• TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    2 months ago

    Man I don’t even care about single player games, it seems like they’re continuously coming out. The death of couch co-op is my fear. Let me and my partner, kid, buddy, sister in law, etc play a game at my house and goof off. I don’t wanna shout down the hall or over a voip party call

    • Riffraffintheroom [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      2 months ago

      I feel like any underserved market in the AAA space will inevitably be filled by indie games. Around 2010 people were talking about it the death of couch co-op and that partially lead to the first big breakthrough of indie games into mainstream with couch co-ops like castle crashers, I made a game with zombies in it and lovers in a dangerous space time.

      • TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 months ago

        Yeah there is some fun stuff out there for sure (overcooked, TMNT Shredder’s revenge, and ember knights are all favorites in our house) but it just feels like it used to be a huge market segment.

        I feel like online games kinda stole their lunch.

        Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time looks super fun.

    • jaywalker [they/them, any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      2 months ago

      It used to be that games would force local co-op even when it didn’t make a lot of sense for the game. Pretty sure some of the early final fantasy games had co-op where the 2nd player just controlled a character in combat.

    • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      2 months ago

      I will never forgive the gaming executives for killing couch co-op. We have never had better TV’s and monitors in history and it’s shame I can’t share the space with the homies. Inviting people over for a game session ought to be a normal way for grown-ups to kick it in the modern age, but no. We all gotta hop on Discord and pretend to be together rather than just actually being together.

      • TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        2 months ago

        Right, exactly, we played split screen on the smallest tvs. Text was often reduced to tiny blobs. We still had fun.

        Now food prices are unreal but a huge high def tv costs 300 dollars and where are my fun co-op games? All online

        • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 months ago

          Exactly dude! It has never made more sense to have split-screen/same screen co-op games. Shooters, beat 'em ups, Platformers, party games whatever (also lots of great accessibility features for those who need them), we finally have enough screen space to do really co-op properly and we all gotta just get in VOIP. Ugh, this future sucks man.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 months ago

        It disturbs me that all this advanced technology is being used to make game experiences worse.

        Goldeneye 64 is primitive by today’s standards, but was a very fun couch game, but now something much more sophisticated is just about expected to involve complete strangers screaming slurs on voicechat. joker-gaming

    • MaoTheLawn [any, any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Yup. The list of couch co op games has drastically decreased with every generation, despite the fact that the better processing power means a PS5 could probably manage splitscreen BF4. Just to make sure you buy your own console.

      What are your favourite couch co op games?

      • TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 months ago

        My wife and I loved Children of Morta. We play Ember Knights with our kid a lot, played through Shredder’s Revenge a few months ago. River City Girls was fun. Overcooked, and a simpler game Potion Party are pretty fun. I thought Towerfall looked like a lot of fun but the other people in the house were less interested.

        Me and my kid played the hell out of Cassette Beasts.

    • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 months ago

      same… i only play multiplayer games with people i don’t know so i’m not obligated to play everytime someone else wants to play