Thinkpads Forum

Has anybody here ever run Halo: Combat Evolved on a T60p?

I'm thinking about getting an XBox 360 Elite System Console and Halo 3 as a Christmas present for me and my son to play at home on weekends, but before I commit to a purchase costing $400-$500, I thought I should try out the first generation of the game on my laptop (a much cheaper trial at only ~$20). Before I order the PC version of the game from Amazon, I'd like to know if it actually runs OK on my laptop (WinXP SP2 w/2 Gb RAM).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

As something to compare to, my T60's GMA 950 does okay at 640x480.

No personal experience with the PC version but based on the specs listed at IGN,I suspect you'll have no problems on that system.

Minimum Requirements:
P3 933MHz
128MB RAM
1.2GB Hard drive space
32MB 3D Card
DirectX 9

Recommended Requirements:
Pentium 4 2GHz
256MB RAM
128MB Radeon 9500 Pro/Geforce FX 5600

Roadster wrote:Has anybody here ever run Halo: Combat Evolved on a T60p?

I'm thinking about getting an XBox 360 Elite System Console and Halo 3 as a Christmas present for me and my son to play at home on weekends, but before I commit to a purchase costing $400-$500, I thought I should try out the first generation of the game on my laptop (a much cheaper trial at only ~$20). Before I order the PC version of the game from Amazon, I'd like to know if it actually runs OK on my laptop (WinXP SP2 w/2 Gb RAM).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

On my T60 with ATI x1400, I can play Halo: Combat Evolve really smooth at medium setting. I'm probably getting over 70 frames per second.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Would the T60p be better able to handle the graphics and processing required by this game than the T60?

My T60p has a pretty fast processor (Intel CORE 2 Duo T7400 @ 2.16 GHz), a widescreen display (1680x1050), and an upgraded graphics card (ATI Mobility FireGL V5250).

Hopefully I can get decent performance on a reasonable level of screen real estate with this specific hardware. But OK performance at 640x480 won't cut it, IMO.

Is this line of reasoning correct, or am I completely off my rocker?

Unfortunately, I just don't know how these specs translate with respect to video game performance in general, much less to this particular game.

I have no experience with Halo, but games like Painkiller, Flatout2 etc, run fluid smooth at 1600x1200 on a T60p at all high details with no AA/AF (imo, not needed at this pixel pitch).
Bioshock runs at all high details at 800x600 very great. Based on that i think running Halo at 1680x1050 is fine.

The firegl is approx x1600 speed, using more or less the same core. v5250 is ~x1700

I can play Halo: Combat Evolved with no problems on my T40.

It can't run with all the things on "High" etc, but it works

Roadster wrote:Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

Would the T60p be better able to handle the graphics and processing required by this game than the T60?

My T60p has a pretty fast processor (Intel CORE 2 Duo T7400 @ 2.16 GHz), a widescreen display (1680x1050), and an upgraded graphics card (ATI Mobility FireGL V5250).

Hopefully I can get decent performance on a reasonable level of screen real estate with this specific hardware. But OK performance at 640x480 won't cut it, IMO.

Is this line of reasoning correct, or am I completely off my rocker?

Unfortunately, I just don't know how these specs translate with respect to video game performance in general, much less to this particular game.

I remember being able to play Halo on my 2.8 celeron desktop with 32 vram Nvidia video card very well. I don't think you will have any problem.

Are you guys talking about Halo 1 or 2? It sounds like you are just talking about regular old Halo 1 for PC.

If so, well, dude that game is old. If course it will work fine I remember playing that game on my SINGLE CORE CPU which was an Athlon XP (the kind that ran super hot) and I only had a Geforce4 TI4200 graphics card and 1 gig of RAM (which was a lot at the time) and the game ran pretty smoothly hehehe...

IMO, Halo PC was awesome because it had the good balanced and well-designed gameplay of Halo 1, combined with the ability to play online! Halo 1 was like this lovingly crafted little game, then Halo 2 came along and was a big stupid mess.

The only reason people bought Halo 2 was because you couldn't play Halo 1 online with the xbox, they bought Halo 2 for the online play... But the GAME itself is way inferior on Halo 2, lots of dumb storyline decisions as well as dumb weapon and gameplay changes that ruin the whole balance of the game. I think Halo 2 was a stupid game and the only reason people bought it was so they could finally play online on Xbox Live.

But halo 1 for PC already let you play online, but with the superior Halo 1 gameplay I think it is still a worthwhile game that is still fun to play. Just a simple, solid, balanced, pretty to look at shooter. Good for hours of fun.

FYI I think Halo 3 is great too and fixes the stupidity of Halo 2. I don't think Halo 3 is out for PC though.

Thanks for the additional feedback, guys. Troels, your T60p experience was especially helpful. Just wanted to check before I placed the order, and you've confirmed my thinking.

Hellbore, yes, when I say Halo: Combat Evolved, I guess you can refer to that as Halo 1. Below is the link to the game on Amazon.com...

http://tinyurl.com/3ahx6d

I figured since the storyline is one of the main features of the Halo series, and I'm planning to try things out on my laptop before committing to a brand new XBox 360 game console, I should probably start with the PC version of the first edition. From your description of the first two games in the series, it looks like Halo 1 is the right choice here.

I think you will like it, just make sure you get the latest updates / patches to the game, I'm sure there are a few by now.

I probably should have known that you meant the first Halo game, since you said "Combat Evolved" which is the name of the first one, I guess I was just being dumb.

Hellbore wrote:I think you will like it, just make sure you get the latest updates / patches to the game, I'm sure there are a few by now.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that. Where can I get the updates/patches?

Edit: Nevermind. I found the link on the Microsoft website. I also found a link to download a trial version of the game.

Halo 1 works fine on the T60p, I used to use it.

However, i think all your doing is wasting 20 dollars - Halo 3 rocks, you will love it. You will not get the full experience on the PC unless you have a 360 controller anyway.

Not really sure why youd want an elite system though unless you are planning on downloading loads, just get the premium console, if you wait it might even have a price drop before chistmas because another bundle is being launched.

Thanks, snife. I don't mind spending an extra $20 to see if my son is going to like the game. If he's not interested, then I'll probably forego the entire console purchase. So it's not entirely wasted.

You make very good points about the differences between the premium and the elite combo and the timing of the purchase, given the new bundle in the launch pipeline. I'll keep those things in mind while we are giving the PC version a whirl. Thanks again.

It's been a while since I created this thread, and I thought it was time for a quick update.

I bought and installed Halo: Combat Evolved on y T60p. It ran fabulously throughout all levels, and I finished the game a few weeks ago. Great game! Highly recommended.