Death of the 4 player co-op

[I20I3]

I would so love to be proven very wrong, but there seems to be a trend (i can clearly see the reason for it) of there being lack of 4 player co-op. I will say this now because i know exactly what all of you are thinking (L4D). But I'm talking about 4 player co-op on one console. No system link or LAN party. Just one console and 4 controllers. The obvious reason for this is the marketing people, thought why let 4 people do something at the same time on the same thing, when they can pay us for another console and another game. Last i remember (full game, castle crasher excluded) was champions of Norrath, both of them, and being able to only through use of multi-tap to get all 4 of us embarking on our epic quest of button mashing fun. But that was it, and what i so sorely miss, the 4 of us doing something together working together, and having fun. We pulled at least 2 all nighters the 4 of us, just to get it done. I sadly cant say that about any recent games. Which i found odd because all the systems support 4 players, just it's more focused on competition when you have more than 2 people
What is your take on this, and if you can prove me wrong please do. If you can compile a list of the games.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

...... It's dead because everybody hates split screen. Just play Left 4 Dead.

 

[nova18]

Hell, some games dont even bother with 2 player co-op and 2 player split screen competitive.
Online gaming is fine but sometimes I want to have some mates around and pwn them all at games that they have never played.

Dev's need to look back at some of the more successful games of the last decade and realise that playing against people on the same console, split-screen, is an attractive feature.

What get's me is, the PS3 can connect to 4 controllers, yet hardly any game takes advantage of it.

...... It's dead because everybody hates split screen. Just play Left 4 Dead.

Must have taken you ages to ask EVERYONE.
Bit presumptious considering there's already 2 people on this thread that LIKE split screen.

 

[Flying-Emu]

...... It's dead because everybody hates split screen.

Seconded.

Only excuse is Gauntlet.

 

[[Gavo]]

Ah...the only time I do this is when I'm with my friends at their houses or mine, playing SSBB, Mario Kart, Halo 3, and such.

Wait, now I realize that you said co-op. All I can think of is L4D on console. I don't even know if that happens on the 360.

Wait...Time Splitters on GC..wait, that 2-player. Damn!

Can't think of anything.

...... It's dead because everybody hates split screen. Just play Left 4 Dead.

Yeah...Split screen sucks if you have a small TV...like most of us.

 

[ellimist337]

You can have the same fun LANing a co-op game. You're all still in the same place; you just have a bigger screen. And online co-op is fun too, just a little different. You can still make the same jokes and have the same fun and play all night. And split-screening on HDTVs for some games sucks... I'm looking at you Halo 3. You and your needless squaring.

 

[Nickolas Azieha]

I miss the 4 player split screen. A four player Co-Op (campaign) would be really nice but the most for that is 2. sigh. Another little complaint is if the 360 has a wireless controller couldn't you set it to allow more than 4 people cause you don't have to install a bunch of ports everywhere.

 

[I20I3]

But if you have a big screen TV, its no problemo, and with a game like Champions of Norrath you all use the same screen. While a bit confusing at times, it makes way for better teamwork, which i feel is dying nowadays as well (L4D excluded, i could even attribute some of it being so good to that).

 

[Shadzta]

I enjoy the fact that halo had co-op and i think games like call of duty should have co-op multiplayer with 2 people at least.

 

[mr mcshiznit]

Its really just not fun to have your TV screen broken into 4 quads when you want to play a game. You can easily cheat and see where everybody is, you cant really see what your doing, and its a pain if your on an xbox and you have to move over 3 profiles onto your box to let them earn gamerscore and stuff. Plus to me on a 30inch TV i really could not see whats going on if i'm sharing the screen with 3 others.

 

[Haddi]

The lack of split screen is stupid. I got 3 of me mates over once, and fired up GoW 2.

The console immediately started bitching as soon as number 3 got signed in, complaining that we were an evil bastard for daring to have more than two profiles on one console playing GoW 2.

 

[GreenDevilJF]

Lack of split screen makes just about any game a "no buy" for me, only exception was Duke Nukem 3D(which had no excuse not to have split screen).

I blame the whole online craze that set in, no need for local when they can just make more people buy the game just to play with there friends. Unless you use system link, but system link is fail in so many ways.

 

[itsnotyouitsme]

Co-op kinda screws the list up as in my dictionary it means going though a story and playing as in single playing but with a friend next to you. However, if you want to count L4D as it then i guess everything else goes as L4D feels less like a story and more like playing a level again and again.
anyways here's a few games off the top of my head:

L4D
SSB, SSB:M, SSB:B
Pokemon Stadium, 2
Donkey Kong 64
Halo, 2, 3
Mario Party
Star Wars Racer
Mario Kart

On that thought most racing are 4 player as well.
1...2...3... 13 games on this small list alone. Not counting the many mario parties as well.

 

[I20I3]

Hell, some games dont even bother with 2 player co-op and 2 player split screen competitive.
Online gaming is fine but sometimes I want to have some mates around and pwn them all at games that they have never played.

Dev's need to look back at some of the more successful games of the last decade and realise that playing against people on the same console, split-screen, is an attractive feature.

What get's me is, the PS3 can connect to 4 controllers, yet hardly any game takes advantage of it.

I wholly agree with you. With the last gen wars, it was a selling point that Game cube, and Xbox had 4 ports, and then the PS2 came out with the multi tap. Now its incorporated in to all the new gen systems but rarely used.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

...... It's dead because everybody hates split screen. Just play Left 4 Dead.

Wow you must have alot of spare time to have interviewed everyone.

I still don't understand why they don't program split-screen. Pretty much everyone I know can't can't a current-gen console and internet,

Not really. I'm just god. I'm all knowing like that.

OKAY! Let me ask. WHO HERE -LIKES- squinting to see on 1/4th the screen space the game was designed to display on while a bunch of shit that doesn't involve you goes on distracting you in your peripheral vision?

 

[sother2]

Hell, some games dont even bother with 2 player co-op and 2 player split screen competitive.
Online gaming is fine but sometimes I want to have some mates around and pwn them all at games that they have never played.

Dev's need to look back at some of the more successful games of the last decade and realise that playing against people on the same console, split-screen, is an attractive feature.

What get's me is, the PS3 can connect to 4 controllers, yet hardly any game takes advantage of it.

...... It's dead because everybody hates split screen. Just play Left 4 Dead.

Must have taken you ages to ask EVERYONE.
Bit presumptious considering there's already 2 people on this thread that LIKE split screen.

Actually you can have up to 7 player

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I have to second (or third) the opinion that much of the downfall comes from the difficulty of playing on the tiny split screen. It worked fine with goldeneye, where ranges were short, detail was low and color contrast ran high, but try playing GRAW 2 coop on a split screen - suddenly it becomes an exercise of having everyon sit 4 inchres from the screen squiting and trying to decide if that slightly different color pixel is a person or a rock.

Just as important is the fact that adding additional players tends to make a game far to easy. L4D is one of the only examples that seems well balnced in this regard because it was designed from the ground up to be played by four people. Most games are designed to be played by one player, and adding additional players tends to screw with the balance. Even when this isn't the case and co-op was designed into the game from the start it's often poorly executed (See Army of Two as a prime example).

 

[GreenDevilJF]

...... It's dead because everybody hates split screen. Just play Left 4 Dead.

Wow you must have alot of spare time to have interviewed everyone.

I still don't understand why they don't program split-screen. Pretty much everyone I know can't can't a current-gen console and internet,

Not really. I'm just god. I'm all knowing like that.

OKAY! Let me ask. WHO HERE -LIKES- squinting to see on 1/4th the screen space the game was designed to display on while a bunch of shit that doesn't involve you goes on distracting you in your peripheral vision?

If the game is fun than I don't give a shit about sharing the screen, seriously.

 

[Pain_Inflictor]

war of the Monsters was the best 4player co-op ever. Little Big Planet is great as well.