Offline co-op why?!

What is it with all these arcade games coming out with Off-line co-op only? Shank and Scot Pilgrim vs the world would be two of these....these....culprits. Does anyone hate games with Off-line co-op only as much as me?

get some real friends...geez

BLAS1AN

[QUOTE="BLAS1AN"]

get some real friends...geez

Hakud0ushi

exactly. couch co-op is much more fun. thats the selling factor for me

If it's the only co-op available then yes, but off-line can be just as fun, there's no lag!

What is it with all these arcade games coming out with Off-line co-op only? Shank and Scot Pilgrim vs the world would be two of these....these....culprits. Does anyone hate games with Off-line co-op only as much as me?

jad206

Oh trust me, I bet I hate it more

It's a disgrace that on a console that's built on being online these games only have offline multiplayer.

I mean one of the big things for Microsoft is that when you grow up and do real life things you can't meet up at someone's house and play games and that's why Live is so important and these devs act like it's 1986 and we're still hooking the handset of our phones in our modems to get online

no i have friends

get some real friends...geez

BLAS1AN

[QUOTE="BLAS1AN"]

get some real friends...geez

UT_Wrestler

gamers nowadays are so spoiled with needing a game to have online play for it to be fun. the TC said he hates games that are not online. that doesnt sound like a valid reason to dislike video games to me. If thats your reason to hate games then take up a new hobby.

i play a lot of online co-op, because its the easiest way to play with my friends some live in different cities, some are married, some have families now, etc etc so it can be really difficult to come round to each others houses and play together, so we usually play online instead, as its a good way for us to keep in touch, and 'hang out' even when we dont have the time to meet up with each other in the real world

having said that, if we ever get the chance to head round to one of our houses and play split-screen or system link or whatever then we jump at the chance, no matter how good xbox live is there is nothing better than you and a bunch of your mates all sitting together with a few beers playing games, and its something that no matter how good xbox live becomes it will never be able to replicate

Frankly, if you have a girlfriend or a roommate offline co-op is better.I much rather have games that come with offline co-op (split/same screen) rather than online.

But this is just me though.

To answer the question about why arcade games come with offline coop, i guess they try to keep the old-school spirit af "an arcade game"...

You know, back in the day it was only offline, same screen arcade games...

This is just a thought though...

I love offline co-op. I have plenty of friends who can play with me.

I love offline co-op. I have plenty of friends who can play with me.

Dawq902

[QUOTE="Dawq902"]

I love offline co-op. I have plenty of friends who can play with me.

GhostHardwar3

Not at all

This isn't the 80's anymore and we don't need to share screens

Someone who plays games a lot should have two TV's and two consoles and then play on live instead of split screen. I refuse to lower my standards because devs refuse to do the work

Share a screen in 2010? lol no

It's a bit better when all the action is on one screen but then you have to wait until someone comes over and they might be working and bah, a big waste of time

Little kids loved sitting in front of a console and playing because you walk home from school and some friends would play but once you start in high school and college people have classes at different times and work different hours and it then becomes a liability

Not really because my best friends live right next to my house (ish) but I can see how it might affect some

[QUOTE="GhostHardwar3"][QUOTE="Dawq902"]

I love offline co-op. I have plenty of friends who can play with me.

Jaysonguy

Not at all

This isn't the 80's anymore and we don't need to share screens

Someone who plays games a lot should have two TV's and two consoles and then play on live instead of split screen. I refuse to lower my standards because devs refuse to do the work

Share a screen in 2010? lol no

It's a bit better when all the action is on one screen but then you have to wait until someone comes over and they might be working and bah, a big waste of time

Little kids loved sitting in front of a console and playing because you walk home from school and some friends would play but once you start in high school and college people have classes at different times and work different hours and it then becomes a liability

Can't believe your disputing the fun people have sitting in same room with there buddies or girlfriends and enjoying the same game. Its the roots of gaming. we are not going to all live in isolated pods in the future with no physical human contact, lol

[QUOTE="Jaysonguy"]

[QUOTE="GhostHardwar3"] this. offline is far better than online for co-op. :)BLAS1AN

Not at all

This isn't the 80's anymore and we don't need to share screens

Someone who plays games a lot should have two TV's and two consoles and then play on live instead of split screen. I refuse to lower my standards because devs refuse to do the work

Share a screen in 2010? lol no

It's a bit better when all the action is on one screen but then you have to wait until someone comes over and they might be working and bah, a big waste of time

Little kids loved sitting in front of a console and playing because you walk home from school and some friends would play but once you start in high school and college people have classes at different times and work different hours and it then becomes a liability

Can't believe your disputing the fun people have sitting in same room with there buddies or girlfriends and enjoying the same game. Its the roots of gaming. we are not going to all live in isolated pods in the future with no physical human contact, lol

[QUOTE="Jaysonguy"]

[QUOTE="GhostHardwar3"] this. offline is far better than online for co-op. :)BLAS1AN

Not at all

This isn't the 80's anymore and we don't need to share screens

Someone who plays games a lot should have two TV's and two consoles and then play on live instead of split screen. I refuse to lower my standards because devs refuse to do the work

Share a screen in 2010? lol no

It's a bit better when all the action is on one screen but then you have to wait until someone comes over and they might be working and bah, a big waste of time

Little kids loved sitting in front of a console and playing because you walk home from school and some friends would play but once you start in high school and college people have classes at different times and work different hours and it then becomes a liability

Can't believe your disputing the fun people have sitting in same room with there buddies or girlfriends and enjoying the same game. Its the roots of gaming. we are not going to all live in isolated pods in the future with no physical human contact, lol

You can enjoy the same game if you're not playing on the same TV

I mean no one that has a girlfriend that games should only have one TV, but then again cost comes into the discussion and the fact that many people should pick a cheaper hobby

Sharing a TV is awful, I don't recommend it to anyone

[QUOTE="BLAS1AN"]

[QUOTE="Jaysonguy"]

Not at all

This isn't the 80's anymore and we don't need to share screens

Someone who plays games a lot should have two TV's and two consoles and then play on live instead of split screen. I refuse to lower my standards because devs refuse to do the work

Share a screen in 2010? lol no

It's a bit better when all the action is on one screen but then you have to wait until someone comes over and they might be working and bah, a big waste of time

Little kids loved sitting in front of a console and playing because you walk home from school and some friends would play but once you start in high school and college people have classes at different times and work different hours and it then becomes a liability

Jaysonguy

Can't believe your disputing the fun people have sitting in same room with there buddies or girlfriends and enjoying the same game. Its the roots of gaming. we are not going to all live in isolated pods in the future with no physical human contact, lol

You can enjoy the same game if you're not playing on the same TV

I mean no one that has a girlfriend that games should only have one TV, but then again cost comes into the discussion and the fact that many people should pick a cheaper hobby

Sharing a TV is awful, I don't recommend it to anyone

I kind of prefer offline co-op to online. That way, if your buddy's doing something wrong, you can just whack him. And plus, no lag.Distractdead1

Ah, you beat me to it. That's exactly what I was thinking. Offline co-op offers that whole teamwork sense, whereas online co-op only becomes effective if you both have mics.

Well i thought it was kinda lame that scott pilgram didnt have online co op since it is a very good game kinda reminds me of castle crashers:D

[QUOTE="Jaysonguy"]

[QUOTE="BLAS1AN"]

Can't believe your disputing the fun people have sitting in same room with there buddies or girlfriends and enjoying the same game. Its the roots of gaming. we are not going to all live in isolated pods in the future with no physical human contact, lol

Jeff_Boldt

You can enjoy the same game if you're not playing on the same TV

I mean no one that has a girlfriend that games should only have one TV, but then again cost comes into the discussion and the fact that many people should pick a cheaper hobby

Sharing a TV is awful, I don't recommend it to anyone

Mate, i agree with you. Do you guys know how many problems playing video games by myself (while my girlfriend is available to hang out and wants to) creates? I mean i love video games, and sometime i do not really want to do what girls want to do, you know. I rather stay home and kill DeatchClaws all day long and i will be perfectly fine with this. However, if you want to have a REAL social life, one that is actually the important one in the longer run (i know it hurts to admit that video games are just hobby and should not be a way of life). So the way i made my girlfriend to enjoy what i enjoy is by interacting with her, while playing video games. This is why, i went and bought all these offline co-op games (Gears, Borderlands, Army of Two, Lego games, RE 5 etc..) just so i can do whatever i like and and in the meantime create a social, interactive environment with people.

On a second note, isn't it better to buy a case of beer (whoever is old enough, koolaid for minors :D) and some mixed nuts as an appetizer, invite some friends over and kick it with some offline coop games?

Or is it better to be a "Lone Wanderer" in front of your TV all day, interacting with people that are not really important in your life?

While i do agree that sharing screens is not the best problem solver, but i rather have a social interaction within the same room rather than bother with the details...

This is why, i went and bought all these offline co-op games (Gears, Borderlands, Army of Two, Lego games, RE 5 etc..) just so i can do whatever i like and and in the meantime create a social, interactive environment with people.

While i do agree that sharing screens is not the best problem solver, but i rather have a social interaction within the same room rather than bother with the details...

EvilSelf

And the reason you can't do that with two TV's in one house is why?

Instead of turning most games to crap by having to share the screen a simple way to solve all that is to have two TV's and that way you and your girlfriend can co-op all you want and never have to deal with an inferior gameplay session because you were both sharing the same screen

[QUOTE="BLAS1AN"]

get some real friends...geez

Hakud0ushi

I love it too.

Most people here are defending Offline co-op to death. I have never said I dislike offline co-op i actually enjoyed the Gears 2 story with a close friend of mine, and sometimes play DeathSpank with my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean games should NOT do online co-op. In this day and age, we should not be restricted to playing with people near us, we have the Internet, XBL, PSN, Laptops with wifi, we are moving toward the online realm more and more every year, so why are these game developers going backwards? They only games to play aren't at an arcade were you go play Pac-Man for an hour then go buy a 25 cent cheeseburger. I don't see why Dev's DON'T want Online Co-op. I would have nagged 2-3 friends if not more to buy them, and I'm sure other people will. It would make more money, can't be that much harder(Hell I'm sure competitive multiplayer is harder to do and MNC can do that and it is an arcade game). Hell half of my real life friends would rather play on Xbox then over at my house. One, we get a whole screen, two we get the comfort of our houses, three we get to use our stuff and it isn't a hassle!

[QUOTE="Jeff_Boldt"][QUOTE="Jaysonguy"]

You can enjoy the same game if you're not playing on the same TV

I mean no one that has a girlfriend that games should only have one TV, but then again cost comes into the discussion and the fact that many people should pick a cheaper hobby

Sharing a TV is awful, I don't recommend it to anyone

EvilSelf

Mate, i agree with you. Do you guys know how many problems playing video games by myself (while my girlfriend is available to hang out and wants to) creates? I mean i love video games, and sometime i do not really want to do what girls want to do, you know. I rather stay home and kill DeatchClaws all day long and i will be perfectly fine with this. However, if you want to have a REAL social life, one that is actually the important one in the longer run (i know it hurts to admit that video games are just hobby and should not be a way of life). So the way i made my girlfriend to enjoy what i enjoy is by interacting with her, while playing video games. This is why, i went and bought all these offline co-op games (Gears, Borderlands, Army of Two, Lego games, RE 5 etc..) just so i can do whatever i like and and in the meantime create a social, interactive environment with people.

On a second note, isn't it better to buy a case of beer (whoever is old enough, koolaid for minors :D) and some mixed nuts as an appetizer, invite some friends over and kick it with some offline coop games?

Or is it better to be a "Lone Wanderer" in front of your TV all day, interacting with people that are not really important in your life?

While i do agree that sharing screens is not the best problem solver, but i rather have a social interaction within the same room rather than bother with the details...

I must disagree with these people "not being important in my life" I have know a couple of "strangers" for going on 4 years now? We have inside jokes, we know names, we know the way the other works. Hell even one put me on his Netflix! Another sent me a Microsoft Points for my birthday. I mean, maybe going to far one of them actually met a girl on Xbox live and they got MARRIED. They live together now. As "unimportant" as they seem, they truly aren't.

I love offline co-op. I have plenty of friends who can play with me.

Dawq902

This.

I actually wish more games did have off-line co-op. I hate that in certain games like (King of Fighters '98, Streets of Rage, Castle Crashers) there are online achievements but finding people dedicated to sit through to play the game with you never happens.

With offline co-op, you know your friend is there and going to sit through the entire game with you because that's what he came over for. Plus you can make him bring the snacks on his way over.

Offline Co-op for the win.

[QUOTE="BLAS1AN"]

[QUOTE="Jaysonguy"]

Not at all

This isn't the 80's anymore and we don't need to share screens

Someone who plays games a lot should have two TV's and two consoles and then play on live instead of split screen. I refuse to lower my standards because devs refuse to do the work

Share a screen in 2010? lol no

It's a bit better when all the action is on one screen but then you have to wait until someone comes over and they might be working and bah, a big waste of time

Little kids loved sitting in front of a console and playing because you walk home from school and some friends would play but once you start in high school and college people have classes at different times and work different hours and it then becomes a liability

Jaysonguy

Can't believe your disputing the fun people have sitting in same room with there buddies or girlfriends and enjoying the same game. Its the roots of gaming. we are not going to all live in isolated pods in the future with no physical human contact, lol

You can enjoy the same game if you're not playing on the same TV

I mean no one that has a girlfriend that games should only have one TV, but then again cost comes into the discussion and the fact that many people should pick a cheaper hobby

Sharing a TV is awful, I don't recommend it to anyone

Wait a minute, Jaysonguy, I haven't seen one of your threads in a while, but one of the most consistent arguments you've made in the ones I've read is that Nintendo is doing EVERYTHING right with the Wii. You've argued that point against any logic presented to you since it launched. Wii has TONS more offline co-op games than online. In fact, getting people to play together on the same tv has been their primary philosophy this gen. It's one that's even responsible for the console's name. So if Nintendo gets first place in innovation, why is one of it's main marketing points a shameless throwback to 80s gaming?

Also, I think this topic is a bit too broad. Multiplayer works in different ways in different genres. Personally, I have no problem with split-screen FPS games, but I can definitely see it annoying some people. On the other hand, games like Tekken or Rock Band lose nothing from sharing the same screen. Even the Scott Pilgrim game, the one that TC is pissed about, is a Final Fight type game so there's no bothersome split-screen there, either.

I don't do online gaming much, so I don't feel like I'm in any place to argue for or against it. So I guess it all depends on whether you have someone willing to play videogames with you. If you do, great. If not, try playing the game alone; not every game has to be multi-player anyway.

somehow my post in this thread was moderated as "flaming" ... starting to remember why i stopped posting here in the first place. either way someone has it in quotes so no reason for me to get annoyed really... next time i feel passionate about a subject i'll remember to add lots of flowery words so you freakin hippies don't get offended by it and start crying to some hippy moderator who gets annoyed that he has to leave his camp fire sing-along to visit the interwebs.

in case it's not perfectly clear, the above paragraph is funny, not insulting.

anyway i'll try to more eloquently state my point now; Especially in the form of Arcade games, online co-op or online modes in general represent a huge amount of coding, testing and general work that has historically detracted from the "final product". I know i cant count the number of times i've plugged a game in only to come across massive glitches and gameplay problems due (clearly) to the fact that the devs decided they just couldnt ship their game without some sort of online component, and so they divert half their staff to adding this element when these people should be neck deep in testing and improving the core mechanic of the game.

Yes, online co-op is seriously conveniant, adds a new social element and can increase the replayability of a game exponentially, the fact remains though that if any part of the product you ship is half-arsed, the community is going to jump all over that and it will crush your numbers. So, especially in the case of smaller dev houses, the best idea is often to offer up a flawless single player or offline co-op experiance without disappointing your fan base and then to eventually find a way to include to multiplayer, either as dlc or as part of a follow up game. Time and Effort are the realeast constraints and i'd rather play an awesome 1 player campaign or offline co-op mode than to play a half-arsed campaign that comes bundled with glitchy online modes.

1 last example I'd like to make is Bioshock 1 vs. Bioshock 2:

Bioshock 1 was perhaps one of the best games i've ever played, the campaign was deep, emotional, fun and engrossing. In every scene the effort that was taken on making everything in the campaign perfect was in fact palpable, then you skip over to bioshock 2 where a nonsensical multiplayer mode was added and subsequently ignored by most of the fanbase, the campaign and gameplay suffered for it, and as a result so did the sales and general acceptance of the product. So, online co-op, is it really always worth it? Hell no.

[QUOTE="EvilSelf"]

This is why, i went and bought all these offline co-op games (Gears, Borderlands, Army of Two, Lego games, RE 5 etc..) just so i can do whatever i like and and in the meantime create a social, interactive environment with people.

While i do agree that sharing screens is not the best problem solver, but i rather have a social interaction within the same room rather than bother with the details...

Jaysonguy

And the reason you can't do that with two TV's in one house is why?

Instead of turning most games to crap by having to share the screen a simple way to solve all that is to have two TV's and that way you and your girlfriend can co-op all you want and never have to deal with an inferior gameplay session because you were both sharing the same screen

Of course i could have done that but then am putting a higher price on something that should not be that high, unless i have nothing else to spend money on. Plus, the idea of having two TVs in the same room is not very estheatically pleasing. And if the TVs are in separate rooms then it defeats the whole purpose of doing that...

But i get yout point...

get some real friends...geez

[QUOTE="Jaysonguy"]

[QUOTE="BLAS1AN"]

Can't believe your disputing the fun people have sitting in same room with there buddies or girlfriends and enjoying the same game. Its the roots of gaming. we are not going to all live in isolated pods in the future with no physical human contact, lol

Kojo222

You can enjoy the same game if you're not playing on the same TV

I mean no one that has a girlfriend that games should only have one TV, but then again cost comes into the discussion and the fact that many people should pick a cheaper hobby

Sharing a TV is awful, I don't recommend it to anyone

Wait a minute, Jaysonguy, I haven't seen one of your threads in a while, but one of the most consistent arguments you've made in the ones I've read is that Nintendo is doing EVERYTHING right with the Wii. You've argued that point against any logic presented to you since it launched. Wii has TONS more offline co-op games than online. In fact, getting people to play together on the same tv has been their primary philosophy this gen. It's one that's even responsible for the console's name. So if Nintendo gets first place in innovation, why is one of it's main marketing points a shameless throwback to 80s gaming?

great point. yeah the wii did bring back same room gaming which is partly why it dominated console sales for so long. it actually enhances the social experience again in my household by allowing non gamers to participate and eventually become gamers themselves. it can be annoying having friends over and all they can do is watch you play online with a headset.

[QUOTE="jad206"]

What is it with all these arcade games coming out with Off-line co-op only? Shank and Scot Pilgrim vs the world would be two of these....these....culprits. Does anyone hate games with Off-line co-op only as much as me?

Jaysonguy

Oh trust me, I bet I hate it more

It's a disgrace that on a console that's built on being online these games only have offline multiplayer.

I mean one of the big things for Microsoft is that when you grow up and do real life things you can't meet up at someone's house and play games and that's why Live is so important and these devs act like it's 1986 and we're still hooking the handset of our phones in our modems to get online

That's a pretty sad excuse. What do you even do with these friends if you can't even hang out for an hour or two and play some video-games at their house, or vice-versa? Doesn't sound like you and your buddies get a lot of time for hanging out at all if that's the case. I mean... you sound like you'd prefer to get drunk over a webcam party than actually leave your house and go somewhere.

Online is fun, but it doesn't compare to playing on a couch next to your friends. There's no way in hell I'm going to shell out the extra money for another TV and gaming console just for video-game playing purposes, and lugging your own TV and console to play a co-op game with your buddy at his place isn't worth the trouble.

I'm glad to see games focusing on giving a full offline co-op experience, because there have been too many which offer very stripped down offline co-op, if any at all. Although I guess they could implement on-line co-op for all the people who don't have any real friends to play with.