The Day the Multiplayer Died

[Diligent]

I think split screen games are a soon to be a thing of the past. Maybe its just the people I know, but I have a hard time finding anybody willing to play a game when its squished into the tunnel vision of 1/2 or 1/4 of a screen. Especially when it is included like Gears of War, and there is no option to make the split vertical, which to me would make much more sense on a widescreen TV.
Local multiplayer is still awesome though, and I'm pretty confident it wont go away. Maybe when hardware is powerful enough, and monitors are super cheap, game consoles will have the option to plug in up to 4 monitors or TVs doing away with split screen, and keeping all your friends in the room to play.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

More games needs split screen unforced co-op. By unforced I mean you don't have a (meaningful) computer partner when it is only single player. Halo managed this well, so did Timesplitters(2&3) which was one of the greatest console experiences ever.

One game I really with had co-op LAN play is STALKER, it could easily be worked into the story or the second player just ignored like in Halo 1.

Companies don't want to put in lan play for the reasons the wall of text above listed. They want control over the players environment, they want continuous contact for marketing opportunities, they want piracy protection, etc.

I will not be purchasing starcraft 2 because of a lack of lan and direct IP play.

 

[Saskwach]

You know, I basically posted a thread like this to the escapist a long while back. Which isn't to say I'm grumpy, just that I totally agree.
MW2 makes me rage. You can play 4 player split screen OR 1p per screen LAN, but NOT 4 player split screen LANs. So to play with 5 players offline takes 4 more TVs, 360s and copies of MW2 (the key element to IW/Activision's decision I'm sure) than you need to play with 4. They clearly could have done it; that they didn't was a purely mercenary money-making venture. And it probably didn't even make them much/any money.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

SplitScreen is cool and all, but being overdramatic is just going to make me, and many others, oppose you. I really don't care about SS much, as I don't have a bunch of nearby friends. Online allows you to talk to people around the world. Why oppose that?

The point isn't that online play is bad. I don't think anyone would say that. However, if you do have friends, then a split-screen game is just so much more fun to play. In stead of sitting all alone behind your own screen, split-screen puts two (or more) people on the same couch, behind the same screen. It greatly enhances the social aspect of the game, and in my opinion there isn't a multiplayer game in the world that cannot be improved by playing it with a friend. What's more, you can only play online multiplayer if your friends have the same system and the same game as you do. If you have a PS3 and your friend has an X360, good luck trying to play together online. But if you visit your friend or your friend visits you, and you've got split-screen games, you can have fun all day.

Besides, wouldn't you rather play with a good friend next to you than with some abusive 12-year old from halfway across the world?

 

[Kathinka]

sadly this console-born syndrome takes over to pc too...more and more games do not have the lan mode, that used to be the highlight of any game for me..

 

[Saskwach]

The point isn't that online play is bad. I don't think anyone would say that. However, if you do have friends, then a split-screen game is just so much more fun to play. In stead of sitting all along behind your own screen, split-screen puts two (or more) people on the same couch, behind the same screen. It greatly enhances the social aspect of the game, and in my opinion there isn't a multiplayer game in the world that cannot be improved by playing it with a friend.

One time three friends and I hooked up our 360s to the interwebs while in the same room and went MeW2ing along with a couple other friends on Live at the time. It was a blast. We could see each other's awesome killcams, talk back and forth, and generally drink in the atmosphere of LANning, with the comfort and gamer pool of online play.
Of course it wasn't so fun for our enemy. They were consistently thumped (except for a couple lobbies that put up a good show), and found a lot of their sneaky tactics countered by a group of what looked like mic-less pubbies. They must have wondered how the hell we always knew when they'd ambushed someone. (One time we actually set up a full defensive perimeter above the stairs on Terminal without saying a word or ever having planned it before. It was eery to turn from my post looking down the stairs and see everyone else covering an entrance without ever having agreed on it.)

 

[Jfswift]

I caught up with a friend of mine on steamchat earlier today and he mentioned going to a lan party. I miss that atmosphere. It's alot more fun when you're with the other players and you see the expression on their face when you pull off a good move (or funny if they get you, it's all good). Halo, Perfect Dark, Unreal 2004 and a few other games were great for this. They ran smoothly and provided that unique experience.

I've noticed this too with alot of newer games relying strictly on internet only which is kind of sad. When I have friends over what I am supposed to play now.. >.>

 

[joshuaayt]

And that's how I suddenly was hit by the wall of nostalgia associated with GoldenEye 007 memories...
Mmm, paintball mode and floating remote mines!

 

[hi0marc]

Dont think much of MW games but must compliment their split screen options- The best of any FPS (and probably only)
Split screen should return, not likes it's hard to implement.

 

[razormint21]

It really bugs me that splitscreen is slowly being phased out.
Considering that TV's are getting the widescreen treatment and have respectable sizes already...

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Yesss!

Bring back split-screen! Bring back hot-seat! Bring back bot-matches!

Hot seat leads to vicous, brutal infighting. A friend if mine got nacho cheese dumped all over him for pretending to not have died when we looked away. I won't say who started the nacho fight, I'll just point at the guilty party and whistle.

*Whistles while pointing*

 

[TheColdHeart]

I like splitscreen, it makes gaming with friends a bit more social when they were in the same room as you. Mainly because watching someone play a game can be pretty boring, I play most game campaigns splitscreen with my friends like Halo, Gears of War, Borderlands. I like the kinda "team" feeling you get sat side by side.

I also miss loading up a load of bots and just messing about on a multiplayer game by myself or getting a bit of practice in. TimeSplitters 2, me and my friend vs a whole team of 5 star bots with only homing-launchers...fun times.

 

[rjou]

My housemate and I occasionally rent a game and play through it co-op in one sitting but our choices have been severely limited as of late; we've done Gears of War 1 + 2, Perfect Dark XBLA, Perfect Dark Zero and Army of Two 40 Days.

We nearly got the new Splinter Cell game out but the back said that it was a separate campaign for co-op although the back was quite ambiguous. Can anyone tell me if it is a co-op single player campaign plus an additional small campaign designed for co-op or if it is just a separate tagged on addition a la Modern Warfare 2 which, whilst fun, wasn't exactly the same because it was short 5-10 minute blasts rather than the actual game.

It's a separate story, a prequel of sorts to the story of Conviction itself, shown from a perspective of two third echelo operatives, neither being Sam. I have sort of a same kind of relationship with split-screens, we've played nearly every (damnation being the only exception) SS game there is for 360 and majority of PS3 as well with a mate of mine. AoT40D was a huge pile of crap considering the first one did everything better and I was very weary of the Splinter Cell co-op. I was glad to notice I had nothing to fear. Although it offers much less duration than the main story, it's the most fun I've had in split-screen since Gears of War 2. Imagine Rainbow 6 Vegas with more weight on the stealth side and add some elements of Army of Two from strategical point of view and you'll get the basic idea. You can safely go SC:C SS mode with my recommendations at least.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

WWE's really stopped doing that (well I think) I think they still do 6 people on one console doing Money In The Bank. (good friday nights wasted )

 

[Varun Garuda Maharaj]

they assume that everyone is connected to the internet, well i live in the caribbean and in here, not so much

 

[thenumberthirteen]

With giant HD TVs more and more common you'd think the technology is perfect for split screen gaming.

 

[robert022614]

personally i love splitscreen!!! online gaming is all well and fun and im not saying it is (better) by any means, but they both have their purpose one shouldnt be abandoned for the other. i love playing online when im alone and if i want to play with a friend he/she shouldnt have to lug their console to my place and hook up to my internet just so we can see each other shoot each other face to face. Also is it just me or has coop campaigns seem to be becoming rarer and rarer. sure borderlands had it and i appreciated it for that, but most games seem to be ditching it. i bought resistance and totally enjoyed it coop with my best friend. i bought resistance two and enjoyed the game alone i mean dont get me wrong the level based multiplayer thing was unique and fun, but well it just lost alot of something without coop campaign. Also my best friend who i pretty much grew up loving games with DOESNT have internet!!!! so lately with games that dont have splitscreen we tend to meet at my place and do alot of controller passing. all in all its not something deal breaking for most, just seems to be sort of a shame. online socializing my be the future, but that doesnt mean tackling your friend because he/she is a screen watching jackass should be a thing of the past either....

 

[The Great JT]

Y'know what happened? The horrors of X-Box Live and the douchebags it came with.

 

[Pandalisk]

Thank GOD! for Pacific Rifts 4-player Splitscreen, hours of fun were had because of it.

 

[qbanknight]

you know i love playing online shooters, but nothing beats the fun of sitting next to someone and blowing their head off with everyone in the room laughin about it