Does not having split screen ever piss you off?

[Palademon]

Yes, it annoys me how me and my friends get together, only to find out that we would need to take turns and would actually have more fun if we werent in the same building.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

All the time. Can't be bothered elaborating, most recent example Dead Rising 2 though. 4-player co-op can excuse not having splitscreen. But TWO player co-op exclusively, with no splitscreen? That's when I start getting a little pissed.

 

[Hijax]

Never bothered by it, PC gamer

 

[DugMachine]

Pisses me off whenever I DO play splitscreen. Some friends come over and they want to play split screen and me being used to full screen I go freaking nuts.

 

[j0frenzy]

Always. Especially when games based around there being four characters don't let you have four players on the same system. I'm looking at you Left4Dead and Borderlands.

 

[snow]

let's be honest, if we had friends we wouldn't be playing video games

Speak for yourself, I play video games with my friends all the time. Go read some forum rules and stop trying to troll please.


Yeah it irks me when games don't have some sort of split screen or 2-4 player function but has online multiplayer.

My brother and I looked at AvP with very very sad eyes when we found out we couldn't shoot aliens together.

 

[ForensicYOYO]

I'm with Yahtzee. I never really enjoy multiplayer as much as when I'm in the same room (and preferably smacking distance) of the people I'm playing with. This is one of the many reasons I still have a N64.

Don't let any publisher or developer bullshit you. They aren't phasing out splitscreen because it makes the game look bad or because the hardware can't handle it - they're doing it because they don't like the idea that multiple people can play on the same copy of a game. It's all about the money.

Fair enough, but I haven't given any developer who removes splitscreen from their console FPS a dime and I never will.

Dude me and my friends pull out the N64 almost eveytime! If the system had only had a Metroid game maybe it would have been perfect *sigh* But it still has more multiplayer games then you could shake a stick at. I <3 N64

 

[Commander Jack Rankin]

I mainly play single player games, so not having split screen is no big deal.

 

[super_mumbles]

It gets REALLY annoying especially since I haven't got an xbox live subscription and live in a house with 5 others and we mostly share a TV for consoles.

Recently we bought Worms Armageddon 2 and it was an absolute blast (well besides having to get to grips with a new control scheme after being familiar with the N64 control scheme)

I guess in the end it's shows how times have changed and how companies are adapting to it in order to make more money for themselves: Everyone buys the game or one person in a group of friends buys the game and they all play that copy.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Has to do with FPS (...frames per second.) sometimes, rendering all the action twice, or 4 times, kills the experience.

However not having split screen pisses me off a bunch.

Has to do with FPS (...frames per second.) sometimes, rendering all the action twice, or 4 times, kills the experience.

.......are you gaming on a toaster?

Also FPS is not double with split screen it plays just the same, its the fact that everyone plays online now that developers got lazy and said forget split screen

No, I didn't say the FPS doubles, It renders the scene twice. From 2 viewpoints, or four. The frames per second will dip -hugely- on most games because of that. Especially when things are happening.

Imagine a game that already makes the PS3's FPS dip in single player. Now imagine it having to do it twice. At the same time. It'll dip even more. Now imagine it doing it -four- times all at once. Multiplayer at two and a half frames per second is totally rad! ...Only it's not, so devs don't put it in the game.

......is the PS3 a toaster. Tell me how games like Goldeneye 64 ran smoothly then?

...You can't be this dense. What do you think consoles run on? Magic?

If the game doesn't utilize the full extent of the hardware, the FPS hit wont be as noticeable. If you think goldeneye was the peak of N64 technology...

Also, walking into 2 or 3 explosions would make the game come to a complete halt. ...50-100 could crash the game entirely

Now, I don't claim to have any significant knowledge on how games work but couldn't you reduce the quality then? I wouldn't imagine it would be too hard to do, and I'm sure that Halo and CoD have lower quality graphics in split-screen. Reduced graphic quality would definitely be an acceptable loss for split-screen.

If I'm completely wrong, my bad, it just seems like an easy fix.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I love me some local multiplayer

Unfortunately for modern gamers, graphical demands soak up processor power and developers have gotten greedy. Why build in local multiplayer when you can make everyone buy a copy and pay for Xbox Live (or whatever online services you need)?

 

[JaysonM]

As a kid I liked split screen, only because it was easy to do. As a kid we didn't have internet, and our parents would get all up in our grill if we started moving monitors and TVs around when connecting our consoles up (however ps1 had only a handful of games which supported split screen).

But now since I'm 23 I don't really mind since all my friends and I have all our own consoles and the know how of how to do networkable games.

 

[SextusMaximus]

God yes, specially in the newer James Bond games!

 

[oplinger]

Now, I don't claim to have any significant knowledge on how games work but couldn't you reduce the quality then? I wouldn't imagine it would be too hard to do, and I'm sure that Halo and CoD have lower quality graphics in split-screen. Reduced graphic quality would definitely be an acceptable loss for split-screen.

If I'm completely wrong, my bad, it just seems like an easy fix.

You could, but it would take up more space on the disc, usually games try to use all the space they can get. If you lower texture quality you have to put those lower quality textures on the disc, which takes up space, if you lower sound quality you need separate files with lower sample rates, also takes up space. It's probably why you're seeing singleplayer campaigns become ridiculously short in favor of multiplayer. Not to mention all the extra work to do all of that, so costs become a factor as well.

It is one fix you're right, but space requirements are the problem usually. (we're more or less past that now, except for the 360)

 

[br0d]

Don't they have to reduce the framerate if they do splitscreen?

This is a common misconception. In fact, many games can actually have a higher framerate in splitscreen mode. An example of a game that accomplishes this is Blur.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-blur-tech-interview?page=3

 

[Triangulon]

Massive source of irritation for me. The only reason I have a console is for split-screen with my flatmate who is not much of a gamer. If it doesn't have split screen I get it for PC or don't bother. Simples.

 

[lapan]

I was sad that Civilization 5 didn't have Hot Seat Mode anymore, does that count too? I always enjoyed playing it against my brother more than against the ridiculous CPU.

 

[irishstormtrooper]

Personally, I think that split-screen is an added bonus to a game, not a necessary feature. Basically, what I'm saying is that if a game has split-screen, it gains points in my book, rather than games that don't have split-screen losing points.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I HATE the fact that splitscreen is dying out! I really enjoy playing games with my friends on the same couch!

Now, to any game companies who think "Yeah, but real gamers don't HAVE real friends, only online friends", I want you to *insert insulting thing here*. Not only do I, as a gamer have real life friends, and not only do pretty much all my gamer real life friends have real life friends, but I also have a girlfriend. And she is also a gamer! Which makes local/splitscreen multiplayer an activity that we can do together that's really really fun!

If your game has multiplayer, it should include local/splitscreen multiplayer. BY LAW! If I find out that Gears 3 has no local multiplayer, I will be freakin pissed, because before getting into halo and starcraft, that was the game me and my best friend played the most.

*signed, a Gamer with IRL friends*

Split screen should just be mandatory for anything multiplayer, whether or not it looks pretty isn't much of an issue to me, just the ability to do some multiplayer with friends when we can't game online or anything is an added bonus well worth the effort.

This. This a thousand times over.