Co-op games and the missus

Branoic

My wife, who doesn't play video games, wants to play some video games with me. Something about sharing my interests and spending more time together, or something. All good with me, since I get to play more video games

Anyway, I'm trying to find something suitable we can play together and something she might actually tolerate. If she dislikes something more than video games, its sci fi, so the likes of co-op Gears of War or Halo are out. If Uncharted 2 had same-console story mode co-op it would have been absolutely ideal, as I think she'd really like that game, but alas its not to be

We did try a bit of Fable 2 when it came out. While the co-op in Fable 2 was fine for jumping into your friend's world for an hour, its very unsatisfying as a full fledged co-op game, as the second player is like a second class citizen in the game world and can't really do anything or take part in the actual story.

Any ideas? I was thinking Resident Evil 5? I haven't even played it myself, cos I was turned off by the whole AI sidekick thing, but now with the prospect of actually playing it co-op, I'm looking at it again. Its not hardcore sci fi, so I think she'd be more in to it. My concern is that that the gameplay itself, control scheme etc may be a bit too complicated for a videogame noob who basically has trouble operating two analogue sticks at the same time without looking at the controller :P

Nevyn

There certain seems to be a lack of co op rpg games out there, bladursgate on the orginal xbox was pretty good, but there does not seem to be any newer titles

c - 13

Not co-op but bomberman off Xbox live. Easy to pick up and can be down to chance as well. Started my g/f off playing that and she's now progressed to GOW and Left4Dead.

Scene it is another popular one at home. Great fun. Saw it going cheap with the buzzer pack over on bargain alerts recently too.

Sabre0001

Hmmm, you mention both PS3 and XBox titles there so:
Little Big Planet (PS3)
Splosion Man (XBox Arcade)
Buzz Quiz games (PS3) // Scene It! (XBox)
Peggle (XBox) - not Co-op
Resident Evil 5 could be a good one
Left4Dead (XBox) - writers read up on the outbreak of 'Spanish Influenza' so it's not quite sci-fi......but you are facing hordes of infected
Racing games - if you can find ones that support split screen at this stage!

citizen_p

halo??? nah.... sci fi

cod 5 will have co op
i think migh5t be interweb only...

Branoic

Thanks all, some good suggestions there. Will take a look at some arcade games and resi 5 and L4D

Sephiroth_dude

Left for dead would be a good choice,played co op with my brother was great fun.

pH

If you're looking for co-op on a single xbox 360, the following spring to mind - I've done exactly the same thing.

Eternal Sonata - More like watching a movie for hours in parts, only one player moves on the map scenes but both control chars in the combat portions - might appeal to female gamers, depends on whether you view that whole japanese RPG thing as "sci-fi"

Castle-Crashers - mindless bashing but cute and fun!

Sacred 2 - ok-ish - 2 player diabloesque action.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (possibly 2 also?) - super-hero co-op bashing.

All of the "Lego" games - quite fun, nice puzzles - can be played straight through easily, but getting 1000 gamerscore is a nice challenge.

Tales of Vesperia - haven't played this myself, supports 3 player local co-op - gets good reviews (again depending on your views on Japanese rpg)

Rock band/guitar hero franchise - obvious/nuff said

Also the Viva-Pinatas might be worth a look, check out co-optimus.com for al full list of all Xbox360 retails titles that include local co-op.

http://www.co-optimus.com/search.php?advanced=true&gamename=&system=1&publisher=&developer=&esrb=&genre=0&local=Y&offline_num=&online_num=&sortby=relevance

D4RK ONION

I'm going to throw my hat in with Rock Band, because I'm completely unbiased towards it :P can be great fun though and will appeal to all music tastes

L31mr0d

I'm in the same boat. The missus likes Chuzzle, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies (so popcap pretty much)

But we do play the odd game together that both of us like

The best has to be Little Big Planet. It's just so cute, with the sixaxis hip and head waggle and the interchangeable costumes that no girl wouldn't like it, but the gameplay is competant enough to keep it a challenge for me.

She likes platformers, I've played through all the recent PoP games with her, doing pass the controller after a life or level.

For pure coop, as mentioned the Lego series is great for this. I've played through all of them with her. You may also give Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon a go which is coop and relatively good.

Spiderman: Friend or Foe is also pure coop (in a style similar to Streets of Rage) I actually found the coop to be very good in this game which seems to be overlooked by most, in that you had to work together to take down enemies. The missus as spiderman wouldn't be strong enough to defeat an enemy and myself as Rhino I wouldn't be agile or fast enough to catch them, so you had to cooperate, spiderman using his web to hold them in place for a few seconds while I as Rhino could charge them and kill them.

cherryghost

D4RK ONION wrote: »

I'm going to throw my hat in with Rock Band, because I'm completely unbiased towards it :P can be great fun though and will appeal to all music tastes

go for guitar her 5 instead: you can play identical instruments, you can drop in/out of play when you feel like it, all songs unlocked at the beginning, as well as ability to change instruments, take a break, change difficulty in the middle of a song. great co-op experience :P

Silverfish

Why don't you head to one of the games shops with her, see if she can pick out anything she likes?

There's not a lot of good co-op games once you leave out the sci-fi.

Maybe consider some Rainbow 6 ?

We'd been looking for some decent co-op games, I eventually got Army of Two out of sheer desperation - that's how bad the co-op options were at the time.
But it's handy enough if she's starting out.

Da Bounca

I'd second Castle Crashers as was mentioned earlier. Keep ye going for a good few hours at least. Easy to pick up, lots of fun, available through Xbox Live. Can't really go far wrong with it.

If you do have an olde Xbox or PS2, Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance is one of the best co-op games I've played.

L31mr0d

Silverfish wrote: »

Army of Two out of sheer desperation - that's how bad the co-op options were at the time.

Army of Two isn't actually that bad though. Don't understand the dislike of that game, it had some pretty cool game dynamics. Loved being able to rip doors off cars and use them as shields.

The aggro/stealth system worked really well also. In fact I think the main problem people had with the game is that it's pure coop. Is there even a SP campaign (never looked myself)

Recently finished RE5 in coop and I'd still rate Army of Two as better than it for coop. Can't wait for the sequel.

Silverfish

L31mr0d wrote: »

Army of Two isn't actually that bad though. Don't understand the dislike of that game, it had some pretty cool game dynamics. Loved being able to rip doors off cars and use them as shields.

The aggro/stealth system worked really well also. In fact I think the main problem people had with the game is that it's pure coop. Is there even a SP campaign (never looked myself)

Recently finished RE5 in coop and I'd still rate Army of Two as better than it for coop. Can't wait for the sequel.

Suppose just because different people have different opinions on games.For example, I hated LBP, I found it really childish to look at.
The main dislike of AoT was the 'YO BRAH!' dialogue and the headbumping and whatnot. Actually, I'll probably still buy the next one, whinging about a game never stops me getting it.

PPC

Checkout http://www.co-optimus.com/
It has a listing of all co-op games

L31mr0d

Silverfish wrote: »

The main dislike of AoT was the 'YO BRAH!' dialogue and the headbumping and whatnot.

Yeah it's just different opinions because I thought the dialogue and head bumping was hilarious. It was OTT jock Americans. It was laughable corny, as bad as the scripting in the Fast and the Furious series.

The ability though to congratulate your team mate or smack them in the back of the head if they made a mistake was a nice touch. On more than one occasion, when the guy I was playing with didn't draw aggro when I was trying to flank, it was nice that I had the option after the fight to go over and punch him in head for nearly getting me killed.

Silverfish

L31mr0d wrote: »

The ability though to congratulate your team mate or smack them in the back of the head if they made a mistake was a nice touch. On more than one occasion, when the guy I was playing with didn't draw aggro when I was trying to flank, it was nice that I had the option after the fight to go over and punch him in head for nearly getting me killed.

All co-op games should have that option.

Suppose they do have that option if you're playing co-op with someone in the same room


(I in no way whatsoever endorse or encourage this action)

Sabre0001

pH wrote: »

Castle-Crashers - mindless bashing but cute and fun!

How How HOW did I forget this one?!

Overheal

I've seen my fair share of couples get along very nicely by playing WoW together.

Greyjoy

I played thru Resi 5 co-op with the missus who enjoyed it. Apart from L4D she's not a big fan of shooters. Resident Evil 5 is more "stop-aim-shoot" style unlike the "run 'n gun" style of Gears or Halo which helps inexperienced players. "Rock Band" is still the top co-op choice in our place though.

elekid

How about Point n' Click games like Sam & Max or Monkey Island where you could work together to try and solve the puzzles and there would be a bit of humour too?

dreamers75

tried sex?

Branoic

dreamers75 wrote: »

tried sex?

Don't know why, but the controls just feel wrong with that one - analogue stick is stiff and buttons feel unresponsive.

Retr0gamer

RopeDrink wrote: »

(Think of it as a days worth of wading through shit and you get K&L in a nutshell).

Fix your post for you.

Simius Puer

I would suggest Kitchen Maid II, or World of Baking but my GF would just punch me ;]

Now, please...don't go branding me sexist. Sure girls can play games too, and think it would be a great idea if all new kitchen appliances came with a built in DS.

*ducks for cover*

Mr E

^^

Any more comments like that and this thread gets locked. Last warning.

ella87

The Lego games are good fun Indiana jones and batman
I've played both with my bf

djkeogh

My OH likes, Sonic and Mario games. She got stuck into Peggle from XBLA as well and we often have great Versus games in that. As for a full on game title, not much seems to interest her.

DarkJager

Army Of Two is good craic, I enjoyed it anyway. Enough mindless action to keep you entertained for hours.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent has a decent co-op, both agents need to work together to avoid getting caught and also to access certain areas. Takes a bit of thought and planning to succeed at it. but its a great laugh.

Ghost Recon and Viva Pinata are another 2 that come to mind at the moment.

Liamario

My girlfriend really liked playing ghost recon. Unfortunately, I can't help but get annoyed at her when she doesn't follow basic instructions. She then doesn't want to play

Nevyn

Nothing is more frustating to a noob at a game when a more experienced player keeps telling them what to do exactly instead of letting them figure it out for themselves.
Tis one of the reason I won't play a game in co op mode until I have mastered the basics myself, esp when it comes to playing with my kids.

The go there, do this now, no push that button just makes you feel like a meat puppet and it's just no enjoyable.

pH

Thaedydal wrote: »

Nothing is more frustating to a noob at a game when a more experienced player keeps telling them what to do exactly instead of letting them figure it out for themselves.
Tis one of the reason I won't play a game in co op mode until I have mastered the basics myself, esp when it comes to playing with my kids.

The go there, do this now, no push that button just makes you feel like a meat puppet and it's just no enjoyable.

Dead right, I won't play a co-op game with someone who has played it before. Especially with a 'loved one', part of the fun is discovering and learning it together, even leaving out the meat puppet "do this, do that" it's just as annoying when one person is constantly going "Oh this bit coming up is great ... oh you'll like the next bit ... next bit is a bit tricky ..." and so on.

Kiith

Thaedydal wrote: »

Nothing is more frustating to a noob at a game when a more experienced player keeps telling them what to do exactly instead of letting them figure it out for themselves.

Nothing is more frustating to an experienced player when a noob keeps ignoring instructions and tries to figure things out for themselves

Ah only kidding. I've been guilty of trying to tell someone how to do certain parts of a game myself, but i know it can be frustrating as hell when it happens to you. Half the fun of the game is trying to figure things out, and the satisfaction of doing it on your own. I've learned to keep quiet when watching someone play a game, unless specifically asked for help.

As for co-op games, i'd recommend Resident Evil 5 as well, as well as Left 4 Dead and Guitar Hero/Rock Band. I also played through the original Lego Star Wars games in college with a friend, which was great fun. Very enjoyable games.

Lame Lantern

I've only ever played games with my partners down through the years when I get frustrated with being killed repeatedly online and need somebody incompetent to beat up. Playing co-op as the dramatically better player would cause me to rip out my own face bone.

Da Bounca

There's a remake of Toejam and Earl on Xbox Live Arcade as far as I know. Excellent co-op game, so much fun. Get that if you're still considering games.

Cunny-Funt

On a coop buzz with my mates atm, digged up swat 4, great game, they need to make swat 5 NOW.

Not a good suggestion for something to play with a gf I suppose... LBP I guess.. worms... an mmo maybe?

eddhorse

I have played Resistance 1 and 2 CO-OP on the PS3 with the missus, she loves shooting aliens !
And playing Resident Evil 5 CO-OP with my bro, nearly finished it.
There isnt many games that will allow you to play campaigns with two players, its a shame.
Little Big Planet i have also and love it although she doesnt like it, i have 3 controllers and it sgood crack when a few people come over
Rainbow six Vegas is another one, i had the first one which i thought was hard and didnt really like, second one should be better
Thats all i can think of for the PS3