Bungie did Halo (PC) so right...

Probably the game I've spent the most time in as an adult is Halo 1 for the PC. Something you console guys may not be aware of but the PC version has public server based multiplayer... I've read that the console version only allowed private party multiplayer? Anyway, I've put thousands of hours into that game and was still playing it up until I bought Halo 3 and my 360 back in September of 2008.

Lately with work as hectic as it is I've been looking for something fairly casual that I knew would run on my laptop. So I decided to reinstall Halo the other day only to find I didn't uninstall it when I made the move to Halo 3. I started it up and it told me there was a new patch for it. Really? A new patch? After you've had 2, 3 and even odst put out you're still patching 1? So I say ok... it brings up this window, downloads the patch... once it's done downloading it brings up another window... installs the patch... and I'm back into the game. I can't recall any other time patching a PC game has gone that simply.

I can completely understand why gaming company's would move towards consoles. I'm sure it's considerably easier, You know everything from graphics to sound to playability to patching should work the same on every machine if the console is in 100% working condition. But what is Bungie doing differently that company's like EA (at least in my pre-BFBC2 experience) can't figure out on the PC? I don't have a lot of experience with Steam but I do plan on purchasing BFBC2 through it as soon as work settles down.

For those of you looking for something fairly casual to play (no public stats to worry about your compadres seeing, no little timmy's crying in your ear after the game is over, will run on probably 99% of the computers being used today [I'd guess]) , there are still a lot of populated servers out there. Assuming Wal-Mart still has it (it's been a while since I looked) it's only $20, check it out!