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 Post subject: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:16 pm 
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Is it me, or is the split screen feature slowly fading away from mainstream? I was reminiscing about the old days of the Nintendo Sixty FOOOOOOUUUUUURRRRRR, where split screen was almost a standard for many Nintendo Sixty FOOOOOOUUUUUURRRRRR games. Getting together with your friends, popping in Goldeneye and taking turns battling it out with the loser with the least kills giving up the controller.

Soon falling suit was the PlayStation with its awkward boomerang multitap and the cult classic Dreamcast sporting the four ports on the front, then the Xbox, then the Gamecube, then the PS2 with its awkward block multitap. But it seems as if with the new generation, split screen is becoming a thing of the past.

Granted the current systems support up to four controllers (seven for the PS3,), but it seems as if everything is moving online.

Gone are the days where inviting your friends over for a four player game, instead it’s seeming as if you have to arrange the time you all will meet up online, even though you all stay within the same vicinity of one another.

I understand the importance of online, with such games supporting clan structures and tournaments and allowing players to compete against others from around the world. However, it seems as if split screen is getting the small end of the stick nowadays. Only a few games still implement split screen, and do so correctly, Halo 3 being one of them.

Granted I’m not a fan of Halo, and have only played Halo 3 but I applaud their implementation of split screen, allowing not only four players to play at the same time but also allowing you to take your buddies online to compete with others. This makes it more entertaining, by making it to where you’re not just playing against yourselves but with more human controlled players, creating more challenging and intriguing experiences.

But it seems as if other games are not taking advantage of what’s possible. It seems as if games nowadays lack the features of a fun split screen experience that was once offered to them in the olden days. Giving players generic game modes, limited character choices, limited features in general. Most games that offer split screen just are not nearly as fun as once before.

It's not just the lack of two player coop but four player as well. I’m pretty sure I have more than one friend. I can understand two player co-op, but two player multiplayer with no bot support?
With four people you have a chance of being better than one out of the three other players. Even if you’re not better than the three other players, you’re still playing with THREE other players. If you have 6 friends, and a four player game, that leaves two people spectating.

And when you spectate a four player game, its more interesting to see who will be the dominant one out of all your friends. But with a two player game, you have four people spectating, and I guarantee those four spectators will be bored as hell watching two people duke it out on a map that was made for 16 player online matches.

Nothing like watching two people wander aimlessly trying to find each other, only to experience ten seconds of action when they confront, then having the loser of the confrontation spawn on the other side of the map only to repeat the aimless wander once again. THATS NOT FUN. And I know I’m using mostly shooters to explain my point, but thats usually the one game that utilizes split screen.

Racing games are much worse. Why do most racing games support only two people? Sometimes only ONE player (burnout paradise). Here’s another scenario, this time with a racing game (trust me, it’s short). Your friend starts a multiplayer match with you, he picks a car faster than yours, no bot support, the game starts, he’s instantly got a ten second lead on you with no one ahead of him to affect his lead except the track. YOU INSTANTLY LOSE, THATS NOT FUN.

You may be thinking, just pick the same car he picks…thats generally a no no in the rule of offline multiplayer gaming, but hell the way things are going that rule gets broken constantly. And even with that rule broken, if you start off losing in a one on one race, you have about a 2.9% chance of regaining the lead.

Now granted, there are still some games out there that fully utilize the allowance of more than two people to join in the fun (one of the reasons the Wii is on top of the competition), with the competitors focusing more on online social interaction rather than offline social interaction. Not saying that those four player games don’t exist, they’re just not as much of a focus as it was back in the day.

I understand, online gaming was near non-existent for home consoles back in the day, but thats no excuse to adjust to the growing demand of one field but completely disregard another as if it’s unimportant and no one cares; only to add a lousy offline multiplayer as if it were an afterthought.

I’m sure I’m not the only one with more than one friend, but if I was would the industry be to blame for distancing once social gamers into basement dwelling ogres who’s means of a game of Halo with friends is a simple text message saying what time to be online?

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:31 pm 
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darksector26 wrote:
And even with that rule broken, if you start off losing in a one on one race, you have about a 2.9% chance of regaining the lead.

I see you've never raced against Blokey ;)

I think the whole thing is a side affect of the Graphics Over Gameplay we're currently suffering. Make a game a 4-way splitscreen and you only get to see a quarter of the fantastic wonderful uber-photo-real shades of brown the designers spent months on. The Wii was never gonna rival on the graphics front, so why not include some 4-up action.

As it stands, the only proper local multi-player game I have on the 360 or Triple is the LBP Beta, and I sincerely hope this will send out a message to other developers that people want to go round to mates houses, crack open a cold one and socialise!

Also, please remove the first line of your sig before I find out were you live and set fire to your pants :(

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:48 pm 
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i was waiting to see how long it would be before someone complained about my sig but when i take it off all of my posts will contain less noticable ways of making you lose the game (except that one) :lol:

EDIT Also you're not the only one to try to find my Hut in N.W and you will not be the last :twisted: (unless of course you do find my hut :cry: then i will move to my cave in scotland and continue my work :twisted:)

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Last edited by darksector26 on Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:11 pm 
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PieMan wrote:
darksector26 wrote:
And even with that rule broken, if you start off losing in a one on one race, you have about a 2.9% chance of regaining the lead.

I see you've never raced against Blokey ;)

I think the whole thing is a side affect of the Graphics Over Gameplay we're currently suffering. Make a game a 4-way splitscreen and you only get to see a quarter of the fantastic wonderful uber-photo-real shades of brown the designers spent months on. The Wii was never gonna rival on the graphics front, so why not include some 4-up action.

As it stands, the only proper local multi-player game I have on the 360 or Triple is the LBP Beta, and I sincerely hope this will send out a message to other developers that people want to go round to mates houses, crack open a cold one and socialise!

Also, please remove the first line of your sig before I find out were you live and set fire to your pants :(


So, me and blokey comin to yours on it's release then? :D

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:41 pm 
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On the opposite side of the argument, I'll go on record as saying that....

Guitar Hero III
PAIN
WipeOut HD
Commando 3
Warhawk

....all support local multiplayer, with Commando 3 supporting up to three players at once.

However, considering that my PS3 library is at least 12 games strong, only a third of them being local multiplayer isn't a very good sign of things to come.

Anyone remember the 4P arcade games, like The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the greatest one of all time, MOTHERFUCKING GAUNTLET.

*sigh*

Good times.

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 pm 
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Blokeymon wrote:
Anyone remember the 4P arcade games, like The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the greatest one of all time, MOTHERFUCKING GAUNTLET.

*sigh*

Good times.


Once again, XBLA sir.


Also, on topic... Mario Kart Wii 4 player split screen is awesome.


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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:08 pm 
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GAUNTLET!!!!!! I HAS DIS FOR 360!!!!

Got Gauntley: Dark Legacy or whatever it's called too. It's an X-Box game but you get to level your character up n all sorts...

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:12 pm 
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Both the Original Arcade Gauntlet, and the original arcade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are available on XBLA, identical to the arcades, but with online play too. 4 player online co-op TMNT is awesome! Especially if like me you have one of the Hori arcade sticks for that authentic experience :D

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:26 pm 
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I was talking about games now compared to games then.

1990's - Games catered for local multiplayer

2000's - Games catered for online multiplayer

Shame.

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:34 pm 
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Blokeymon wrote:
I was talking about games now compared to games then.

1990's - Games catered for local multiplayer

2000's - Games catered for online multiplayer

Shame.


Monkeylord wrote:
Both the Original Arcade Gauntlet, and the original arcade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are available on XBLA, identical to the arcades, but with online play too. 4 player online co-op TMNT is awesome! Especially if like me you have one of the Hori arcade sticks for that authentic experience :D



The online is additional, they're still awesome in local co-op ;)


*EDIT*
I've probably misunderstood your point YET AGAIN... back to the shadows for me!

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 3:02 pm 
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Heh, y'big fool! :D

I was basically comparing "the good old days" to "the not so good new days", just like the OP does, stating that old games used to have local multiplayer whereas new games only have online.

I know Simpsons and TMNT have online on XBLA, but they're still old games.

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 4:38 pm 
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Blokeymon wrote:
I know Simpsons and TMNT have online on XBLA, but they're still old games.


And we're old gamers... yay for us!

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:23 pm 
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I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Sure, online gaming's taken a very large proportion of multiplayer stuff in these past few years, but I think that sitting down with a couple of friends playing a good old round of shooters/a fine, old-school classic race will still remain in the hearts of a very large fraction of gamers.

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:27 pm 
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Troo dat.

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 Post subject: Re: Is Split Screen Dying or is it Dead
PostPosted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:34 pm 
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Split Screen?!?!?! No way man. That's loco.

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