LAS VEGAS—In a Thursday speech at the gaming-minded DICE Summit, Microsoft's head of its 343 Industries group (meaning, all things Halo) confirmed a return to split-screen modes in the series' first-person shooter games.
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'We will always have split-screen support going forward' for all first-person shooter games in the series, 343 chief Bonnie Ross told the Vegas crowd. Ross did not clarify if that ruling would apply to either cooperative or competitive modes in the series going forward, nor did she clarify how split-screen modes would work in any potential 'Xbox Play Anywhere' entries in Halo that work on Windows 10. (This month's Halo Wars 2 is the first true 'Play Anywhere' game in the Halo series.) We have reached out to Microsoft to seek clarification, and we will update this report with any response.
2015's Halo 5: Guardians was a peculiar release in the series for a few reasons, but one stands out to the couch-combat fans at Ars Technica: its lack of split-screen combat, either in four-player local versus modes or in its campaign, which revolved around four-player co-op battling (as opposed to many prior games that limited campaign co-op to two players). While the game was in development, a 343 developer told fans via Twitter that Halo 5 would include split-screen modes, but the studio eventually walked that statement back.
Ross admitted that fan outcry over the feature was significant, telling the DICE crowd, 'it was incredibly painful for the community and for us.' She added that the removal 'eroded trust' with the game's fanbase. Weirdly, Ross didn't take the opportunity to speak about the other major ball dropped by 343 in regard to Halo: the woeful launch of the Master Chief Collection, which continues to inspire outrage from fans wanting its bugs and issues fixed.
If you're keeping track, Halo 6 has not yet been formally announced, but Ross' statement all but assures that some new Halo FPS is in development. (In other news, the sky is blue.)
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a bundle of Halo games starring Master ChiefJohn-117. The set includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 4, as well as the digital feature Halo: Nightfall and access to the Halo 5: Guardiansmultiplayer beta. Halo 3: ODST's campaign was added via content update on May 30, 2015. The collection was released exclusively for the Xbox One on November 11, 2014 for $59.99 (USD). A future release is set to bring the collection to PC, along with a remastered Halo: Reach.[2]
Features[edit]
The five games in the collection are all contained on a single disc and are accessible through a unified interface known as the 'Master Menu'. The menu allows players to directly play any mission in any of the five games straight from purchase, or arrange the levels from different games into their own custom playlists. Some playlists arranged by 343 Industries are readily available from launch.[2] Examples of these include 'Final Four', featuring the four final missions of each main game, 'Hogs' for levels featuring the Warthog, and 'Flood' for missions featuring the eponymous parasite.[6]Halo 2: Anniversary also features separate Arbiter and Master Chief playlists which allow players to complete the two protagonists' respective levels individually. The music and backgrounds in the Master Menu are sensitive to the game that is being browsed at the time, as well as specific modes of that particular game.[7]
All five titles have been optimized for the Xbox One and run natively at 60 frames per second; Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 3 and Halo 4 are a native resolution of 1920x1080, whereas the Halo 2: Anniversary campaign has a lower native resolution of 1328x1080 which is automatically up-scaled to 1080p by the Xbox One.[8]Halo 3 and Halo 4 have received upgrades to their lighting systems.[6]Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary has also received an update to its graphics toggle, which is now instantaneous similar to Halo 2: Anniversary.[9] The Kinect features available in the original Combat Evolved Anniversary, however, are not supported in this version.[8]
The collection features intro and outro cinematics for Halo 2: Anniversary created by Blur Studio, which was also responsible for remastering the cutscenes in Halo 2: Anniversary. These cinematics follow Agent Locke's search for the Master Chief after the events of Halo 4 and have narrative connections to Halo 5: Guardians.[10] New terminals are featured in Halo 2: Anniversary; the original terminals of Halo 3, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo 4 remain unchanged.[6]
In addition to the control schemes of each individual game, The Master Chief Collection features several universal control setups to span all the games. However, Halo 3's specific controls are not available as one of these options due to the difficulty of implementing them to function with the other games.[6]
The collection features campaign scoring for each game and an option to have a HUD overlay tracking one's score in real time. Each level has its own leaderboard featuring various stats, including total score, fastest completion time, and the number of enemies killed. Players can designate friends listed on the leaderboards as 'rivals', whose scores can then be measured against in the in-game real-time score tracker.[11]
The Master Chief Collection is available for digital download on Xbox Live Marketplace. The download version also features the attached Halo: Nightfall and Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta access passes.[12] The Halo Channel is integrated with The Master Chief Collection. Players can unlock features, such as skulls, for the campaign by completing challenges on the Halo Channel. Additionally, players can use the Halo Channel to view their friend's stats during ongoing games or seamlessly join their matches.[13]
On December 20, 2014, it was announced that Halo 3: ODST's campaign mode, a remake of the Halo 2 multiplayer map Relic, one free month of Xbox Live, an avatar award and an in-game nameplate would be included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection for free to players who had played the collection between its release on November 11, 2014 and December 19, 2014, serving as compensation to said fans who had experienced many bugs and glitches in the weeks following the collection's launch.[14] The Halo 3: ODST campaign was officially released as DLC for The Master Chief Collection on May 30, 2015. Players not eligible for the free DLC can purchase the ODST campaign add-on for $4.99 USD.[15]
MCC Insider program[edit]
The MCC Insider program logo.
Due to the game's notoriously buggy codebase, the Master Chief Collection went without significant updates for several years. In October of 2017, 343 Industries announced a revitalised effort to revisit the game and update it with new patches and content, due to their plans to update the game for 4KUHD on the Xbox One X. To ensure that future patches would work as intended, 343 Industries implemented the 'MCC Insider Program', a program designed for select players to be able to download and beta test MCC update releases.[16] The program was initially closed to a select few thousand people, but soon grew to become an open program that anyone could join. The program is now used to test all content updates the MCC gets, with the game's UI, main menu background, new Skulls and more being added in post-launch updates.
Co-op campaign[edit]
Both online and split-screen co-op campaign play are supported in all five games. The campaign co-op breakdown is as follows:[12]
Multiplayer[edit]
Armor customization for Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Multiplayer is available for all four games—each running from their respective original engines—and is accessible via a unified matchmaking menu system. Players are put into a lobby, then asked to vote for a match from a random selection of over 100 maps from all games (depending on playlist), rather than have the population split into groups for different games.[2] However, there are a number of playlists specific to each game.[7] The collection uses a single unified multiplayer ranking system shared across the four games.[6] Rank, stats or unlockable items such as armor permutations do not carry over from the previous games.[12]
The Master Chief Collection ships with every multiplayer map ever packaged with Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4, as well as all downloadable content maps ever released (including the six maps from Halo PC as well as the two exclusive maps from Halo 2 Vista).[17][12] In addition to the original maps of each game, the collection also contains six remastered maps from Halo 2: Ascension, Lockout, Zanzibar, Coagulation, Sanctuary, and Warlock.[18]
Forge is featured in Halo 3 and Halo 4, as well the remastered multiplayer portion of Halo 2: Anniversary.[6]Halo 2: Anniversary also features a new vehicle, the M274-M Gungoose. Forge will also be included in the port of Halo: Reach. However, due to intricacies learned from bringing Forge to PC in Halo 5: Forge, the PC release of the Forge and Theatre mode will be delayed until Halos 3 and 4 are brought into collection on PC.[19]
The Firefight game mode is not included within the MCC port of Halo 3: ODST[14], though the Halo: Reach Firefight mode will be included in the game's campaign release.[19] Although the team is currently focused on bringing Reach and the rest of the collection to PC, it is possible that they may begin investigating bringing ODST's Firefight mode into the game in the future.[19]
Multiplayer maps[edit]
While originally reported by 343 Industries to contain 93 competitive multiplayer maps,[20]The Master Chief Collection was later established to feature all maps from the four games, increasing the total number of multiplayer maps to over 100.[12] With the complete campaigns of all five games, the collection contains 55 campaign missions, as well as Halo 4's 50 Spartan Ops missions.[20]
Customization[edit]
The Master Chief Collection allows players to select single a three-digit Service Tag and a multiplayer emblem which are used for all games in the collection. Nearly all emblems found in the constituent games are available for use.
Players can select an armor permutation for each of the five multiplayer modes. The Halo: CE and Halo 2 armor permutations mirror the original games, however the Halo 3 and Halo 4 is much-simplified; specifically, players can no longer customize individual armor pieces, but instead must choose from complete armor sets. Halo 4 armor and weapons skins are also not found in the collection, nor are the DLC customization elements, specifically the Prefect, Mark V, and ODST armor permutations, the Resistor tactical package, and the Recharge and Survivor support upgrades.
Players can customize five loadouts for Halo 4 multiplayer; unlike the original game, all five loadouts and all loadout options are unlocked by default.
In the Halo: Reach component of the game, players will be able to fully mix and match their armour as in the game's Xbox 360 release, with a new customisation system designed to retain the feel of the older systems while blending it with more modern unlock systems, though no microtransactions will be involved. 343 Industries has no current plans to expand this level of armour customisation to Halo 3 and 4 currently, though may begin investigating it following the release of Reach in the collection.[21]
Unlockables[edit]
The collection contains its own series of achievements for each of the five games, with the collective Gamerpoints attainable initially totaling 4000.[3] An additional 50 achievements worth 500 Gamerscore were added at launch, [22], while 50 more achievements worth 500 Gamerscore were added on January 8, 2015.[23]An option in the in-game achievements list allows players to jump directly into a game configured to be optimal for the completion a given achievement.[11]
The collection features 37 skulls, most of which are exclusive to certain games. Some of the skulls were initially accessible only through pre-order bonuses but were unlocked universally on December 12, 2014.[24] One skull, Swarm, is unlocked by watching all episodes of Halo: Nightfall on the Halo Channel and completing all associated challenges.[25][24][26]
The Master Chief Collection also features over 300 unlockable player customization options, including emblems, nameplates and avatars for use in game lobbies and player profile pages. There are various ways to unlock these items, although most are earned by completing achievements. Additional unlockable items include 15 terminal videos and a customizable clan tag. For every unlocked achievement, the player receives a high-resolution image from the remastered Halo 2 cinematics, concept art, level images, or a frame from a terminal. These images can be used for one's personal Xbox One background.[25]
Marketing[edit]E3 2014 trailer[edit]
In their E3 2014 conference, Microsoft showed a pre-rendered trailer announcing the bundle.
The trailer features a remastered cutscene from the level Cairo Station from the Halo 2 campaign. The trailer shows John-117 dragging a Covenantantimatter charge through one of the hangar bays in Cairo Station to 'return' the bomb to a CAS-class assault carrier. ArbiterThel 'Vadam provides a voice-over for the trailer and it is revealed that an Office of Naval Intelligence agent, Jameson Locke, is searching for the Master Chief.
Terminal trailer[edit]
A short trailer originally debuted at the 343 Industries panel at RTX 2014. It showcases the animation used in the terminals for the Master Chief Collection, once again created by Sequence.
The trailer depicts a target profile report concerning Thel 'Vadam, compiled by Jameson Locke sometime after 2553. The report details 'Vadam's personal history from the start of the Human-Covenant War to the glassing of Reach and beyond. The report was later accessed by the Master Chief.[27]
Halo 2: Anniversary cinematic trailer[edit]
Halo Reach 4 Player Split Screen Xbox One
A trailer that originally shown at the 343 Industries panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2014. It showcases the newly remastered Halo 2 cutscenes by Blur Studio.
Halo 2 Anniversary cinematic launch trailer[edit]
The second cinematic trailer for Halo 2: Anniversary showcases more of Blur Studio's new CGI cinematics as well as clips from the remastered Another Day at the Beach for the first time.[28]
Remaking the Legend[edit]
A documentary chronicling 343 Industries' journey as they re-imagine Halo 2 for its ten-year anniversary.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection launch trailer[edit]
A trailer featuring footage of all four games.
Halo TV Ad We Will Rock You[edit]
A television commercial set to We Will Rock You by Queen.
Halo Grunt Ad[edit]
A commercial where a grunt is interviewed for being the only Covenant soldier to 'survive all battles against the Master Chief'.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection Xbox One X Enhanced trailer[edit]
To coincide with the launch of the Xbox One X enhancement update and release of MCC on the Xbox Game Pass, a trailer was released promoting the game's new 4K UHD features.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection PC Announcement[edit]
An announcement trailer featuring footage from all four games, before announcing an upcoming PC release.
Pre-order bonuses[edit]
Like Halo 4, pre-order bonuses for the bundle varies between retailers. So far, three of the bonuses are revealed to be skulls that modify campaign gameplay, namely those introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
Amazon offers the Piñata skull,[29] GameStop offers the Bandana skull,[30] Best Buy offers the Grunt Funeral Skull and the multiplayer map book.[31] and ShopTo offers a new Skull called Bonded Pair.[32] GAME UK has two exclusive 'limited edition' offers: the first edition, titled 'Limited Edition', has a steel bookcase, a multiplayer map book and a Grunt Funeral skull while the second edition, titled 'MJOLNIR Edition', has all of the exclusive items of the previous edition with an ArtFX statue of the Master Chief ArtFX. The Master Chief ArtFX statue bundled with the MJOLNIR Edition is not exclusive however; the statue, made by Kotobukiya, was released separately worldwide in Fall 2014.[33]
Release and reception[edit]
Halo: The Master Chief Collection went gold on October 17, 2014. The collection takes up 45 gigabytes of disk space and includes a 15 GB content update at launch. The game launched in most countries worldwide on November 11, with delayed releases in Belgium (November 12), France (November 14) and Japan (November 13).[34]Halo 4's Spartan Ops component was added to the collection via a content update on December 12, 2014.[35]The Master Chief Collection received a day-one update that included an additional fifty achievements, with a total of 500 Gamerscore.[36]
The Master Chief Collection shipped with a significant amount of bugs, many of which had an impact on playability particularly in multiplayer. Among these flaws were atypically long matchmaking times, sporadic unattainability of achievements and glitches in the user interface. 343 Industries applied multiple patches to the title over the weeks after its release in an effort to fix these problems.[37] On November 24, 2014, 343 Industries general manager Bonnie Ross issued a formal apology for the debacle, assuring that the studio would continue their work on amending the issues with the collection.[38] On December 19, Ross announced that 343 Industries would be offering players a series of exclusive items and new features—most notably Halo 3: ODST—as compensation for the issues with the game.[14]
The game generally received positive reviews upon its release. Nathan Ditum of Eurogamer applauded The Master Chief Collection for including each game's original multiplayer and every map ever released; one of the largest criticisms of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was the lack of multiplayer. Ditum also expressed 'constant astonishment' at increased resolution of the older games, claiming he spent several minutes at a time staring at battlefields, ancient structures, and walls.[39]IGN reviewer Ryan McCaffrey criticized the multiplayer, calling it 'unacceptably unreliable and bug-ridden performance'. However, he praised the remastered audio, the game-unifying interface, and the smoother framerate. Despite his criticism of multiplayer, McCaffrey commended the new six Halo 2: Anniversary remade maps, and the nostalgia The Master Chief Collection was able to deliver.[40]GameSpot's Chris Watters delivered a more critical review of the game, also condemning the multiplayer's issues and bugs, citing that it 'barely works'. However, he enjoyed the engaging combat formula and claimed that the remastered Halo 2: Anniversarycutscenes by Blur Studio to be fantastic.[41] Kyle Hilliard of Game Informer gave Halo: The Master Chief Collection a 'Gold Rating', lauding the game's concept and improved graphics. He complimented that the game 'is massive and intimidating, but none of it is crammed in or hastily included'. Hilliard also praised Blur's cinematics, claiming that the Gravemind is now a terrifying monster, instead of a 'huge muppet'. Finally, he stated that Halo: The Master Chief Collection has risen a high bar for other video game remastered collections.[42]
Gallery[edit]
Concept art[edit]
Main menu background art and splash screens[edit]
Sources[edit]
External links[edit]
Halo 4 automatically comes with multi-player (split-screen)capabilities, it's on the second disc though (except cooperativecampaign, wich is on the first).
If you mean 'Can you play online multi-player without Xbox LiveGold', then no, you cannot. How many players can you have in halo reach campagin?
4 players through xbox live, and 2 through splitscreen, you can do 2 through splitscreen and 2 through live=4 players max!
Can you play halo reach custom games with other people without xbox live gold?
You need to have an Xbox Live Gold Membership to play with anyone, so yes..
Does crackdown 2 have splitscreen?
No, but you can play with other players around the world if you have xbox live gold.
How Can you play call of duty 5 splitscreen xbox live?
You can't the makers of the game didn't allow this so Microsoft could gain more money. In Halo you can though. HALO ROCKS!!
Can you play halo 3 without xbox live?
Yes, you can play the Single player game, it's quite big and you can play it with up to 4 players on one console. You can also play multiplayer on splitscreen with up to 4 players.
Can you get Halo 3 Recon Armor without Xbox Live?
You can't, but if you have internet and a free gold membership trial,you can use the trial to get the recon armor, it does work for Halo Reach too.
Can you play halo 3 odst firefight without xbox live?
Yes, you can play firefight in Halo 3 ODST without Xbox live.
How can you play multiplayer on Halo Reach without Xbox Live?
You can only do campaign, forge and custom games without xbox live. You cannot do any kind of matchmaking on Halo without xbox live.
Do you need to pay for halo xbox live?
Yes. An Xbox Live Gold Subscription is required to play Halo 3's multiplayer.
Can you play call of duty 5 splitscreen Xbox live?
No, you can only play splitscreen zombies or the game itself, not on xbox live
What is the highest rank you can get in halo reach without live?
You can get just as far without live as you can with live so inheritor
Can you play Halo 3 online with xbox live silver?
No you need xbox live Gold to play any game online including Halo 3.
How do you play multiplayer on halo wars in skirmish whitout xbox live using 2 controllers?
unfortunately you cant i wish they could of made a splitscreen but they didn't so it is either one player or xbox live match sorry
Can you get halo 3 map packs without xbox live?
no, you must connect to xbox live to download halo 3 map packs.
Is it possible to transfer mw2 from splitscreen to xbox live?
It is impossible to transfer anything that you've earned in spit screen mode to Xbox LIVE without modifying the game.
How do you get Halo 3 to work on Xbox live?
get an xbox live gold account, connect to the net, and play.
How do you play halo reach live?
You get xbox live gold and then look for matchmaking in the main menu of the game.
What does halo reach gold subscription card do?
It provides you with xbox live gold it does not include the game sorry if your disapointed
Is thEre a way to get all halo 3 armor without live?How can play online with Medal of Honor?
Yes. You probably already know this, but you can't play unless you have Xbox LIVE Gold. But the downside is you can't play splitscreen.
How do you set up matchmaking in halo reach?How do you get on forge in halo 4 without xbox live?Can you play split screen on Xbox live in Gears of War 2?
[yes and no] yes-you can play splitscreen but only on the same xbox 360 no you can not have a splitscreen game over xbox live(which would be pointless) and no you can not have 2 playing splitscreen and 1 over xbox live to make 3 or more in a game
Can you play against each other on halo 3 Xbox live?
Yes, Halo 3 supports multiplayer Xbox Live gaming for any one with an internet connection and a xbox live Gold account
Does halo reach have a multiplayer live?
Yes, Matchmaking (You Need Xbox Live Gold), I Suggest Big Team Battle.
How can you play halo 3 without Xbox live?
yes but you can not play with other people you can do split screen or solo without xbox live
How do you get skill in Halo 3?
i use xbox LIVE to idk if you can without it but keep battling on LIVE and you will get skill
How do you get Halo 3 maps without the internet?How do you get Halo wars on 2 players without xbox live?
You cant, 2 players on Halo Wars is only online, if you do not have Xbox Live, you will not be able to play 2 players.
How do you use guest on cod 5?
No guest can be allowed to join in xbox live, but if you to want to play splitscreen that is possilble by going to Multiplayer: then Splitscreen ~ Koolface
Will halo reach come with halo odst?
you get the multiplayer beta with odst but not the whole game it the beta comes out may 3rd 2010 halo 3 odst included also xbox live gold
Can you play call of duty modern warfare 2 without xbox live gold pass?
You can play the actual game, including the single player campaign and local multiplayer Splitscreen and System Link options, which is a maximum of 4 players. However, you can not play with the online community all over the world unless you have a Gold Pass or a free trial.
Can you get mark v without Xbox live in Halo 3?
No, You need to be a member on XBOX LIVE to rank up.
Is it possible to get all the achievements in halo 3 without xbox live?Can 2 people play cod black ops at the same time on the xbox?
yes, either on splitscreen without live, or with live, however both accounts need xbox live. If you dont have xbox live just sign in as guest as the other.
Can you play multiplayer on call of duty modern warfare 2 without xbox live?
There is an offline multiplayer (splitscreen) option yes. You can play with up to 4 players.
![]() Can i play Halo 3 on multiplayer?
if you have xbox live gold membership and a controller and an xbox36o then yes, yes you can
How do you get two people on Xbox live with gold member ship?Do you need xbox live gold to play halo 4?
You need it to use the multiplayer benefits of the game.
How do you get heroic mappack on Halo 3 without xbox live?How do you download halo 3 maps without xbox live marketplace?How do you get Halo 3 mythic maps without the internet?
You have to have Xbox live, and you download the maps.
What would you rate halo 3 1 out of 10?Can you play on Xbox live through a game you bought on the market like halo reach?
Yes As Long As You Have A Gold Membership for xbox live
Will Modern Warfare 2 have co-op in the campaign but splitscreen not Xbox live like CoD World at War?How do you play Halo 3 on internet?
To play Halo 3 in the internet, you must set up a Xbox Live Gold Subscription. Its $8 per month but if you don't want to pay yet, you can choose not to pay and they will offer you a free one month Xbox Live Gold Trial. This works one time per account up to 3 accounts. ( You need to have different emails) Once you have Xbox Live Gold, start your Halo 3 game… Read More
Can you play Halo Reach multiplayer without XBOX Live?
Yes, on only a single Xbox 360 (local), but if you want to play online, you must have Xbox Live GOLD And A Connection To Internet (Either Wifi Adapter Or Direct Connection With A Network Cable To A Modem)
Can you play 2 players Xbox live on modern warfare 2?How do you do 2 player on halo reach live with guests?
To play Halo Reach with a guest on Xbox Live, one person must have an Xbox Live gold membership. The second person has to sign in under the guest profile (you can have up to three guests per profile)
Can you use matchmaking in halo 3 without using a live gold card and just using the Internet?
No you must have either a gold member ship or a silver member ship to play any game online. I'm not sure if they even make silver member ships anymore, i only see gold now.
Teaming with a friend sitting alongside you and dominating a level is one of the purest joys gaming can offer. However, when the last generation of consoles shifted their focus to online gaming, the humble couch co-op was mostly left by the curb. This has become even less of a priority with this generation of consoles, with both the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One only offering a comparative handful of couch co-op experiences in relation to their ever growing game libraries.
On the off chance you have a bunch of friends over and some spare controllers to go around, fear not -- Screen Rant is here. We've collected the biggest and best couch co-op experiences available on the Xbox One and put them in a handy list for you. Aren't we thoughtful? Here are the 18 Local Couch Co-op Games You Need To Be Playing.
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19 Any Lego game
Since Lego Star Wars kicked off the trend in 2005, the Lego series has become a staple of video gaming. A new release based on some big property is reassuringly predictable, like the tides or angry internet comments. Developer Traveller's Tales hit on a winning formula with Lego re-enactments of iconic scenes from various big franchises, and it's still working after over a decade.
Basically any game that has Lego in the title has couch co-op as a standard, and it's surprisingly fun to team up and solves puzzles and collect endless studs together. Whether Lego Jurassic World, Lego Batman, Lego Dimensions or this year's Marvel Avengers and The Force Awakens games appeal to you the most, there's always a Lego game to suit your mood or entertain an irritable younger relative.
18 Kalimba
Kalimba is a puzzle platformer where you play as cute, brightly colored totems. The game has a single player mode, but those of you paying attention will know that we're talking co-op in this list, so who cares about that? For such a simple game, the co-op is surprisingly involved. Players must work out the best routes to the objective and use different totem colors to activate switches and get past certain obstacles.
Good timing, communication and teamwork are essential to getting to the end of the level. The puzzles can be difficult and the learning curve steep, so you'll need someone at least as good as you in in order to avoid controller-throwing, friendship-ending rage. Make sure you pick your buddy wisely. However, the glory of beating a level you've tried and failed an embarrassing number of times never loses its shine and keeps you coming back for more -- provided you have any friends left.
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17 Child of Light
If you're looking for something a little different than the usual shoot em' up violence to play with your couch compadre, Ubisoft's Child of Light may be for you. It's a beautifully stylized fairytale RPG where you play as a princess who wakes up in a fantasy world. Whilst there is combat, the emphasis of the game is on exploration and finding hidden paths and secrets.
In co-op, one of you plays as Princess Aurora and the other takes the role of Igniculus, a firefly. Whilst Igniculus isn't a fully-fledged second player character, having someone to control him makes the game that much easier when you're both working together to solve puzzles and get past the game's many enemies. It's like controlling Tails in the Sonic the Hedgehog games -- it isn't exactly essential, but helpful nonetheless. The whole game is a more chilled out co-op experience than nearly all of the entries on this list, but one worth checking out for the great storybook visuals and serene soundtrack alone.
16 Battleborn
Gearbox's Battleborn has had a rocky time. It was released the same month as Blizzard's massively hyped Overwatch and was similar enough in its presentation to look like a 'one or the other' choice to most gamers. It's a shame, as Battleborn has a lot of its own charm and deserves to be evaluated on its own merits. Yes, it has a roster of colorful and diverse characters all with unique abilities, but there's more to it than that. The gameplay is a chaotic mix of Borderlands' gunplay and standard multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) types like tanks and healers, all with their own roles to play in battle.
Unlike Overwatch, Battleborn offers local co-op where up to two local players and 3 online players can join forces and tackle the game's significant Story Mode together. Ever wanted to play as a robot sniper who keeps robotic owls under his bowler hat? How about a hulking Luchador with cybernetic arms? A mushroom person with poison-tipped kunai? If you answered “yes” to any of these, Battleborn may be the oddly specific game for you.
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15 Star Wars: Battlefront
Ever since A New Hope came out in 1977, video games have been striving to get players closer to the quintessential Star Wars experience. In fact, if you were to only look at Star Wars games from the '70s onwards, it'd be like cutting a tree and counting the rings, as you can see the entire medium progress from a bunch of vaguely familiar pixels to shiny, almost photo-realistic versions of scenes from the hallowed trilogy. Whilst it's a little thin on content, no one can deny that Star Wars: Battlefront looks and sounds the part, and gets you closer to the Star Wars experience than most movie licenses could even dream of.
Unfortunately, you and a friend can't split-screen your way to multiplayer goodness. However, you can still play the game's various survival missions, similar to Halo's “Firefight” mode. You start off dispatching idiot Stormtroopers, but the difficulty soon ramps up, and by the later waves of enemies, you're firing rockets at intimidating AT-STs. Teamwork is essential to survival, and it helps if you can reach across and slap your partner upside the head if they've failed to secure the objective or foolishly taken on a walker by themselves.
14 The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
In case you weren't aware, The Binding of Isaac is a simple game where you play a naked, crying child who has to escape his homicidal mother by exploring dungeons filled with monsters, armed only with tears. It's a creepy, profoundly messed up, and yet weirdly sweet title that has ludicrously addictive gameplay thanks to the sheer number of weapons and items you can find and the procedurally generated nature of the dungeons, meaning that no two runs through the game will be the same.
The couch co-op ensures that you can bring a friend along to experience the childhood trauma together. It's a lot of fun to team up, and makes taking down some of the tougher and more awkward bosses that much easier. As the game doesn't support any kind of multiplayer outside of local co-op, it's also the only way to experience the game with another player, which is refreshing in this 'online or nothing' climate.
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13 Monaco: What's Yours is Mine
This is another one for the offbeat pile, but a fantastic game nonetheless. Monaco: What's Yours is Mine is a top down throwback to the days of pixelly yore. You play as one of a select group of criminals, each with their own set of skills, and have to steal money and treasure from various locations. The presentation is great and the vamping piano soundtrack makes you feel like a classic ne'er do well up to mischief.
The game was originally released on PC and Xbox 360, but was added to the Xbox One's backwards compatibility list earlier this year. The game supports up to 4 players on or offline and it's a blast executing a heist and sneaking through levels using your various abilities. Will you pick the Cleaner who can knock out guards or will you go with the Mole who can tunnel through walls? Careful planning and good communication are essential to pulling off a successful heist, making Monaco perfect for couch co-op fun.
12 Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
If you like your shooters anarchic and wacky, you should take a trip to the Borderlands if you haven't already. Both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel were given several layers of current gen polish and were bundled up in The Handsome Collection along with all their respective DLC packs, some of which offer huge additions to the game.
The game supports up to 4 local players at any one time and could be a solid choice when it comes to choosing a party game. If you played either Borderlands 2 or the Pre-Sequel on the 360, your save data can be migrated too, meaning you won't have lost your hard-earned rank if you've upgraded your console. Plus, you get to relive some of the game's best moments, like Handsome Jack's insane monologues or the bit where you have to shoot a character named Face McShooty in the face.
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11 Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Octodad is a game where you guide a normal human being through his regular day. Well, actually, you play as an octopus that has put on a suit and somehow fooled people into thinking he's a human with a wife and kids. Your goal is to carry out basic chores to keep up the charade that you're a run-of-the-mill human, a hard task when you have unwieldy, flailing, sticky tentacles instead of hands and feet.
Dadliest Catch offers a rather unique co-op experience for up to 4 players. Instead of wreaking havoc as four octopus patriarchs, each player controls one of Octodad's tentacles, leading to some hilarious attempts to do mundane things like making coffee or mowing the lawn. It requires a great deal of coordination and teamwork to accomplish the simplest task, but it's worth checking out for the amount of laughter it's guaranteed to generate.
10 Rayman Legends
After an uncertain period around last generation when it looked like platformers were going the way of the dinosaurs, they've made an incredible comeback. Arguably one of the finest platformers currently available on the Xbox One is the brilliant Rayman Legends, where you can play as everyone's favorite limbless wonder, punching and kicking your way through stylish and cartoony levels.
4 player co-op is supported, meaning you and three friends all control different characters and work your way through the hugely enjoyable campaign mode. All the levels are inventive and fun, but the best ones have to be the special music levels where you find yourself running, hitting and jumping to tracks like “Black Betty” and “Eye of the Tiger”. These levels are so charming, it's nigh-on impossible not to crack a smile at the very least.
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9 Call of Duty: Black Ops III
The Call of Duty series may get a lot of flak for its popularity and its rabid player base in particular, but the core mechanics of the game are still on point and the games offer decent couch co-op experiences.
With Black Ops III, players can co-op the campaign and the multiplayer both locally and online, but probably the biggest draw in terms of co-op play is the ever-popular Zombies mode. The Shadows of Evil campaign is set during the 1940s in the fictional Morg City, where you and a gang of survivors have to hold out against waves of the undead and various supernatural creatures, earning better weapons and upgrades as you go. The mode features a great voice cast too, including Jeff Goldblum, Heather Graham, Neal McDonough and the equally gruff and awesome Ron Perlman. It's a fantastic mode and pretty much worth the total price of the game alone. Nothing beats the tension of hitting up a Mystery Box and waiting to see whether you'll get something awesome that can wipe out hordes with one trigger pull or something embarrassing that's going to let your squad down.
8 Rock Band 4
After flooding the market with numerous releases a year and increasingly expensive peripherals, the music genre died a rather undignified death last generation. It turns out that people only had so much money and space to dedicate to Fisher-Price looking instruments. However, for this current generation, both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises have made a comeback, with both games stripping down previous excesses and focusing on what made the experience so much fun in the first place – the ability to grab some friends and play as a band.
Rock Band 4 supports up to 4 players, and it's up to you to sort out who gets the two guitars, who sings and who is on drums. The soundtrack includes classic rock tracks from the likes of The Who, Rush, Aerosmith and Judas Priest as well as more modern pop tracks like Mark Ronson's 'Uptown Funk'. Your neighbors may end up hating you, but at least you'll be having a good time.
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7 Diablo III - Ultimate Evil Edition
RPGs like the Diablo series tend to be thought of as quintessential PC experiences, with the PC platform preferable due to the complexity of the games and the sheer number of buttons needed to bind certain abilities, items, spells etc to. However, in recent years (and especially on the Xbox), more studios have been willing to give consoles a fair shake of the role-playing stick, and one of the best action RPGs available on the Xbox One is Blizzard's Diablo III.
Up to 4 players can team up and choose from six classes to fight monsters, complete quests and, most importantly, collect loot. Instead of splitting the screen up, all four players share the same single screen, which is refreshing. The game's difficulty also scales with the number of players, so if you think you and your buddies are going to steamroll your way through the proceedings, you've got another thing coming.
6 Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a 2D game where you and up to 4 players control a spaceship as you pilot it through space and defend yourself against enemies. You and your friends each control an avatar on a circular ship and you have to run into different rooms to man the ship's various functions -- like the guns, the engine and even the map -- to try and figure out exactly where you have to go. It's basically like a 2D version of Guns of Icarus, but with more chiptune music and adorable sprites.
Don't let the game's cutesy presentation fool you, however. Things can get pretty hectic, and a cool head is needed to succeed. As with a lot of entries on this list, good communication and teamwork is necessary to get ahead. If you don't make it clear to your partner that you're running to the engine or checking the map, they could have the same idea and leave you open to attack, as nobody's manning the shields. Whilst the game does have a single player mode, it's clear the experience was built around cooperative play and it really comes alive when you have multiple would-be astronauts in the same room screaming at each other to man the cannons.
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5 Minecraft: Xbox One Edition
Minecraft has been an unbelievable success story. The sandbox/survival/building game captured the hearts and minds of players young and old and soon became the game everyone was talking about. It's been ported to everything with a screen, and judging by the sheer number of still successful Minecraft Let's Plays on Youtube, it isn't going away any time soon.
The Xbox One version of Minecraft supports up to 4 offline local co-op players, with the potential for up to 8 players wandering around together if you choose to go online. There you can dictate what you want to do and how you want to play. Do you want to mine resources and explore the world or do you want to build the USS Starship Enterprise? What you do is entirely up to you and your friends, and that's the appeal of the game in a nutshell.
4 Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
Gears of War was the game that introduced the angry Marcus Fenix and his sullen buddies to the world. It also popularized third person cover-based shooting, which had a huge influence on the type of games churned out by big game studios. It was a big exclusive title for the Xbox 360, so when the Xbox One's time came around, it made sense to pretty up the dark and gritty game for a new generation.
With the release of Gears of War 4 imminent, there's no better time to sharpen your Lancer blades. You and a friend can play through the entire remastered campaign together and trade gravelly voiced tough-guy quips as you mow through the Locust hordes. The best part is that all your teamwork will be rewarded when the new game comes out, with Gears 4 already confirmed to support local co-operative play.
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3 Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Due to their prevalence, current gen remasters of older games are starting to get a bad rep. It's hard to disagree when people want new and exciting titles and are being given shinier versions of older ones they've probably already played to death. However, Halo: The Master Chief Collection stands as a shining example of a remaster done right, not only polishing up the graphics, but preserving the classic Halo multiplayer modes too, both done with the utmost care and attention. Well, now that the servers are sorted, at least.
Even better, you and a buddy can join forces and play through the campaigns of the original Halo: Combat Evolved as well as Halos 2, 3 and 4, with Halo 3: ODST's story mode offered as DLC. Having an intelligent partner who knows what they're doing to replace the games' notoriously stupid AI characters is massively helpful when it comes to the crushingly difficult and unfair Legendary runs. There's nothing more fun than commandeering a vehicle and driving whilst your teammate shoots at anything that has the gall to cross your combined paths.
2 Rocket League
Rocket League finally answers the age old question of what happens when you crank the awesomeness dial up to 11 on a particular sport. It's basically car soccer, and you don't have to be a fan of either thing to appreciate what Rocket League has to offer. It has simple and addictive gameplay where your only task is to drive around and try and hit an oversized soccer ball into the opponent's goal. Recent updates have expanded the experience so that you can play rocket powered versions of basketball and ice hockey too.
Rocket League has all the appeal of a sports game without really being one. It's an incredibly well-designed game that does what it set out to do expertly. It's no slouch in the local co-op department either. Up to 4 rocketeers can team up and play online against other players as well as bots. It's almost an unhealthy dose of fun that will keep you coming back for “just one more match”. Plus, the game's newly added Rumble mode shakes things up with crazy pick-ups like boxing gloves, spikes, freeze powers and grappling hooks. You haven't lived until you watch a replay of yourself grappling into the ball from a long distance away and smashing it into the opponent's goal. If you remain unconvinced, you can play as both a DeLorean AND the Batmobile. 'Nuff said.
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1 Honorable Mention: Any FIFA/Madden/NBA/MLB/NHL game
Never neglect the classics. While this one is a bit of a stretch in the 'co-op' sense (playing Madden against your buddy is infinitely more fun than being on the same team), it's hard to top a good showdown in the sporting world. If sports are your thing, it simply doesn't get much better than this. The argument can be made that many of these games have already peaked -- there's only so much you can do in the way of inventing new game modes for sports titles -- but the graphics continue to improve incrementally year after year, and playing with outdated rosters is a true drag, so sports fans usually find themselves shelling out the big bucks for these yearly titles when their release dates come around.
Your favorite team may not be winning a Super Bowl in real life any time soon, but with you at the helm, you never know.
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What's you and your friends' favorite XBox co-op title? Let us know in the comments.
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343 Industries confirmed the highly anticipated 4-player split screen multiplayer mode for Halo Infinite during a recent dev stream on Mixer. 343 Industries head Bonnie Ross stated during DICE 2017 that all future Halo FPS games would have local split-screen multiplayer, however, the mode was not officially confirmed for Halo Infinite until now.
One of the biggest complaints about Halo 5: Guardians was its lack of the classic split-screen multiplayer mode. While many shooters have ditched the local multiplayer screen share system, every other Halo game up until Guardains had included split screen. And, let’s be honest, the best way to play Halo multiplayer is by having friends in the room with you.
So having the mode back for Halo Infinite is good news for most fans.
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The other details shared during the Mixer stream have been posted on the game’s Reddit, but the highlights include the addition of Black Undersuits and Halo Reach inspired player customization. Black Undersuits were described as the parts of a Spartan armor suit that is not “the metal pieces.”
The full list of Halo Infinite features announced reads:
(Last Updated December 21, 2018 5:52 pm )
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