Too many FPS developers forget about split screen play on consoles

Local Play Split Screen Multiplayer Couch

I love first person shooters, ever since I played Doom on DOS 20 years ago. Since then, FPS’s have changed substantially over the years, from squad based gameplay to massively multiplayer online and much, much more. While I agree with purists that the best way to play an FPS is with a mouse and keyboard (and soon the Oculus Rift), I’ve embraced console shooters as well. I regularly play the Call of Duty series on Xbox 360 with my family, it’s one of the ways we play together as a family. We’ve also played Halo over the years. Sadly, I’m not particularly fond of either series, although I do have an appreciation for the first couple Modern Warfare games and it’s Counter-Strike on steroids gameplay. It’s always saddened me that my favorite FPS maker of all time, id Software, has had some of the worst console conversions over the last 10 years (Quake IV anyone?). Perhaps, a lot of this has had to do with the fact that many id Software ports were handled by 3rd parties, not to mention that over the years, PC ports for all games have improved considerably. My main issue with id Software games on consoles is the lack of split screen multiplayer. It’s not impossible to do but adds on so much replay value for people who, you know… know people in real life. The feature set doesn’t need to be complex. All we’re asking for is split screen multiplayer with some deathmatching, team deathmatch and maybe even capture the flag. Not a lot to ask for. Bots are nice too.

id software Doom 3 split screen console FPS

With the release of RAGE for Xbox 360 and PS3, there was a glimmer of hope since they did included some split screen co-op missions in the game. That was great and appreciated. When I heard about Doom 3 BFG Edition, I got excited and assumed that surely, some split screen deathmatching would go down. Sadly, there was zero split screen action. Although I am far from an expert, I know enough about graphics engine settings to understand that developers can drastically lower resolutions for multiplayer and scrape off little graphical features like anti-aliasing, high resolution textures, complex fog rendering and more. So, consider this a request id Software. Don’t forget about us gamers on the couch. I love that you’re developing the console games yourselves now, the quality is there. But give us some deathmatching at home. We’ll buy the DLC maps too, just like people do for every Halo and Black Ops.

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