Multiplayer Gaming

Okay, so this topic has been bouncing around in my head for quite some time, and the more I think about it, the more sad and irritated I get.
Multiplayer has always been one of the highlights of videogames for me, as it's much funnier playing a game with a friend than it is playing the game by myself. It's also one of the things that has kept me a console-gamer rather than a PC-gamer, as it feels alot more social to me. Sitting in a couch with a friend, killing all those frickin' zombies in virus mode on "Timesplitters 3: Future Perfect". Nuking eachother, freezing and breaking eachother on "Duke Nukem: Land of The Babes". Sneaking around and backstabbing guards and throwing bombs and shurikens on eachother on "Tenchu 3: Wrath of The Heavens". Beating eachother to death on games like "Super Smash Bros", "Tekken 3", "Naruto Ultimate Ninja" and "Street Fighter". I've loved these games for lots of years, and have played them with a passion.

Now, notice that I said "sitting on a couch with a friend", not sitting at one place whilst your friend is on the other side of town. I'm talking one-console multiplayer here, also known as split-screen. This kind of gaming is dying, and it is making me so frickin' sad. Online gaming is killing the only social part left in videogaming, and it's slowly making me lose hope in future console-gaming.

The latest addition to my thoughts about this, is the new sequel to one of my favorite games: Dead Rising 2. I love horror movies, I love horror games. I love zombie movies, I love zombie games. I love saddistic and gory movies, I love saddistic and gory games. Dead Rising was a combination of all this; a brutal "horror" zombie-massacre game for the Xbox 360. Now, 4 years later, its sequel has been released. And what did I soon find out? That it's going to include multiplayer. Zombie bashing, brutal undead decapitating, humorous zombiebowling... with a friend!? Guess three times if I got excited hearing about this! Now, just a few minutes ago, I read that the multiplayer part of the game... is online only. I won't be able to play the game with a friend. I won't be able to laugh with a friend beside me as we take turns bashing zombieskulls with baseballbats.

Why can't they have split-screen? It worked great with "Gears of War 2" and "Nazi Zombies"! It doesn't even need to be split-screen, just give us the ability to play multiplayer on a single console! That idea worked awesomely with games like "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and "Assault"! Online multiplayer is seriously killing the only social part of videogaming. It is killing split-screen, it is killing one-console multiplayer gaming. I despise this fact. With a passion. The last reason to be a console-gamer is slowly dying, and the speed of its death is unfortunately accelerating. All hail PS2, PS, N64, GC, NES and SNES, which didn't even have an internet connection (save for the PS2, but heck, who used that anyway? <.<).

Does anyone on this forum agree with me on this one?

I always hated split screen (I am not a fan of muilty in games in the first place). It looks horrible if you don't have a descent TV and if you are doing anything against the other player you can look down and see where they are. The old "2 players on one screen" is ok, but then you are waiting on someone to move again.

Mulity ruins the reason I play a game. I play a game for its story. You wouldn't duel read a book would you? Well maybe you would, but thats you. The point is that I think muilty in general has bleed a slow death on the idea of a game that can stand on its actions, characters and story alone.

But I have no friends, so what do I know.

Moses wrote:

But I have no friends, so what do I know.

>_>
*shanks*

[Very nice article Angel! I would have to say that, while I don't play multiplayer much, i do prefer inviting people over to play, instead of playing across town. However, the demand is much higher for the latter. As a result, it's been diminishing as a feature in games. However, there is no excuse for this, considering the fact that it's very easy to program and impliment BOTH types of Multiplayer functions into a game. This is just another example of Game Developers being lazy and cutting corners]

Yeah, and that is really disappointing to me. Sure, they can have their online gaming, but there's no reason for them not to make a one-console multiplayer mode, at least not on games like my example; Dead Rising. The effect is the same, any way you choose it, it just gives you more options as a player, including one to be relatively social. And how I would love to go on a killing spree with Anton on this game!

But as I said: I'm not an enemy to online gaming. It's great that they have online gaming, as you can play with people on the other side of the earth. It makes it possible for me to, for example, play this zombiemashing menace with Sam, who also loves gore! But still... just ignoring the option to play on a single console with a friend in the same room is just... can't find the words for it <.<

Multi-player is awesome!!! Killing you're friends or throwing bananas/turtle shells at them is... great bonding haha. I wish Kingdom Hearts had multi-player or Zelda... or pretty much any good 1-player games, although these 2 would haveta go with co-op i think.

Yeah, exactly! Multiplayer is awesome! It's a way of hanging out with friends when you've got nothing better to do =D

lolol and even if you do have better things to do i think. ITS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND idk if my boyfriend would have asked me out in the first place if we didn't play video games multi-player when we hung out and I killed him lots muahaha (super smash + halo + COD) ^_^ yayssss

Haha, how cute ^^

Pika wrote:I wish Kingdom Hearts had multi-player or Zelda

I died inside.

Though on a serous note, there is 2 co-op Zeldas.

:O are there?

Yes.

Legend of Zelda: Four Swords [GBA] (ONLY 2 to 4 players. You can not play this game single player, but it comes with Link to the Past. So you could play that by yourself.)

Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures [GC] (Can be played 1 to 4 players and is the squeal to the one on the GBA. Muilty needs the GBA cable like Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles did.)

Both games are squeals to the game Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap () on the GBA, and all 3 games are 2D.

I have to agree with Moses on multiplayer on Legend of Zelda... some games should stay singleplayer, Legend of Zelda being one of them.

And also, to your first answer Moses... I don't mean that every game should have multiplayer, some games really shouldn't. But the ones that do have multiplayer, always had multiplayer, should keep having multiplayer. And not of the online type... not only online anyway.

Games like Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda and Silent Hill (a few examples), should never get multiplayer. It would just be weird anyway.

*Thought Four Swords was a TERRIBLE game*

I thought it was fun. Also Vaati is in it. <3

I just think it would be fun to play Zelda and Kindom hearts co-op 3D, like halo co-op, and just run around with swords and horses and fight people as a team. I think it would be pretty sweet. Idk if it would work or how well it would turn out anyways cause some co-op games are awful, yes, and it would be sweet if you could both be in the same area but each have your own part of the screen to do what you want there and assist eachother. It would work if you had Riku and Sora running around together =]

i completely agree angel and i have been trying to highlight this fact since i got my 360. i hate the fact that the "next gen" is almost soley based on online play, about the only console that isnt is the nintendo wii even then its only ceratain games (resi chronicles to namer my fave game for wii.) i would love it if they re introduced bots as well. does anybody remember those anymore? tsfp perfection

Soooo agree. Future Perfect was AWESOME. Let's just take Call of Duty: World At War for an example. That game would be awesome fun in split-screen team deathmatch against some bots. Red Steel would also be awesome if you could have bots. But on the Wii you can't even play split-screen at all on CoD:WaW.

Me and a friend has both wasted around 50 hours plus together on Future Perfect split-screen. Enough said =)