Multi-player gaming is being given more importance today than ever before. So much so that many people now see single player-only games as less value for money. While a negative side effect to the popularity of multi-payer gaming is that many games now come with tacked on multi-player modes just for the sake of it, a few stand out of the crowd as masters of the art, and here is a select bunch that made our list of nominees for Best Multi-player Game of 2009.
Street Fighter 4 did many things right. It remained faithful to the series’ past, it looked brilliant, and it played extremely well offline and online. But just as importantly, it led the revival of competitive gaming in a multi-player genre that was on a steady decline. DICE released the multi-player-only Battlefield 1943 to a thundering response, shattering day one and week one sales records for download-only games on Xbox LIVE and PSN. The game brought back the large scale multi-player battles that the Battlefield series is known for; something that was missing from Battlefield: Bad Company.
Taking cues from the PGR games, Forza Motorsport 3 built on the fun, but limited multi-player offerings of its predecessor by including a bunch of individual and team-based multi-player events, some that rewarded precise driving and others that threw the sim racing rule book out of the window, thereby providing something for everyone. It was surprising to find out that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves would have multi-player; but not half as surprising as it was to find out that it was actually good. With reasonably deep co-op and competitive multi-player modes, there was much to do once the hunt for the Chintamani stone had ended.
Say what you will about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s solo campaign, but its multi-player components were undeniably brilliant, and even an improvement to the near-perfect COD4 formula. Infinity Ward also supplemented the competitive modes with quite an accomplished two-player Spec Ops co-op mode. Killzone 2 surpassed expectations by delivering class-based competitive multi-player that remains popular even close to a year later. A variety of game modes, well designed maps, support for up to 32 players, a clever levelling system, and comprehensive clan management all contributed to making Killzone 2 the IVG community and staff pick for Best Multi-player Game of 2009.
IVG Staff Pick: Killzone 2
