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Not for me. So what if I can play games with 2000 people from around the world, it just doesn't have the charm of a bunch of people all squeezed round on TV having a laugh. I had a go at Quake 3 on my mates PC, you get chucked into a random arena, no idea if its the beginning of a scrap, what the hells going on, no sensation that you're participating in anything vaguely enjoyable.
The Xbox Live thing is frankly scary, a friend of mine was beta testing it and I found driving around a racecourse with random simulated voices coming into my head asking me if 'are there any French playing?'. It felt just WRONG really. Its why I'm not looking forward to the Final Fantasy XI. I don't really see how the game can be as story driven as the previous titles. I don't want the game to go on playing even when I'm offline, its MY game, it should revolve around me. For this reason, I'm waiting for XII with more anticipation.
Personally the vision of all of us sat lonely in a front froom with headsets on chatting to FrodoLover22 while you run round random arenas shooting people just doesn't seem like fun. If it means the end to a bunch of people coming back after a friday night out to have a laugh in front of Mario, Dead Or Alive 3 or whatever, then its not for me. Lets stay nice real life social people eh?
The Xbox Live thing is frankly scary, a friend of mine was beta testing it and I found driving around a racecourse with random simulated voices coming into my head asking me if 'are there any French playing?'. It felt just WRONG really. Its why I'm not looking forward to the Final Fantasy XI. I don't really see how the game can be as story driven as the previous titles. I don't want the game to go on playing even when I'm offline, its MY game, it should revolve around me. For this reason, I'm waiting for XII with more anticipation.
Personally the vision of all of us sat lonely in a front froom with headsets on chatting to FrodoLover22 while you run round random arenas shooting people just doesn't seem like fun. If it means the end to a bunch of people coming back after a friday night out to have a laugh in front of Mario, Dead Or Alive 3 or whatever, then its not for me. Lets stay nice real life social people eh?
Is online gaming the future? I think, yes - eventually. We may find that over the next few years as online requirement games (not optional online stuff) become the norm, we are likely to see LESS new consoles being sold. Reason? Simple, A lot of people cant get broadband, and even where they can, a lot of people simply dont want to subscribe to a system every month (for various reasons, not just cost). In the long term, the people with money who activly g for broadband online game consoles will eventually out number those that stick with older off line legacy consoles. At which point no more off line consoles will be made since there is no point in making a console for which thre are no (or few) customers. But as I said, this wont happen yet. But you can expect to see more games designed only for online play which wont work without internet broadband connection.
Sony has made it clear that they want to go 100% online, but they know it cant happen just yet, which is why they have said PS3 is likely to be made in 2 forms. Online only (only downloads content from the net over broadband), and standalone (plays game discs in the usuall way).
Sony has made it clear that they want to go 100% online, but they know it cant happen just yet, which is why they have said PS3 is likely to be made in 2 forms. Online only (only downloads content from the net over broadband), and standalone (plays game discs in the usuall way).
For me the main part of a game is still the single player. The reason for that is that a lot of my friends don't like games that much, either through being "too old for them" or because in general women don't like games that much.
But I do like multiplayer. It is the main reason to keep going back to a game. And online is excellent. There was only so many times I could play Goldeneye with friends before it got easy to predict what they would do. Didn't stop me enjoying it though. But had I been able to play it with more people, I would still be playing it to this day.
Now take Halo for example. Great single player. But other than trying to beat it on Legendary, there is not that much reason to go back to it again. Apart from the multiplayer. Which was great.
So there was split screen, which is the same as most consoles up until now. Which is acceptable. But system link was better, because you could not see what your opponents were doing, which made it more about skill than before. But of course, you can only play multiplayer if you have friends who want to play it with you.
Now of course, Halo was a bit of an exception in that it did not have AI bots, but even if it did it would not have been as good as people, because AI is never as good as people. But if Halo had Live support, then I could have found people to play it with anytime, anyplace. Now sadly it didn't.
But Halo 2 does. And that is why I think Halo 2 will be better. In the end it is just simply more functionality, which is always a good thing if it works. And provided that the game is just as good as the first Halo, which obviously it might not be, then it would be better, because I would get the best of all worlds. Single player, multiplayer and online which is multiplayer with people who are happy to play you at 04:00. In short, excellent.
But I do like multiplayer. It is the main reason to keep going back to a game. And online is excellent. There was only so many times I could play Goldeneye with friends before it got easy to predict what they would do. Didn't stop me enjoying it though. But had I been able to play it with more people, I would still be playing it to this day.
Now take Halo for example. Great single player. But other than trying to beat it on Legendary, there is not that much reason to go back to it again. Apart from the multiplayer. Which was great.
So there was split screen, which is the same as most consoles up until now. Which is acceptable. But system link was better, because you could not see what your opponents were doing, which made it more about skill than before. But of course, you can only play multiplayer if you have friends who want to play it with you.
Now of course, Halo was a bit of an exception in that it did not have AI bots, but even if it did it would not have been as good as people, because AI is never as good as people. But if Halo had Live support, then I could have found people to play it with anytime, anyplace. Now sadly it didn't.
But Halo 2 does. And that is why I think Halo 2 will be better. In the end it is just simply more functionality, which is always a good thing if it works. And provided that the game is just as good as the first Halo, which obviously it might not be, then it would be better, because I would get the best of all worlds. Single player, multiplayer and online which is multiplayer with people who are happy to play you at 04:00. In short, excellent.
This is why I have 2 xboxes online. The best of both worlds.
i like online gaming i think its brilliant
but there isnt nothing like having a few friends round.
no matter how hard you try or how long you play the game.
the people youre up aginst are better and have played it much more then you have. so you cant win
i dont like the feeling that im talking to someone over a headset while im alone in a room killing virtual people miles away from me and my brother comes in and makes me lose by saying "who are you talking to?"
usually when i set up agame to play with mates the two x-box's or pc,s dont see each other over the internet. it also depends what game it is.
shoot em up seems to be the most popular on online games.
id rather be shooting a couple of mates in a game not a total stranger!
but there isnt nothing like having a few friends round.
no matter how hard you try or how long you play the game.
the people youre up aginst are better and have played it much more then you have. so you cant win
i dont like the feeling that im talking to someone over a headset while im alone in a room killing virtual people miles away from me and my brother comes in and makes me lose by saying "who are you talking to?"
usually when i set up agame to play with mates the two x-box's or pc,s dont see each other over the internet. it also depends what game it is.
shoot em up seems to be the most popular on online games.
id rather be shooting a couple of mates in a game not a total stranger!
You'll always find someone to play against, 5am for instance ;), and someone of a level to challenge you on Live.
I'm about to join a clan so I'll let you know if that's any good too.
If you can get 16 gamers round your house with Xboxes then good for you. it's still simpler to get it done over Live.
I'm about to join a clan so I'll let you know if that's any good too.
If you can get 16 gamers round your house with Xboxes then good for you. it's still simpler to get it done over Live.
two reasons,it is for people who havent got any friends who can challenge them and secondly and more importantly artificial intelligence can never match human.
When I first got LIVE I didn't think I would play offline games again, a fwe weeks later and I would be happy to never see LIVE again. People say LIVE is sociable but I know some people who I played with who have played LIVE since near release day in and day out and they are far from sociable people, others that I played with think they are being sociable but really its an excuse not to get out of the house and actually get some excercise or meet people face to face. After the initial Rainbow Six 3 blast I was so bored of online games that I sold my Xbox. I now play Call of Duty online for about 1 hour each week before 3.00pm Saturday afternoon when football kicks off, outside of that I barely touch it.
Played one online game and the rest follow an all to similar pattern, one that gets old way before its time.
Played one online game and the rest follow an all to similar pattern, one that gets old way before its time.
I agree with you Widge, what is the point with online gaming.
Other than that it is useful to those of us who dont have friends.
But it seems like online gaming has come to stay till they invent new machines with entirely different ways of playing against other persons.
Other than that it is useful to those of us who dont have friends.
But it seems like online gaming has come to stay till they invent new machines with entirely different ways of playing against other persons.
Not for me. So what if I can play games with 2000 people from around the world, it just doesn't have the charm of a bunch of people all squeezed round on TV having a laugh. I had a go at Quake 3 on my mates PC, you get chucked into a random arena, no idea if its the beginning of a scrap, what the hells going on, no sensation that you're participating in anything vaguely enjoyable.
The Xbox Live thing is frankly scary, a friend of mine was beta testing it and I found driving around a racecourse with random simulated voices coming into my head asking me if 'are there any French playing?'. It felt just WRONG really. Its why I'm not looking forward to the Final Fantasy XI. I don't really see how the game can be as story driven as the previous titles. I don't want the game to go on playing even when I'm offline, its MY game, it should revolve around me. For this reason, I'm waiting for XII with more anticipation.
Personally the vision of all of us sat lonely in a front froom with headsets on chatting to FrodoLover22 while you run round random arenas shooting people just doesn't seem like fun. If it means the end to a bunch of people coming back after a friday night out to have a laugh in front of Mario, Dead Or Alive 3 or whatever, then its not for me. Lets stay nice real life social people eh?
The Xbox Live thing is frankly scary, a friend of mine was beta testing it and I found driving around a racecourse with random simulated voices coming into my head asking me if 'are there any French playing?'. It felt just WRONG really. Its why I'm not looking forward to the Final Fantasy XI. I don't really see how the game can be as story driven as the previous titles. I don't want the game to go on playing even when I'm offline, its MY game, it should revolve around me. For this reason, I'm waiting for XII with more anticipation.
Personally the vision of all of us sat lonely in a front froom with headsets on chatting to FrodoLover22 while you run round random arenas shooting people just doesn't seem like fun. If it means the end to a bunch of people coming back after a friday night out to have a laugh in front of Mario, Dead Or Alive 3 or whatever, then its not for me. Lets stay nice real life social people eh?