Where did all the in house coop games go?

[Derek_the_Dodo]

Since when did it become boring to be sat on a sofa with some mates and pizza killing things and using teamwork to achieve objectives?

I know online does mean that you can play with a whole host more people, but I'd rather take one good team mate who shares his loot/xp/ammo with me over 7 indistinct dots on the radar who won't risk picking up the flag in case it harms their K/D. I know you can get into a good clan etc. but its just not the same is it.

I picked up a multitap for the ps2 for 50p (Or for you Americans a little under $1) the other day. Some of my best moments in gaming come from the company of others, and it's just sad to think that this kind of thing doesn't sell any more.

Anywho, enough bitching over the internet. What are some good games that are especially fun multiplayer? I have a PS2 with multitap as I said, a 360 but just 2 controllers... and my housemate has a PS3 with two controllers too.

Some of my personal faves are; 007 nightfire, cel damage, splinter cell and for xbox; halo, portal 2... and i guess fable 2? I can't really think of many others I really liked. Not a fan of borderlands or L4D.

anyway I'll shut up.

TL;DR recommend me some good in house coop games and talk about your own favourite gaming moments with a friend.

 

[Dansen]

I played portal 2 with a friend a couple weeks ago, that was fun. We would dick around a lot, but we managed to figure out a lot of the puzzles.

Honestly, it just seems like you need to find more irl friends that also play games. I have a good group of friends that sticks together and we usually buy games we can play together. Last week we hand a small tournament in UMvC3. If you actually know the people it is a lot easier to coordinate and work together, plain and simple. That being said, the direction gaming has gone recently it is really hard to meet buddies through games.

 

[CheckD3]

It's sad, but the only 2 games for new gen. that come to mind having split-screen that I play are Gears of War (1,2 and 3) and Halo.

The online explosion is understandable, but at the same time, it's not only insulting, it's discouraging social interaction and promoting hanging out alone. "Hey, you two can't play together in the same room, so stay at home alone and play online together, that way you can only talk through the internet, and lose out on social interaction that builds friendships stronger"

Back in my day, used to play my Gamecube with all my friends. We'd play Super Smash Bros Melee, and Naruto Clash of Ninja 2, used to to make entire days out of it, play magic, party, play games, nowadays, how many games can you do that with? The Wii is really the only console out there that has co-op on the system, where as the X360 and PS3 are both difficult to find co-op games for, though upon reflection I'm thinking you can do the Spec Ops in MW, or Zombies on the same system

 

[Kahunaburger]

Local multiplayer = one copy of the game sold, online multiplayer = 2-4 copies of the game sold. Or at least that seems to be the conventional wisdom - IMO lots of publishers are seriously overlooking how much being able to play with your friends IRL adds to the experience.

 

[DD Commander]

I found Rayman Origins to be great couch co-op. Also, there is no online play so that's out the window. Only problem is that the later levels start to be really tough to do with 4 players.

 

[Derek_the_Dodo]

Local multiplayer = one copy of the game sold, online multiplayer = 2-4 copies of the game sold. Or at least that seems to be the conventional wisdom - IMO lots of publishers are seriously overlooking how much being able to play with your friends IRL adds to the experience.

What they also don't seem to notice is that if someone plays a game around their friends house that they enjoy then they'll be likely to buy it themselves and then invite other friends around etc. Why they work on the false logic that people only have 1 friend and someone will just leech off of them?

Its essentially free advertising for their game.

Honestly, it just seems like you need to find more irl friends

Thanks bud.

I mainly play with my housemates or I play with my brothers when I'm back home. But I do also keep in contact with some old friends from high school through games, so it's not for a lack of people to play with. Its publishers being greedy and not using conventional logic.

 

[krazykidd]

Local multiplayer = one copy of the game sold, online multiplayer = 2-4 copies of the game sold. Or at least that seems to be the conventional wisdom - IMO lots of publishers are seriously overlooking how much being able to play with your friends IRL adds to the experience.

What they also don't seem to notice is that if someone plays a game around their friends house that they enjoy then they'll be likely to buy it themselves and then invite other friends around etc. Why they work on the false logic that people only have 1 friend and someone will just leech off of them?

Its essentially free advertising for their game.

Honestly, it just seems like you need to find more irl friends

Thanks bud.

I mainly play with my housemates or I play with my brothers when I'm back home. But I do also keep in contact with some old friends from high school through games, so it's not for a lack of people to play with. Its publishers being greedy and not using conventional logic.

Why buy an extra copy is your friend can lend you his. They want to reduce "sharing" to the minimum . Hell i even think companies want to reduce single player and focus more on online multiplayer just to force people to buy the game . That and dlc for the singleplayer so if you loan your copy to a friend they wont have the dlc.

 

[Derek_the_Dodo]

Why buy an extra copy is your friend can lend you his. They want to reduce "sharing" to the minimum . Hell i even think companies want to reduce single player and focus more on online multiplayer just to force people to buy the game . That and dlc for the singleplayer so if you loan your copy to a friend they wont have the dlc.

Well it's just I know that I have bought many games after playing them round someone's house or them coming around my house with one that I would never had bought or heard about otherwise. It's having a copy for yourself so you can play it when you like as opposed to having to wait til your friend is finished with it.

Also whilst it is increasing with a lot of publishers cutting down on the main story or tacking on an online multiplayer fortunately it isn't quite to that stage yet.

 

[Jdb]

The most recent local multiplayer game I can think of is Bionic Commando: Rearmed. It's available on the PSN Store and XBLA. It has 2-player coop and 4-player deathmatch.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

In this generation it's pretty hard to find games that allow for local coop, ESPECIALLY 4 player coop, which seems kind of ridiculous since the XBOX 360 can, in theory, support 4 controllers at the same time. Halo can still play 4, not sure about Gears, and I guess the Goldeneye remake probably could too.

I don't like that most games that can support 4 players online usually can't support that many locally. L4D for example, can have teams of 4, but only 2 on a screen. Better than nothing, I guess. Same with Borderlands.

Not sure since I haven't played any sports games in a long time, but football (American that is) should support 4 players, as should a lot of them. But I've never really been into those, so meh.

 

[Guffe]

I absolutely love co-op!!!

Halo, Tales of Symphonia, 007 nightfire, SSBM, and a few GameCube games I've forgotten.

 

[1-up]

Two-player co-op and four-player co-op are different beasts. Sadly, both seem to be on the decline.

Fun Two-Player co-op I've sunk time into:

Army of Two (Original and the sequel, the name of which escapes me)
Dead Nation (PSN game that they gave out free due to the network outage)
Portal 2
...
Umm....
Crap I hate this generation of consoles...

Fun Four-Player co-op I've sunk time into:

Mario Kart Wii
Rayman Origins
Boom Blox (One and two - again, I think they made a funky sequel title)

Aaannnddd....yeah.

There's more we played, but most of them are pretty awful and only get an evening of time.

 

[ScorpionPrince]

Hmm, it seems that no-one is considering that the lack of 4-player couch co-op options has something to do with hardware limitations. The consoles are already pushed to the limit with one player. If you want 4 players to play on one machine, you'll either need to make the resolution so low it becomes unplayable, or simply get better hardware.

Hopefully we will be seeing more couch co-op from the next generation of consoles.