With my brother in town visiting for an extended stay, I’ve started looking into games that we can both play together online off the same 360. He’s into competitive games (especially fighting games), while I’m more into co-operative games, so I figure we can meet in the middle with games that we can play against other people while still being on the same team. The trick is finding these types of games that allow for us to both play together on one console and still fulfill those requirements!
It’s slim pickings but here’s the list I’ve compiled:
Halo 3
This is probably the highest rated and most popular game of this list that allows for both of us to go online and play adversarial modes off the same console. Of course, you either like Halo or you don’t. I’ve come a long way in that I don’t find Halo 3 as bad as the first couple, but ultimately, I’ll always end up choosing a Battlefield or Call of Duty game over it if I were playing online alone.
Gears of War/Gears of War 2
I believe that both games allow for us to play on the same console in adversarial matches, as well as the Horde mode in Gears of War 2. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of the adversarial in the Gears of War games (too imbalanced since the gameplay design doesn’t work well for multiplayer) and my bro isn’t too into the Horde mode (he finds it too mindless).
Left 4 Dead
Every mode is available for us to play online with split screen, but I don’t enjoy the Versus mode so this is more co-op friendly than “co-op adversarial” friendly. The problems I have with the Versus mode is that it doesn’t really reward skill as much as it does figuring out where all the glitches and optimal “smoker pull spots” are. In other FPS adversarial games if you just go in completely new, you actually stand a chance based on your FPS skills alone. But in Left 4 Dead Versus, if you don’t know all the glitches/spots or how to deal with them, you’re done before you even started.
Unreal Tournament III
The 360 version is the only one with split-screen online, allowing us to play adversarial modes. Unfortunately, there’s no matchmaking in the game and the userbase is tiny. No one plays ranked anymore, and for unranked games, you’ll be lucky to find one or two matches. Game is practically already dead.
Age of Booty
From the same guys that did the matchmaking code of the Halo games, Age of Booty is an Xbox Arcade title that I felt my brother and I would enjoy. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a big following for the game so practically no one plays it online anymore, just like Unreal Tournament III.
In short, it looks like very slim pickings. I would have loved to see one of the Call of Duty games or Battlefield games offer split-screen online, or even older titles like the Rainbow Six games, the GRAW games, Team Fortress 2, and Shadowrun. Maybe we will have to get back into Halo after all, since it’s the best of what’s available. Perhaps it’s a good time too since Halo 3: ODST “drops” next month.
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August 24, 2009 at 11:25 am
Jason
I went over to a coworker’s house not too long ago, and he wanted to play some World at War online with me, but we couldn’t figure out how….I guess you can’t! That sucks.
We ended up going 1v1 a few games and then did the campaign for awhile.
August 24, 2009 at 11:35 am
cmfl3x
I’m down for some Halo 3. I wish Maybe you should practice sniping since you don’t like the shield respawn, that will give you the quicker kills you desire! I wish the skill games were less competitive, they are a lot of fun but people are too good!
August 24, 2009 at 11:38 am
cmfl3x
Oh ETA, does castle crashers have online couch co-op? Not the biggest fan of that game tho…
August 24, 2009 at 12:08 pm
espion4ge
Jason – yeah it sucks. My brother and I were playing offline splitscreen zombie mode, and I had a couple friends online but we weren’t able to play with them. I think in general we probably won’t see Call of Duty games offering online split-screen just because perhaps they’re already maxing out the system. Halo 3, the king of online split-screen, runs at a lower resolution and doesn’t look much better than last gen, so maybe that’s why it’s so flexible.
cmfl3x – with Halo 3 ODST a buy for me, I will definitely be getting back into the online multiplayer. The thing is, I kind of don’t want to start just yet until I get all of the maps from ODST. I guess we could play social team slayer for the next month until ODST comes out? i don’t even remember what is available to play without purchasing any of the optional map packs. i think the key to the game is getting good with the battle rifle though. of course, i can always resort to the “rush the guy with the assault rifle and finish with a melee” technique to at least contribute to the team haha
as for castle crashers, it may actually have online couch co-op, but i didn’t research it since it’s not the most adversarial-like game.
August 24, 2009 at 2:40 pm
eeyore
My roommate actually didn’t get into CoD4 because he couldn’t play it online with his gf. And that in turn was the reason why I didn’t get into CoD4, because he always wanted to play Halo 3.
August 24, 2009 at 2:51 pm
espion4ge
hold the phone – your roommate’s gf plays Halo 3? does she have any friends? not for me of course, but i’m sure inquiring minds want to know haha
August 25, 2009 at 10:12 pm
eeyore
haha she was okay. she could actually kill people one on one(shoot, shoot, melee), but she totally broke down in hectic situations. both her and my roommate got stuck at like level 15ish.
she actually wanted me to level her up, even when i explained to her that it was counter productive. she really liked that game.
ex-girlfriend though. i haven’t talked to her in awhile, hah.
August 30, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Bibliotecher
There’s also Rainbow Six 2, GRAW 1 and 2. Online game play is up to par, in fact, I prefer it better than Halo 3.