The Day the Multiplayer Died

[Rayansaki]

I agree, I live in an apartment with 4 other people, 3 of which play games, and it's kind of silly to play with them online, in 4 separate rooms.

 

[F-I-D-O]

The DS download play offers an almost split-screen experience, but more often than not it's like playing a demo. Even then, less DS games have download now.
I still have MoH:Rising Sun for the PS2, and I love the bots in there. Bots would be great in more games, but not in every type. MAG, for example, shouldn't have bots because it's based around working with other humans in a squad. AvP though, could plausibly have bots, because it is hard enough to find a full online game.
Overall, I wish that the ultimate split-screen/LAN paradise would appear, but it isn't suited for every game (just a large amount of them).

 

[Jared]

I miss the days of Goldeneye, getting 4 mates in a room on a tiny television, with a quater television each and trying to kill each other.

Those were the days...now its all about been alone, in a room, wioth people oyu may not even know

real, real shame

 

[CoverYourHead]

My favorite thing in the world used to be playing Jedi Knight II with invincibility and infinite life on against hordes of bots.

I really miss bots. A lot.

Also: Gears of War 2 has them, it's the only reason I don't sell that game: There's a lot of fun to be had with a friend against bots.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

This is why I have game night with my friends, admittedly we do play lots of Brawl but we do play other games too and it's getting harder and harder to include FPS, we do play beat em ups or party games or racers but still...

 

[IrirshTerrorist]

I couldn't agree more with everything said in this article.

I always have been and a;ways will be a someone who believes playing with four people who are in the same room as you is better than twelve+ people online.

Bring back fourplayer splitscreen! Bring back system link!

Halo2 is one of the most fun games to play 8player system link. You can create some really fun game types, such as; Super Zombie and Super Zombie Convoy.

 

[cryogeist]

split screen and bot matches died when online was so simple to get

 

[Chameliondude]

I think your concentrating too much on shooters, ive had 7 people just last weekend in one fifa match on ps3, racing games and fighters all still have multiplayer, but i do see what you mean.

I am very annoyed with the lack of splitscreen and multiplayer expecially when it lets you do it online, It seemed very promising at the begining of the generation, resistance 1 had sick splitscreen and killzone had bots but these were the last of a dying breed.

 

[GL2814E]

Meh, I recently had a ton of fun doing three player split screen with some friends over the XBLA Perfect Dark, but there is something to be said for using all of my ginormous television so I can see. And if those friends would both download Perfect Dark then I would just play them over XBLA and we'd enjoy that as much I suspect...

(And they wouldn't be drinking all of my beer so there is that...)

 

[Irridium]

I think we have Halo 2 to blame for this rise in online games. Before Halo 2, I can't think of much console games that were huge online successes.

But at least Halo offers 4 player split screen. For both online and offline play.

And I'm sick of the excuse that devs can't do splitscreen because "the console would have to work harder."

If Goldeneye can pull of 4 player splitscreen on, what, 4 megabytes of RAM [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64#Hardware] with a fraction of the budget for todays games, and according to Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldeneye_007], which we know is never ever wrong, Goldeneye's multilayer was a damn afterthought!

Something tells me developers can put in 4 player split screen with the massive budgets and teams we have now along with powerful consoles.

And don't even get me started with bots. All the time I spent on the Unreal Tournament games playing with bots...

 

[Cargin]

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.

I know exactly what u mean. me nd and old friend decided to relive the old days when only one of us had a console and rent out sum co-op games and have few beers, etc. the only problem was that the only game available to rent with co-op was the fantastic four...it was really bad...

I dont mind if games aren't gears of war/ army of 2 style: co-op orientated, i'd just like more games to have a half decent option for it.

 

[brunothepig]

Me and my friends are constantly talking about this. Even LAN is being removed in games, like Starcraft 2. And a major selling point of Crackdown was the whole idea of having another guy running around with his own agenda. He may help you, you may help him, or he might just go off to the other side of the city. Then I found out you need to go online. Which is not nearly as fun. I've basically given up on more than 2 player split screen. New Super Mario Brothers was a lot of fun with four players though. We didn't have too much trouble. Apart from that, me and my friends go down to one guys computer store, and LAN there. Or my D&D group just gets our laptops and LANs Halo all night...

 

[BlueHighwind]

I have yet to play a multiplayer game without a local connection, and I cannot even begin to understand the appeal. Why would trade having half a dozen people in your room trading controllers to have Link bash Pikachu's face in for splitting them up onto six systems and TVs in six rooms where you all have to communicate via a silly headset system? Where is the fun in that? Maybe if you like getting beaten by some asthmatic stranger in Korea, but how can an asthmatic stranger in Korea possibly replace the interaction of my best friends?

 

[Fappy]

I've been seeing these kinds of articles for years now and I still don't understand why the industry hasn't taken notice... we want our local multiplayer back dammit!

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Goddarn you money grabbin devs!!

Gimme back my multiplayer! >:/

 

[Madmanonfire]

I agree with almost everything, except for:
"Shooters are hardcore."
"Just about everything else is casual."
*facepalm*

 

[theSovietConnection]

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

Too right, complete carnage and mayhem ensued. Some of the most fun I've had multipayer-wise this generation.

I never really got into the LAN parties until fairly recently because I was never really able to afford a machine that could really run most of the games. What I did have, though, was a SNES and NES (Duck Hunt FTW). Split screen and local multiplayer holds some of my fondest memories growing up, like the Desert World in Super Mario Bros 3, or Super Mario Kart. Maybe I'm just looking at it through nostalgia goggles, but I'd be a lying bastard if I didn't say I think they should bring local multiplayer back.

 

[Niveama]

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

I totally agree with this article and thread, but especially this part, back in the day me and my friends would play quake 2 on the PS1 well into the night on a mid sized CRT TV and it was strain-o-vision experience, yet we did it time and time again cos nothing beats shooting your mate in the head and then laughing in his face about it.

If games can't support multiple players on 1 console why the hell to the consolses support so many controllers.

Props to nintendo for bucking the trend once more.

 

[The Random One]

We're in the middle of a mistake. Games are abandoning local multiplayer in favor of online experiences,

...I don't think I've seen an article reach so much truth so quickly.