The Kernel wrote:Bungie was neither mangled nor shut down and continues to make awesome games. You don't like the fact that it isn't everything you wanted it to be? TOO FUCKING BAD. Bungie didn't sign a contract with you to make the game you wanted, they decided to make the game they wanted, and they made a conscious decision to make it on the Xbox. If you don't like it, don't buy their games, but don't expect Xbox gamers who love the game to suddenly stop loving it just because Bungie burned some Mac/PC gamers on their way to making a fabulous title.
"Shaft" isn't the word. Not only did Halo get canned for Mac and PC in favor of the X-Box, but it came out
years later for the PC when it arguably should've been a relatively clean and quick port job. And when that port gets there, it's got such incredibly shitty optimizations that hardware which can run better-looking games just fine gets brought to its knees by Halo. So PC users got a little more than just shafted.
Mac users, on the other hand, got fucked up the ass. Not only did Halo originally debut on a Mac, but Bungie owes its current status to its
Mac fanbase. Who the Hell do you think bought the Marathon trilogy? Pathways into Darkness? Minotaur? That's right. Mac users, because those were Mac-only titles. And Halo comes to Mac not just
last, but far behind the PC version.
Add to that the fact that they sold out to Microsoft to develop the promised "game to end all games" exclusively for Microsoft's upcoming console, effectively sending the Mac port into a purgatory of doubt and delays, and you've got a pissed off core fan base. And, to top it off, Halo runs like shit on anything but über-high-end Mac hardware, and there's not even a fucking Mac
demo. And Bungie is actually
surprised that Mac users are pirating Halo like crazy? It certainly isn't worth the $50 they want for it. I'm going to pay $50 for a game that will barely run on my hardware that I've already played on the X-Box and PC by the time it makes it to the Mac? Yeah, right guys.
Bungie stuck themselves in a lose-lose scenario with PC and Mac gamers. Either they release low-quality, bullshit ports after
years and get everyone pissed off that it runs like shit after such long development time, or they don't release it at all and piss everyone off for breaking their word.
So you'll excuse me for being a little pissed that probably the best game company on the planet got turned into a Microsoft money-making pawn.