Okay what the hell happened to co-op play in video games? And before anyone talks about online play they can stop right there. I'm talking about sitting in the same room, two controllers, split-screen CO-OP!
The amount of times if been looking with friends at latest game releases think to myself, which game will be good for us to get and play together, only to see that little symbol on the back of the cover.... 1 Player. Oh sure they say co-op but that is only online. I understand that online play is a great step in gaming and that it is making games worth a lot more if you can battle / race / adventure / or in some why challenge each other no matter how far away you may be but.... what if we are in the same room? Surely games today can handle a simple request like that? Right?
Wrong. I am sick of looking at new releases, discovering the great features they have only to discover that if I own it and take it round to a friends house to play we can't enjoy it because it's only single player offline. One game in particular that I have noticed this with is...
(Verses Marines...)
...
I was looking forward to playing this multiplayer with a friend. There is a specific game mode in which you get to play as a group of marines trying to battle against wave after wave of aliens and see how long you can survive. This sounds like so much fun, specifically as my friend and I both love this type of game mode, which we have previously played in Gears of War (Horde) and Halo: ODST (Firefight). However I pick up the game and what do I find? That those modes, in fact all the multiplayer modes, and only available when playing online.
What does it take for developers to have a split-screen co-op mode in video games these days? I know there is a great list of games in the last year or so that have offline co-op such as Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Resident Evil 5, Left for Dead but.... I hear great things about these new releases and am just disappointed that I have to sit at home alone in my room just to play them with a friend.
I think what makes this worse is how online works with modern consoles; Xbox 360 doesn't have a built in wireless adaptor and you have to pay a monthly fee to play online (come on Microsoft get it together!), the Playstation 3 apparently has some difficulty sometimes when trying to get games set up with others online, can't say i've experienced this much myself as I haven't played much on the PS3 and even then not many times online - but hey atleast it's built in wireless and no fees - and the Nintendo Wii... sure it can get online and it has some fantastic multiplayer games but since its been marketed as a fashion accessory not many people I know have one anymore.
I can understand that maybe some developers make games look so good and run so well that they can't cope with adding multiplayer for fear of frame rate issues or the console may overheat and explode but it pains me when I see a list of get games coming out in the future only to know that I can't play them in the company of some good friends. It doesn't help that video game companies are so willingly to screw over gamers to get more money these days, like charging £60 for a wireless internet adaptor (Xbox 360) or making you play with the Gameboy Advance as controllers, meaning if you want full co-op you need to first make sure everyone has a Gameboy Advance and then you need four specific cables to connect it to the console... Thanks Nintendo for that great idea for games like Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Legend of Zelda: Four Swords... Great move... You do realize that is the big reason those games weren't as popular as they should have been, right?
I hope when you read this you agree with me. This is an issue that has been plaguing my mind for a while now. I can kick and scream all I want but I know eventually I'll have to settle with just sitting alone as I play with a friend instead of making a good night in with it, which quite frankly makes me feel a little like the gaming companies are now just assuming all it's customers are sad loners with no social life except when they are blowing peoples heads off or leveling their wizard online... For an industry that insists on growing they are treating their audience the same way they did make in the 80s.
Thanks for Reading
EpicFlyFire
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