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LAN Play in console games - In danger?
phirewind
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm glad it was mentioned that Army of Two has no LAN play option. That tidbit of info was in NONE of the reviews. However, I've noticed this commonality in some recent 360 games. Ace Combat 6 - No LAN play. Madden NFL 08 - No LAN play. I was at a Madden 08 Super Bowl tournament, and halfway through the first round, everybody's game crashed because we had to go through Live and EA's server hiccuped.
In many games where there IS a LAN play option, it seems like an afterthought. In CoD4 for 360 (though I love it) you have to re-start the room after each game. In Halo 3, some online gametypes (notably Rocket Race) aren't even an option, you have to have played it online recently so you can load it from "recent" games in order to do a LAN match. Even some Live Arcade games assume that you play in a basement by yourself and never have a friend even on the same 360, much less one on a local network.
I know the usual reasoning for it: Most publishers/developers don't feel that there's enough demand for LAN play to justify spending the time and resources to fully develop it. I think there's more demand than they realize, but we aren't vocal enough about it. Between LAN gaming centers, home networks, and the ever-popular BYOC party, LAN play has always been the best kind of multiplayer. Having your teammates and opponents in the same room changes the entire experience for the better.
I can't believe that I am alone in the opinion that fully realized local-network options often make a game a far more appealing product. PC gamers have known this for years. This isn't about what game, genre or platform is better, I'm just wondering if there's a way to show developers that LAN play is a GOOD THING, not just a "eh, maybe". I'd hate to see the total exclusion of the best multiplayer connection available to become an industry standard.
In many games where there IS a LAN play option, it seems like an afterthought. In CoD4 for 360 (though I love it) you have to re-start the room after each game. In Halo 3, some online gametypes (notably Rocket Race) aren't even an option, you have to have played it online recently so you can load it from "recent" games in order to do a LAN match. Even some Live Arcade games assume that you play in a basement by yourself and never have a friend even on the same 360, much less one on a local network.
I know the usual reasoning for it: Most publishers/developers don't feel that there's enough demand for LAN play to justify spending the time and resources to fully develop it. I think there's more demand than they realize, but we aren't vocal enough about it. Between LAN gaming centers, home networks, and the ever-popular BYOC party, LAN play has always been the best kind of multiplayer. Having your teammates and opponents in the same room changes the entire experience for the better.
I can't believe that I am alone in the opinion that fully realized local-network options often make a game a far more appealing product. PC gamers have known this for years. This isn't about what game, genre or platform is better, I'm just wondering if there's a way to show developers that LAN play is a GOOD THING, not just a "eh, maybe". I'd hate to see the total exclusion of the best multiplayer connection available to become an industry standard.
phirewind on
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I really hope that this doesn't turn into some kind of trend where devs can get lazy because online mulitplayer has become so prevalent.
I haven't been following Army of Two much but the idea of them stripping LAN out of the game seems truly ridiculous O_o
But let it be known, it allows split screen... But not LAN. There's a huge difference. TeeMan, all those games you listed are split screen, not LAN.
If it's an either situation, I'd take split-screen hands down any day. It's a shame that LAN play isn't a high priority anymore (my best LAN console experience was playing through Brute Force with four people), but I'm much more concerned with split-screen play becoming a rarity.
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Yeah, at it seems easier for developers to not have to code in the option for LAN play.
For other games, this may have been forgivable. For a game like Army of Two where it's damn close to completely based around co-op play, not having LAN is a shame.
Oh I wont, sir. Which is why I won't touch it.
For Krunnnnnnnk~!
Ohh, right you are sir. I don't think I've ever LAN'd so I'm going to step out of this.
It sucks, LAN parties are better than online, and in places with crappy high-speed internet infrastructure (eg lots of places in my city), LAN parties are how a lot of people still get their multiplayer fix.
Woo first G&T post. Hope I didn't step on toes.
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Live sells. LAN doesn't. More profit, less work. That's really all there is to it.
It also costs money for voice actors, so let's just axe that too. And while we're at it, what's up with all these "textures" and "graphics?" Man that shit's expensive, let's gid rid of some of that.
If nobody really plays via LAN on consoles, then there isn't a big reason to have it. This assumes it actually requires a meaningful amount of time/money to do. If it's fairly cheap and quick, then I agree that games should have LAN when applicable.
Obviously, graphics and voice actors are utilized by nearly everyone. Your post is incredibly stupid.
Umm what? Talk about taking it to the extreme. Lets be real here the LAN gamers are a probably fairly small subset of gamers when looking at the big picture. So do they cut the voice which everyone but deaf people hear, or do they cut the feature that is not widely used? hmmm tough call. Besides if you really wanted to LAN couldn't you take the machines, put them in the same room behind a router and go online and play through Live/PS network etc? Not AS desirable but feasible no?
I agree. LAN parties are the best, but unfortunately they are in the minority. Hardly anyone does it now.
This is a sad fact.
Seriously, what the hell developers? Surely adding LAN play for 90% of games is incredibly easy if they already have split screen/online multiplayer.
I'd rather take the social setting of a bunch of friends in an overwarm living room than sitting by myself with just the voices in my headset for company.
Unfortunately, when you and all your friends are holding down full time jobs and in some cases family commitments, getting any kind of LAN gaming done is practically impossible.
My friend's parents had an empty house that they usually rent out, but it was empty while we were in high school. We managed to gather the entire Halo playing community from three local high schools into a single party at the house. You'd be surprised how many TV's and chairs you can fit into a house that has no other furniture whatsoever. To hear news of that kind of experience being taken away from newer gamers makes me quite sad.
I'll admit that I was being a bit hyperbolic, but I'm coming from a place where I assume it's just lazy, greedy companies. Games have had lan play damn near since I was born. And yeah, I know games have evolved, but if they're tossing network code in there anyway, I can't see that it'd cost them the company to give local play a shot.
All this being said, the only time I ever do the lan party thing is at a gaming store where you can rent time on computers. Also once with a friend playing BG2. I'm more of a single-player guy is what I'm getting at, so it's not like I'm losing something huge without LAN support. It just pisses me off in principle.
That was always my understanding as well. You've got the multiplayer code *right there*, it's just if you talking over a LAN
or over 360 or PS3 Live.
I might guess that the software development kits contain from both Sony and Microsoft that developers use have
the routines for talking to the online services, but not for the LAN, and so each house would have to develop it's own for LAN
play. But that's from my ass...
As a case in the other direction, the PSP (from the games I have) has more 'ad-hoc' mode support (basically wireless LAN) rather than infrastructure mode. Dunno about the DS though.
Just how bad is it?
Now games like CoD4 or Halo, that support big multiplayer matches, I expect them to have LAN. Getting four TVs and a bunch of friends together for a LAN is a blast and a hell of a lot easier than bringing 16 PCs into one house.
CoD4 on LAN is awesome, our favorite game at the LAN center right now, but in addition to only being able to use about a dozen pre-built classes (not your unlocks and customs), it can't do ANY networked split-screen. It's either split-screen limited to one system, or each player on their own screen.
There are issues that pop up in network coding when you go to add things like that, but like I said I think the publisher could look at the extra cost as a marketing investment.
I just couldn't believe that Madden NFL, Ace Combat 6, and now Army of Two have ZERO capability for local network play... for those specific games I NEVER would have believed that it would be that way if say, last year someone had told me a "rumor" that they would be that way. I'd have thought them insane, I mean surely NOBODY would make a game like that and completely remove LAN play. It was bad enough when Gears of War didn't do co-op over LAN.
Ha? Ha ha? Ha ..?
This. To expand, and read this part carefully:
Unless you live in an apartment/dorm with multiple 360s on a network, or you were really going to schlep your gear to a buddy's to lan it up, you really have no complaint. Furthermore, all your doing is echoing Tycho's position, which is actually justified due to the "workspace" he and Gabe play on.