Dead Online Games - Part II

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So you have the likes of Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, Gears of War and Battlefield: Bad Company if you ever fancy a multiplayer shoot-off.

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But what about Turning Point, The Darkness, Prey or Battlefield 2: Modern Combat? Do people still play these or has everyone moved on?

We fired up 10 of the older games on Xbox 360 to see what the deal is. For our previous results on Tenchu Z, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Brian Lara Cricket and the like, check out Part 1.


Case 1. BATTLEFIELD 2: MODERN COMBAT

Time: One hour
Players: 17

Bad Company might be here but try telling that to the hardcore who are refusing to let go of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. The allure of voting for the Backstab map again and again and again between rounds is clearly too strong, as the hour we were online with Modern Combat 2 consisted of Backstab, Backstab, Bridge Too Far (presumably a voting glitch) and Backstab. It just goes to show, sometimes games never evolve. Still, you have to wonder if there's another reason that these diehards refuse to move on. "How come you haven't traded this in for Bad Company?" we ask upyours38, figuring he sounds like a polite young man to ask. "Shut up" he growls before squashing us in a tank. Okay. Point taken.


Case 2. SHADOWRUN

Time: 10 minutes
Players: 8

Another game that's still fairly healthy online despite its creaky legs, Shadowrun had five servers up and running when we jumped online. It's good news given there isn't actually an offline game mode at all, besides playing with bots who fall off ledges and shoot their own team-mates and the like (granted, not that far removed from your typical online FPS player). Even so, good luck if you're just jumping in now. Those left playing Shadowrun are clearly very angry that they can't afford any new games and take it out on any noobs who dare to patrol their servers - orcs roaming the halls with mini-guns, humans spamming you with grenades as soon as they see you and elves teleporting out of walls to stab you in the back with katanas.


Case 3. PREY

Time: 30 minutes
Players: 1

No surprises here. Prey's online mode was garbage when it was popular, with 'popular' in Prey's case meaning you would maybe end up in someone's achievement boosting match by mistake before they questioned your sexuality and booted you out. Now? Nothing. Not a peep. In fact, the only sign of life in the half-an-hour we were online was some guy called Vulphus, who quit out of the match as soon as we killed him anyway. Maybe it was the combination of playing Prey and being killed by someone with a Gemma Atkinson gamerpic proved too much for him. We'll never know.


Case 4. TURNING POINT: FALL OF LIBERTY

Time: 30 minutes
Players: None

Oh well. It's not like we were expecting a multiplayer bonanza of bullets, bombs and bangs when we put this disc in our 360 and sure enough, there wasn't a single player on Turning Point's servers to kickstart the online party. At least there's plenty of stuff you can do in the menus while you wait for someone to show up in the lobby. You can fiddle with the match settings as well as choosing which weapon you start the match with. You can even choose what character you use. There's some comedy old guy with a moustache who we definitely would have used had someone actually dared to try Turning Point's multiplayer mode. Still, good that there's lots of stuff to play with while you wait. It's almost like Spark Unlimited somehow knew this was going to happen.


Case 5. KINGDOM UNDER FIRE: CIRCLE OF DOOM

Time: 30 minutes
Players: 20

And it burns, burns, burns... so went Johnny Cash's ode to the Kingdom Under Fire servers, which were buzzing with activity when we jumped online to see what was happening. It was by far the most enjoyable online experience too. A real mixture of skill levels, with plenty of novices rubbing shoulders with players who have maxed out their characters at Level 120, while the veterans would guide the noobs along and even throw plenty of high-level items and weapons their way. Just so you know, we tried again the next day to ensure this wasn't a freaky coincidence like gaming's equivalent of a lunar eclipse and incredibly, there were still loads of people playing.


Case 6. THE OUTFIT

Time: 20 minutes
Players: 1

The only surprise here is that someone in the world not only owns a copy of The Outfit but actually wants to play it. So our congratulations, recklessOG. May your future endeavours in gaming be as carefully selected and as fruitful as this one.


Case 7. SPLINTER CELL: DOUBLE AGENT

Time: 20 minutes
Players: 6

It looked like this would be heading for disaster, with the lobby OXM created dead for the first few minutes. Then The Mozzey wandered in. Then MassChaos Ghost followed seconds later. Then NG8 LSBarlow. It seems that the lack of a sequel has kept Double Agent on life support, despite its age and steep learning curve. The only problem is the latter problem hasn't gone away just because it's aged. While you're scrambling around trying to find out where the button is that activates that smoke bomb gizmo thingy, a Merc has kicked you in the face and is unloading a full round of ammo into you. Oh.


Case 8. STRANGLEHOLD

Time: One hour
Players: 1

Technically speaking, we had three matches in an hour. However they were all against andyw92, who must officially be The World's Most Determined Stranglehold Player. Never mind that he lost all three or that they were all on the same map or that the game is absolutely, irredeemably terrible online, andyw92 wants to get his money's worth for the game he has bought, dammit! Though we're not sure lagging around a teahouse as John Woo before diving headfirst through a table when you were actually just trying to pick up that machine gun qualifies as money's worth. Or anything worth. There is a reason we could only find one player in an hour, after all.


Case 9. SEGA SUPERSTARS TENNIS

Time: 40 minutes
Players: 1

It seems people have tired of playing as Sonic, Tails and Pudding (who?). Yet oddly enough, this has an unexpected benefit. There's an achievement called Swinging Superstar, which is awarded to the players who get the replay of their match featured as the match of the day. Because no-one else is playing, all you need to do is hang around to play one match - someone will show up eventually - and you've got yourself 30 achievement points for daring to play the game that no-one else wants to try.


Case 10. THE DARKNESS

Time: One hour
Players: None

Well... okay. The Darkness probably has a bigger disparity in quality between its single player and multiplayer than any other game out there, so it seems that people buy it, play it and complete it. Multiplayer? If they tried, they'd just end up staring at a couple of throbbing, pulsating veins for an hour before giving up and heading back into town to trade it in.

Ryan King