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Death Of The Single Player?

With a few spare hours to kill, I take it upon myself to do a little gaming, as one does of course. Recently I got Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit for my PlayStation 3, as I am trying to build up my gaming collection. I have to say that I am loving it. As with many games you can get, what had pushed me to buy it was because I wanted to be able to wipe the smirks of my smug mates’ faces as I thrashed their beloved best times. But as I sat and flicked through the menu, I’ve got to admit that I started feeling a little blue.

This is the game that enspired me to write this piece. I dedicate this to you!
This is the game that inspired me to write this piece. I dedicate this to you!

I kept thinking to myself, is the only way I’m going to get any sort of gaming satisfaction if my friends are there to play against me? As I am sure many of us can relate to, not all your friends have the same games as you do. If you’re lucky enough that they do, you could find that they’re not online when you are. Yeah you can always play Mr Joe Blogs online, but let’s be honest, it is that little bit better when you’re playing your mates.  Now I am 100% sure I’m not meant to feel this way with my games… right? There was a time way back, when you would get simple satisfaction of just playing all on your own. Playing against your mate would involve them having to come to your house and bring their control pad.  And when they weren’t there it were just you and the good old CPU playing with you.  Oh those were the times.

I am super grateful that I no longer have to trek miles just to have a few multiplayer gaming hours, simply because I am just too lazy. But it does make me wonder, how much do we now depend on the multiplayer aspect in order to not only appreciate our much anticipated game, but dare I say dictate whether we buy them?

Look I'm Billy One Mate today… yay me?!

So I say this to you all: the next time you buy your game try and have in the forefront of your mind how this game is going to be when you’re playing on your own as well as how kick ass it will be to play with your mates. For we all have our ‘Billy No-Mates’ periods and the last thing you need when you’re sitting there hoping someone comes online, that you possibly, just a little bit, start regretting your purchase.

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Sarah-Lou

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3 responses to “Death Of The Single Player?”

  1. Branstar avatar
    Branstar

    I can relate – there are so many good games out there to play with your mates, that there’s no guarantee you’ll all have them, but for me this hasn’t been that much of an issue. If I want to play with my mates, I’ll pick a game we all have – often we’ll arrange ahead of time to all buy the same game to play together. More of an issue are the logistics of all being online at the same time, wanting to play the same game :/

    As for this being the ‘Death of the Single Player’, well… if you’re talking about games which are primarily multiplayer then you might be onto something. When I think of single player, I think of dedicated single player games, which will almost always offer a better single player experience than the games which also have multiplayer, by necessity. It used to be that multiplayer was bundled with a single player game, that the single player *had* to stand on its own and multiplayer was a bonus. Now some games lead with their multiplayer – I don’t think that’s bad though, since the multiplayer experience is better today than it was in the past. On the plus side with single player games, they’ll get traded in often you can you cycle through them in Game or Gamestation and get plenty of quality single player gaming for cheap.

  2. Another Tony avatar
    Another Tony

    This is one reason why most of my gaming time is taken with FIFA’s Campaign Mode – occassionally play a mate head to head online, or a random ranked match but don’t really get much pleasure from the latter as I have no idea who I’m playing and if I manage to sneak a win, it all feels a bit hollow. I have no desire to play shooters online which seems to be the zeigeist for most publishers and gamers. I may have to look as Resi Evil 5 or Rock Band 3 co-op for online gaming with mates!

  3. Mark P avatar
    Mark P

    I’m like this nearly every time I buy a multiplayer XBLA game. Invariably, I buy it because I enjoy but then no-one else buys it too, and then I’m stuck with a game that I have no-one to play with!

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