Topic: Gaming's been stale for awhile now if you're not a single-player (only) person

Its been bad , like , less than mediocre last gen for multiplayer gaming . the variety is non-existent and chances are the PS5 era is gonna be just as bad , i don't think it can get any worse than this . Meanwhile single-player gamers have had a field-trip with running through their game library - games from decades ago getting remasters or long awaited sequels , retro-games from all eras getting ported , even multiplayer games having single-player content for those who want to just rush through the 1 hour story mode and return it to gamestop , and most importantly - single player games having a variety of genres to play ; and platforming games of all genres , are still alive and well. The library of single-player games for the PS4/last gen could rival PC.

Last gen , the same top 3 multiplayer console games was played all gen - your yearly COD's , NBA 2k , and GTA (which can be interchanged with a battle-royale instead) . just rehashed FPS sequels , your pick and choose sports game rebranded as ''21'' , and a milked port of a PS3 game from 8 years ago . If you're a multiplayer-only gamer , or a predominantly multiplayer-gamer , surely you understand . Battle-royales are fine but what else ? its a FPS of search-and-destroy with 100 people , GTA has carried a big chunk of last gen, and call of duty can tie-in as BR since the regular multiplayer mode of that franchise has been struggling for years , with BR carrying the games.

Of multiplayer games , the shooter-genre is the only genre that seems to have competition . So in a way its like , the only variety of MP games is within the shooter genre and thats speaking for PC ; but as for PS4 ?? COD/Fortnite/APEX - so 1 multiplayer shooter and three battle royales(warzone) . Fighters have been getting carried by MK and SF all generation , and nothing else . Even those two games are not even top 3 games of their respective franchises with criticisms of latest fighters to come out last-gen being mixed to bad. Need For Speed has basically been the only racing game to play and its a fatigue with that franchise , sports games are contracted to only two devs - EA and 2K ; factor in the lack of incentives for split-screen/co-op and overall content that multiplayer games have lacked , it just seems like dark times. With microtransactions being a thing , you'd think multiplayer games would have so much more content and wouldn't release broken and barren on release, and that they'd branch off into making other MP games because of all the microtransaction dollars .

This is just something I wanted to discuss , curious if any other MP players are struggling to have fun and find new games to keep entertained when your playing video games.

Rocket League
Literally the battle-royale boom
Even Auto Chess
Big Bethesda MMOs
Destiny 1 and 2
Overcooked
Josef Fares’ games

There’s plenty variety if you look. If you’re looking at what’s the most popular then you won’t find variety. It’s like looking for Latvian post-Communist hyperrealism in a world of David Walliams sh*t-lit, the MCU and Coldplay. Look under the surface.

@nessisonett theres nothing under the surface . rocket league is not the kind of game one could play regularly on the level of COD for hours. its fun in short bursts and ultimately barebones. and i already explained battle-royale , its as if your mind was already made up before you even read the post.

pretty sad when one-off indie games are considered in the same league as AAA multiplayer games. Those kinds of games you found on the Xbox Live Arcade back in the day.

and to be blunt , BR's are nothing more than glorified search-and-destroy with 100 people. it's not really different , its just another mode that could be in COD , oh wait, it is .

@nomither6 So your complaint is that there isn’t a magical game that fits exactly what you’re looking for except you don’t actually know what you’re looking for.

@nessisonett no , if you'd actually read my post , instead of being so quick to disagree and detest my post, you'd understand what im saying instead of putting words in my mouth . but going by your recent response , don't worry about discussing it anymore ; just go find another topic , no point in discussing anything with a combative person. i say one thing , u assume some bull. so forget it.

i explained my post pretty thoroughly .

So I’ve always been a single player gamer and that is probably a big reason why I find the PlayStation in particular a perfect platform to play the games I enjoy. The irony of your particular perspective is that for years we had the other major gaming brands (other than Sony) together with the gaming media, telling us that single player games were dead and all AAA gaming would transition to multiplayer gaming in the near future. As always though the truth is somewhere in between, single player gaming was far from dead and multiplayer gaming is still alive and kicking.

@nessisonett has mentioned a variety of mp games that have been critically &/ commercially successful this past gen and even I partake on an occasion. Probably around 95% of my gaming tends to be single player but I have and continue to ‘dabble’ in multiplayer games though. Just this weekend I started Remnant from the Ashes and I also bought The Division 2. They may not be exactly what you’re referring to in your post as everything you’ve mentioned seems to have PVP, where as these are co-op PVE. I’m really enjoying Remnant though and expect to love the Division 2 as well. So those, together with Destiny and Outriders cover the looter-shooter.

Another MASSIVE multiplayer game this last gen has been Final fantasy XIV... just one of the expansions alone (Shadow Bringers?) was many journalists (& gamers) game of the year a couple of years back. I don’t have the time to devote to something like FFXIV but from everything I’ve read and been told, it’s incredible. I played a load of Elder Scrolls Online (which does have a very strong PVP component) at the start of last gen and it has put me off ever playing a MMORPG ever again. Not because it was bad, I actually loved it... but it just took over my life for a bit there and I’ll avoid letting that happen again.

There has been a lot of informed speculation that Guerrilla Games is working on a massive multiplayer games alongside Horizon: Forbidden West. Many think it could be a new SOCOM or others think that Warhawk/Starhawk could be resurrected. Whatever it turns out to be, I’d imagine it will be a real big release when it eventually comes out.

Anyway, a good friend of mine has always been predominantly a mp player and after me trying to push all the great sp Sony first party stuff at him this past gen... one finally got its teeth into him. He managed to force himself past the introduction of Ghost of Tsushima (he quit out of most of the others before that point) and ended up loving it more than he could have imagined. So much so that it’s opened his eyes a little to what he’s been missing. He’s now giving Days Gone a go and really enjoying that too... so ultimately I think that even if someone has a preference (I like sp but do play & enjoy some mp, while my mate is the polar opposite) it’s good to explore both aspects.

@colonelkilgore yes , i was into to single-player games and i know they're going strong. but ironically im the opposite to your friend, hes getting into single-player & im over single-player. ive always been both single and multiplayer but recently im intentionally sticking with only multiplayer games. ive played single player a lot and its gotten to a point these past years that i just prefer multiplayer now.

and yes , im specifically talking about PvP . PvE could borderline be considered single player , when i played borderlands 3, most people played alone. whether another player plays with you or not, it plays out the same and its against AIs

i'll use rocket league for example , yea, its a good drop to add to the (stale) variety pool of PvP MP games ; but compare the content to that of a SP game (not replay value) , your average SP has more content than rocket-league , more to do , more to see and explore , etc. Rocket League doesn't have the staying power of witholding your attention as long as a SP game does. the replay value is what helps Rocket League because of the MP but it gets boring quick because theres not more to the game than playing soccer with match-box cars. The maps all play the same , because it is all the same and nothing else to it. Rocket League is a game you play in the waiting room on your phone for 30 minutes , not an all-nighter multiple times a week MP game.

@nomither6 so what is it specifically you are actually looking for?

I grew up in a family where i was really the only one seriously into gaming. My siblings would play from time to time but they didn't have nearly the obsession i did so playing by myself was pretty common. On top of that i only had like three friends i sometimes hung out with and they all wanted to play sports or racing games which just wasn't my thing. I did play two player beat em ups with my buds like Turtles in time or the mortal kombat games. It was fun back then cause you were all in the same room gathered in front of the TV and spewing colorful insults at eachother or dissing the loser.

I never could get into online play. It's just not the same. Especially if you don't really know the other people or it's some random guy in some place you've never been to. That and the times i did try playing online i got stomped into the ground. I was playing Mortal kombat 11 a while back and some dude was just knocking my ass around doing insane combos and wouldn't even let me make a move. I was like that's it I'm out! This isn't fun anymore.

So yeah i didn't have online all the way up until my teens and i don't need it now. I'd rather play a story driven single player game anyday. Maybe I'm a relic from a bygone era but i don't feel I'm missing anything.

@Zeldafan79 '' I'd rather play a story driven single player game anyday. Maybe I'm a relic from a bygone era but i don't feel I'm missing anything.''

i mean , thats good and all but , i titled the topic for people who primarily or mostly play multiplayer games. I even mentioned the state of single-player as a comparative in my post , and its by no means a ''by-gone'' era , dude...Single player games are doing great , thats not what its about.

@colonelkilgore

i'll use 7th gen (the best of MP imo) as an example across both the PS3 & 360 - there was variety with PvP with games such as -

Left 4 Dead 1/2
Assassins Creed Brotherhood/AC3 (the concept of AC debut into multiplayer was original, different, and amazing)
Twisted Metal 2012
4 types of racers were present - Arcade (Midnight Club) , Circuit (Need For Speed) , Simulator (Gran Turismo), Kart racing (Modnation Racers) with sequels or new editions released
There were an abundance of great fighting games that are considered the best or one of the best in the series - MK9 , UMVC3 , Tekken Tag 2 , Street fighter 4 , Dead Or Alive 4 , etc
The Golden Days of COD because of its innovation and originality

Do you understand at least a bit what im saying ? Because I know you mentioned you're primarily a single-player gamer ; Im just looking for a variety of genres instead of playing multiple games of 1 genre , FPS is one genre with the most variety . but what about the others ? Thats what i mean by MP is stale , its just FPS with all the same concepts , apex , warzone, player unknown battlegrounds , h1z1 , fornite , all battle royales with the same concept. what if someones tired of the same formula under a different title .

the other genres are in a monopoly by mediocre devs - the traditional FPS multiplayer days of COD have been bad for us , they're efforts all went to battle royale . Fighting games are MIA except street fighter and MK , with releases being unfavorable within the FGC , Racing games is just need for speed , sports games are in an monopoly - only one dev makes madden and 2k. what happened to games like NBA street , and NFL street ? Or Blitz the league made by midway ?

i apologize for going on a rant .

A new multiplayer game from the creators of Outlast are making a game called ''Outlast Trials '' that im really interested in , thats an example . another is back 4 blood . just no more shooters and yea the game can have guns and be first person but no more of the same concept is what im saying . if its an FPS , make the concept different , make our objective with the guns something else than just shoot the other team to win. we dont need more clones of battle royale , or team deathmatch shooters.

@nomither6 no need to apologise at all, so I’m unfamiliar with some/most of those games but I always thought (maybe incorrectly) that Left4Dead was co-op PVE... I’m quite surprised to learn it had PVP. I’m also quite shocked about your positivity about the AC games dipping their toes into mp. All I’ve ever heard about sp games that have mp modes is whinging about ‘tacked-on multiplayer’. It’s nice to know someone enjoyed them. In that regard, if you’ve never tried it, I have heard from many people that The Last of Us Factions is very good. Might be a bit late in the games life-cycle now but it might be worth a shot.

Racing games aren’t my thing but I’d assume that most of those types are available to play now albeit in different guises. The Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, Forza Horizon & Motorsport games etc should cover most of that area I’d imagine but could be wrong. And one-on-one fighting games are certainly still about. I don’t play them but I always see loads of people on my friends list playing MK, Tekken, Injustice etc. and I’ve heard the Guilty Gear games are absolutely phenomenal.

I can feel your frustration from your posts, so don’t take this as me trying to find fault in your argument... your clearly not getting the games ‘you’ want atm. I felt similarly about 5 years ago, only in terms of a single player skew. At the time I only ‘really’ played Open World actioners and Open World RPG’s. There hadn’t been anything released that fed into that particular area for a while (which is crazy when you look at the gaming landscape today). So I started diversifying, and playing games that I wouldn’t necessarily be drawn to. I found it tough going at first, not in terms of difficulty but in regards to gleaning enjoyment from these genres that weren’t to my taste. But I persevered and now Open Wprld Actioners and Open World RPG’s aren’t even my favourite game-style anymore... and I play pretty much everything now (apart from the stuff you like funnily enough).

Edit. Never played it but always heard it was very good... and different to the games you’ve mentioned... what about For Honor?

@nomither6 Did you ever get into Fall Guys? It was a bit flavour of the month but a clever idea for something a bit different in the MP world and the first one I got sucked into for ages.

We’ve had Destruction Allstars recently too which I never tried. Both games will have been massively helped by being free on PS+ though.

The problem with other novel MP games, something like Friday 13th on PS4, is that it relies on having a big enough user base to survive and I think games like that will always struggle without something like being a PS+ freebie, hence why so many MP games are modified versions of the SP mode.

I understand your point, but I also disagree.

The From Software games have multiplayer, there's stuff like Terraria and Minecraft, Fall Guys, Rocket League has already been mentioned, Gwent, Monster Hunter, Ark, Final Fantasy XIV, Red Dead Redemption 2, Avengers, Ghost of Tsushima. There is SO MUCH.

And yes, the big publishers have been publishing less multiplayer games, but they've been publishing less games in general. Just look at Activision's output the last few years. So yeah,if your issue is with them, then I'd say that's the same for both single and multiplayer.

I used to love jumping into a quick match of Unreal Tournament 3 on the PS3. Never had a game quite like it since.
I'll be interested to check out Last of Us Factions 2, but who knows when that will arrive.

I think one of my favourites for multiplayer pvp during the PS4 generation is Bloodborne. It has its issues but I loved it despite its imperfections. Had a great community too, which makes a big difference.

@Thrillo raises Friday 13th which is a great example actually, as it leads on to Predator: Hunting Grounds and also Dead by Daylight which I keep hearing is huge. And as @Kidfried also states the PVP (& PVE co-op) is excellent in the From Soft games.

Now I’m aware that you hate Battle Royale’s but I have also heard many people extoll the virtues of Hunt: Showdown. It’s meant to be a lot less gimmicky and much more tactical than Fortnight et al.

I'd say Red Dead Online but I play that like a single player game. I occasionally bump into other players who just wave and trot off. The civilised multiplayer game.