So I moved to university last month and I'm now living in the campus dorms. I have a few friends and roommates whom I'd like to "get in" on the gaming action I got going on, but the more I search the more I realize that I've finally found a major flaw in this platform I thought was utterly perfect: Extremely lacking co-op support.

It seems that most games that have co-op on the PC either depend on

• Multiplayer (connecting online) co-op: Left 4 Dead, Borderlands and Magicka among others
• Or two-machine LAN co-op: Dead Island, Gears of War and Conviction among others
• Or, and I want to put this into its own category because EA seems to be really anal about it - Origin co-op: Two machines, two copies of the game AND online Origin accounts for 2-player co-op games such as Battlefield 3, MOH Warfighter and Need for Speed games.

My roommate would rather go to his friend's room to play Call of Duty split screen on a fat day-1 Playstation 3 because my beefy ass PC with its BATTLEFIELDZ voodoo can't provide shit for two people.

So.. Is it true? Do console games have easily accessible, no-online-needed, one-copy-of-the-game split screen co-op ready to go, whereas it's almost impossible for the PC without two machines, two copies and a fuckton of online accounts and server searching?

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I really hope you can prove me wrong and list a variety of fun co-op games I can play on the PC with one or more friends, on one machine with one copy.

Split-screen is good, but if you can name something that is dynamically designed to work with two characters on thesamescreen, likeLara Croft & The Guardian of Light, that would truly be great.

As of now I think the PC is a weak co-op machine without all the requirements I listed above. cooptimus.com has too much shit to browse through, also.

Not sure if it's true anymore, but there is a way to get split-screen on Left 4 Dead on PC.

Minecraft! There's a mod you can get. It's works pretty good.

I wish I could help you out, but I haven't dealt with same-screen coop since 2008. I had no idea it was still so popular or important.

Trine / Trine 2 might be what you're looking for?

Magicka definitely has local coop. I think it can mix local and online players. Rayman origins might, I haven't tested it yet. Renegade Ops? I'll need to check that, too. There does need to be more couch coop games on the pc, absolutely.

@WEB_War4 said:

Renegade Ops? I'll need to check that, too.

Renegade Ops PC has dynamic splitscreen!

Source(s):

personal experience.

trine, right?

I was recently playing AWESOMENAUTS, and that has splitscreen you can go online with. Also many games with controller support also have splitscreen capabilities. Though consoles is easier 9 times out of 10.

The LEGO games are same-PC co-op. Or at least Lego Star Wars III had it.

Local co-op PC games on Steam:

Castle Crashers

F1 Race Stars

Awesomenauts

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Magical Drop V

Jamestown

Capsized

Dungeon Defenders

Shatter

Trine 2

Renegade Ops

Worms Revolution

Cortex Command

Far Cry 3

Adventures of Shuggy

Painkiller HD

All Zombies Must Die

Beat Hazard

Magicka

The LEGO games

Also, all of the Sega Genesis games that are on Steam. (There are a lot of them.)

Agreed! Even online coop is hard to find, which is sad because that kind of experience is getting more and more common in general.

@Hamst3r said:

Local co-op PC games on Steam:

Castle Crashers

F1 Race Stars

Awesomenauts

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Magical Drop V

Jamestown

Capsized

Dungeon Defenders

Shatter

Trine 2

Renegade Ops

Worms Revolution

Cortex Command

Far Cry 3

Adventures of Shuggy

Painkiller HD

All Zombies Must Die

Beat Hazard

Magicka

The LEGO games

Also, all of the Sega Genesis games that are on Steam. (There are a lot of them.)

Awesome list. Renegade Ops is fuckin' baller as split-screen co-op, and it's WAY better on PC, since the 360 version's framerate fucking CHUGS with the split-screen going.

I'll add the free Alien Swarm which you can get off Steam.

Civilsation 4 has a Hot seat mode so that can be a fun game to play, But only if you have a lot of time.

@AhmadMetallic

Here's another pretty good list.

You "can" technically play Castle Crashers locally, but it sounds like a pain in the ass to get it to work.In fact, you might as well just bite the bullet and play that on the 360/PS3 with 3 other people. The more people, the better.

Dungeon Siege III is pretty fun, but again, a pain in the ass to play locally. Shatter is straight up local co-op and the music in that game is outstanding. Also, Frozen Synapse Red DLC is another viable option.

I'm not sure how but there is a way to play Borderlands 1 split screen.
But yes, consoles have always had the "local multiplayer advantage" whereas PC's have virtually every other advantage.

Seems like a good thread to ask:

I'm looking for an online co-op game. Can someone name me a good game that fits the following:

-Should be shooter (first or third person doesn't matter)

-Preferably something slightly tactical, so no Serious Sam or Borderlands but also no Full Spectrum Warrior.

-Co-Op should be fairly fleshed out, bast case scenario would be that you can play the entire campaign co-op

The game doesn't need to be "new" as long as it plays well enough everything is fine, in fact the cheaper the better (cause my friend just upgraded his PC, so money is a bit tight right now)

Look into hotseat games. Alot of good 4x alternatives, like Civ V. Or Football Manager, if you're into that.

@Abendlaender: Had a lot of fun with Ghost Recon: Future Soldier with a friend, online co-op. Campaign is the same for singleplayer and multiplayer.

It's a bit weird in places, but solid experience. You'll mostly come across situations where you have a lot of time tactically setup how you approach a situation. Or you can just run in blazing. There are some sections that force you to move a bit faster, and some optional objectives that are quite tricky.

Another option: Lord of the Rings: War in the North online co-op action-RPG, also main campaign is fully co-op. Pretty janky, though.

Those are just the most recent games. Assuming you don't want to dip into the excellent Borderlands 2.

edit: Just to clarify, those are all online-only (on PC), as far as I am aware, no splitscreen.

@Mnemoidian:

Ha! We actually bought Future Soldier but the game doesn't work. It works fine for me, but always tells my friend that he has no internet connection and boots him to the start screen. At first we thought it has something to do with his firewall. Then I started the game on my PC, but logged in with his uPlay Account and got the same problem. That's so damn weird cause when I log in with my uPlay Account it works fine. Saddyl Ubisoft doesn't seem to care much and wont respond.

After a bit of research: How are SWAT 4 or Rainbow Six Vegas for Co-Op games? They both seem pretty cool and kinda perfect for us.

Just go on steam and search for games with co-op. Easy enough.

@Abendlaender: Have you tried Saints Row: The Third? A buddy and I are looking for some co-op games as well, and I got my eyes on that one.

@Abendlaender: I actually played through Rainbow Six Vegas 2 with my brother and it was surprisingly fun. You can only play the second one co-op, through and through. So don't even bother with the first game (the second one's better anyway). Seeing as how it's kind of an "old" game, it'll be much easier to play online co-op using Tunngle . It's free and pretty easy to figure out. We had to use it to finally end up playing together.

Edit: Swat 4 is pretty awesome if you can get a four player co-op experience going. It's much more tactical and tough. Killing Floor is mindless fun too.

I had a lot of fun with Orcs Must Die! 2, played is single player but it is very much designed to be played coop.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge is supposed to be good coop, haven't played it though...

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Cortex Command is awesome, cheap, and has Local multiplayer.

If you like Left for Dead, Payday: The Heist is similar but a different settings.

I'm hoping Far Cry 3 will have at least a few good coop missions. The developer demoed an awesome coop mission at E3 and looked very fun.

PC stands for something. And it stands for that something for a reason damn it!

@Abendlaender said:

Seems like a good thread to ask:

I'm looking for an online co-op game. Can someone name me a good game that fits the following:

-Should be shooter (first or third person doesn't matter)

-Preferably something slightly tactical, so no Serious Sam or Borderlands but also no Full Spectrum Warrior.

-Co-Op should be fairly fleshed out, bast case scenario would be that you can play the entire campaign co-op

The game doesn't need to be "new" as long as it plays well enough everything is fine, in fact the cheaper the better (cause my friend just upgraded his PC, so money is a bit tight right now)

Rainbow Six Vegas 2

In response to the OP I'm kinda curious what college students need to be introduced to gaming, I'm also curious what you were expecting when it comes to the PC and local coop. Your standard PC setup just doesn't make it practical, and that's why you find a far larger emphasis on online coop.

My Suggestion: Buy a console if that's what you want. Don't mean to sound rude, it just seems like a crazy criticism of a platform where local multiplayer hasn't been a thing associated with it....ever.

A true PC gamer would not associate with someone who demands local co-op. What kind of animal...