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It goes without saying - Halo: Combat Evolved was one of the most popular games of last generation. What most people don't know about it, however, is that it started off as a Macintosh game, and eventually a PC/Mac game. Once Bungie got bought up by Microsoft, Halo was moved to the Xbox. Well, 2 years later the game finally comes full circle, coming to the PC and Mac, courtesy of Gearbox Software.

Gearbox has plenty of experience in the FPS market. In 1999, they developed the stellar Half Life: Opposing Force, an expansion to the original Half-Life. They would soon follow that up with Half Life: Blue Shift, as well as an amazing port of the original Half-Life to the PlayStation 2. Frankly, aside from Bungie themselves, Gearbox is the only developer I would have trusted with porting Halo to the PC.

To be quite frank, there was really only one major problem with the original Halo in the age of internet gaming: Halo couldn't go online. (Or at least, not without the use of some clever software that would let you play System Link games online, which isn't the most convenient thing to set up.) Well, in its transition to PC, Halo can finally go online, right out of the box. For free! Gearbox has also been kind enough to include 6 new multiplayer maps, which all seem to capitalize on what happens when you have LOTS of room to battle it out. Seriously, we've got some huge maps, ranging from the Blood Gulch-sized Timberland, which is filled with lots of hills and foliage to make sneaking around quite fun, to the immense Infinity and Ice Fields, which are filled with wide, twisting canyons and make you wish you could have more than 16 people playing at a time. In fact, I am going as far as to say that the new maps are better than the ones Bungie designed for the original Halo. They are giant, yet well designed; filled with plenty of hiding spots to sneak around but tons of open space for all-out vehicle combat.

Gearbox went out of their way to make sure that joining online games and setting up matches is as painless as possible. Using the in-game lobby, you can browse through all available games, and set filters based on ping, gametype, teamplay and more. Following that, you can also sort games by what map that game is currently on, number of players, ping, etc. Furthermore, once you select a game, there is a little 'preview' window at the bottom which displays detailed stats about the game, such as what options are set for the gametype, names of players, scores and more. Frankly, you know exactly what is going on in a game before you even join, which is nice and makes jumping into random online games all the more easier.

There are some other new things to enjoy in multiplayer besides the new maps, too. The Banshee has been added to multiplayer, as have the stationary turrets, much to the delight of anybody who used either of those in campaign mode. Gearbox also designed a variation of the Warthog which has replace the machine gun turret with a devastating triple-barrel rocket launcher. There are also two new guns: a flamethrower (which was cut from the Xbox version before release) and the fuel rod gun, which you may remember Covenant Grunts using against you near the end of campaign, which would explode after killing the operators. Though they may not seem like huge additions, they are in the world of Halo, where there is a deliberate lack of variety in the weapon and vehicle department in order to make sure each weapon and vehicle are all significant to the gameplay. And it still works just as much as it did before. There are also a few extra options when creating games, my favorite being the ability to decide which team gets how many of each vehicle. So you can, say, give Red Team a tank, and give Blue Team four Warthogs. Or you can pack each map with 4 of each vehicle per team, which is fun on the larger maps when transportation is required just to get to your opponent's base in a reasonable amount of time. You can also manipulate various respawn timers for players as well as vehicles.

One complaint many have with console-based shooters is the lack of mouse. Lets face it: aiming is more precise when done with a mouse. Well, while you could spend extra money for an aftermarket adapter to use a keyboard and mouse with Halo on the Xbox, you can completely customize your control setup for Halo on the PC. Aside from the default keyboard and mouse setup, you can program whatever action to just about whatever button. It also supports a wide variety of gaming mice and gamepads. Have one of those fancy mice with extra buttons? Put those extra buttons to use in the game. Prefer to stick with an old fashioned gamepad? Not a problem! Hell, you can even use a gamepad/mouse combo, if that turns you on. There is no reason whatsoever why anybody should have a problem controlling the game, because the control setup can be fine-tuned right out of the box, through the options menu! None of those messy cfg files to get things going perfectly, like we still have to deal with in the Half-Life games.

Though for all of the games plusses, there are still some downsides. For one, co-op mode is gone, which is a shame because it was really fun in the original game. Though some excuses were given (no split-screen on PC, couldn't rewrite it in a timely manner for online play, etc.) and though those excuses are definitely buyable, one just can't help but feel disappointed at its removal... especially if you don't own an Xbox. Another problem I had was the lack of support for voice chat, for those of us who own microphones or headsets. This means stopping in the heat of battle to type on your keyboard. This is quite annoying, because during dire situations you have to risk getting killed to give an important message or command to a teammate. This means setting up something like Ventrilo, which doesn't help if you're the kind of person who just joins random online games.

Of course, the move to PC has also improved Halo's graphics and sound. For one, 5.1 surround kicks major ass when playing this game. Though I should point out that Halo on Xbox also supported 5.1 surround, it also required the use of special cables and speakers that are sold separately, while most PC's come with 5.1 capable sound cards right out of the box, only requiring some extra speakers. Also, the resolution can be kicked up quite a bit. 480p on Xbox was nice, but playing Halo in 1600x1200 resolution just looks so much better. Things look cleaner, shinier, and smoother. If you've got a machine that can handle Halo at full blast, it looks great... for 2003. However, despite graphically stunning PC games like Half-Life 2: Episode One, F.E.A.R. and Quake 4, Halo has aged nicely the past few years.

Of course, if you somehow manage to get bored of it all, Gearbox offers to all the owners of Halo PC Halo: Custom Edition and the Halo Editing Kit. Combined, those two packages let you design custom maps, using the same tools that Bungie and Gearbox themselves used. Sweet!

Despite it's flaws, Halo for the PC is, dare I say it, superior to the Xbox version. Sure, it lacks Co-op mode, but online multiplayer more than makes up for it. With just the right amount of options, a great variety of multiplayer maps and an easy to jump into online mode, Halo PC is a worthy purchase, even if you already own the Xbox version.

- Buy Halo: Combat Evolved for PC on Amazon.com