Is single player dead?

A few days ago when playing Portal, one of the best and most unique singleplayer experiences to have ever been made.

Singleplayer is as dead as PC gaming. It ain't going nowhere anytime soon.

It isnt dead but definitely dormant.

WAY too much focus on multiplayer lately.. and having a career and life, without much time to game is difficult and frustrating when you play online getting owned by 12 year olds

Honestly, with all the focus directed towards online and group gameplay with the Xbox 360 and Wii consoles, when was the last time you can say that you had a truly unique single player experiece? As I sit here typing this message, the only time I can recall when I felt like I had this experience was when Oblivion came out. It seems like since then it's been nothing but disappointments and Halo 3's, where the single player is OK, but online is where it's at. I miss the good ol' days, where you could be a complete recluse and still have fun : P.jubino

Try Bioshock. It's few and far between but that's the way the industry is headed..

I hope it doesn't die!

In the last 3 years, most games tend to be leaning towards MP. some such as BF2, CS:S, UT3, and ET:QW have practically no singleplayer, and lackluster bots to play against. The last good game that actually blended SP and MP together seamlessly was CoD 2.

As shown by my gamertag in my signature, I've played and beaten Bioshock... and traded it back in for credit. I can agree with you that it is unique, however I didn't find it to be a very fulfilling victory. The ending was a huge disappointment to me, as was the replayability, so IMHO I didn't think the game lived up to the hype at all. I think that in no time there will more Bioshock trade-ins than all the Gamestop, EB Games, etc. will know what to do with once the initial hype machine effects finally wear off.jubino

As everyone has said, Bioshock, but I see you have already beaten it, and respected its genious to a certain degree. Other than that, check out The Orange Box, with the Half-Life series and Portal. Also while games like Halo 3 get huge hype over their multiplayer, there is a campaign, in case everyone forgot. I may be the only person who feels this way, but I enjoy the campaign on Halo more than the multiplayer, for some reason I find the servers loaded with really really annoying and immature people, no offense to anyone who plays, as I'm sure you are fine, but there is that percentage of people who play that game, who just suck. Other than that, Assassain's Creed is coming out soon, and while I've heard mixed things about it lately, I'm still holding onto my hope that it will rock.

I feel you do have a point though, multiplayer is such a big selling point now, it has gotten kind of ridiculous. I mean don't get me wrong I love some multiplayer action as much as the next person, but I still think the main focus of games should be the storyline/gameplay in the single-player. That what I have bought games for for almost 20 years now, and that is what I want to keep buying games for. I don't want games like Shadowrun, that do not have any campaign mode what so ever, sure while it may be a pretty good multiplayer game, I think its ridiculous that it is soley a multiplayer game. But then I look back on other games, and a game like Gears of War (which I get really really sick of at times, however) I thought did a really good job of balancing the multiplayer and single player aspects. Also, I believe all sports games are mainly single player first and multiplayer second, so there is a huge genre. Overall I guess I just want to see more good games, multiplayer and/or single player, I can enjoy both when a game is good.

As everyone has said, Bioshock, but I see you have already beaten it, and respected its genious to a certain degree. Other than that, check out The Orange Box, with the Half-Life series and Portal.

Overall I guess I just want to see more good games, multiplayer and/or single player, I can enjoy both when a game is good.

Bvp301

Orange Box does seem like it would be a pretty good game set, and definitely worth the price tag. It's basically like $12 per game if you break it down. I think you make a really valid point with good games in general. Maybe it's not that all the good games are multiplayer, maybe it's that we only think they're good because of the human interaction. It could just be that all developers, whether the game is single or multi, have been extremely lack luster, just pumping out the same crap and slapping a 2 or 3 at the end of the title, but that extra online competition mode is the one thing that keeps it from floating down a river of **** with the rest of them. Maybe companies like Bungie aren't making the games fun, it's the people that play them that do. I for one am kinda sick of online games. Change please...

Single player is not dead and never will. Games like Half-Life, FEAR, STALKER, God of War 2, Oblivion, Super Mario Galaxy, and Bioshock are statements to how great single player is. And Mass Effect, Fallout 3, The Witcher, GTAIV, Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, White Knight Chronicle, Dragon Quest IX, The Last Remnant, Ninja Gaiden 2, the next Ueda game, God of War 3, and the next Half-Life will continue that trend.

With the titles I just mentioned and the future ones, I think that should be enough to end topics like these that doubt single player futures. There's no need to worry. The devs know as well as we all do, without single player campaigns, the industry would be dead. Multiplayer should only be the icing on the cake that keeps the game alive, but it should never be the main course.

It isnt dead but definitely dormant.

WAY too much focus on multiplayer lately.. and having a career and life, without much time to game is difficult and frustrating when you play online getting owned by 12 year olds

trippleclick

Personally I don't care that much for multiplayer. I tend to do multiple things at once so it's nice to be able to start/stop whenever I want, whatever the game type. Or play for only half an hour or an hour, save and be able to continue the next day.

Plus if you want to be succesful in a multiplayer environment, you need to spend a lot of time at that particular game (especially RPG and racing gameswhere most online characters willhave reachedextremely high levels/stats), if there's some empire system you need to play often in order not to let down the other members, etc.

While nowadaysmore and more effort is poured into the multiplayer part, I still prefer single player for those moments when I have the time to play.

Single player is not dead and never will. Games like Half-Life, FEAR, STALKER, God of War 2, Oblivion, Super Mario Galaxy, and Bioshock are statements to how great single player is. And Mass Effect, Fallout 3, The Witcher, GTAIV, Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, White Knight Chronicle, Dragon Quest IX, The Last Remnant, Ninja Gaiden 2, the next Ueda game, God of War 3, and the next Half-Life will continue that trend.

With the titles I just mentioned and the future ones, I think that should be enough to end topics like these that doubt single player futures. There's no need to worry. The devs know as well as we all do, without single player campaigns, the industry would be dead. Multiplayer should only be the icing on the cake that keeps the game alive, but it should never be the main course.

ASK_Story

I was going to post, but this post pretty much just covered everything I wanted to say and a little extra.

Winner! End of thread.

[QUOTE="ASK_Story"]

Single player is not dead and never will. Games like Half-Life, FEAR, STALKER, God of War 2, Oblivion, Super Mario Galaxy, and Bioshock are statements to how great single player is. And Mass Effect, Fallout 3, The Witcher, GTAIV, Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, White Knight Chronicle, Dragon Quest IX, The Last Remnant, Ninja Gaiden 2, the next Ueda game, God of War 3, and the next Half-Life will continue that trend.

With the titles I just mentioned and the future ones, I think that should be enough to end topics like these that doubt single player futures. There's no need to worry. The devs know as well as we all do, without single player campaigns, the industry would be dead. Multiplayer should only be the icing on the cake that keeps the game alive, but it should never be the main course.

crazynate8

I was going to post, but this post pretty much just covered everything I wanted to say and a little extra.

Winner! End of thread.

Agreed, good points in your arguement, although you sound like a PS3 owner with all the games you mentioned :P. I'm thinking about hopping on that wagon too, now that the prices are changing, but anyway, it just kinda aggravates me with multiplayer games like Halo because it's like devs only do about a 1/4 of the work that they used to into making huge, epic feeling gameplay and stories. Just about any of the Final Fantasy games are awesome because of how much time and energy is put into creating the stories, developing characters, etc. whereas Bungie's approach is make a passable storyline without too terribly much plot, and then make maps for multiplayer. If you ask me, they have a pretty sweet gig cuz it's like all the characters that SquareEnix would take time to work on and design are now replaced by real life people. You following me? I think I'm just going to personally boycott online games, cuz I'd rather interact with a well though out and developed character than some 13 yr old from who-knows-where yelling into his mike. End of story.

I may be the only one, but i thought BioShock had a great single player game. The dark and gloomy enviroment kept the suspense up so your always to jump out of your chair at an unexpected splicer jumping from the shadows to whack you in the jaw. The plasmids were pretty fun too. just too bad the story couldnt have been better, and the big daddys could have had more variety than just 2. No matter what anybody says, i think Bioshock has solid single-player experience.MLBknights58