[Chris B]

I do like the social aspects of playing together with other people locally.
Much to my disdain most games only feature the ability to compete against your friends. That kind of interpersonal competition is something boardgames and sports do very well too, but especially videogames are capable of what I find more interesting and fullfilling, namely playing and cooperating together against the game.
Cooperative multiplayer modes are often negleted and I find it troublesome to even come up with a dozen games that feature an awesome co-op mode.

So in this thread pls feel free to talk about cooperative play in videogames in all its forms and variations.


To get things started I'd like to mention how offline co-op is threatened thx to the advent of online-gaming. As said I'm interested in the social aspects of playing together and while online-play is certainly fine for competetive games, I just think that there's something missing in a cooperative game played over the net.

[negativedge]

[CubaLibre]

Yeah, you can't make a thread about co-op in general and then complain that you aren't getting enough split-screen co-op since, really, it's a subcategory that not everyone is interested in. Co-op is by far my favorite way to play games, but I sort of hate splitscreen. If both players can't play on the same screen (action games or beat em ups), I'd rather have my own screen.
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[spinach]

[manmachine plays jazz]

there really isn't any reason they can't offer both, beyond the developer being lazy/afraid their engine will buckle under rendering 2 screens.

i mean, epic managed it on that godawfully unstable version of unreal 3 used in gears of war, i don't see why others can't on better tech.

chris B, gears of war is probably my favorite co-op game. co-op on insane difficulty is some of the most fun i've had in a shooter.

[Ben Reed]

Local two-to-four-player co-op is, in my opinion, the most enriching way to play any kind of video game, simply because it encourages one to play video games with friends and family, and to establish a more personal connection to both the other players and the game itself.

Many players can do this through competitive modes, too, but of course, competitive modes aren't for everybody. Certain people just don't really get a thrill out of competing against other players, regardless of whether or not they tend to lose.

As for the cooperative-gaming aspects of WoW, I think it's always hamstrung by several factors:

1. It's Internet multiplayer. For better or for worse, there is no physical accountability for poor sportsmanship or manners in your average WoW group for PvE or PvP, whether that be simply expressing displeasure or punching you in the face for being a dick. By virtue of the shield of anonymity the Internet provides, people are encouraged to treat their fellow players as means to an end rather than real people (hi Kant), and on most realms (even the more "carebear" ones), this tends to cultivate something of a toxic social atmosphere, not really fit for an enriching social experience (unless you play almost exclusively with people you regularly associate with IRL).

Even the technical concerns become a much bigger deal in even a "casual" MMO like WoW. If you and your friend screw up in Dynasty Warriors or something, one would hope you're probably not too pissed about it, because you're presumably playing it mostly for the sake of playing it together. With a game like WoW, if somebody disconnects, or has to leave midway through an instance due to work, school, wife coming home, baby waking up, whatever, it becomes much harder to be understanding, and even the more even-tempered among us are known to become frustrated at people for things that would probably seem rather minor if we were actually playing alongside this person IRL.

2. In many ways, WoW simply becomes less of a fun indulgence as the group sizes increase and more of a time-consuming hobby. In a 25-man or even a 10-man raid instance (or an organized PvP group to farm honor in Warsong Gulch/Arathi Basin at peak farming times), it is very rare that you will be able to assemble a group of people whose sensibilities for approaching game content completely sync up.

Some people will want to full-on poop-sock it, getting pissed at the most minor flubs on trash and despairing heavily if a group has difficulty clearing a certain encounter (or winning in PvP against evenly matched groups). Others will be quite content to die again and again just to thrill at watching 25 orcs, gnomes, cow-people, or floppy-eared purple elves (we will not speak of the Blood Elves) go at it against a gigantic dragon or other monstrous boss. They don't care how many times Lurker's big blue beam punts them across the instance, they're just thrilled as hell to be a part of the craziness (and possibly trashed to boot).

With the advent of "challenge" 10-man content such as Zul'Aman, PvE in WoW increasingly forces one to answer important questions about what exactly one wants out of the game. To me, I think many of the questions it raises are highly inappropriate for a proper co-op experience.
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SelectButton.net -- Let the games begin.

[CubaLibre]

Good job Ben Reed!

I would add that WoW's super(over)polished design actually reinforces these problems. It's so easy to find players, group up, and cruise through the encounters of a dungeon or BG (arenas and raids are a different matter) that the game almost plays itself. It encourages you to treat other players as means rather than ends, because you're so insulated from them. You can easily join a group, run an instance, divide the loot and check out without saying a word. They might as well be really good AI.
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[Gironika]

ikaruga is great fun in a "special" mode we came up with:
- you use a black and white cube controller that are assigned to the white and black ships
- no color-changing allowed though
- the two players are working together to shield their ships from bullets.

Can be great fun and usually ends in a credit-feeding-rush in the higher levels, so be sure to have a savestate with no endless continues.

Tales of Symphonia had a mediocre co-op-mode at best ... FFCCs one is excellent and interestingly is one of the few games where the co-op-aspect had a major influence on the storywriting of the game.

And then there's "We Love Katamari" that has a excellent co-op mode. The only thing that makes me come back to it from time to time.
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[mals marola]

FFCC is the only game i've played start to finish with someone in co-op

much more fun, i thought, than playing a co-op shooter

[internisus]

RPS did an NGJ style post on Alien Swarm that excited my pants off. I'm eventually going to get a mic headset and the required Unreal game and play that thing hardcore style. It makes me think of an action analogue to dungeon crawling. Anyway, I think Left 4 Dead is going to be a great deal similar, and again I'm very excited about that.

I don't have much experience playing co-op. I've yet to try stuff like the Battlefield games or really get serious about CoD4 multiplayer, but back in college I had some fun doing Halo co-op. My friend wasn't much of a cooperative guy, though, so we usually did deathmatch, which he always won.

But I get it. I still remember playing Contra on the NES with a friend, sitting together on a piano bench in front of the big armoir in which I kept my systems, games, and commodore 64 monitor. So I'm looking forward to expanding my horizons with some cooperative gaming. The reason why I haven't yet is because I just recently got this new PC, and my consoles (well, my PS2) have never been online. The internet situation in my parents' house really sucks? So yeah, down the line.
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Thinking about videogames.

[Daphaknee]

cookie and cream for the ps2 is a great vertical split screen co-op game ! you play as two bunnies, one has a umbrella on her head and one h as a flowerpot on his head
you work together with your friend to move forward on a course and usually objects on one players side affect obstacles on the other players side, so you cant race towards the finish you have to stick together

im pretty sure its impossible to play cookie and cream one player


theres a DS version too, which i have but i dont know anyone else that has it so i cant play :(
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a/v club

[Daphaknee]

also i played libble rabble co-op while i was in new york

basically the players both control the end of a rope which you lasso around mushrooms to till a field and scissors are trying to cut your rope and angry hooded torsoless guys are trying to kill you

and there was a whole bunch of NO NO NO GO UP NO NO GO LEFT AHHH WHAT ARE YOU DOING LOOK OUT

it makes me want to try smash tv with two people and one controller
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a/v club

[spinach]

[dessgeega]

[spinach]

[Daphaknee]

[Mr. Brooks]

[niitaka]

I like splitscreen because you give high fives or you can punch your partner if he's being a dick.

[negativedge]

[Chris B]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

[spinach]

[dessgeega]

[Chris B]

[Daphaknee]

now i want to play virtual on with one person holding each stick
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a/v club

[Cycle]

mechwarrior 2 WAS pretty fun playing co-op inside the same mech.
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Man’s maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play.

[negativedge]

I remember reading about a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 team battle at some old tournament (B4 or B5 probably) where one person would control the joystick and the other would hit the buttons. It seemed to me like it'd be nearly impossible to do anything, but these guys were playing fairly competent matches.

Reminded me of an old arcade favorite called Lucky and Wild. Not sure how many of you guys have played it, but it was basically a lightgun game fashioned after buddy cop movies. Player 1 would drive the cop car and (optionally) shoot, while player two was soley focused on shooting. Every level was just a linear highway chase where you had to catch up to and kill some random enemy. The driver had to swerve out of the way of pedestrian cars and things like bombs or whatever the enemies would throw. It was basically the coolest fucking game ever created.
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[Teflon]

I really enjoy games that encourage an uneasy alliance between players. Like playing 2p plus sims in Perfect Dark. Holding down a room or corridor together is a great way to beat the AI, but eventually one of you is going to have to take the other out. It's tense in a mafia-movie kind of way.

[unhappy days]

[CubaLibre]

Left 4 Dead looks utterly amazing. I'll never play another game at a LAN party again.
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[spinach]

[Lick Meth]

I'd like to see older games exploited in this age of HD tellies and XBLA/PSN. Back in the day I imagine that a lot of us were chugging through stuff on a 14 inch CRT screen, and in the rareness of such an event, playing with two TVs, two Playstations and two copies of the game that we loved (and these people were few and far between, having never met one). Well, it could be easily stuck onto the now more commonplace of 32 inch HD things. FULL SPEED split screen on your favourite 3D GAMES! With more than enough space to see your screen, and loads of processing space to spare.

[Duke Phillips]

[Rya.Reisender]

I felt like this a while ago too! There really should be more co-op games where you can play together with other players against the computer. I don't really mind whether it's split screen or via LAN or on one screen at all, as long as it's co-op. So many 2-player games only support player vs. player but not player+player vs. computer.
One of the main reason why I play MMORPGs although they have an awful game design is that they have a really good co-op support and you can easily find other players to play with you against the game.


Some games that come to mind:

Sonic! Basically all games didn't really support co-op. Well you could play Tails in One-Player-Mode but seriously it's hard for tails to not run out of the screen. All the other 2-player modes supplied later where basically player vs. player (I haven't played all parts so can't say for sure).

Starcraft! Yeah I know it supports 'allies' and yes it's easily possible to play co-op with your friends again the computer on all available maps. However, the only mode you can play in co-op is "Melee". All the other modes don't allow a computer unless you code the complete AI and game mode yourself with the campaign editor. I wish the game would have offered a bit more customizability for co-op. At least the ability to set different computer AIs (the Melee standard one is extremely strong at the beginning but gets really bad once you destroyed one of the computer's sub-bases, so basically if you don't die during the first attack you already have won).

Heroes of Might & Magic (especially part 5). Unlike Starcraft, you can't "ally" yourself with other players on maps at all during the game. You can play on special maps that were designed for co-op, however those maps are limited and especially in HoMM5 there are only 3 cooperation maps in total (4 if you get the expansion). This series is really fun in co-op mode, too bad it doesn't really get supported at all.

Almost all RPGs. Many RPGs actually would be so much more fun if they allowed a 2 player mode. Even games like Final Fantasy could at least battle-wise be played with two controllers (each player controls 2 heroes in the party for example). Secret of Evermore was missing it too. Then there are some games like Star Ocean 3 that actually support Player vs. Player, but no co-op at all...
I mean one of Secret of Mana's main charm was that it allowed up to 3 players to play together, why can't more games be like that?
Yes I know some RPGs support co-op play but those are often very bad designed...
The Tales of... series need a better co-op mode too.
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Select Button
Push Eject.

[kiken]

[Chris B]

[Rya.Reisender]

[Chris B]

What would that add?
Couldn't you achieve the same by assigning characters to players and passing the pad around?

[Mr. Apol]

four player split screen pso was where it was at.
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knife knife knife knife knife knife knife

[dessgeega]

[Gironika]