The Joy Of Co-Op

Being a bandwagon-examining, trend-dissecting, zeitgeist-exorcising journalist of the gaming bent, it was only a matter of time before I dragged together some kind of verbal flotsam to examine the phenomenon of co-op gaming a little more closely. And so I did, in the form of this highly commended PC Gamer feature article.

It contains literary treasure such as this:

The lesson for Smith's Midway team was that two heads aren't necessarily better than one when you're trying to balance a complex action game for play. "It's about tuning," says Harvey. "It affects everything from how hard it is to play, to how many enemies you can get on screen. It even affects the fiction. It's a fun part of the game though, so I hope it works in the right way."

Alas, as it turned out, it was too tricky for even Mr Smith. Co-operative play was dropped from BlackSite just weeks before our review.

Of course, there may have been a few other factors at play there too... but I think the point stands.

Additionally, I'd like to say that, although no other RPSer seems to think it much cop, Rainbow Six Vegas was a mighty entertaining co-op game. While all eyes might have been on the Gears Of War and Halo 3 co-op experiences this year, there were plenty of others, such as Vegas, that got it bang on. More of that sort of thing, please Developers.