It seems that there need to be a change in blogging, so instead of me (something that barly nobody cares about) , I'm going talk about gaming or whatever else my ADHD riddled mind comes with (hopefully something that people will actally care about, in this gaming).

THE DEATH OF SPLIT-SCREEN!

Back in the 90's, a game console out of Nintendo came out called the Nintendo 64, and it was one of the 1st consoles to feature 4-muliplayer ports out of the box (you used have to buy a multi-tap for 4-player games) . And one of the great games this system offered was GoldenEye and its greatly superior spiritual successor Perfect Dark, (both drove home the point that asking for a Sega Saturn was REALLY BAD IDEA!) Anyways, the best thing theses 2 shooters did was bring Split-Screen 4-player action,4 player on one console at the same time, something that wasn't happening on PC (though that LAN/INTERNET way of playing wasn't too shabby). This ideastayed present for years andconsoles to come.

UNTIL NOW!

Christmas of 2006 pasted and both Sony's and Mircosofts's new concole,Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 where both both simaltanelouly ready for the consumer market.Playstation 3had Resistance: Fall ofMen andthe X-Box 360 had Gears of Wars. Both got excellent ratings from game reviews (Average for Resitance 8.8 and Gears 9.2 according to GameStats) but I noticed one thing these 2 games where missing, that great 4-player split-screen action of old., BUT, To there credit, they did offer 2-player split-screen and awesome a great online play (X-BOX LIVE Support which set the standards for online multiplayer and 40 Players via Playstation Network (PSN) ), so wasn't as if the game didn't have any multiplier. The issue I have is past 2 people, how else would any one else enjoy the game without bringing there consoles with, espically when they don't have one. This is the price games pay to remain pretty, sometimes things like local - multiplayer had to be left behind in favor of online or LAN based multiplayer (everybody has there own console) but that don't mean there won't be any local-multiplayer, here what thescene for the future looks like sofar:

Coin-Up
What better way to use your $400-600 game consoles then for games made back in the 80's and 90's? This is where the idea of mirco-transactions come in, instead of buyingwhole collections of games for $20/30, buy only the game you wantand love at $5-8. Though theflaw in thisis the fact thatbuying whole collectons is at times cheaper (espically when you like multiple game on the collection) and seems the extra price goes into online leader board (which are nicer depending on the game) and achivements (X-BOX 360). Though the obviousway to remedy thisby making gamesthat haven'tbeen made ready to play in there originalarcade status. My main candidates would be Tutrles in Time& Sunset Riders, but to TutInTime credit, it's a unlockable inTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare for PS2, X-Box and GameCube but why you want to buy a full-length game that was "Meh"-ish just to unlock a great arcade title is beyond me.

Action RPG
While were on the subject, let me do a simulation of the brainstorming of the developer of X-Men Legend/ Marvel Alliance:Developer #1: Hey you know that X-Men arcade game, wouldn't be sweet if we could make a sequel to that!Developer #2: Yeah, that would be cool but Konami owns the rights, we can't touch itif we tried. Surly there someway around that.Developer #1: I KNOW! Let's create a new-game, only let's make a action-RPG but give the player more control by letting them change the costumes of their X-MEN and also let them switch out what X-Men they play as from time to time. And thus was borned, X-MEN Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. A game that had a distinct "you got your RPG into my beat-em up" feel andwas absolute fun (or chaos, depending on the situation ) to play with 4-players. The onlyissue was that of havingallthose selectable characters lead to people toplay musicial characterselections, which leads to some underpowered characters (remember it's still a RPG, so a underused character don't gain experience and when you have serveral characters like this, you have major problems). Lucky through you can take characters to the Danger Room so they can level up there but Marvel Alliance had a more subtle way of dealing with this. Alliance just made it that the character you weren't using leveled up as well, just at maybe one level behind, making choosing different characters to change it up a joy, not chore. Though hopes for a sequel look dim due to the rights of certain herosbeing sold to other developers, but that don't mean they might not try to go with the ones they have left. Let's hope they don't try to run with a team of super heros from the C-List.
Sports
This and last one might be the biggest ones as it seems that the reason consoles get all those extra ports is to play these games. What more could be better then playing NBA 2K7 and actually be able to have 5 real players vs 5 other real players, it likes actually getting together and play a game full-court, only with more talent and less work. This is feature I would like to see more ofin other series, espically in more arcade oriented sports-games like NBA Baller Phenom whichhelped with itsbringing back of 2 vs 2 play (something that might have not been so hard to do since it came from the makers of NBA JAM). FightingThis final one, will probally be a part of the new-life of multiplayer. And to play my respects, I'll have to mention the king of this genre to SuperSmash Bros. Melee. A concept that sounded great on paper and even better on paper, Nintendo characters beating the crap out of each other at the same time, pure brillulance.In also paying respect, you must all recognize Power Stone 2, one of the best Dreamcast games that came out and a game that does what a sequel is supposed to do, IMPROVE UPON THE 1st one by giving it 4-player action (though I will say, both game are good on there own merits). But for those who don't cuteness in there games, there always wrestling games (which dependswhether you want to put wrestling in sports or fighting, you make make the call). To best example of this would be WW"F" No Mercy and Smackdown vs Raw 06-07. What makes these game great was the fact you could put WWE (F) titles up for grabs ina match, giving someone win the match more then bragging rights. This is espically special in SvR as you come to friends house joe smoe and leave the "WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION". The fact that you win somebody elses createdtitle just only made it better.
IN CONCLUSION

Is Split-Screen dead? Yes and No. No, as some games will still offer 2-Player spilt-screen and prohaps the Wii "may" on the basis there building games on that are less likely technology heavy games like those on PS2/X-BOX games but the "No" will be for everybody else due to fact that everybody wants to go online and see if they can beat other people in the world, not just your group of friends. But in replacement for this, we can expect other mulitiplayer options, they may range from oversights or purely made for multplayer fun. As far as I'm concerned, as long as multiplayer don't become nonexistent, its all good to me.