System Requirements
PIII-933 processor, 128MB RAM, 32MB Direct3D video card required
1.5Ghz or higher processor, 256MB RAM recommended.

After waiting several years for the next major leap in FPS gaming on PC, we're soon going to see the industry pioneers release their latest masterpieces with the likes of Doom 3, Half-Life 2 and Deus Ex: Invisible War. But while the clock continues to run, you might be mildly excited to finally get a chance to play one of the best shooters ever... that hasn't even been available on PC until now. Yes, Halo: Combat Evolved has finally arrived. Bungie turned a lot of friends into enemies, and a lot of diehard PC gamers into console fans, when they jumped ship to the Xbox console in 2001, prompted of course, by their parent company, Microsoft.

In some ways, it's all a bit underwhelming. Halo has arrived with a thud, which is a shame, because the game is actually much better on PC. The controls are much tighter, 16-player multiplayer on the Internet is much more intense, and the graphics are more photorealistic. Everything else, by the way, is exactlt the same, so don't expect any new single-player missions or new cutscenes to advance the story. But do expect to be blown away by one of the best action games ever.

Even after two years, the only other game that has really given Halo a run for its money as the premiere Xbox game has been Splinter Cell, and some would even argue that Halo is still the reigning champ - on any platform. Regardless, Halo is still one of the most amazing shooters ever, with tense action sequences that are longer and better than many action movies, varied weapons that pack a powerful punch, and a sci-fi story that would stand up pretty well against a lot of pulp novels.

You play as Master Chief, an uber-warrior who has been charged with single-handedly thwarting an alien infestation. The year is 2552. Attempting to lure the Covenent forces away from Earth, the battlecruiser Pillar of Autumn heads to the ringworld of Halo and sends you, the last remaining SPARTAN warrior, out for an ambush. For most of the game, you combat the Covenant forces alone, although there are some short sequences when you fight alongside some AI-controlled teammates.

What makes the game so great is the seamless transition between indoor and outdoor locations, giving you the impression that Halo is a living, breathing world. And there's always this sense of awe from your accomplices that you are some great warrior, so when you get to obliterate a bunch of rabid monsters and flying Banshee warriors, you only reinforce the theory. The believability is helped immensely by the fantastic AI -- both enemy and friendly -- that actually behaves realistically instead of in an obviously scripted manner.

Halo is all about an intense story of betrayal and mystery, intertwined with some explosive combat. Master Chief gets to lob grenades, shoot a sniper rifle, drive Warthog combat vehicles, and fly various alien spacecraft. Gameworlds are huge. There are many moments in Halo that are exactly like the best science fiction movies in that you're not really sure what is about to happen and there's more to the action than just shooting the bad guys. Halo does an amazing job of making every action sequence seem more cinematic, impressing the feeling that you're progressing because of the story and not just to kill stuff.

But that's the single-player campaign. On PC, the only legitimate difference is that you can crank the resolution up to 1600x1200 and finally see how Bungie originally intended the game to look. The bump-mapped textures make the Covenant aliens (especially the Hunters) look more realistic instead of the cartoony appearance they had on Xbox. Of course, you'll need a lightning-fast computer to enjoy the higher detail, but we all knew that trade-off would be expected. We did, unfortunately, experience some crashes during play and surprisingly, had to disable anti-aliasing on the machine with a GeForce FX card, which was a documented "fix" in the ReadMe file.

As far as controlling the game, it's sort of a given that keyboard and mouse work better. Sure, Xbox fans will say that the game works fine with a controller, but frankly, that's because they've forced themselves to like it. There's nothing like sniping a Grunt across a frozen lake when you can actually pick off the part of his brain that you like the least. Fears about the added precision upsetting the play balance have also proven unwarranted.

The most impressive difference between the Xbox and PC versions is that you can play online with up to 15 other players and, with the increased resolution, sniping is much more accurate and fun. There are six new maps, including a tree-filled location and a new desert map, but they don't seem all that different from the originals. Another cool addition is that some levels let you fly the Banshee spacecraft. Multiplayer matches quickly turn into all-out space combat.

There are also a couple of new multiplayer weapons, including a flamethrower and a fuel rod pistol; the flame is very cool, but the fuel rod gun seems like a variation of the plasma rifle. There's also a new version of the Warthog equipped with a rocket launcher, which comes very close to changing the game balance, especially if the Warthog driver actually knows what he or she is doing.

But other than those changes, Halo is essentially an exact port of the Xbox version. If you love online play, then the new maps, more precise control, and competing against a global arena means it's definitely worth the investment for those who already own the original. Of course, if you've never even played Halo before because it's been a console exclusive title, then that sound you hear is a very flimsy excuse being permanently shattered under Master Chief's big, green boot - head to your favourite game outlet without delay.