Bungie.net tell more about Halo 2 for PC

The official site for the developers of the epic Halo series, Bungie, have today posted some more juicy tidbits concerning the details of Halo 2 for the PC. Probably the most welcome news for PC gamers is that whilst they will have to upgrade their OS to Windows Vista they might not have to upgrade their graphics cards to maintain compatibility. The bad news is that the concept of a cross-platform matches is going to remain a glint in the eye, rather than a reality.

Bungie have explained that Halo 2 for the PC will not be compatible with Halo 2 for the XBOX mainly because it would not present an even playing field for both XBOX and PC gamers alike, as well as the PC version having a map editor and new maps which the XBOX version does not have. Not to mention the fact that XBOX gamers have had more than two years’ head start on the PC crowd in terms of playing Halo 2, so really it would be unfair and rather “lopsided” to try and cross the two games in online play. However, the PC version of Halo 2 will support more than keyboard and mouse interface should gamers prefer a different control method.

A further development which Bungie mentioned in their post is the removal of the Halo 2 online clan system from the matchmaking option. Players will still be in a clan, but not with a clan rank like before. According to Bungie insiders, the system was being used to abuse newcomers to Halo 2 in order to rank up quickly whilst those in a higher ranking clan were struggling to find matches suitable for their abilities. The removal of clan ranking in matchmaking playlists would prevent this from happening in the future.