A while back some poor young souls at Games*op made fun of me because I wanted to play a shooter with *Gasp* my actual brother, instead of the legion of on-line faux-gangsters. 'Why play split-screen when you could just play online!' was their quip -are you kidding me! Don't get me wrong; online multiplayer is great! You get to play the best, and be the best! Join clans, rank up, and wreak inter-continental carnage. But regardless of how you dominate a map, or dominate the opposition nothing...I mean nothing... compares to "stealing lunch money" from a trash-talkin college, and actually seeing the look on their face right as you owned em! Remember the joys of split-screen multiplayer or single system co-op campaigns? Sitting back with a couple of friends on the same couch, talking smack while the loser passes the "sticks"! Is it just me or has the gaming industry nearly forgotten about this twindling niche. Most early games- from Double Dragon to GoldenEye, Toe jam and Earl to Banjo-Twooie- had a built in multiplayer for single consoles. But it's gotten so bad now that even racing games are now single player. Heads-up multiplayers do exist, but these are mostly party games, sports games, or rythme and dance games. These can be fun, but I want to play hardcore games with buddies without becoming a Wii comercial! Some newer games (most notably KillZone 3, COD:MW2 (not BLOPS), Deadspace Extraction, and Grand Tourismo 5) do an awesome job of bringing people together for some hardcore head-to- head. But these are far and few between... there just aren't that many. By excluding local multiplayer in games developers are somewhat forcing anti-social gaming onto hardcore gamers... and we have friends too (real live ones!) I long for the split-screen adrenaline rushes ziping around cities and race tracks, and 4-16 player death matches (with/ without bots) for respect! Am I the only one who thinks that local and split screen multiplayer would add value to games like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit or Socom 4? Let me know what you think.
I fully agree with you.. This is actually the main reason i dont buy Racing games anymore.. I would have LOVED to play split-screen burnout paradise.. But im the kind id guy who prefers Real life friends, instead of online ones.. So if i want to play with my friends i have to tell Them to go home.. We wouldnt be Able to play otherwise.. Its so stupid.. Not to mention we both would have to buy the game.. And that doesnt happen often.. Thank god for Mario Kart i say...
Yes, I love spiltscreen. But most new games with it leave about a third of the screen black and I totally hate that. Games like Lost Planet 2 become absolutely unplayable to me. It's simply not a proper way to keep the aspect ratio. Come on, just copy Gears of War. The splitscreen is perfect in that game. I was so looking forward to Hunted: The Demon's Forge because of local co-op. My hype quickly died when I saw pictures of it though. Big black bar on the left + big black bar on the right = horrible
I see your argument, but I can't stand split screen gaming, it absolutely ruins the experience to cut your screen in half. I much rather prefer a game that supports system link in a co-op campaign, that way you can have the best of both worlds; since having 2 tv's, 2 consoles and 2 people in the same room isn't very practical, I'd rather just play co-op online with my actual friends. Games that do not support online co-op is the real gripe, split screen is for the birds.
Read my post this morning on this PS3 forum in the thread entitled "Fight/ Arcade Sticks?" I won't re-post it here but if you wanna read my tale, it's there.
I'm finished with net gaming. Positively DONE. I had an experience last night which has completely shut me down on internets gaming. I couldn't agree with this thread MORE at this point!
Great thread TC, i was just thinking of this myself a few days ago. About two months ago I had a skiing accident and broke my leg so I've been stuck in bed for the most part of the 60 days. My friends come visit me evey weekend and we caught up while playing PS3. I have well over 50 games and in that 50 I have a measly 5 split screen games, the best being Resistance 2. But theres only so much co-op you can handle before it starts getting repetitive. Point being, bring back split-screen games... please!
I know there was an emphasis on splitscreen multiplayer in the article. But this really applies to multiplayer in general. It just makes sense to have someway to play with friends locally in games. It's just frustrating having people over with great games like Red Dead Redemption and all your buddies can do is watch. That's the sad reality of most of this-gen gaming. In my opinion "Every game should have some way to play with at least one other person."
Yes it would be good if their were more games that had Split-Screen/local "2 people in the same living room playing videogames together"Mulitplayer. but on-line mulitplayer games is how the industry makes a good chunk of it's money.
I don't mind at bit of On-line gaming. I'm not the biggest on-line game player, I do enjoy it from time to time. But it is more fun interacting with a real person while playing videogames as well.
A bit of balance is what the videogame industry needs.
I've completely given up on online gaming. It only breaks my spirits, and that's not what I pick up a controller for. If I see or hear one more use of the N word by white middle-class American kids, I'm gonna eat a bullet. Everyone's brave over a microphone... I guess...
The only problem I have with split screen is that most of the time it interferes with game play. My boyfriend and I have tried playing together on the same console, but the split screen is just too hard to see on our TV. Lost Planet was the worst of them all. It didn't just split the screen horizontally, it cut your view down to a quarter of the screen just for two people. We've been trying to save up for a bigger TV, but at this point it's just easier to buy two copies of the games we both want and play online.
Log in to comment