jcap and a few other standouts in the Halo PC and Halo 2 PC community have put their heads together and nailed down why Halo 2 for Windows Vista is a mess. I totally agree with these guys. Go read what they had to say: http://www.h2vista.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6854

Unfortunately, I can say that Shadowrun and now Gears of War (PC) are being handled the same way. Shadowrun, which is a mod of Halo 1 and was designed by Halo and Halo 2's lead designer, was a jewel of a game. It is my favorite first person shooter of all time. Unfortunately, the way Microsoft handled the game ruined the game for me and others. Halo 2 (PC) was the same way as you can read in the article above.

And guess what's happening now? Gears of War (PC) is in the same boat:

I having begun playing Gears of War (PC). It is riddled with problems just like Halo 2 (PC) and Shadowrun. I hope that the community will continue to express their disgust with the title support and Games for Windows - LIVE.

I was browsing the Games for Windows pages and noticed a block on the bottom left of the HALO 2 page.

Game demo: coming soon.

This is a good move. It will eliminate a lot of risk for gamers who will be gaming on Vista for the first time.

GamesForWindows.com is running a promotion. If you sign up for their newsletter you will get a 24-hour sneak peek at the upcoming trailer for HALO 2 Vista.

Go to the Gamerscore blog for details. Or just click right here and register.

According to just about every kind of gaming news site in the world, HALO 2 for Windows Vista will be released on May 8th along with the Games for Windows - Live service in the US. Games for Windows - Live is set to be released in Europe on May 18th. At this time I don't know when HALO 2 for Windows Vista will be released in the EU.

Games for Windows - Live is basically "XBOX Live for your computer". The gold service will cost about $50. There will be no additional charge if you are already paying for the XBOX Live service. The two services are one.

Here are some of the news reports:

Kotaku
Shacknews
1up
Planet XBOX 360
Team XBOX
Gamespot
USA Today
Action Trip
Computing News
Pro-G
Gamesindustry.biz
XBOX Addict
Gaming bits
Ve3d
Worth Playing

Here's hoping that ATi releases their new cards in time. Although I don't need to upgrade my rig to play this game, it certainly would be a good time to do it.

Woot! Finally a release date!

bfett9 wrote in the forums about a site he found on Microsoft's Games for Windows site. It's the Halo 2 for Vista site on gamesforwindows.com.

Interesting to note is the the release date is listed as 2007/2008. Yikes! This IS a Microsoft site. Why is the "2008" date on there?

It's probably a mistake or miscommunication. After all, going to that site and then clicking on the "official site" link takes us to Alan Wake. Yuck.

I'm just getting around to reading an article from 1Up.com about Games for Windows. HALO 2 gets a quick mention. A bit of news (to me): "Halo 2 will even be able to play from disc so that gamers can stream the game and play while it's installing in the background." Whoa! That will be impressive.

Also from the article is the following information about "Games for Windows".

Games for Windows games need to include:

# Games Explorer support
# Parental controls
# Compatibility with the Xbox 360 controller (where applicable)
# Widescreen support
# 64-bit processor support
# Multi-core and multi-threading support
# Media Center support (Premium and Ultimate Vista packages ship with Media Center)