RANT: Gears of War does NOT support 4-player split-screen!

[Haoshiro]

So I bought GoW last Saturday and was looking forward to a nice tactical Halo 2 replacement for my friends and I when everyone comes over to game...

Yesterday we went to start a game only to see "Too many players signed in", I thought... "what the heck??" ... looked on the box *like I should have done before buying it* and see 1-2 Players, 2-8 Online Multiplayer.

So I just had to vent, this really REALLY damages the game for me. Now if we want to have an 8-player LAN we have to have 4 TVs and 4 360s, that is just trash!

You have been warned! Argh.... :mad:

Don't get me wrong though, GoW multiplayer is *awesome* .... I absolutely LOVE the tactical feel of the gameplay, it's more then you expect even from seeing videos. I heard a quote somewhere that I think is accurate "You haven't played this before."

But that just makes the 2-player restriction all the worse. :(

[wako]

Personally I dont find this as a problem...


Think about... to those people who have normal TVs....


Their resolution is 640x480... divide that by two its already 320x240... YUCK!


Divide it into 4, it is 160x120! There would be no point in playing it, since your character would be one big blotch, and there would be no way of telling whether or not your character is shooting a baddie or a pole

[killmoms]

4 player split screen has and always will suck unbelievable amounts of ass. I for one am glad that GoW is saving gamers from themselves. Save some damn money, you hippies.

EDIT: Actually, your math is wrong, wako. 4-player split screen in SD is four screens of 320 x 240. Still though.

[MovieCutter]

Personally I dont find this as a problem...


Think about... to those people who have normal TVs....


Their resolution is 640x480... divide that by two its already 320x240... YUCK!


Divide it into 4, it is 160x120! There would be no point in playing it, since your character would be one big blotch, and there would be no way of telling whether or not your character is shooting a baddie or a pole


Actually, divided by 4 is 320x240. You figure half the width of the 640x480 is 320, and half the height is 240, thus giving you 320x240 for each quadrant.

[raggedjimmi]

Personally I dont find this as a problem...


Think about... to those people who have normal TVs....


Their resolution is 640x480... divide that by two its already 320x240... YUCK!


Divide it into 4, it is 160x120! There would be no point in playing it, since your character would be one big blotch, and there would be no way of telling whether or not your character is shooting a baddie or a pole
WRONGLY CALCULATED. Four players is 320*340, 8 players would be 160*120.

320*240? That's higher than a DS resolution IIRC. That's more than enough to see a game :) Didn't stop Goldeneye being the best 4 player FPS I've ever played.

No 4 player in GoW sucks. in 1080i there is no excuse for "little 4 player screens". ah well. I hope Halo 3 can have more than 2 players on co-op. Halo and co-op is just heavenly.

[eva01]

4 player split screen has and always will suck unbelievable amounts of ass. I for one am glad that GoW is saving gamers from themselves. Save some damn money, you hippies.

EDIT: Actually, your math is wrong, wako. 4-player split screen in SD is four screens of 320 x 240. Still though.


Someone hasn't played Battlefront II, 4 person split screen.

So much better than single player

[Haoshiro]

Obviously most of you haven't played much console multiplayer.

It's true you'd only get 320x240 on an SD screen, and that worked just fine in Halo 1 and Halo 1.

But here we are in the HD era, we have 720p and 1080i, my TV supports both of those formats.

Consider 720p, 1280x720 means 640x360 per viewport, nearly the same resolution as an entire SDTV!

If you people had friends, and those friends got together for multiplayer console gaming like Halo 1 or 2, etc... then it would be EASY to understand how bad this SUCKS.

Having someone bring an extra TV and one other console isn't much work for a nice 8-player lan. But where are you going to put 4 TVs? That just doesn't work well AT ALL.

[wako]

oops:D

[raggedjimmi]

Someone hasn't played Battlefront II, 4 person split screen.

So much better than single player

Along with Halo, Goldeneye, Jet Force Gemini, Timesplitters 2, Mario Kart and F-Zero GX. 4 screened goodness.
Saying that it's good they didn't put 4 player co-op in there because they want to "save us" is utter rubbish.

[Haoshiro]

Along with Halo, Goldeneye, Jet Force Gemini, Timesplitters 2, Mario Kart and F-Zero GX. 4 screened goodness.
Saying that it's good they didn't put 4 player co-op in there because they want to "save us" is utter rubbish.

Agreed. I'm betting they didn't do it because they wanted to keep the multiplayer visuals high. It's standard fair to drop the visual quality in multiplayer to support 4-players on the same screen, however in GoW the multiplayer looks just like the single player.

[benpatient]

i f'ing hated all of those games in 4-player split-screen mode.

i guess when you grow up playing games on a PC where everyone has their own screen, you get spoiled. I never liked goldeneye because if you knew the maps, you knew exactly where everyone was at all times. What's the fun in that?

the only one of those games that you listed that I would actually play 4-player split screen is mario kart. and I'd rather not.

and very few analog TVs are capable of showing 640x480 pixels...and they're almost all interlaced...so saying that each person is seeing 320x240 is wrong. with overscan and interlacing and the average TV's actual resolvable resolution, you'd be lucky to get 250x200 of space per person.

blagh. I don't see them playing split-screen at clan tournaments...

[twoodcc]

Along with Halo, Goldeneye, Jet Force Gemini, Timesplitters 2, Mario Kart and F-Zero GX. 4 screened goodness.
Saying that it's good they didn't put 4 player co-op in there because they want to "save us" is utter rubbish.

agreed. couldn't have said it much better. i love multiplayer on fps games

[raggedjimmi]

i f'ing hated all of those games in 4-player split-screen mode.

i guess when you grow up playing games on a PC where everyone has their own screen, you get spoiled. I never liked goldeneye because if you knew the maps, you knew exactly where everyone was at all times. What's the fun in that?

the only one of those games that you listed that I would actually play 4-player split screen is mario kart. and I'd rather not.

and very few analog TVs are capable of showing 640x480 pixels...and they're almost all interlaced...so saying that each person is seeing 320x240 is wrong. with overscan and interlacing and the average TV's actual resolvable resolution, you'd be lucky to get 250x200 of space per person.

blagh. I don't see them playing split-screen at clan tournaments...

No, you don't. you seem split screens at friends houses, you see them when it costs too much to buy 2 consoles and 2 TV's. If you didn't see the fun in Goldeneye then I feel sorry for you - it really was the pinnacle of console FPS gaming and one of the highest rated multiplayers of yesteryear. It has nothing to do with knowing maps and where players are. Goldeneye isn't HL2 or CounterStrike. It's a silly, fun multiplayer with more replayability than most games out on these current and next gen consoles.
I recall everyone asking "Is the multiplayer as good as Goldeneye" on virtually every multiplaying N64 game after. Which meant that even limited to 640*480/4 (or 576 in PAL) the multiplayer was ****ing excellent.

[killmoms]

Look, these consoles connect to the Internet for a reason. Yeah, parties at friends' houses, blah blah blah, whatever. You know what WE did when we wanted to have a fun time gaming? We had a ****ing LAN party. You hauled your whole PC over, monitor, tower, everything. Set it up, hooked it up, played. What's so hard about getting 4 TV's to a location? We got 12 PCs into my family room when I was in high school, and we LIKED it that way. ::waves cane about::

I'd much rather play Gears of War w/ my friends over the 'Net w/ a headset anyway than do some retarded split-screen thing. I've always hated 4-player split screen. Hell, even 2-player split screen bothers me. Give me my own screen and get your own! ;)

[takao]

i guess when you grow up playing games on a PC where everyone has their own screen, you get spoiled. I never liked goldeneye because if you knew the maps, you knew exactly where everyone was at all times. What's the fun in that?

well some like that challenge (me included) that all are on the ame level... nobody having bigger screen/connection etc. than the other

it's of course nothing for campers ;)

(that's from somebody who plays pc shooters too)

[Haoshiro]

I love a good LAN party as much as the next geek, but when you've got a few friends over it's nice to all be able to play a game without requiring some pre-arranged event that has everyone bringing their PCs over and networking them.

It's fast, simple, easy, and accessible. When Halo 1 came out my apartment was almost always full with a game of Halo 4-player being played, it was a blast. Nothing beats having your friends with you (compared to online).

Oh, and if you ARE going to do 4-player split screen you need a decent sized TV (27"+), lugging around TVs that large and trying to fit 4 of them somewhere is just unreasonable. The nice thing about a console party is it's much easier to setup and get started, you don't need everyone's PC, that requires a lot more logisitics to get setup and have everyone going (I have hosted many LAN parties and still do).

GoW with NO 4-player split-screen support is a huge disappointment and I'm sure other people will appreciate knowing it doesn't have that.

[raggedjimmi]

yup, the convience of just saying "hey, lets play Goldeneye now" was incredible. Worst case scenario someone would have to run home and bring their extra controllers (in the end they were all left at mine :D still here!).
I don't care much for online. Without voice chat whats to separate other human players from a damn good AI?
LAN was good, though with hauling PC's everywhere it was more a pain than anything else. Yet to have a proper LAN because of the sheer number of plugs required for all that hardware and the logistics to get systems here. Though the intel iMacs have the potential to change that.

[Jovian9]

I was not happy when I found this out last week. 3 of my friends and I meet up every Thursday and play 4 player Halo 2 and then all jump on line to do big-team battles. I have a 53" HDTV so I do not mind 4-split screens. Besides, it's about fun not about graphics when you have 4 people playing. Last week we got together here at my place to try out GoW since a friend of mine had purchased it. We spent several hours doing a 2 player mission (taking turns) learning the game. When the time came to play 4 player we could not do it. I was disappointed as I had planned on picking this game up, now I'll just let Gamefly send it to me.
We shut it off and put in Halo 2 immediately.....and had a better time playing it with it's "last-gen" graphics :)

[combatcolin]

Is there network co-op on Gears of War?

Halo 2 was a much poorer game for not included network co-op, the orginal Ghost Recon was a good example of the incredible atmosphere that can be created when each player has a screen to themselves.

[mrkramer]

4 player split screen isn't that bad as long as you have a large enough tv, i was just playing 4 player Halo last night.

[jonboyo]

I agree!

I'm sure it was meant to.

I bought it, got my nephew/niece and bro around for some 4 player split screen like the old Halo days..... I project onto a wall 10x6foot or so.

Was shocked and pissed off it wasn't possible, so played GRAW and had a great game 4player split.

I hope Rainbow Six Las Vegas has 4player split.

Incidentally having GOW 2 player split unavailable in the vertical plain is **** also.

Think a petition would help?

[aspro]

Four player is nice when you have a bunch of friends in front of the TV, but I can forgive them because they have apparently made such a good job of the co-op play (GoW in Australia tomorrow!:D)

[OutThere]

I don't know why so many people crapped all over 4-way split screen...I've logged hundreds of hours playing Halo 2 with 4 people. Put aside, for a moment, an obsession with gameplay and think about the more social aspect of four-player gaming....90% of it is the fact that you're sitting there with 3 friends!

[raggedjimmi]

I don't know why so many people crapped all over 4-way split screen...I've logged hundreds of hours playing Halo 2 with 4 people. Put aside, for a moment, an obsession with gameplay and think about the more social aspect of four-player gaming....90% of it is the fact that you're sitting there with 3 friends!

I've dedicated a good 3 years of university to writing about and studying gameplay, it's my addiction. I find that 4 player games (split or not) go beyond regular gameplay and spill into the real world; I'm enjoying a great game. I'm also enjoying it with 3 friends! Like watching a film, I'd rather do that with friends than just ring them up afterwards to talk about it.

And I can't wait for the next Smash Bros :D :D :D and our upcoming local Halo multiplayer, 16 people, 4 screens. Mint!

[harveypooka]

Didn't stop Goldeneye being the best 4 player FPS I've ever played.

I still know people who relish the golden days of the N64.

[sikkinixx]

Remember the short dude in GoldenEye? No one could hit you! it was sweet..

[x86isslow]

Yah, Oddjob, I think. N64 was sweet. I was the weird guy loved the N64 controller cuz I had big enough hands to appreciate it. ( I can't deal with the GC controller)

[raggedjimmi]

Remember the short dude in GoldenEye? No one could hit you! it was sweet..

Oddjob :cool: I always used him, sneaky blighter! crouching would render you a difficult target. heh, just remembered the old Dalek style crouching animations (or lack of).

I hope Nintendo just buys Goldeneye from Rare and puts it on the VC. Goldeneye would just make my entire console generation.

[Chone]

Yes there is nothing like playing with friends rather than bozos and freaks on the net, 4 player split screen is awesome and it was so in TimeSplitters 2, I loved that game, true heir to GoldenEye and WICKED multiplayer, way more fun than I had playing 64 player matches in Battlefield 2.

[viccles]

Is this game really that good? I'm so tempted to buy it even though I suffer from cyber sickness

[jdechko]

Yes there is nothing like playing with friends rather than bozos and freaks on the net, 4 player split screen is awesome and it was so in TimeSplitters 2, I loved that game, true heir to GoldenEye and WICKED multiplayer, way more fun than I had playing 64 player matches in Battlefield 2.

Don't forget Perfect Dark on the N64... that one was pretty sweet too. Anyway, this just goes to show how important/relevant split-screen multiplayer is and that internet multiplayer isn't the be-all-end-all of gaming.

[takao]

Don't forget Perfect Dark on the N64... that one was pretty sweet too. Anyway, this just goes to show how important/relevant split-screen multiplayer is and that internet multiplayer isn't the be-all-end-all of gaming.

Dual Cyclone secondary "empty clip" fire mode,laptop gun, eraser like shooting through walls, Coop and _Counter-Op_, Guns with cloaking device secondary fire, UT like rocket cameras, remote controllable flying spy stuff, infrared and x-ray vision
damn i still remember that sound when the ammo "melts" into the alien guns

it's still amazing how frickin' innovative the game was at it release

heck you know when Bungie said that there will be "spike grenades" who will stick to surfaces and players in halo 3 i thought within a second "sticky genades ? i had that in PD as secondary fire mode on the grenade launcher"

[Soulstorm]

Someone must have forgot the most impressive thing: Quake 2 on PSX (yeah, the first PS) with 4-player split screen. Ah... those were the days...!