Is the split-screen multiplayer mode on its last health pack? Has the flag been captured by broadband online gaming? Went round to a friend's yesterday and spend several hours playing through a selection of recent(ish) titles offering split-screen deathmatch modes. We tried Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Red Dead Revolver, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, Freedom Fighters and a few others - and invariably I was disappointed with the results. Lack-lustre level design, drastically reduced graphics detail, dull objectives... I know we all tend to view GoldenEye through a pair of thick rose-tinted glasses, but none of these games seemed to get anywhere close to providing the superbly stage-managed face-offs of Rare's classic.
Obviously, providing a split-screen mode is quite an undertaking. Having up to four separate players interacting with the game environment at once is seriously demanding on the processor. Furthermore, there's the problem of giving each inhabitant a decent view of the action - which is actually two problems in one, involving clever use of visuals and excellent level construction. And of course, Freedom Fighters, Brothers in Arms and Ghost Recon: Island Thunder challenge themselves even further by attempting to incorporate the squad-based nature of their respective single-player missions. The result, almost invariably, was many minutes of wandering around stark environments (and I mean stark), punctuated by brief devastating firefights with fatal outcomes. That might be a realistic depiction of modern war, but it's not very satisfying as a gameplay model.
So in this era of broadband connectivity is the split-screen mode being over-looked by designers? Or did I just have a bad gaming day? And what have been your favourite split-screen experiences for the last few years?
I guess I'll have to go for Timesplitters and Halo...
