The Official Splitscreen Thread v2

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Welcome back to the Official Splitscreen Thread v2!

Last time, things got heated. A bit too heated for our liking, with a bit of derailment. But that won’t happen again, right?

Let’s lay out the rules here:
Do not spam or bump! This thread will likely be popular enough with how much support splitscreen has (you’ve seen the Elite thread, right?!). There will be no need to bump it. There’s a lot to talk about.

<mark>NO PETITIONS.</mark>

Do not attack other members. This means no people attacking others for wanting splitscreen, and no people that want splitscreen attacking the ones that don’t want it / don’t care. Let’s keep this a friendly environment.

ALL forum rules apply.

This is an important issue to many. <mark>If it gets de-railed again, or gets too heated, it will once again get locked**, so keep it clean!**</mark>

Link to Version 1.0 of this thread.

2

It looks like there are some great things in Halo 5.
But I will eat my hat if there is anything that is as much fun as playing split screen with my kids.

Find a way to make it work 343, please.

3

Well first off, thank you to the monitors for giving us back this thread.

As a regular splitscreen player, I feel uneasy about the upcoming launch of Halo 5. No 4-player splitscreen. Some of you will say that no 4pss isn’t enough to ruin this game, but I’m not so sure. It’s definitely enough for my friends and I not to buy it, so I expect we aren’t alone in that. So if I’m not planning on getting the next Halo (at launch), why am I here? Because I still want to play it. I just don’t feel like the game has much to offer.

I’m going to go through the moral and consequential reasons 343 should return 4pss to Halo.

Lets start with the moral reasons. These are by far the most common arguments seen.
1) Because 4pss is what made Halo. It’s true. Without 4pss, we would likely not be playing Halo right now. But don’t misinterpret this as me being conservative and nothing else. No. 4pss is the foundation that Halo multiplayer was built on and that still holds true today, whether you realize it or not. Do you know why local multiplayer on Call of Duty isn’t fun? Because Call of Duty isn’t fun unless you experience it exactly the way the developers want you to (and still some would say the game is bad). Halo has always been able to deliver a good experience no matter how you decide to play it: on the couch with your friends or competitive online.

Moving over to consequential reasoning.
1) Sales. Yes, here is something that will always get people’s attention. 4pss is THE ABSOLUTE BEST way to introduce new people to Halo. Word of mouth only goes so far. If they actually get to play and enjoy the game, they will be that much more likely to buy it. I know this because that’s how my brother got into Halo, how I got into Halo, and how every single one of my friends I can think of all got into Halo. By playing it with their friends. And it only gets more fun the more people you add.

2) Longevity. This one is obvious. Halo: Reach, which I consider the peak of the local multiplayer experience (you can add that to moral reasons-4pss follows Bungie’s legacy they left with Reach) is a game I still go back and play with friends. Although, the truth is, I still go back and play every other Halo game with friends, especially with the MCC (which, arguably, is another game that stands on the 4pss experience). Halo 5 will be the first Halo game I don’t see making it past the launch of its successor. That’s worrisome. Halo games have always been made to last forever. But only 4pss allows that to happen.

But 343 shouldn’t dedicate precious resources to a feature only a few people are going to use.
First of all, we don’t have any statistics at hand for how many people actually use splitscreen, but I believe it is a lot more than what some people think. And this is what’s caused so much heat in the discussion. 343’s excuse for not having 4pss is that they are putting graphics ahead of everything. But it’s the gameplay, not the graphics, that has always made Halo great. Let’s face it, the graphics have always been cartoony (still the case in Halo 5) but everyone still plays it because Halo is fun! Hearing this from 343 worries me because Halo 5 should not have to depend on its graphics to succeed, or else we truly have a hollow game on our hands.
And they should include this feature even if a lot of people don’t use it because of all the aforementioned reasons. It makes Halo more fun and it brings in more people. What else do you need? It’s not as if the resolution/framerate drops affect anyone not playing splitscreen anyway.

We need to make it clear to 343 that 4pss is something Halo 5 needs. For the our benefit, their own, and Halo as a franchise.

4

Still, so stoked they took out splitscreen in favor of 60FPS.
<3 based 343.

5

I personally think removing Split-Screen is a horrible mistake.

One of Halo’s iconic features has been it’s split-screen, in an age where it’s becoming rarer and rarer to find a game which supports it, Halo was always a beacon of light for those of us who love couch local game-play.

Playing campaign with a buddy next to you is a feeling you can’t just quite replicate online, also more so that the friend who I have played all the Halo campaigns with, currently doesn’t have gold (or really a usable Xbox One).
Also consider this, if for whatever reason LIVE goes down, either temporary or permanently then how are you meant to play it co-op?
After all, think about if Halo 2 on the original Xbox was only LIVE co-op, when the servers got closed you wouldn’t be able to play it co-op anymore period.
Sounds too radical? What about those DDOS attacks or maintenance, local will always work where’s the servers won’t always.

Also while 60 FPS is a nice thing to have, it really isn’t critical.
Halo 3 on 360 was something like 640p at 30 FPS, yet I am still most fond of that game of any of the other Halo’s.
Playing it 1080p x 60fps was nice, but hardly the most critical thing.

Having a good time will always trump numbers on a piece of paper and removing one of the most iconic legacy features of the series because 343i is scared of IGN or other sites mention the game isn’t always 60 fps, is frankly putting their priorities away from the player’s choice.

Split-Screen isn’t forced on anybody, if people are too devastated by 30 or 40 fps, then they have the choice not to play it, play it solo or online where it can be 60FPS.
But to remove the players choice, is simply unforgivable.

I truly hope 343i sees this as a critical error and redeems themselves by putting things right by restoring the feature.
After all, after the general perceived problems of Halo 4 and massive launch failure of MCC, how much more faith do they think we have in them?

I for one, won’t be pre-ordering the game and honestly I think this will the be first Halo game I won’t buy on launch day.
343i already hurt themselves, but this for me personally, is adding insult to injury with their handling of the Halo franchise.

But it isn’t too late, there’s always time for them to make it right.

6

I am hoping at least 2 player local co-op makes a come back, especially after the plans 343 has for campaign.

7

> 2533274836697068;5:
> Also while 60 FPS is a nice thing to have, it really isn’t critical.
> Halo 3 on 360 was something like 640p at 30 FPS, yet I am still most fond of that game of any of the other Halo’s.
> Playing it 1080p x 60fps was nice, but hardly the most critical thing.

I am hazarding a guess there, but is 60 fps crucial for MLG and the like, especially since Halo 5 multiplayer is aimed at making Halo make a comeback into the competitive gaming scene?

8

I personally believe a majority of people play alone most of the time and split screen occasionally. I would not want 343 to gimp the overall Halo 5 experience for the sake of those seldom occasions playing splitscreen. 60 fps just feels so fluid and smooth, I don’t want to go back to 30 fps. For example play MCC on XB1 and then try to go back and play the 360 version of Halo, it will feel much slower.

9

Although considering Frank promised multiple times on twitter that it was happening, I would like to hear a very good explanation about what exactly happened back at the studio that led to them axing it.

10

> 2533274873310828;7:
> I am hazarding a guess there, but is 60 fps crucial for MLG and the like, especially since Halo 5 multiplayer is aimed at making Halo make a comeback into the competitive gaming scene?

That however doesn’t explain its absence from local custom games or campaign.

If they’re truly worried about that aspect, then they could either restrict specific online playlists (as they have done in past) or if truly necessary they could remove the ability to split-screen across match making.

However as custom games (either online or offline) are not part of any ranked competitive play, that is not a good reason.
Much less so for campaign as there is literately no competitive aspect to it.

11

> 2533274836697068;10:
> > 2533274873310828;7:
> > > 2533274836697068;5:
> > > Also while 60 FPS is a nice thing to have, it really isn’t critical.
> > > Halo 3 on 360 was something like 640p at 30 FPS, yet I am still most fond of that game of any of the other Halo’s.
> > > Playing it 1080p x 60fps was nice, but hardly the most critical thing.
> >
> >
> > I am hazarding a guess there, but is 60 fps crucial for MLG and the like, especially since Halo 5 multiplayer is aimed at making Halo make a comeback into the competitive gaming scene?
>
>
> That however doesn’t explain it’s absents from local custom games or campaign.
>
> If they’re truly worried about that aspect, then they could either restrict specific online playlists (as they have done in past) or if truly necessary they could remove the ability to split-screen across match making.
>
> However as custom games (either online or offline) are not part of any ranked competitive play that is not a good reason.
> Even less so for campaign as there is literately no competitive aspect to it.

I am not a game developer, so I don’t know if the implementation of splitscreen in a certain area of the game will affect the rest of it.

However, I do not appreciate anyone axing the ability to splitscreen across matchmaking since that is my main use of it (and imo one of Halo’s top strengths), thank you very much.

12

If you ask me, split-screen holds far more importance than 1080p x 60fps.

The first thing I do when I pick up a new Halo title is set up co-op campaign and sit down to play with my sister, and so it came as a massive disappointment when I discovered I would no longer be able to do that when Halo 5 comes out – especially after having been told earlier in the year (by Josh Holmes, I believe) that we would have 2-player split-screen for the campaign. And like Jack Pipsam said, split-screen is becoming rarer and rarer. I have always praised Halo for having it, because there are so many games out there I’ve wanted to play with friends and family and I’ve been unable to do so because they don’t support the feature.

So at the very least, I hope they bring it back for campaign – even if it only allows two players. I’ve never played with more than that anyway, so the lack of 4-player split-screen doesn’t bother me too much.

13

Since when did 60fps become the absolute benchmark for competitive performance anyway?

And as for the rapid decline in splitscreen games, I think it is an acknowledgement first-world society is sliding towards the anti-social scale in terms of real world interaction. Sad, unfortunately.

14

> 2533274873310828;11:
> I am not a game developer, so I don’t know if the implementation of splitscreen in a certain area of the game will affect the rest of it.
>
> However, I do not appreciate anyone axing the ability to splitscreen across matchmaking since that is my main use of it (and imo one of Halo’s top strengths), thank you very much.

I don’t want to see it removed from match-making either as I enjoy playing it online as well, however I was just using it as an example of why cutting it game-wide is illogical.

But for argument sake let’s just say there is some great hurdle in the code which means it’s impossible for them to be able to do 60fps online and not allow split-screen offline (something I very much doubt), that still doesn’t to me anyway seem to fit in with removing it from campaign as one would imagine that it would be drawing from very separate areas of game code and that a solution could be found there which wouldn’t impact the online.
But none of it does add-up.

The cynic inside me thinks that maybe this whole thing is an experiment in order to try and get people to encourage their friends to buy an Xbox One and a copy of Halo 5 as that’s the only way to play together.
Although then again, it seems like an awful risk which might be worth shooting themselves in the foot over.
Because I think this will be more included to loose sales than gain any.

But considering how gaming companies have back-peddled their so called ‘impossible to fix’ problems in the past (SimCity anybody? Xbox One anybody?), I am sure that sooner or later Split-Screen will be restored to Halo 5.

15

Never really liked split screen tbh, I really like playing Halo with friends but not split screen wise because it -yoinks- the graphics and your field of view gets so small that it’s near impossible to see some detail in the distance unless you use a 50"(zoll) TV

So I stick to online co-op either with several Xbox/tv’s in a room or with headsets at home, split screen just is like an emergency feature to me, nice to have but not really necessary

16

> 2533274836697068;14:
> > 2533274873310828;11:
> > I am not a game developer, so I don’t know if the implementation of splitscreen in a certain area of the game will affect the rest of it.
> >
> > However, I do not appreciate anyone axing the ability to splitscreen across matchmaking since that is my main use of it (and imo one of Halo’s top strengths), thank you very much.
>
>
> I don’t want to see it removed from match-making either as I enjoy playing it online as well, however I was just using it as an example of why cutting it game-wide is illogical.
>
> But for argument sake let’s just say there is some great hurdle in the code which means it’s impossible for them to be able to do 60fps online and not allow split-screen offline (something I very much doubt), that still doesn’t to me anyway seem to fit in with removing it from campaign as one would imagine that it would be drawing from very separate areas of game code and that a solution could be found there which wouldn’t impact the online.
> But none of it does add-up.

I generally believe the experts are experts in their field for a reason, so I prefer to ask them to lay out everything for me as to why this is happening rather than insisting that it is still possible, unless I have any inkling of knowledge in that field.

At least it can’t be as bad as Ubisoft’s reason that basically said “we’re lazy” when it came to female characters or the dissing Ninja Theory gave out during DmC.

17

> 2533274931864540;15:
> So I stick to online co-op either with several Xbox/tv’s in a room or with headsets at home

Nice toys and moneyz dude, I’m green with envy…

$_$

18

I just don’t understand how people only played Halo for splitscreen. That doesn’t even seem logical to me. There are plenty of games that do splitscreen well, so if that was your only attraction to Halo it doesn’t make sense. I am upset splitscreen is gone too, but to say that it is still a core feature would be unrealistic. It’s 2015. Splitscreen was just a bonus after Halo 3.

19

Since Halo Multiplayer Connectivity is still largely unusable where I live, the major way for me and my friends to play Halo together is through split-screen co-op. Co-op has brought us hours of fun, and if the news is true, removing split-screen co-op might just remove the only way I have to play Halo with my friends together. I sincerely hope that 343 didn’t delete it from the game or is bringing it back due to popular demand or adding it in a future patch, because it’s just crucial to having fun together.

20

> 2533274819051113;18:
> I just don’t understand how people only played Halo for splitscreen. That doesn’t even seem logical to me. There are plenty of games that do splitscreen well, so if that was your only attraction to Halo it doesn’t make sense. I am upset splitscreen is gone too, but to say that it is still a core feature would be unrealistic. It’s 2015. Splitscreen was just a bonus after Halo 3.

It is/was Halos best feature, hands down it is the only reason i played it so much. I get bored playing Halo alone even playing online with mates is not the same.
There are plenty of games that do splitscreen well but Halo was the best at it.

Why dont they lower the resolution or the graphic settings to maintain frames while playing splitscreen. Another shortfall of the so called next generation console or 343 probably both.

I just found out about no splitscreen and the only way il buy Halo5 now is if the unannounced gametype is Planetside Halo5 edition. Halo just keeps getting worse and worse these last few years.