Brief Hands-On Report--Halo 1.5.2 Update Brings PC Compatibility and Security

According to MacSoft the 1.5.2 update will bring the Mac version into sync with the current PC version and contains a networking security fix. This application will update all previous versions of Mac Halo to version 1.5.2. The Halo 1.5.2 Updater is for the U.S. (ie, English) retail version of Halo only.

We downloaded the installer and had difficulty decoding it with StuffIt Expander 9.0.2. So we downloaded it on another Mac and it decoded fine with StuffIt Expander 7.0.3. The installer worked fine and we ran our benchmark to determine 1.5.2's speed relative to 1.5.1. Here is the table of 3 runs each:

Speed (frames/sec) of Halo 1.5.1 vs 1.5.2

Run #	v1.5.1	v1.5.2
1	66.78	65.99
2	66.82	65.77
3	66.96	65.98
Average	66.85	65.91

Unfortunately, 1.5.2 is just a bit slower than 1.5.1 at the settings that we use to play Halo. One frame per second, though, is not much to worry about. We played for a couple of hours and found no problems. However, we hate the fact that playing Halo rearranges our desktop. [Bill Fox]