Does anybody know of any patches or workarounds that will get Halo 2 to run on anything other than Vista? I wouldn't mind but I just plain don't like Vista.

Thanks.

No, Shadowrun and Halo, even if they dont use direct10, are only supported only on vista.
It's Microsoft way to force you to buy their new OS. I dont like Vista neither, and I don't racket.

ppl are working on this as we speak http://www.fromvistatoxp.com/

Thank for the info, I will monitor this project.

Yeah, its so clear and transparent of Microsoft just to make Halo 2 compatible with Vista, so you would buy their s***ty OS. Stupid Microsoft, they really did it this time.

Apparently, Falling Leaf Systems wants people to be able to play Halo 2 on XP, too! Here's the original article:

http://nikon.bungie.org/news.html?item=18626

only MS funded developers will develop games soley for vista at this point... Valve released new survey specs and only 5% of respondents actually use vista, where 93% use XP. No developer in their right mind would throw 93% away for 5%, it just isn't fiscally responsible.

Halo2 was a huge letdown for me when i got it for Xbox. Seriously, this game kinda sucks. The story is crap and the game is short...really short. I think most places rate it at 10 hours of gameplay, but I don't think it lasted more than 7 hours for me.

on top of that the graphics are probably still DX8.

you're better off trying a real shooter for the PC.

Yes, but Shadowrun is vista only, so many SM games in the future risk to be vista exclusives.

Well, apparently another group beat Fallingleaf, releasing a patch/crack that lets users play Halo 2 on XP. Some people say it works, some say it doesn't. Don't know if I'm allowed to post it or not, but if you use google, you'll find it.

there is a loader which allows you to install and run Halo2 on XP.

The **** loader doesn't work for me.

and yes, I actually bought the game. I'm not buying Vista. That's for goddamn sure.

i think that there are some cracked versions that work on xp for download somewhere, i'm not really sure. you could try one of those if you can find it and just use your key.

Use my key for what? I just want to play the campaign, and I'm not activating anything for that. I'll use one of the workarounds I've seen. The funny thing is the XP trainer for Halo 2 appears to be better than the Vista ones. However, I've not seen a complete version of it, just the trial one with most options disabled.

Something that people should be aware of beofre attempting ot run Halo 2 on XP is that it requires SP2. The game/loader doesn't work on SP1 even with the .net framework 2.0, nor does it work on XP 64-bit.

why would you buy it just to play campaign mode!?

lol i don't play online in halo. used to do lan games with halo 1 with a bunch of friends and friends of friends when i was in college. i really don't get into playing with a bunch of strangers online in first person shooters...too many kids talking trash. /shrug

there is a halo 2 loader for windows xp. i haven't personally tried playing the game but the install works when using it so i assume the game will as well.

1. I live out in amish country, and I can't get cable.
2. I like the goddamn campaign, and I want infinite ammo/no overheating like I couldn't get on Xbox.

you dont need to cheat to beat it, lol. i beat it in a day, co-op. single player is tough tho..

I beat it on Legendary and Legendary w/ Thunderstorn on Xbox. I just want to play around with it while I'm waiting for Halo 3.

How's the lighting on H2V? Is it a lot easier to see than Halo 2 was on the Xbox? I thought about picking up the game for my laptop (running WinXP MCE) but wasn't sure if it was worth it; I wanted to see if anyone else had attempted to run H2V on XP and the results of such an attempt.

well games always look better on a good computer than on a tv..