For The Couch Co-op Company
Its easy to trivialise something as important as grouping up with friends when playing games. It could be friends youve known for a while and youve gotten to the point talk exhaustion, or youre a few typical blokes and dont do the tea and biscuit catch-up thing, at this point nothings better than getting out some split-screen classics while casually eating dangerous sums of unhealthy snacks. New and potentially awkward situations such as a student housewarming or newly met friends coming round, the problem can easily be solved through breaking the ice with some co-op competitive games like Halo or Borderlands. Now, you could easily jump into a network game with any of these games, attach that barely fitting headset and listen to the abuse of dozens of unruly children, but anyone who has even the slightest bit of self awareness knows how excluding this can be when you have a few kind additions with you. There is also the alternative measure of convincing your mates to get a console and jumping into the same private game, you could, but thats not cheap or is it truly rewarding. Plus you have the satisfying physical advantage on a couch of punishing the useless co-op partner, which is an inarguable benefit.