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Nintendo Switch Sports hands-on: Reviving a surefire formula for fun
Following up one of the Wii's most memorable titles, Nintendo Switch Sports is reviving the motion-controlled antics with tennis and bowling, while adding four new sports in volleyball, tennis, badminton and chambara. And it's a blast.
'Fortnite' adds split-screen multiplayer on PS4 and Xbox One
Fortnite players on PS4 and Xbox One might not have to yell at their teammates through a headset anymore -- they could just complain (or give props) to their buddies IRL while they play on the same screen. Following Epic's latest update for the battle royale behemoth, you can team up with friends for split-screen action in duo or squad games. Sure, you'll have a little less screen real estate than if you were playing solo, but Fortnite joining the ranks of couch co-op titles is a great move for friends who like to hang out and play games together.
Catch a celebrity if you can in local PS4 game, Paparazzi
Make room on the couch for a quirky, local multiplayer game designed for two players: Paparazzi. It's due out on PlayStation 4 in February, downloadable for $5. In Paparazzi, one player is a celebrity and the other is a picture-hungry paparazzo. The celebrity tries to earn dignity by attracting fans and avoiding the photographer's camera lens, and the paparazzo attempts to earn money by spotting the celebrity in a variety of scenarios and snapping his or her picture. Paparazzi started as a game jam project under the McConaughey-approved theme, "Cameras aren't guns. They can't really hurt you." It's the first game from three-person development team Pringo Dingo. "We are incredibly excited about how far we've brought the game since that jam," Designer and Artist Mike Longley writes on the PlayStation Blog. Paparazzi's official site lists Wii U, PC and Mac as additional platforms, and it's officially coming to Steam via Greenlight. Pringo Dingo's successful $5,000 Kickstarter advertised Paparazzi as a PC game. See the PS4 announcement trailer after the break. Speaking of couch co-op (we totally were): We've collected some of the best local multiplayer games to come out of 2014 in this handy galllery.
PlayStation Co-Op Sale: Dark Souls 2, Far Cry 3, Rayman
In the spirit of the money-saving holidays (and Thanksgiving, we guess), Sony kicked off a new Co-Op Gaming sale today that discounts games with local or online multiplayer functionality. The deals end on December 1, and PlayStation Plus subscribers get a bigger discount than other PSN users: up to 80 percent off the price of some games. Of the group, there are ten PlayStation 4 games on sale through PSN this week, among which are Awesomenauts Assemble ($5.39), EA Sports UFC ($13.99), Mercenary Kings ($8.99), Rayman Legends ($19.59), Surgeon Simulator: A&E Anniversary Edition ($6.39), TowerFall Ascension ($7.34) and Trine 2: Complete Story ($7.99). Other notable deals include Borderlands 2 (PS3, $4.54), Dark Souls 2 (PS3, $19.59), Rayman Origins ($13.29 on Vita, $9.79 on PS3) and Far Cry 3 (PS3, $9.79). [Image: Ubisoft]
Chariot drags the dead to PS4 next week
Chariot, Frima Studio's cooperative platformer, will launch on PS4 next week. The game will arrive on Tuesday, September 30 in North America for $14.99, though European players will have to wait until October 22 to dig into the game. The platformer has two local players (or one solo player) working together to carry a king's coffin to its resting place. However, the king's ghost is particular about where his body winds up, so players must overcome physics-based obstacles to satisfy "His Majesty." The playable characters in question are the princess and her fiancé, who "gather gold and precious gems to decorate the sepulcher" while traversing Chariot's underground environments. The developer opted for local multiplayer only with Chariot, as "direct communication is very important in the game," and that "the tricks you'll need to do with the Chariot requires a lot of precision and we felt that precision might be lost because of the latency online." [Image: Firma Studio]
Well, this is weird
Push Me Pull You is a wrestling game mashed up with a ball game and presented in four-player local co-op, with two players controlling one snake-like, two-headed humanoid creature. Maybe we're better off letting Australian developer House House describe it: "Connected at the waist, you and your partner must use a shared body to wrap, writhe, and wrestle the ball into your half of the court. Love each other, work together, communicate and coordinate, and prove that a good friendship can overcome anything (unless you find yourself up against an even better friendship!). It's a bit like a big hug, or playing soccer with your small intestines. With every action affecting both you and your partner (and lots of shouting at each other) PMPY combines the best parts of 2v2 local multiplayer with the worst parts of your last breakup." That's ... better. Push Me Pull You is due out in 2014 for PC, Mac and Linux, for all your wrestling, hoarding, friendship and breakup needs. See the new gameplay video and more wonderfully weird gifs below.
Splatoon to offer two-squid local multiplayer
Nintendo's colorful third-cephalo-person shooter Splatoon will include a local multiplayer mode for two players, the developer recently clarified. The game's producer, Hisashi Nogami explained to GameRant at E3 that Splatoon will include both a single-player mode and also a "one-on-one multiplayer mode that can be played without connecting to the Internet." Our time with the game at E3 centered on its eight-person online multiplayer action (divided into teams of four), in which players morph into squids and swim around any surface that's splattered with paint. The game was first announced during Nintendo's special E3 2014 livestream earlier this month. Nogami clarified that Splatoon will launch as a full retail game for Wii U, and is expected to swim ashore in the "first half" of 2015. To fit in with the transformative nature of Splatoon, we will morph into squids for the remainder of this article. Splat. Splash Splatoon E3 selection SPLAT. Swoooosh. Tentacle noise! Swoosh. [Image: Nintendo]
ZombiU developer video decomposes multiplayer mode
We provided a brief run-down of ZombiU's multiplayer mode in our review of the game – we were pretty enamored with it, as you can read here – but Ubisoft wants to be sure you really get it. The dev team describes how mulitplayer works in ZombiU with the above video, breaking down the local matches and how the game integrates the Wii Pad.There are also a few tips at the end, so give it a watch. But only if, you know, you value your life in the zombie apocalypse.
IndieCade at E3: Hokra, a minimalist sports game with huge appeal, equal barriers
Of all the games littering the IndieCade floor at E3, just one of them truly belonged there in a way that the others just couldn't touch: Ramiro Corbetta's Hokra. It wasn't necessarily flashier, prettier or more famous than any of the other titles, but it was a game made for public exhibitions – literally."Hokra was originally created with the public space in mind, but it was also developed to be the kind of game that I'd like to play with my friends," Corbetta told Joystiq.Hokra premiered on May 12, 2011 at the NYU Game Center's No Quarter exhibition, and Corbetta developed it with that venue specifically in mind."I developed Hokra to be a multiplayer game, and to be honest when I was first developing it I wasn't thinking about how to sell it," he said. "I was only thinking about how to make the best possible game, and since it was going to be displayed in a gallery space, I knew there would always be multiple people around to play it."Hokra is a simplistic, competitive digital sports game for four local players, and only four local players. Not online, not three, two or one, but four physical people ideally using Xbox 360 controllers, always. This design choice stems from Hokra's gallery goal, but also from Corbetta's passion for local multiplayer titles.
Ubisoft addresses lack of split-screen co-op in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Living-room soldiers looking to team up with a real-life buddy for some Ghost Recon: Future Soldier couch co-op may be sorely disappointed once they discover that split-screen multiplayer doesn't exist for the game's campaign mode, despite various online retailers (including Ubisoft's own UbiShop) purporting the game's support of that very feature."We've been made aware of the presence of outdated information on UbiShop and several retailer sites stating split screen, cooperative play is available in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier's campaign," Ubisoft forum manager EvilPixieGrr said in an update on the publisher's forums. "We have ensured the information has been updated on the sites affected by this."Luckily for Ubisoft, Future Soldier's actual retail box art does not sing the praises of local campaign co-op. [Thanks, Keith!]
Surprise: XBLA Minecraft's split-screen multiplayer requires HDTV
Split-screen multiplayer in the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft requires an HDTV connection, but the game's description on the Xbox Live Marketplace website fails to note this necessity. Minecraft's description on XBLA does list "HDTV 720p" under the "Local Capabilities" details, but that generally is taken to mean the title will support up to HD 720p, and not as a requirement. In-game, a screen prompts players to "play the game in High Definition mode" for split-screen multiplayer.Notch wasn't aware that local multiplayer wouldn't work with standard-definition TVs, he tweeted and apologized to a fan today.Port developer 4J Studios has justified the HD requirement on Twitter: "The inventory and crafting just didn't work in splitscreen Standard Definition - it was too small to make out."Some fans want a refund from Microsoft, saying they wouldn't have bought Minecraft if the HD requirement was clearer, but Microsoft is holding out on a few of them, Kotaku reports.
VVVVVV dev releases cerebral, really local-multiplayer title, At a Distance
Terry Cavanagh, developer of indie frustration machine VVVVVV, has released a new game that encourages intense, quasi-telepathic local multiplayer, titled At a Distance. The game is available for download on Windows and Mac for free, but make sure to read the installation instructions before diving into this one. First, you'll need a friend. Second, you'll need half a brain. We know these may be difficult to come by, but maybe try reversing the order and see what happens. We believe in you. At a Distance was developed for NYU Game Center's 2011 No Quarter Exhibition and is meant to be played on two computers side-by-side -- each screen runs its own unique game with no instructions on how to explore the neon, geometric world, but apparently the two players come together brilliantly in the game and in real life. This sounds like the beginning of something beautiful. %Gallery-141542%
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Hidden in Plain Sight
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Adam Spragg attempts to revive local multiplayer with an XBLIG game about looking like you're not playing a game at all, Hidden in Plain Sight. What's your game called and what's it about? The game is called Hidden in Plain Sight. It's a set of multiplayer game modes that share a common theme: trying to accomplish goals without drawing attention to yourself. In each game mode, players control characters in the midst of a large group of NPCs. Players are given a task, but also the means to eliminate each other from the game. So the goal is to try to blend in with the NPCs, but still do what you're supposed to do without getting killed. For example, one of the simplest game modes is called "Death Race." Players and NPCs are racing to be the first to cross a finish line. The naïve approach would be to simply run quickly to the finish line. However, each player has a gun with one bullet, and can eliminate one person from the race. So players want to win the race, but run the risk of being eliminated if they look like they're trying to win. (Of course, you could try a double-bluff by running way out in front, because no one would be that obvious, right?) Other game modes create similar tension by putting players in a conflicted position of wanting to accomplish a goal, but risking elimination by doing so.
