Customer Rating: 
Summary: Terrible performance, horrible install experience, worst game experience ever
Comment: Well, I'd just gotten a Vista machine finally - been looking forward to being able to play this on it in my office (instead of the xbox). The experience has been horrible. Instead of making a great port, Microsoft used this to try and sell Vista and jam their ill thought out Windows Live service (where they want more of your money) down your throat - and you feel it throughout.
Put the DVD in and installed the game, I don't care about Live, I just want to play local, but the damn thing forces me to link with Live to play at all and create an account. Then it forces me to download two patches on Live for Live (two different reboots - yeah reboots for a frickin game that's already installed - and the patches aren't for the game per se, they're for the live service) for god knows what, again from Live that I want no part of, but I have to login to just to get to play local.
What happens when MS decides to deep six Windows Live gaming - will my Halo game just not play anymore (since it won't connect to Live to login for local play)? Remember MS Play for Sure?
Finally after an hour of connecting to Live, which I'm not interested in, but I have to be logged into just to play local I can start the game - extremely pissed off at this point. Now, I've got a Core 2 (3Ghz), 2GB and an ATI 3870 512MB - I should be able to do whatever I want with this old game...but the performance is terrible, stuttering frame rates at 1280x1024 - you'd think I was running Far Cry, not a game with a code base from 5 years ago on a P4 (it should be flying unless they recoded it this way). Really a horrible experience. Just as with Vista, MS has forgotten who their customer is, jamming things down their customers throats to suit their own ends (have to have Vista and have to be in Live). Do yourself a favor and get a used version (~$15 or so) - it is not worth spending full price, at all.
Its too bad they could have made a great port if they had their priorities straight (i.e. remembered who their customer was).
Customer Rating: Summary: Fun Game
Comment: Pros:
-New Live interface
-Works great with Xbox 360 Controller
-And most importantly its fun
Cons:
-Vista Only
Customer Rating: Summary: HALO 2 IS AWESOME!!
Comment: Great game! Really worth it for people that don't own xbox and wants to play Halo 2
Customer Rating: Summary: They screwed up the game
Comment: never, I repeat NEVER port a game that was meant to run on DirectX 9 to DirectX 10, this game has more bugs than paris hilton has STDs! Online mode isn't even PLAYABLE because its trying too hard to be something its not, please, PLEASE, just buy Halo 2 on Xbox, or if you only have a PC, Halo: Combat Evolved, then get the Halo: Custom Edition download. It still has a great community and an awesome online, and the newest patch lets you play it without a CD!
Customer Rating: Summary: Of course it said requires Windows Vista in tiny letters
Comment: Don't bother buying this unless you went for Microsofts scam for more money. I have Windows XP like normal people and as it turns out, I need to buy a whole nother system just to play it. I didn't so screw PC gaming, I'm back to the best console on the market, the 360 and the Wii is a bad console.
