Halo

Ed Dawson rides a dropship into a world made from a giant cylinder to bring you this review.

Halo is of course the best selling Xbox game and one of the few games that can be played on an Xbox 'LAN'. It's got great bump mapping and lighting, a fun story with memorable characters, great AI and arse-loads of attitude.

Where Halo really shines is in it's multiplayer mode. The Xbox version lamely only featured two vehicle-enabled multiplayer maps, and some vehicles weren't included in multiplayer. On the PC, we have a total improvement of this situation. We now have eight vehicle-enabled levels, including the popular 'Blood Gulch', with a level editor soon to be released. There are also new weapons and an expansion of the set of vehicles available for multiplayer.

Especially, you can now pilot the Banshee aircraft in multiplayer mode. There is a new Warthog jeep, with a rocket launcher in the gunner position. New weapons in multiplayer include the overwhelmingly powerful Pink Gun Turret, an alien rocket launcher called the Fuel Rod Cannon and a flamethrower.

Halo has a nice range of multiplayer modes, which can easily be combined or mixed and matched through a simple interface. Up to sixteen players can play in LAN or Internet games. Sadly, the Cooperative mode from Xbox has been removed.

On the whole, Halo for PC is a good buy.