Instead of engaging in debates about frame rates, we should be encouraging developers to invest their time in creating the kind of innovative experiences that lead to great social interaction, and celebrating that instead of fetishising more flawless reflections or dynamic lighting. It may even be that we, as a gaming community, are partly to blame for this. It seems that, these days, developers are petrified of any perceived weakness that could lead to comparatively negative press. Online forums, magazines and websites are full of comparisons between how fast title x runs on respective consoles, or how smooth the rendering is on title y. Unfortunately, this generation's console war seems to hold graphical capability at its absolute forefront. If anything, I and all my friends all found it hilarious. Ultimately, I’ve never felt this had a negative impact on the gaming experience. Split-screen gaming has always taken up console resources (as anyone who's ever tried to play a four player split-screen game with explosive weapons will be all too familiar with). Yet I, for one, couldn’t care less if playing a split-screen game comes at the cost of slightly impaired visuals - the more important thing is the experience, and how much actual fun it is. In this day and age of cutthroat statistics, where everything is reduced to competing lists of facts and figures, developers are wary of how such an effect might impact reviews of their titles. This results in reduced frame rates and impaired graphics, sullying the "perfect" impression one gets from a game in single player mode. That said, there's a more practical reason for the decline in split-screen gaming, which is that it simply eats up too many console resources. Given every major Halo release up until this point has supported offline multiplayer of some sort, this is another huge blow to couch-based gaming with friends.
Most recently, it’s been announced that Halo 5 won't feature local co-op or multiplayer of any kind. However, such occasions are becoming fewer and farther between, and local multiplayer seems to be getting abandoned in favour of purely online play. So often it’s memories like these that define childhood friendships, and I’m grateful that I get the chance to relive them every time a new split-screen title is released onto the market. I’d probably be sick if there was a way to track the amount of hours my friends and I spent playing Super Smash Brothers, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I recall whole weeks of holidays engrossed in multiplayer modes, and deathmatch sessions that stretched long into the night. I remember being unable to complete TimeSplitters 2 on the hardest difficulty setting without calling up a friend to come round and help out.
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