Halo 2, Shadowrun made playable on XP

by Ross Miller { Jun 11th 2007 at 9:45PM }

Falling Leaf Studios is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. What has caused them ire? Microsoft making Halo 2 and Shadowrun Vista-only. So they decided to make them XP-compatible.

The company is promising that if you buy one of the games through Amazon via the links on their page, then they will send you for free their initial release of compatibility software that will let you"run these Windows Vista titles on Windows XP," they claim.

Said Falling Leaf Systems CEO Brian Thomason, "first [Microsoft] claim that it was impossible to implement DirectX 10 compatibility atop Windows XP, and now they also want us to believe that they couldn't successfully launch two DirectX 9 based titles on XP either. We plan to expose both theories as patently false."

We're not sure if the software will work as planned, or how Microsoft might try to prevent the games from going online. The expected shipment date is "within a few months," according to their press release; the pre-order page estimates late July.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Tags: bungie, falling leaf, falling leaf systems, FallingLeaf, FallingLeafSystems, halo, halo 2, Halo2, microsoft, shadow run, ShadowRun, windows, xbox

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

KiraXD @ Jun 11th 2007 9:50PM

woo! go MS.. thanks for ostacizing almost 90% of the user base who is still using your XP OS and have no interest in your half-assed new OS.

sheppy @ Jun 11th 2007 9:59PM

IF they can get it working... Halo 2, here I come.

Kinjor @ Jun 11th 2007 10:06PM

am i the only one wondering "who the ****" this corp is? and what legal grounds they have for cracking the code to release the games on xp?

is there any precedent for this? legally speaking that is.

Kinjor @ Jun 11th 2007 10:08PM

p.s. i'm a big fan of this working... though..

GaryM @ Jun 11th 2007 10:21PM

I'll wait for the free workarounds, thanks.

Kamizar @ Jun 11th 2007 10:23PM

Some how I think MS wont care as long as they get a piece of the pie, how big that piece is, they'll let a judge decide...

Josh Warner @ Jun 11th 2007 10:40PM

I looked into this a bit ago, and I think they're legit. Several groups are working on functionality like this - for example, Wine (to run DX9 games under Linux). Falling Leaf is not affiliated with Wine, however, and their goals are different; Wine wants to engineer an Open Source implementation of the ENTIRE DirectX stack (they're close for DX9, considerably farther for DX10), while Falling Leaf is working on specific high-profile games and getting them to work well before moving on to others.

They are making application-specific wrappers for DX10 functionality - by reverse engineering the DX10 stack and implementing the functionality in OpenGL. They use geometry shaders within the GPU creatively to keep the overhead down, and from all I can tell it's a very promising project.

I can't wait to see their end product, and it is highly tempting to order Halo 2 through their link right now.

BTW: I have no insider info, all of that was garnered from their forums and official site.

vadermaggot @ Jun 12th 2007 12:10AM

I'll buy halo 2 again to play on pc but despise vista. Love to see where this is going.

ackmondual @ Jun 12th 2007 12:19AM

Halo2 for PC, winXP. That's the only way I'll get it. Not for Vista

J @ Jun 12th 2007 12:20AM

Masterchief: lololooololoololoolooololololololol !!

omg ghey
Bungie R retard !

J @ Jun 12th 2007 12:25AM

But seriously though-- what's so bad about Vista? I'm not personally moving to Vista anytime soon until the kinks are worked out, but it's a much better OS than XP, which I've always thought was pretty bad.

I think I'll need Vista to get the graphics advantages to the next major EVE expansion. I've got no real issues with that, so long as Vista's not too buggy.

And Bungie rocks. I was just quoting from that 'masterchief sucks at halo' video on youtube.

Rik @ Jun 12th 2007 12:28AM

I'm waiting for the lawsuit.

MS are only making the games Vista only to help push Vista sales. If these guys are reverse-engineering Halo 2 to make the XP-compatibility they can expect a nice little Cease and Desist from MS.

Jason @ Jun 12th 2007 12:32AM

Thats PERFECT for Microsoft... that way anyone who is willing to can buy those games for XP and Microsoft doesn't have to support them!

It's not a question of "will they work?" its a question of "do we want the headache of trying support ANY of those systems out there using XP?"...

It's an easy out for them to say "hey your machine doesn't support Vista and doesn't support these games" or "your machine isn't not "vista compatible" and we dont care if the game doesn't work.

Any company in the world would LOVE to boost sales of something and not have to support it.

Frankly I applaud them for making the game Vista only. Isn't it about time we started moving away from the 6 year old XP? Anything that can push more people into new machines running better hardware and software!!!

Iced_Eagle @ Jun 12th 2007 1:07AM

I'm expecting:

1) Lawsuit
2) Once this company releases, MS could just release a patch via Live and just block their method. Who would want that?

Seriously, it's going to be yet another cat-and-mouse game. If you want these systems, move to Vista. If you don't, try to find workarounds, but don't get pissed when MS tries to put roadblocks in your way.

Steve @ Jun 12th 2007 5:36AM

I would think that Microsoft would LOVE this little patch, as Halo 2 for the PC has sold about all of 10 copies so far I've heard. This might actually double that number!

Anonymous @ Jun 12th 2007 5:43AM

@Jason, "Frankly I applaud them for making the game Vista only. Isn't it about time we started moving away from the 6 year old XP? Anything that can push more people into new machines running better hardware and software!!!"

I think the problem is being forced to move to another OS, sure everyone can just move to Vista and play this game, but then they're left with an OS which is pretty incompatible with alot of stuff and it also means paying out for the OS.

Starts to get abit pricey if you then need some hardware upgrades to actually have it running to a workable standard (just look at Dell, they started putting Vista on all their PC's without the option of XP, then realised the computers ran crappy and stopped forcing people to have it).

Just because Vista looks fancy and new, doesnt mean it's actually better for people to use - there's plenty of people running older OS' than XP because they prefer them, they very rarely went out their way to stop people playing the games then.

At the end of the day, this is to do with getting Vista off the shelves rather than actually about the gaming needs - it just seems like alot of effort for the consumer to get one game working (enough to just give up on the game altogether).

ssuk @ Jun 12th 2007 5:53AM

I thought there was a DirectX9c coming out which is basically DirectX10 for XP. But all I can see this is, is a application which probably tells the game that the PC is running Vista and has DirectX10 when really it's only on DirectX9, can't wait for the error messages and glitches the application will cause.

Mikeo @ Jun 12th 2007 6:09AM

Purleeze. Not this again.

This is just VAIO (Vista-XP app lib emulator) repackaged to include some elements to suit games.

Nothing DX10 will work in XP directly. Not all OPGL2.0 calls are the same- there's gonna be a chunk of calls that can't be transformed. Now what?

These people are just lucky to latch on a few DX9 games. If you think I'm wrong, READ the article on Ars Technica (yes, RTFA) that explains how much Vista's core architectural changes in graphics/sound departments and more. It definitely is making backports harder to be compatible than Geometry Wars.

Again, XP borrows stuff from 3.1 so I'm glad MS has moved on to something less vulnerable.

Josh @ Jun 12th 2007 9:21AM

This just doesn't add up. First, nobody has "made" these games XP compatible, they just hope to. They want me, an XP user, to buy a Vista game - which I won't be able to play - in the hopes of them being able to make it playable down the way? So for like $60 I get a shiny new ... box? Oh, is it a BOX? Sweet. That's what I wanted. A box.

I think it's a noble goal and all - because MS is essentially kicking XP gamers in the shins and groins here - but I'd rather pay upfront for a working piece of software than to put down money in the hopes that someday I get to install a game.

AirIntake @ Jun 12th 2007 9:31AM

People here normally love the PC, and argue that it's not much more expensive than a console, and is WAAAAY better for games. Well, if that's the case, shut up and buy Vista! Enjoy!

dontlikeitmodit @ Jun 12th 2007 9:50AM

I won't be buying these games because they are weak, not because they are Vista only. I've played them both on PC and they are nothing special.

Reason I am not running a legal copy of Vista right now? $400 for ultimate edition.

I wouldn't buy them even if they did run flawless on XP.

I think the real problem I have with Vista and this whole upgrade to play games is that the last rendition didn't exclude me from software when I wasn't an early adopter, why should this one?

Acheron @ Jun 12th 2007 12:39PM

Umm... I give them good luck. Its hard enough getting Windows Live to work on Vista let alone on XP. Lets just say out of the 6 people I knew (including myself) that got the game at release, 5 of them couldn't get Live to work without going to forums to look up the error code and how to fix it (the micro$oft error code database doesn't even have half the errors that we encountered). I personally spent around three hours on the technical support line that they gave me to call for help about "Games for Windows Vista Live." Guess where it connected me. Xbox Live customer service. After waiting for about 40 minutes, I finally got this lady who swore to me that GWL does not exhist, and that I was making it all up. She also told me I must randomly recover my account on my Xbox 360 (after I had repeatedly told her I don't have an Xbox or and Xbox 360). Then after that she insisted it was a hardware error. Which to that I insisted she was stupid, because the error code I got was not a hardware error code. Finally while she put me on hold, I googled my error code minus the last letter, which was what was throwing everyone off that I talked to. And what do you know, I found out that it was an MTU error. I unplugged my router, connected my internet directly from my modem to my PC, and boom, it worked. Then I connected back to my router and I haven't had a problem since.... But here is the real kicker, the lady comes back from hold and said "Prank calls will not be tolerated by the Microsoft corperation" and hangs up on me.

Rod Oracheski @ Jun 12th 2007 2:30PM

Kind of silly to be upset at a company for trying to entice you to move on to their latest product. It's not like this is new or anything...

karnonas @ Jun 17th 2007 7:26PM

Here is an idea... Why don't you all switch to Linux and stop complaining about Microsoft's inferior software. Linux runs faster, cleaner, better, more stable, and better looking on the eye candy, not to mention the fact that its multitasking support kicks the crap out of anything Windows can do. If you want to play windows games in Linux just download a program called cedega, which will run almost all Windows based games. It's time to get Windows completely out of the picture. It's the only way they will stop forcing insuperior software on us. oh, BTW... did I mention that ALL software that is native for Linux is 100% free? Ya, Microsoft sucks! Not to mention the fact that Linux is 100% free? If you are thinking about switching, I suggest Ubuntu Linux.