The PC versions of Halo: Combat Evolved, its demo and Halo: Custom Editionare now playable through the third-party matchmaking and online gaming program GameRanger. Halo was slated to suffer loss of online functionality when GameSpy's matchmaking services go dark on May 31.

GameRanger began in 1999 and supports nearly 700 PC games and just under 200 for Mac. Prior to the news of GameSpy's impending shutdown, which also affects games like Crysis and Crysis 2, the Australia-based company announced that it achieved five million registered PC users in March. GameRanger picked up other games whose servers got the ax, such as 2005's Need for Speed: Most Wanted in August 2011.

Grand Theft Auto 4 and Red Dead Redemption will remain mostly unaffected by the closure of GameSpy's online services, though other Rockstar games will suffer. EA announced last month that it was working to transition its older Battlefield games to its own Origin service.

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/05/02/ha...th-gameranger/