Skreens Can Give Halo 5 Split Screen Support - But You Need Two Consoles

Lizzy Finnegan

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Skreens Can Give Halo 5 Split Screen Support - But You Need Two Consoles

Makers of Skreens say the device will give Halo 5 players split screen.


There was a great level of disappointment among fans - myself included - when 343 Industries revealed [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141111-Halo-5-Guardians-No-Split-Screen-Co-Op-Need-Xbox-Gold-For-Online-Co-Op] that Halo 5: Guardians would not have split screen support.

"The decision to remove split-screen support from Halo 5: Guardians was one of the most difficult ones we've ever had to make as a studio," the company later explained [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141762-Why-Halo-5-Wont-Have-Split-Screen-Co-Op]. "We know that for many of our fans, Halo has meant playing together with friends in the same room. We all have great memories of past Halo split-screen multiplayer matches. To move Halo's gameplay forward and deliver a true next-gen experience, tough choices had to be made." 343 indicated that many of their goals for the game would be compromised in a split-screen setting, ultimately making the decision to sacrifice split screen support.

However, hope may not be lost for the couch co-oppers.

A new video uploaded by Skreens on YouTube shows the device using two separate consoles to bring together Halo on a single screen. As Halo 5: Guardians is not yet out, the demonstration featured two Xbox 360's with Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. The casual video also showed other ways that multiple games can be played on the same screen, but the most interesting is the promise that Skreens can make any Halo 5 online multiplayer game a split-screen couch experience - as long as you have two consoles and two copies of the game. Still, it's better than nothing.

Skreens is currently raising funds on Kickstarter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142539-Skreens-Kickstarter-Reaches-Goal-in-Under-30-Minutes] and promises to bring separate media sources like broadband, cable, satellite, streaming devices and gaming consoles together on a single customizable display. The device also you to adjust the windows on the display - size, placement, cropping, transparency, and scaling are completely customizable - and promises no lag.

As of the time of this posting, the campaign has raised over $228,000, well over its initial goal of $25,000, with 30 days remaining.

Halo 5: Guardians releases on October 27 for Xbox One.

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Scrythe

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Jun 23, 2009
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I was going to point out how stupid that is, but then I remembered that Gran Turismo 3 did that with the PS2's only use of the i.LINK port.
 

Arnoxthe1

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Dec 25, 2010
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Soooo... Could this perhaps be extended to 4-way splitscreen, assuming one had 4 copies and 4 consoles?

At the end of the day, yes, it is better than nothing, but not by much.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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If you already need two consoles, each one with a copy of the game, I think it would be better to buy a second (cheap) TV instead of spending your money on a useless and pointless Kickstarter.
 

Jadak

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While you're at it, may as well do without Skreens and just get an additional tv.
 

Lucane

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Split screen is just one option sounds like it could take 2(maybe more) unrelated sources and mix them together.

Examples:
Long load times, installing or updates? Watch Cable with PiP(Picture in Picture) of the Game, Watching live feed of a new show on commercial break? vise versa. Or possibly TV and computer split screen at the same time. Game doesn't have a native map? Internet window one in the corner or have a guide loaded up or Star chart.
 

Buckets

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Nope, Still pissed off that the support is gone. Having a second console or another piece of hardware sucks ass.
Split screen made the game for me, it was a sort of ritual to play halo with my friend, he doesn't own an Xbox and we have played all of them up to now as a split screen co-op, right now it is still a big 'fuck you' to the non-online players.
 

Creator002

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I like the idea of Skreens, but I couldn't see myself using it for split screen gaming.

Lucane said:
Long load times, installing or updates? Watch Cable with PiP(Picture in Picture) of the Game, Watching live feed of a new show on commercial break? vise versa. Or possibly TV and computer split screen at the same time. Game doesn't have a native map? Internet window one in the corner or have a guide loaded up or Star chart.
Stuff like this.
 

laggyteabag

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If you are looking at $180/$200 for the Skreens box, you may as well just buy another damn monitor, especially if you already need 2 consoles.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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Uh, yeah, the problem still remains that your buying two consoles, two xbox Live accounts, and two copies of the game to do what previous entries could do with one of each. It is still giving into the trend that MS and other publishers want. This is not a good selling point for Skreens.

I could just plug the second xbone into my HDMI monitor (with built it speakers), or go grab a TV else where in the house and avoid adding even more to the ridiculous cost to play Halo 5 with someone else in the same house/apartment. Then again, I'd rather not give MS any money for this game.
 

Shoggoth2588

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Remember back when you could connect Xbox's together? I think they were called LAN parties...Up to 16 (could be wrong) people would connect four Xbox consoles together, each with its own copy of Halo: Combat Evolved and 15 of the 16 would form the Sacred Pyramid which would then be ceremonially destroyed with Rocket and Tank fire in the great gulch of blood.

All that required was a cable and three Xbox-owning chums. This just seems kinda sad.
 

Roxas1359

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This reminds me of Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube where you needed 4 TVs, 4 copies of the game, and 4 GameCubes, and possibly multiple GBAs with LAN adapters to get the full experience of the game. That was terrible back then and it's just as bad now.
 

Adam Locking

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Scrythe said:
I was going to point out how stupid that is, but then I remembered that Gran Turismo 3 did that with the PS2's only use of the i.LINK port.
Except that wasn't the only use of the i-link port. A quick google search brought up the following:

* Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (PAL Regions)
* ATV Offroad Fury 2
* Armored Core 2
* Armored Core 2: Another Age
* Armored Core 3
* Silent Line: Armored Core
* Armored Core: Nexus
* Armored Core: Nine Breaker
* Armored Core: Last Raven
* ATV Offroad Fury 2
* Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
* Lethal Skies II (North America)
* Silent Scope 2: Dark Silhouette
* TimeSplitters 2
* Time Crisis 2
* Time Crisis 3
* Tokyo Road Race (aka Battle Gear 2) (PAL Regions)
* Unreal Tournament
* Vampire Night
 

CrystalShadow

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Roxas1359 said:
This reminds me of Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube where you needed 4 TVs, 4 copies of the game, and 4 GameCubes, and possibly multiple GBAs with LAN adapters to get the full experience of the game. That was terrible back then and it's just as bad now.
Really? I thought it was 4 gba's and 1 gamecube? (and those weird link cables)
Funnily enough I have two of those GBA/gamecube cables, but can't for the life of me remember why. (don't recall owning anything that used them)

That whole 'skreen' thing just seems rather pointless though.
basically seems like an overblown KVM switch...

As for halo. Don't personally care, but their reasoning sucks.
split-screen takes more effort, yes. But you'll note all the older games that had it managed OK, abd largely did so by using lower quality game assets and effects in split-screen.
Why?
Because you are rendering twice as much with the same hardware. (or 4 times as much for some games).
That requires compromises, sure.
But why is that such a big deal?
Is your engine THAT inflexible? Your assets THAT hard to optimise for different performance profiles?
It's just embarrassing.

Sometimes I think that hardware might have grown exponentially more powerful, but clearly, expectations have grown faster than performance, if the behaviour of devs is anything to go by.
 

Bobular

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Halo is perhaps the only reason I can think of to get an X-Box, I don't think its worth it to me at the moment and I defiantly don't think its worth the cost of two to be able to play co-op.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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It doesn't look particularly cost effective being a Halo fanboy/girl. However it looks considerably worse for your wallet, being a Bungie fanboy/girl.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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Shoggoth2588 said:
Remember back when you could connect Xbox's together? I think they were called LAN parties...Up to 16 (could be wrong) people would connect four Xbox consoles together, each with its own copy of Halo: Combat Evolved and 15 of the 16 would form the Sacred Pyramid which would then be ceremonially destroyed with Rocket and Tank fire in the great gulch of blood.

All that required was a cable and three Xbox-owning chums. This just seems kinda sad.
I remember occasionally getting 10 or more guys together at once, sometimes out in the countryside where the internet couldn't handle Halo 2 era Xbox Live. Those days are over. (Unless someone stops being greedy and puts full LAN support back in games. That feature didn't live long enough on consoles.)
CrystalShadow said:
Roxas1359 said:
This reminds me of Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube where you needed 4 TVs, 4 copies of the game, and 4 GameCubes, and possibly multiple GBAs with LAN adapters to get the full experience of the game. That was terrible back then and it's just as bad now.
Really? I thought it was 4 gba's and 1 gamecube? (and those weird link cables)
Funnily enough I have two of those GBA/gamecube cables, but can't for the life of me remember why. (don't recall owning anything that used them)
Indeed it was just a 'cube, one copy of FSA and 4 GBAs (and the overpriced link cables). A rough estimate of the cost of that set up was about $600 US. Pricey, but each person was supposed to bring their own GBA and link cable. (Too bad, I was the only Zelda fan in my group that had a GBA.)

I think a Let's Play used 1 host Gamecube, 1 copy of the game, 4 Gamecubes w/ GBA Players (the add-on that let GCs play GBA games), for link cables, and four regular GC controllers to record all five screens. The cost of a set up like that back when the game came out would be outrageous.
That whole 'skreen' thing just seems rather pointless though.
basically seems like an overblown KVM switch...
Now that you mention it. This Skreen thing does seem like kvm switch combined with those fancy Picture-in-Picture features of old big screen TVs.

Some people might like it, but if I'm doing some crazy multiviewing (that goes beyond just quickly resizing windows) I just swing my monitor around to view it with my TV.
 

Roxas1359

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CrystalShadow said:
Roxas1359 said:
This reminds me of Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube where you needed 4 TVs, 4 copies of the game, and 4 GameCubes, and possibly multiple GBAs with LAN adapters to get the full experience of the game. That was terrible back then and it's just as bad now.
Really? I thought it was 4 gba's and 1 gamecube? (and those weird link cables)
Funnily enough I have two of those GBA/gamecube cables, but can't for the life of me remember why. (don't recall owning anything that used them)
That's if you wanna play 4 players, but you will end up seeing most of the indoors of the game on the tiny GBA screen. If you wanted to play 4 players with not having to worry about looking at the GBA screen, which could be very dark if you had a wide model, then you needed multiple GameCubes with the LAN adapter so that everything would be on the TV. It's very dumb since it could have easily been fixed with something the game already does if you position people at the edge of the screen. I recommend checking out SomeCallMeJohhny and Derrick from GameExplain's blind LP of the game to see what I mean. Plus it's hilarious as heck to hear the blind reactions that happen sometimes in the game. XD
 

Smooth Operator

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How about we first point out you can't fucking get the device at all, and there are absolutely no release dates posted anywhere.
Why you would be advertising this as if people get to use it with a new game is beyond me, this device does not exist, no one knows if it ever will. So before you go throwing money at an endless abyss I suggest you look for an extra screen on ebay instead.