Halo or Medal of Honor? Choices, choices.

[agm2001]

I'm getting a new 1.33 GHz Powerbook for myself in the next few weeks and am looking at some games. (College students need games, yessiree!) I'm definitely getting UT2004 and am trying to decide on a second game. My choices are Halo and Medal of Honor Gold (I think that's the name) with MOHAA and Breakthrough Expansion. I'm wondering how well Halo would perform with 1 GB of RAM and only a 64 MB GPU. Seeing as it's a port, and probably a poor one, it would require more system resources than the platform it was originally developed for. I'm just looking for a good single-player FPS to go along with my UT package.

[James L]

They are both ports, and I have both of them. Out of all of the games I have on my 1.5Ghz PB (which includes Battlefield 1942, Halo, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, UT, Undying, Quake 3, Warcraft 3, Max Payne, and some of the Balders gate games) Halo performs the worst.

Medal of Honor will perform great on your machine, but honestly Call of Duty is much better and is a great port that performs very well. It has great multiplayer also.

Cheers,

James

[crap freakboy]

Halo benchmarks are pretty bad, as a result it will play only slightly better than a flipbook. MOH however is even playable on my G4 Sawtooth 400Mhz with a stock ATI Rage 16mb so it should run very, very well on your setup.
Plus online MOH is cracking, once you tire of MOH (which I doubt you will) give Call of Duty a go, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a blast as well, Quake3 is still the BEST FPS EVER imho (plus the mods are the dogs b******s), oh and not forgetting Ghost Recon. Doubt if you get much coursework done if you get into any of these games, :D

I agree with James L, Call of Duty multi is better than MOH...well perhaps, each to his own I suppose, but the single player MOH is still outstanding.

[Lord Blackadder]

My brother's 12" 1.33 GHz PB with the GeForce 5200 ran Call of Duty acceptably by most standards, I thought it was pretty good. MOH runs good on my G4 tower, so I imagine it would run great on the PB. Avoid Halo, or if you must play it go get an xbox, since the port to the mac murders performance on most macs.

[cluthz]

MOHAA runs great on my pb, it also runs playable (not good..) on my G4 Tower (see sig).
Haven't tried Halo, but it should be much more dermanding.
UT2003 demo and C&C runs also great on my pb.
(I think maybe ut2004 would run good, but not great..)

[HiRez]

I can tell you my experiences with both MoH:AA and Halo on my 800 MHz 15" G4 PowerBook (32 MB Radeon 7500 Mobility, 768 MB RAM, 7200 RPM drive). MoH:AA runs very well at medium settings and native resolution (1280x854). Frame rates at those settings probably ranged from ~15 fps to ~90 fps, and I'd guess average about 30-40 fps. Your machine is faster and has a better graphics card than mine so I think you will have no problems with this game. MoH:AA is a great game, it really absorbed me. I haven't tried Breakthough yet, but I can tell you the Spearhead expansion runs ok except for one scene about 1/2 way though (the halftrack in the snowy woods one), where I get about 1 fps. I think this must be a bug because the frame rate is so much lower than the rest of the game.

Halo is a much different story. On my machine this game was absolutely unplayable, even on the very very lowest settings (sometimes went down to far less than one frame per second...not fun). And I've seen Halo run on a dual 2.0 GHz G5 with Radeon 9800 and it's still pretty sucky. What a resource hog. I would definitely not recommend Halo for your computer.

Other games that played well for me on the 800 MHz Powerbook are Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Diablo II, Star Wars: Jedi Outcast, and Warcraft III. Someone else mentioned Call of Duty. This is really a great game, however, it was pretty borderline on my system. I had to reduce settings a lot to even make it play acceptably. On your system, it might be ok but don't expect to be able to crank up settings on it. No One Lives Forever 2 is another great game that I got borderline performance from, but again, some scenes really bogged down the frame rate. It also had some stability problems (crashing, hanging).

[crachoar]

I'm wondering how well Halo would perform with 1 GB of RAM and only a 64 MB GPU.

Very poorly. Probably the most worthless port ever created...

Look in my sig. It ran like balls on that computer. Not to mention my two powerbooks. One of them being a 1GHZ 12" with 32MB GF5200 and the other a 1.5GHZ 15" with a 128 Radeon9700. UT2k4 has run decently on my tower and screams on my new Powerbook. Never got around to installing on the 12".

But don't feel bad...Halo sucked for Windows too.....boy did it ever suck...

Halo + Xbox = only way to fly.

*salutes Gearbox for making the worst port ever*

[applekid]

Seeing as it's a port, and probably a poor one, it would require more system resources than the platform it was originally developed for.

You and everybody else that complains about ports have been hanging out in the MacRumors Mac Gaming Forum way too long.

However, I will recommend MoH:AA or even CoD.

[vraxtus]

Gaming on a Powerbook...


*snicker*

:rolleyes:

[A Mac Gamer]

Gaming on a Powerbook...


*snicker*

:rolleyes:

That really goes for any labtop PC or Mac. Sure their are "Gaming labtops" that weigh 12 lbs and are 3 inches thick, but that doesnt consitute a real labtop.

[WhiteSavage]

I'll have to agree with thegeneral ideas here. Call of Duty is better then Metal of honor (By far), if your looking for a game that the majority of human gamers play (No offense to anyone who doesnt) then Battlefield 1942 doesnt ask for much, and the multiplayer is pretty fun. Then again Call of Duty is still better. :)

[rccola70]

yep, Call of Duty is very good, online and off. A good port, almost identical to the PC version. I HIGHLY recommend it over medal of honor, and plus, the expansion for CoD is coming out soon on the mac (this month maybe?)

Its great. You'll enjoy it. ;)

[combatcolin]

Im a massive Apple fan, the only person i know with a Mac, but if you want to play Halo on Mac - don't - buy an xBox and Halo 2.

(And if you feel guilty about buying Microso$t just remember how much money the xBox is losing them!!)

[James L]

That really goes for any labtop PC or Mac. Sure their are "Gaming labtops" that weigh 12 lbs and are 3 inches thick, but that doesnt consitute a real labtop.


What's a laBtop? Is that like a laPtop?

:D

[James L]

Im a massive Apple fan, the only person i know with a Mac, but if you want to play Halo on Mac - don't - buy an xBox and Halo 2.

(And if you feel guilty about buying Microso$t just remember how much money the xBox is losing them!!)


How true. Halo on the PC sucks too though, the XBOX is the only true place to play it properly.

The XBOX platform is great, as are some other items from M$ such as the office suite. People sometimes confuse their ****** OS with some of their other products which are actually quite good, or they just jump on the bandwagon and hate them for the sake of hating them.

XBOX = lots of fun!

[mattmook]

They are both ports, and I have both of them.

That isn't entirely true. Originally Halo was being written for Mac and PC before Microsoft bought out Bungie which greatly delayed the games release which was a shame. At the time of the buyout I was under the impression the Halo development had got quite a long way on. Of course I don't know what changes were made to the code lines since the buyout and if much of the initial PC and Mac code remains in the Mac and PC releases.

[James L]

That isn't entirely true. Originally Halo was being written for Mac and PC before Microsoft bought out Bungie which greatly delayed the games release which was a shame. At the time of the buyout I was under the impression the Halo development had got quite a long way on. Of course I don't know what changes were made to the code lines since the buyout and if much of the initial PC and Mac code remains in the Mac and PC releases.


I am well aware of Bungie's history, I was playing Marathon in 1994 on the Mac (one of Bungie's greatest games before they were bought out).

I do not know about the code either, but you only need to play Halo on a Mac and a PC, then play it on an XBOX, to see the difference!

[Dont Hurt Me]

My Halo game was very buggy, a poor port and it would keep crashing at the end of about midgame........after meeting the flood. anyways the game needed polishing all the way around and it didnt allow you to configure using all the keyboard meaning many keys rendered useless like ctrl,option and apple key. plus it ran like a pig on my 1.4 quicksilver with a geforce3. just poor quality in my view.

[agm2001]

The reason I asked the Halo vs. MOHAA question was because I'm looking for some good single-player story FPS. Apparently Halo has good story, but I'm seeing it has abysmal performance because it's ported. Damn Microsoft for buying Bungie! Halo for Mac got pushed way back and is worse off than if they left Bungie alone. Typical Microsoft these days. Although in Microsoft's defense in terms of games, Age of Empires rocks and definitely will run on a PB 1.33 GHz. Well, it looks like I'd be sticking with CoD or MOHAA then. Thanks for the help guys. I'll come here more often for my gaming questions.

[James L]

The reason I asked the Halo vs. MOHAA question was because I'm looking for some good single-player story FPS. Apparently Halo has good story, but I'm seeing it has abysmal performance because it's ported. Damn Microsoft for buying Bungie! Halo for Mac got pushed way back and is worse off than if they left Bungie alone. Typical Microsoft these days. Although in Microsoft's defense in terms of games, Age of Empires rocks and definitely will run on a PB 1.33 GHz. Well, it looks like I'd be sticking with CoD or MOHAA then. Thanks for the help guys. I'll come here more often for my gaming questions.


There are very few games for the Mac that aren't ports these days. CoD and MOH definitely do rock though.

Cheers,

James

[Converted2Truth]

I'd recommend COD. The storyline is educative, intriguing, and the multiplay just rocks.

[oingoboingo]

The reason I asked the Halo vs. MOHAA question was because I'm looking for some good single-player story FPS.

MOH:AA doesn't really have as coherent a storyline as Halo has. Playing MOH:AA (and this goes for CoD too) is more like watching 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Band of Brothers' glued together, but fast-forwarding through all the non-action parts where the plot develops and the character development occurs, and only watching the major battle scenes. It's entertaining in a visceral kind of way (everyone remembers the first time they played the Omaha Beach level I'd bet!), but there's not really a big story unfolding (well...apart from WWII).

Halo, on the other hand, plays out like watching a single contiguous sci-fi movie. The further the game goes, the more you learn about the situation you're in, what Halo actually is, what it can do, and who wants it. And of course the whole game takes an interesting turn around 50% of the way through when a third race, the Flood, make an appearance. The comparisons made between Halo and Half-Life are accurate...they are both excellent single-player FPS games with a quality storyline.

If you're looking for an immersive, compelling single-player story, Halo wins hands-down over MOH:AA and CoD. To balance that out, however, you have the fact that Halo runs like a pig on all but the highest-specced Mac hardware. MOH:AA and CoD will do just fine on slightly older or less powerful hardware. And please don't misunderstand me...MOH:AA and CoD are both excellent games. MOH:AA was my favourite game on the PC for years. I just believe that Halo has a better storyline for the single player campaign.

[WhiteSavage]

He's on a Powerbook so probably CoD or MOH? I play both and I must admit CoD wraps up my attention better then MOH. Download the Demo!

[agm2001]

Splendid idea. I'm not sure why I didn't think of that before, that's one of my ways of checking out games, in-store or out. I think I played a little of Call of Duty on my roommate's comp. It was a demo, I'm sure. There was no story development where in the full game you'd have all the back story. I did play a demo of Allied Assault actually, the level where you have to take out the Nebelwerfers sp??, my German spelling is horrible. From what I saw of both, I'd say MoHAA had better backup story, from what I saw. I'd have to see if one of my friends has Call of Duty and beg him to let me try it out for a little to see if it's worth it. I am a college student after all. Money can still be tight.

[markjones05]

I'd go with Call of Duty

[HiRez]

Why choose? Get both Medal of Honor (http://search.ebay.com/medal-honor-allied-assault-mac_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQfromZR8) and Call of Duty (http://search.ebay.com/call-duty-mac_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQsacategoryZ-1Q26catrefQ3DC6QQsotrZ2QQsosortpropertyZ1Q26sosortorderQ3D1QQcoactionZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQcoentryp ageZsearch) on eBay for about $20 each! I disagree that MoH does not have a good story. Yes you are just a guy being sent out on mission after mission, but each mission has a real backstory and reason for you to be there, and I really felt like I was that guy and the Allies were depending on me. :rolleyes: Also check out Return to Castle Wolfenstein, you also get to kill lots of Nazis. It's a fun and good-looking game with a story, although it gets a bit absurd at points because it veers off into the paranormal, which IMHO wasn't really necessary because Nazis are scary and weird enough as it is.

[WhiteSavage]

Exactly, in MOH your THE GUY. But in Call of Duty, your just another soldier. You dont do EVERYTHING, during the missions, its impossible to do everything, in the major battles, you choose one place, you choose to defend, to attack one spot that may or may not change the swing of the battle. Sure, in CoD your called on to be the one that flanks the enemy advance and takes out certian emplacements, but you can be a coward too if you want, hide as you see your comrades being flanked by a sniper one on side and a German machine-gun emplacement on the other.

In CoD sometimes I find myself just standing up awstruck at whats happening around me, its like being part of something, not THE something, your just a small part of a giant war machine, doing your part in bravery and strategics. And with the new UO expansion pack coming out, it will be Call of Duty and Battlefield 1942 together, it'll be great and I cant wait!

[Uuugggg]

Bah. I play Halo on me 1GHz iBook G4, 32MB GPU. It's slow, it lags, but it's such a great game it's worth it.

And, I smite thee for claiming Halo plays best on xBox. Mouse>joystick. Unless you get a mouse for a console, any FPS should never be on consoles. Especially since it was TRUELY and PROPERLY a Mac game to begin with...

[combatcolin]

Yes, yes but have you actually xBox Halo?

Best Halo session ever, 2 player Co-op nightmare diff level on "Assault on the Control Room".

Took hours and enjoyed every minute of it.

[WhiteSavage]

yeah but u can do that on any comp. too. Its much MUCH easier to shoot jump, aim, dodge, and die when your using a mouse. Thats why most FPS games are on Personal Computer.

[7on]

Halo ran playable on my powerbook in sig and I enjoy it very much so. Though MOH is a very fun game in demo version. I'd buy it, but I already have Halo and Quake 3 to suit my needs.

[combatcolin]

One of the reasons that i don't play FPS on PC or Mac is the stupid intense speed they run at.

Its not that there too fast, its that this speed is presented as "normal" and the end result is identical to old movies that "speed" up action movies to make them look better.

The end result is very, very unnatural makes the chrecter feel like he's made of paper.

Halo makes you feel like the chief has a weight and fluidity to him.

[frescies]

I'm trying to decide on a second game. My choices are Halo and Medal of Honor Gold (I think that's the name) with MOHAA and Breakthrough Expansion.


Don't get either.... pick up a $5 copy of myth 2 and prepare for eternal addiction...

playmyth.net

[MacsRgr8]

I really love MOHAA and the rest of the series, and COD is excellent too.

Medal of Honor now has 2 add-ons, making the total amount of time enjoying the game much longer than COD.
COD is newer, looks a bit better than the already very nice looking MOH, but you get less hours of playing fun!

Halo, IMHO, is not in the same league as MOH or COD. I really love the WW II games, as they really tend to get me involved in the character I am playing.
Adding the fact that a PowerBook never will be state-of-the-art in gaming, getting a less hardware demanding game, but with more hours of fun will be a better choice.