. When Chief steps out of the elevator there isn't the dramatic lighting cast on the floor, etc.

[@technicallyme]

I'm sorry you had to use Vista 😅 I appreciate the content though 😂 Random story from Vista. I had a IBM ThinkPad (before Lenovo) that if I closed the lid with iTunes open. ITunes would never connect to the internet again and the only fix I found was a full reload. Problem was full reload still had the issue. Two years of this issue and I jumped ship as soon as win 7 came out

[@JesusKristov]

I would have killed for a PC this powerful back in 2007

[@jackjones6936]

No one with an Nvidia 8800 GTX was running 1024 x 768. I had a 1680x1050 22 inch monitor and it certainly wasn't the highest resolution display of the day but probably closer to the 'norm'. 16:10 was the standard on PC for a while.

[@itchyisvegeta]

Is the Project Cartographer version of Halo 2 still a thing on PC? Surprised ot wasn't mentioned here. For those who don't know, it's an Abandonware version of Halo 2 on PC that is free to play. Used to play it alot around 4 or 5 years ago.

[@Halo2PC]

You should check us out again :)

[@norris5754]

0:31 "Free 1 Month Live Gold Trial"...that's funny, considering it's a PC game.

[@Dentantje]

Wtf, I found Halo 2 on a flea market today for $2. What timing!

[@kendric_BUF]

There are people in the Halo 2 community working on a shadows restoration so the game can have the original intended look

[@Thomas.Falcone]

Why does Halo 2 looks much better in 9700 PRO in comparison to 6800 GT?

[@kamilciura7953]

I'm wondering that too. Maybe because it was still a Wild West phase of PC gaming, when it was hit or miss with hardware combinations being fully compatible with rendering pipelines? It seems like normal maps don't work properly on nvidia's card. I have a fuzzy memory of playing Doom 3 and thinking it looks good, then seeing how Doom 3 looks like on my friend's PC. Mine had weird shadow issues, some normal/bump maps weren't recognised and looked flat. Game still ran OK overall, though. Specular maps in some games were also not working correctly. I cannot remember the card I had at the time, unfortunately.

[@Хорошийигровойканал]

​@@kamilciura7953some card without proper opengl version support. My radeon 9200 doesn't support 2.0 shaders and doom 3 was ok. But quake 4 was green lightered. There where no normal maps etc. But games was playable fps wise.

[@Pyroteq]

Halo 2 on Vista was absolutely awful in many ways, but by far the worst sin was the mouse acceleration. There was no option for raw mouse input and it just felt AWFUL. By comparison Halo CE felt fine on mouse, so I have no idea what they were thinking.

[@lostsaves]

YES! I've been waiting for this.

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

Vista is still the best looking windows. 7 is better in almost every way but there is something about the look of Vista with the glowing green and those widgets and the bubbles screen saver.

[@Canadian_Gamer]

Where’s John.

[@mash2481]

I’ve lost all these games and the systems to play them on. Had a house fire little over a month ago and it wiped my collection out. I have insurance, but there are games that I’ll never be able to get back. Systems too. I beg anyone that has a good collection, to invest in storage away from your home. You’ll be glad you did if this happens to you. Glad I’ve started investing in digital games the last few years. At least I can download them.

[@mash2481]

@matthewsmith3817 yeah, the older ones I just wanted to keep for my collection. Had a lot of old PC titles like Zork 1 and Wizardry with their boxes and just liked to look at them from time to time. Didn’t have a PC that would run them for over a decade now, but still enjoyed just being able to look at the old art work and hold the diskette in my hand. Lost a lot of good systems too. All the old systems starting with the Pong console and continuing on to todays consoles. Just all overwhelming to say the least. Took me over 40 years to build all of that up just to see it go up in smoke in about an hour. As the kids say today, SHEESH!

[@mash2481]

@matthewsmith3817 and thank you for taking the time to offer your condolences. Really appreciate that. Have a good one, bro!

[@mbsfaridi]

Good thing you can still play them with convenience of modern hardware/software.

[@mash2481]

@@mbsfaridi amen to that.

[@mbsfaridi]

@@mash2481 Open source and homebrew community 🏆

[@beanwizzle15]

This saturday retro comparison stuff is better than saturday morning cartoons as a kid

[@justins21482]

the only halo I have yet to complete on legendary in co-op. The whole "if either of you die its game over" is a bridge too far lolol...hard enough getting good enough to not die, its entirely another beast to get both of you so go you never die on the hardest difficulty

[@DeafeningCha]

The game just reverts to your most recent checkpoint when one of you dies, it doesn't restart the level or the game. You'd have to activate the Iron skull for that