One of the nice things about the new MacBook Pros (and technically the previous revision) is their GeForce 8600GT Go graphics.

Which, after running through Halo 3 for the n-th time, gave me an idea… MacSoft was really hyping how their version of Halo was the most refined, so why not put it to the test?

And so, I did. With FSAA 2x, and everything set to high, the game performed with perfection, at 1440×900 no less. This is much higher quality than Xbox 360 backwards compatibility. And, best of all, MacSoft broke the Bungie-imposed resolution controls… so no letterboxing (the game takes up the full screen, unlike Xbox 360 in HD).

One of the nice things about doing this, is you get to see all the details and nuiances Bungie built into the game… without needing to stop and smell the roses. And, to point this out, I made a photo gallery. You’ll note that the only visual artifact is on the water in The Silent Cartographer… I believe the glitch stems from the FSAA. I haven’t tried bumping up the FSAA to see if that makes it go away

I haven’t tried forcing increases on the PC version, but from looking at the engine (and prior memory of its limits)… I think the returns will be diminished. That said, it’s worth a try…

Edit: Had to bump the gallery to read more…