ranbow 6 3

so for the xbox, can you play split screen? i read something that says "splitscreen only on gamecube and playstation". WTF? is that MS coercing people to spend money on xbox live if they want to play with friends? that's lame...which makes me think it's probably true.

 

It came out at least 6 months earlier for xbox, the PS2 and gamecube versions have an additional level and the split screen feature as selling points to 'coerce' people into buying a 6 month old game on systems with worse graphics.

I think you'd have to play co-op all the time in split screen since you can just look and see where your buddy is all the time.

It's not an MS conspiracy, it's basically the same thing as xbox getting the GTA double pack a year after ps2 had vice city.

Here's the ps2 "features":
- Online play is limited to 6 players.
- No online co-op.
- The G3A3 has been removed from online play.
- 4 "exclusive" online maps. (Trieste, Prison, Sandstorm, and Crossfire)
- Terrorists will grab hostages as human shields.
- Some new voice-overs for hostages.
- New 40 second cinematic for the new single-player mission, entitled Trieste.
- Weapons have had slight power adjustments.
- Levels are split into two parts. That means 2 loading screens for each level. One at the beginning and one in the middle

So each version has a little bad with the good. Guess you just have to pick what features are more important to you.

 

i'd like to play co-op, so the ability to see the other guy isn't a big deal. i dunno. that sounds pretty thin. they've got ALL the code for multi-play in there (system link, online) they just don't have the easy part (split screen). that sounds fishy to me.

i'm a real fan of co-op campaigns, tho. i'm glad to see people finally making that a real feature in games. i just don't get a kick out of the two person deathmatch. it's like tag with two people. not very fun.

 

well, since the xbox version was at least 6 months earlier, they may have decided AFTER it shipped to add split-screen to the other 2 versions. Halo has split-screen, PGR2 has split-screen, lots of Live games have split-screen, it's not a conspiracy.

 

maybe. but halo predates live. it would certainly be fishy if PGR2 didn't have split screen and PGR1 did.

i guess when the next one comes out, it should have splitscreen or something funny is going on. obviously i don't trust ms.

 

it's part of doing business, just like MS bought bungie to have Halo exclusively, and Sony threw a ton of cash at Rockstar to keep GTA 3 and Vice City exclusive to PS2 for a certain amount of time. During the time that a game is exclusive to one console, the developers often use that time to add features to the upcoming alternate versions. If it's an MS conspiracy, explain the additional levels on the PS2 and Gamecube versions.

 

yeah, it's a lot like ms buying bungie. halo is an amazing game, but it could have come out ages ago if not for ms buying them and essentially stalling the project so that the xbox would have a good game. it was announced something like 5 years before it came out. it doesn't take that long to make a game -- even one as good as halo.

i'm not claiming there's a conspiracy on ms' part to make their games better, i'm suggesting they want xbox live to do well so it wouldn't be beyond the scope of their business practices to encourage developers to not offer splitscreen play for multiplayer.

doesn't rainbox 6 use the unreal engine? i would think split screen support would be built into that engine. what other unreal engine games are out for the xbox and do they have splitscreen support?

 

Unreal 2 is out or coming soon, I guess Splinter Cell and Pandora Tomorrow use a modified unreal engine, but I'm not sure about split-screen for any of those. Splinter Cell doesn't have multiplayer obviously. I have a feeling that split-screen will become less and less common as online features become more prevalent. It's a shame really. I just checked and Unreal 2 and Pandora don't have split-screen.

 

and why do you think that is? if there wasn't xbox live, they'd most certainly have splitscreen (obviously, since multiplay would sorta require it). so the question is, are they getting an incentive to NOT put splitscreen into these games? i just can't fathom that they think nobody wants it or that it's just too hard to do.

 

Ubisoft today announced Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, one of those standalone expansion pack dealies that are so popular these days (think Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm). Fans of Rainbow Six 3 have a lot to be excited about with this game, as it will be one of the first games to take advantage of the upcoming Xbox Live 3.0 features, which include advanced messaging, user-created tournaments and more. Also new is a split-screen co-op mode for offline multiplayer. On a related note, two new levels are now available for download for the original Rainbow Six 3, details of which are up at Team Xbox (one of which looks an awful lot like a well-known Counter-Strike level).