Uncharted 2. Bioshock 2. Modern Warfare 2. MAG. Is There Too Much Cross-Over?

More or less. And even when it's debateable whether a game should have multiplayer (Bioshock 2 springs to mind), the resulting component tends to be rather impressive. But that causes its own sub-set of problems, particularly for someone like myself who has to play through multiple games a week. There just isn't enough time for all this multiplayer.

By its very own nature, multiplayer gaming is about repetition. Since the onset of Call Of Duty, that repetition has been complemented by frequent unlocks. But at its core multiplayer is still all about familiar scenarios against differing opposition. It's about being competitive (or co-operative) within a set of mechanics. It's about spending serious time with a game to really learn it.

That was fine back in the original XBOX days. Halo 2 was the only real truly fantastic XBOX Live shooter. It meant you could enjoy the single-player on every other game, whilst constantly dipping back into Halo 2 whenever necessary. You learned it and your week had space for it. Now I'm just not sure I've got the time.

And that's not because I'm playing more games, it's because more games have great multiplayer. I come to the topic of Bioshock 2. Sure, the franchise didn't need multiplayer - but they made it and it's totally awesome. But how can I ever find time for Bioshock 2's multiplayer, when Uncharted 2 just got a map-pack, Modern Warfare 2 is still near the top of my pile, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing just came out, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is on the horizon.

There's an episode of the Simpsons in which Mr. Burns visits a doctor and is diagnosed with multiple diseases. The doctor explains that the reason he isn't dead is because said diseases are all vying for the space to act. He gathers up a group of balls and pushes them towards an open doorway where the balls subsequently get stuck. It reminds me of my current plight — there's just so many good multiplayer modes that I actually end up playing none of them.

I'm sure the situation isn't relevent to those people who are only able to stretch to one or two good games a year, and to those people I say enjoy it. Sometimes I wished I had time for just one game. MAG's come close to drawing me in regularly like Halo 2 did — but I assume come March I'll have a pile of new multiplayer games pushing MAG right to the bottom of my blu-ray tower, and subsequently vying for my attention all over again.

“Twiggy” is an anonymous PushSquare columnist who has been spotted in three major cities across the globe. It’s rumoured he’s on the run from the British monarchy who accused him of treason.

Previous entries in the “Twiggy” range: