I hate online multiplayer for several reasons:

1. Users are assholes
2. Game becomes obsolete

When a game focuses solely on multiplayer what can you do with it in a few years when no one is playing it anymore or the company shuts down the servers due to age? You can't play it anymore, it's osolete. That's why my favorite games are single player. Ten years from now I can still pop in Ninja Gaiden or God of War and be able to get the full experience of the game. Halo fanatics who focus solely on multiplayer just abandon each prior release for the new one because of the online mode. What if Halo 3 was my favorite and I feel like playing against some friends online in 5 years but Microsoft took the servers down? Can't play. So, I don't even bother with online in games .I prefer single player, even in my shooters that I play I look for shooters with good campaigns since I never go online, ever. I tried it and I hated it. When I want multiplayer I call friends over and we play on the same console. It seems like these days people say a game isn't good or worth playing if it doesn't have online multiplayer so developers are shoe horning it into everything even into games that didn't used to have it.

I kind of disagree with you.

I'm a single player guy myself for the reason of loading screens/ menus all the god damn time!

but many many many gamers will blast through the storymode/singleplayer and then stay online for the remainder of the time they play the game.

Basically I think a review should cover all angles but I don't pay any attention to scores 6/10, 3/5 etc. Numbers are meaningless to me, I just want to listen to them talk about the game and its features, its good points and its bad points.

I agree with what's been said and more than that, I wish achievements (especially difficult ones such as "I'm Not Dead Yet") weren't attached to online multiplayer components. Who the hell is shitty enough of a player to beat me within an inch of my life and then get whaled into oblivion immediately after.

Seriously, that achievement is burning me up! Never would have been this way had I not 100% on Tekken 6 and UMK3.

I actually got really lucky with that one.

I let the guy bring me down to 10% health then started fighting back and took about 30% of his health down then died.

Second round same again he brought me down to 10% health and stoped attacking then sent me a message with just " ;) " in it.

Exactly! He hooked you up. No such luck over here. I wish we still had Internet at the crib.

I think reviews should review every componet of a game. If that means multiplayer, single player, or other features, so be it. If I'm gonna go buy a game, then I wanna know everything that game has to offer. Besides, multiplayer keeps me playing a game even after a completely raped single campaign.

And J-spit, I'd hook you up.

^ are you on my XBL list? Also, we would need stupid luck to end up matched in a ranking battle.

I think that is a reasonable statement to make for a video game review.

The issue here is the availability of Multiplayer, Some people dont have online so it turns the gamer off when they see "Single player is good, but Multiplayer > Single player, and if you dont have online, you're screwed." ONLINE itself shouldn't be a factor in any game review, because its not fair for everyone. See what i mean? Not saying they can't talk about it and what not, say it sucks or its awesome , but it shouldn't Negatively/Positevly affect the games score.

If multi-player is included as part of the game, it should be included as a factor in the review. Everything that comes with the game comes under scrutiny and should be judged and weighed in the final verdict. So no, I don't agree with your op. Putting out the notion that some people can't play on line and therefore it shouldn't be counted is irrelevant. The game is being judged for it's overall quality.

I get what you are saying. For someone who doesnt have online, it is kind of stupid to hear that online for a game is great. I dont think they should exclude it though when they are rating/reviewing a game. I do agree that they should ephasize more on campign and spend more time reviewing that, especially for peeps without internet. Unless the game was made for multiplayer like battlefield or COD.'

@J-spit, I have you on my XBL friends. Just pick a day, peferablly the weekend, and we shall just keep declining people in ranked til we get each other I suppose. At least the online community has died down on there, so it might happen. I forgot that acheiv was on ranked. That sucks. I hate achievs like that.

Yea, I remember going for the Timeout Trophy, He realised what I was doing because I kept freezing him and backing off, in the 2nd round he let the timer go to 1 second and then disconnected, bitch!

I wish games that focus on multiplayer would do just that. Again using Battlefield/ CoD as an example. Why even bother to have a single player campaign at all? Rather devote more time into getting multiplayer perfect. I would still pay full price for a awesome multiplayer only game. Had Battlefield since release and I have not even touched single player. I see no point for it to even be there.

For people who won't pay full price, I would then suggest they sell the game slightly cheaper and then they could always offer a single player component as an optional download later.

What a douche.

Someone actually let me get the Turtle achievement, but I got Throws Are For Champs, Ultimate Humiliation, and Don't Jump legit.

How do you review multiplayer anyway? If the community is douchey from the jump, it would be a horrible experience.

i think multi-player has become more than just an addition to games.
for some genres On-line is in my opinion more important than just the arcade mode. fighting and sport games can become kinda boring playing against the A.I. all day. so it increases the replay-ability for those genres. i feel what u say but i think it should effect the game's score so that the games play good offline as online. im sure NRS has learned from this and that online MP gets improved in the future.

2bad most mofos fuck up online...

Definitely if a game (such as MK for example) has multiplayer features and online capability it needs to be included in a review. INCLUDED with the rest of the review not excluding single player aspect.

I myself ignore the online trophies because it's impossible to get them. I can hook up my Wii wirelessly (i have permission) to a router in the building two floors away to go online with Mariokart but not the Xbox.

Mostly i do MK solo very rarely my flatmate joins me. He's not really much for MK because i kill him too easily. We love Mariokart, Mario party, monopoly etc together. all hail the mighty Nintendo!!

...wait, what was the original point?

oh yeah, in my onion, reviewers need to include all aspects of a game, but not assume all capabilities (like online) on the part of the gamer.

I see where you're coming from but multiplayer does matter.
I used to play Battlefield: 1942 in LAN with three computers (offline) against bots so it's still possible that people could play e.g. Battlefield locally. Moreover, it's possible, while unlikely, that the critics play the online mode in a private session to avoid wrong people join the game.
The multiplayer is a significant aspect of a game and, while I don't remember the numbers, putting it in a game raises the sales big time.

If a game is focused on singleplayer, then that is what it should be reviewed as. If it has a multiplayer feature, then that should be accounted for. If the multiplayer feature is bad, of course the game would get a worse score, even if the game is supposed to be focused on the singleplayer modes. Then they should simply remove the multiplayer mode instead of just making a half-assed one.

I like singleplayer and multiplayer games, but I prefer when the game is focused on one or the other, because then I know the developers have made the game to be specifically good on that part. When it has both, then it is tough to balance it out and make both features equally good. It is easier to do with a fighting game and with shooters than other genres though.

I think that playing in person is the way to go. I particulary recently had the epiphany that I enjoy Co-op play more than competitive and I wish more games were team oriented like Little Big Planet and Resident Evil 5.

For some reason people cant handle competition without being extreme assholes, so I have little to do with competitive multiplayer anymore.