Considering the scope of the show, the timing and the fact that PC gaming is very popular throughout Europe, it seemed like a great venue to reveal Halo 2 in playable form. We have six stations set up on a LAN, all running a dedicated server that dishes out slayer games on Midship and Lockout. Players can use either a 360 controller or opt for a mouse and keyboard. The game is running on a beta version of Windows Vista and looks better than ever in full 1920x1200 hi-res glory.

Naturally, Halo 2 Vista isn't "done" yet, it's still a work-in-progress.. As such, it's got a few tiny wrinkles that are present but we felt the experience was solid and fun enough to let GC attendees get their hands on it. Based on the crowd reaction, it seems to have worked out just fine. With the help of some translators we spoke with a few hardcore Halo players (level 35+ in matchmaking) who all enjoyed the game and were very impressed at how good it looked and played at this early state. Something must be right when people would come back to play again and again despite having hundreds of other games to see and check out at the show. That said, we still have work to do before the game comes out next year and fine tuning the controls and maintaining the "feel" of Halo 2 for both mouse/keyboard and 360 controller is one of our highest priorities. Tweaking and balancing the nuances of Halo 2 will be an ongoing exercise until the very end I'm sure, but will no doubt come out exactly as you expect it to be - Awesome.