Halo 5 Axing Local Co-OP

[Guest]

I actually just made a video on the subject:

 

https://youtu.be/l0gYDTYv6eM

 

So more or less 343 studios is trying to claim this is all because they don't want the game to run at 30FPS on split screen, which I think we all know is a load of crap. It's pretty obvious this is all about sales, and it makes me sad that local co-op and split screen is being killed off. We finally have consoles that can support up to 4 controllers, but we seldom use more than 1. It really sucks when me and my wife want to play a game we are limited to online only unless we want to buy a second game console and daisy chain them together.

 

Many games don't even support LAN anymore either. It's really frustrating for those of us who prefer not to play over the internet are being scrubbed out.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

[1Bit 1,531]

I am one of the few that respects their decision. They recently published an update which included an expanded apology about split-screen. They even mention how it could return in their next title, or it could not. Josh Holmes even stressed how it was one of the hardest decisions they had to make when developing Halo 5. They just felt they couldn't deliver the experience they wanted if split-screen was included.

 

Split-screen itself is incredibly hard to implement on the next-gen consoles as it is, as well as split-screen being able to cause a number of bugs and glitches if a game can't be fully optimized for it. In the MCC, 343i had enough problems properly putting in split-screen that when it came to Halo 5, they clearly felt they couldn't deliver the split-screen gameplay anybody wanted.

 

To put it simply; where split screen is involved, 343i was screwed if they added it and screwed if they didn't. If split-screen was there, there was a good chance the game would not nearly live up to the standard's it says it sets visually and mechanically. But if they didn't add it, there would be heavy backlash from the community.

 

Clearly, they went with no split-screen.

 

I understand why some are upset about it though  It just seems Halo is joining the long line of games which no longer support split-screen

[long gone 8,929]

 

 

We finally have consoles that can support up to 4 controllers

 We've had consoles that support four controllers since the Atari 5200 (although it never caught on until after the Nintendo 64.)

 

This and the Master Chief Collection debacle should show how good 343i is when it comes to making games: not very.

[1Bit 1,531]

 

 

This and the Master Chief Collection debacle should show how good 343i is when it comes to making games: not very.

 

To be fair, the MCC itself is actually awesome. Bugs don't mean they can't make a good game, just that they need better management of their games (I use a similar argument concerning AC Unity) and they've already shown their making such steps by always having tons of alpha and beta testing of their games before release, to flatten out as many problems as possible   

[Guest]

 

 

I am one of the few that respects their decision. They recently published an update which included an expanded apology about split-screen. They even mention how it could return in their next title, or it could not. Josh Holmes even stressed how it was one of the hardest decisions they had to make when developing Halo 5. They just felt they couldn't deliver the experience they wanted if split-screen was included.

 

That's just the corporate division covering their behinds. We all know that NO ONE would have been upset at a split-screen option that ran at 30FPS. I can't really think of one person who would have been upset about it. It's so obvious that they just want to sell more copies of the game.

 

 

 

Split-screen itself is incredibly hard to implement on the next-gen consoles as it is, as well as split-screen being able to cause a number of bugs and glitches if a game can't be fully optimized for it. In the MCC, 343i had enough problems properly putting in split-screen that when it came to Halo 5, they clearly felt they couldn't deliver the split-screen gameplay anybody wanted.

 

The MCC was a series of games that handled split screen on OLDER consoles just fine. You're telling me that NEWER consoles can not handle split screen over older games? No, the reason MCC was buggy was because 343i decided to produce a lazy, half-assed port and didn't really care to bug fix it. They chose NOT to optimize it properly by not waiting to release it until it was fixed. They chose to release it as it was because they knew people would still buy it.

 

 

 

To put it simply; where split screen is involved, 343i was screwed if they added it and screwed if they didn't. If split-screen was there, there was a good chance the game would not nearly live up to the standard's it says it sets visually and mechanically. But if they didn't add it, there would be heavy backlash from the community.

 

I once again can not think of one person who would have been upset if the game wasn't as nice looking with split screen. 

 

 

To be fair, the MCC itself is actually awesome. Bugs don't mean they can't make a good game, just that they need better management of their games (I use a similar argument concerning AC Unity) and they've already shown their making such steps by always having tons of alpha and beta testing of their games before release, to flatten out as many problems as possible   

 

Yet with all these alpha and beta tests they still pump out buggy and poorly polished?

[1Bit 1,531]

 

 

Yet with all these alpha and beta tests they still pump out buggy and poorly polished?

 

What do you mean? I'm talking about after the MCC, so they haven't released any games involving the heavy testing process. It was because of the MCC's poor launch they took steps so it never happened again.

 

 

 

I once again can not think of one person who would have been upset if the game wasn't as nice looking with split screen. 

 

 

Well it's all down to opinion I guess. I haven't even played a game split-screen in so long, I pretty much forgot about it. Especially nowadays, very few games I play even support split-screen at all. It's why I struggle to understand how come the removal of split-screen was such a big deal, but eh.

[long gone 8,929]

To be fair, the MCC itself is actually awesome. Bugs don't mean they can't make a good game, just that they need better management of their games (I use a similar argument concerning AC Unity) and they've already shown their making such steps by always having tons of alpha and beta testing of their games before release, to flatten out as many problems as possible   

There's an active MCC playerbase of less than 14k, possibly in the low thousands now. That's really bad for what was meant to be the flagship game, the must-have Xbox One game. If 343i tried pulling this shit on the PC there'd be absolutely no mercy or apologizing for their poor job at porting the games; just look at the PC community's responses to AC:U and Batman: Arkham Knight, as examples. If Star Citizen, the big, upcoming PC exclusive space trading and combat game, also fails to deliver, there would be a similar response to that as well.

[1Bit 1,531]

 

 

There's an active MCC playerbase of less than 14k, possibly in the low thousands now. That's really bad for what was meant to be the flagship game, the must-have Xbox One game. If 343i tried pulling this shit on the PC there'd be absolutely no mercy or apologizing for their poor job at porting the games; just look at the PC community's responses to AC:U and Batman: Arkham Knight, as examples. If Star Citizen, the big, upcoming PC exclusive space trading and combat game, also fails to deliver, there would be a similar response to that as well.

 

 

Fortunately, the playerbase is beginning to increase now that MCC is fixed, but yeah, the awful launch lost most players straight off.

 

I don't really care for PC, but yeah I saw the Arkham Knight stuff. That was such an awful port, like literally terrible.

[Film Reel 75]

 

 

 I saw the Arkham Knight stuff. That was such an awful port, like literally terrible.

 

Only on PC though, on consoles there is minimal issues. Also Arkham Knight is awesome (Arkham series fanboy XD)

 

Anyway:

 

 

That's just the corporate division covering their behinds. We all know that NO ONE would have been upset at a split-screen option that ran at 30FPS. I can't really think of one person who would have been upset about it. It's so obvious that they just want to sell more copies of the game.

 

The MCC was a series of games that handled split screen on OLDER consoles just fine. You're telling me that NEWER consoles can not handle split screen over older games? No, the reason MCC was buggy was because 343i decided to produce a lazy, half-assed port and didn't really care to bug fix it. They chose NOT to optimize it properly by not waiting to release it until it was fixed. They chose to release it as it was because they knew people would still buy it.

 

Well it is not the corporate people behind covering to quote 343 CEO about MCC "we bucked up" now they could of blaimed microsoft or some other bs but they were honest.

 

Also the fact they had split screen on the old consoles is irreverent. It is very difficult to do what 343 had to do and re-code games with out a running emulator. so expect bugs and issues. also split screen is very hard to code in as you have to account for Colour, moment, Blur, LOD etc. and depending on if it is progressive or interlaced, meaning how pixals work it is very hard. Now imagine those calculations running seperrately and simultaneously across two haves of the screen very hard to code. So split screen can actually be the reason for bugs.

[Guest]

 

 

What do you mean? I'm talking about after the MCC, so they haven't released any games involving the heavy testing process. It was because of the MCC's poor launch they took steps so it never happened again.

 

Didn't the Halo 5 MP beta do really poorly as well? If I recall a lot of people complained that it basically didn't work a majority of the time.

 

 

 

Well it's all down to opinion I guess. I haven't even played a game split-screen in so long, I pretty much forgot about it. Especially nowadays, very few games I play even support split-screen at all. It's why I struggle to understand how come the removal of split-screen was such a big deal, but eh.

 

One of the best reasonings I can think of would be an example. I'm a gamer, and I'm married. My wife is a gamer too. If we ever want to play games together we basically have to get another system, and TV just to play together. It feels like that game devs are forgetting about players like us, and that they don't even care. It seems like we are encouraging this anti-social aspect of playing over the internet only. I know some can argue that it makes games more social, but really what's more social than sitting in the same room with a friend or your wife playing a game? You can't tell me that playing with people over the internet is more social than that.

 

 

 

There's an active MCC playerbase of less than 14k, possibly in the low thousands now. That's really bad for what was meant to be the flagship game, the must-have Xbox One game.

 

If I recall didn't they like start giving it away with so many Xbox Ones now?

 

 

 

Also the fact they had split screen on the old consoles is irreverent. It is very difficult to do what 343 had to do and re-code games with out a running emulator.

 

That's not how Split screen works at all...

 

 

 

so expect bugs and issues. also split screen is very hard to code in as you have to account for Colour, moment, Blur, LOD etc. and depending on if it is progressive or interlaced, meaning how pixals work it is very hard. Now imagine those calculations running seperrately and simultaneously across two haves of the screen very hard to code. So split screen can actually be the reason for bugs.

 

But they chose to include it, therefore they have a responsibility to make sure it WORKS properly. 

[1Bit 1,531]

 

 

Didn't the Halo 5 MP beta do really poorly as well? If I recall a lot of people complained that it basically didn't work a majority of the time.

 

The beta was a massive success. Overall, there was a very positive reception to it and all that people gave as feedback was tweaks to player speed and abilities.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,713]

While this does rather frustrate me, I can kinda see why they would do this in a sense. HAving up to 4 player splitscreen means having to render the game 4 different times. This could conflict with what they are trying to do in the campaign for example. Multiplayer could be a different story but as for the campaign I might be able to see why, it still is a bother though. Couch-co-op is incredibly fun with buddies and I would hate to see that become a thing of the past.

[1Bit 1,531]

While this does rather frustrate me, I can kinda see why they would do this in a sense. HAving up to 4 player splitscreen means having to render the game 4 different times. This could conflict with what they are trying to do in the campaign for example. Multiplayer could be a different story but as for the campaign I might be able to see why, it still is a bother though. Couch-co-op is incredibly fun with buddies and I would hate to see that become a thing of the past.

 

As I've stated above, it kinda already has become a thing of the past sadly  Halo was pretty much the only fps that still had split-screen. In fact, I can't think of many games nowadays that offer it.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,713]

As I've stated above, it kinda already has become a thing of the past sadly  Halo was pretty much the only fps that still had split-screen. In fact, I can't think of many games nowadays that offer it.

Black Ops 3 is the only other major shooter coming out this year that  Iknow that will have it for the campaign, but that game is running on an ancient engine so it is no surprise.

[1Bit 1,531]

Black Ops 3 is the only other major shooter coming out this year that  Iknow that will have it for the campaign, but that game is running on an ancient engine so it is no surprise.

 

To be fair, if split screen was taken out of BO3, no-one would even care  (well maybe a few...I dunno) its not that kind of social game really 

[Kira Dogeikage 230]

As I've stated above, it kinda already has become a thing of the past sadly  Halo was pretty much the only fps that still had split-screen. In fact, I can't think of many games nowadays that offer it.

CoD still does... Wow... CoD is good at something!

[Guest]

To be fair, if split screen was taken out of BO3, no-one would even care  (well maybe a few...I dunno) its not that kind of social game really 

I know tons of people who would care, myself included. Just because a lot of people play on the internet now doesn't mean we should just abandon local co-op entirely. It's really crap when basically if you want to play with people in the same room, you have to more or less stick to old consoles. We have consoles that can handle 2+ players so much better now, and yet we're not taking advantage of that.

[Biggybrony 244]

My best memories of Halo were of playing the first game, split-screen with my friends and playing co-op. To me it's just a core aspect of the franchise. It's silly to me that you can play with someone across country but not with someone sat right next to you. Worried about the frame rate dropping? I guess connection lag is ok then? Besides, since when was 30fps a bad thing? In the middle of frantic shooty action who actually cares?

[Guest]

My best memories of Halo were of playing the first game, split-screen with my friends and playing co-op. To me it's just a core aspect of the franchise. It's silly to me that you can play with someone across country but not with someone sat right next to you. Worried about the frame rate dropping? I guess connection lag is ok then? Besides, since when was 30fps a bad thing? In the middle of frantic shooty action who actually cares?

We had several generations that survived with 30FPS, I doubt it's going to affect anyone playing. People who are playing split screen will be happy that they get split screen at all. The argument of it being "too difficult" is bogus. This is a game franchise that's been doing this for every game since its original release. Now suddenly it's "too hard" or suddenly they don't want to sacrifice a tiny bit of fidelity for it?