All over the Waypoint forums and through my own personal (repeated) experiences there is a growing plague of distancing multiplayer. Every time my friends and I get together for a game night / Halo party we all bring our Xbox One’s (4 consoles) to that night’s location and play on a single router wifi connection. There is always some lag, but often its tolerable. However, it has become increasingly disappointing as one console is repeatedly dropped from the fire team. If the rest of us back out of the already started match too frequently then we are hit with the ban hammer for trying to bring our friend back in.
This problem is only happening with 343’s X1 games— Halo:MCC and Halo 5. We can play all our consoles on the same router wifi in games like Bungie’s Destiny, Call of Duty, and many others without having any problems. But Halo 5 always has connection issues and seems to increase with each update. Its bad enough that there is no split screen— forcing every player to pay hundreds of dollars on a console and game just to be able to play. BUT now it seems like we all need our own individual internet connections to play together as well.
Ever since the very first Halo was released in November 2001, Halo (and all its sequels) have been a symbol of fun, friendship, and bringing people together. One screen divided into four player? Yeah, that was fun! A little challenging but so much fun. They only thing you would need to buy is an extra controller, but not always; since OMG the old consoles used to come with TWO controllers! Remember this was back when screens were much smaller than they are today. I’m sure with all our big screen TV’s and modern technology we can at the very least be able to split for two players.
This new trend in gaming design stinks of greed. More and more games— console, computer, mobile, etc, are adding real world money into the equation so that you can literally buy your way through the game instead of actually working for it. All the increasing number of games that don’t allow split screen for reasons of “improve performance” is more accurately put as “increased profit margins” to Microsoft and game developers so that they will sell more consoles and more games just so two people in the same house can play together. Now instead of having the family gaming console we’re forced to buy one for the adult and one for each child so that they can play together. Its ridiculous.
The Halo 5 REQ packs are fun, don’t get me wrong, but that only lasts until they can be purchased with real money that buys better items. Probably the only armor worthy of recognition is the Helioskrill, because it is the only one that you actually have to WORK for to earn it. Not just buy a bunch of REQ’s until you get an ultra rare or legendary.
343, if you guys want to truly do something legendary, have the next update allow split screen. Make every REQ pack also purchasable with REQ points. War Zone REQ pack, the new Arena REQ pack, and all the Gold Cluster REQ packs. The Halo Championship REQ pack was available for both cash purchase or 80,000 REQ points. Sure thats a high number, but its a challenge to reach and more worth it when earned. Then lastly, fix the sever connection issues so that we can have human interaction and not just solely online digital substitutes. Because for me and millions of other players, we play Halo to play with friends and family. The current system you’re promoting will drive us to play broke and alone.
