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Posted on: Feb 04, 2009
Dead On Live
WORDS BY: Mitch Dyer
We’ve enjoyed a phenomenal line-up of multiplayer games in the last few months…but what about games that weren’t born yesterday? We dug into our rack of semi-recent games to see if anyone is still kickin’ it on the titles that were promoted and praised for their online potential. At random times of day over the course of a week, we checked to see if the older communities were blossoming or booming. The results surprised even us.
Ace Combat 6
Co-op and competitive multiplayer modes brought out our inner Maverick when the game was released — and we even dropped $100 on the custom Hori stick, in our need for speed — but we eventually moved on. Japanese gamers, however, persist on tearing up the skies. On Wednesday and Thursday morning, the same handful of Japanese Gamertags hosted Team Battles on the Player servers, all of which were nearly full. Ranked matches were barren all week, but Friday morning, eight gamers from the far East suddenly showed up to play on those servers. However, everyone disappeared after the Team Battle ended and we were left alone online.
With Japan sleeping on a North American Saturday night, only three people wanted to play Co-op games, but the crowd once again dissolved upon conclusion. Worse, the following night, it was suddenly a No-Fly Zone.
VITAL STATUS: Barely Breathing
Free planes and multiplayer maps barely convince more than a handful of hardcore Japanese players to keep up their Iceman antics.
Shadowrun
Shadowrun released to lukewarm critical reception shortly before its developer and community forums were closed. But there’s still an incentive to play this inventive FPS: you can crush those pompous PC players on Games for Windows Live.
On Tuesday morning, we were able to play multiple matches without anyone quitting! No one played on a PC, but there was no sign of slowing down after 90 minutes of killin’. Wednesday morning returned similarly surprising results. By Friday night, at least 15 games were going on — all of which were full when we poked our nosey noses in. We could probably have played all night. Sunday night dipped a bit, but the two matches we found were both packed full of 16 human players. Even on a Monday morning, nine games were open, and the three different ones we joined had no less than 12 players in each.
VITAL STATUS: Still Alive
Shadowrun fights and succeeds despite what you might have assumed. FASA alumni should be proud of their legacy.
Mon, 03/02/2009 - 22:02
Posted by Dan OXM
We didn't try those older titles because, as the article states, we were focused on games from the most recent year.
We showed our work regarding GTA IV; our experience is what it is. Doesn't make us idiots, and it doesn't mean you're not getting better matchmaking. But that is why we described what we tried to do and when we tried to do it (time of day etc) in this experiment.
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 20:00
Posted by shweet117
Lol, they didnt even try Gears 1 or COd2 becuase their still alot of people that play them
Mon, 02/09/2009 - 17:25
Posted by TommySansone
Just chill out dude. It's not even a big deal.
Fri, 02/06/2009 - 13:04
Posted by PHeadVOS
GTA 4? Flatlined? Are you fucking kidding me?
Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
1 CoD: World at War
2 Halo 3
3 Call of Duty 4
4 Gears of War 2
5 Left 4 Dead
6 GTA IV <=====
7 Fallout 3
8 FIFA 09
9 Guitar Hero World Tour
10 Madden NFL 09
That's taken from Major Nelson's site. Given with the fact I've never had a problem finding a match, or finding people to play with on GTA4, I think you guys at OXM just have shitty luck. Good job proving NOTHING, idiots.
Thu, 02/05/2009 - 14:30
Posted by ill sue y4
honestly, im just tired of halo. halo is really about to kick the bucket. i stopped playing gears 2 because... THE MATCHMAKING TAKES 20,000 MOTHERFUCKING YEARS!!!!!!! I HAVE SEEN NO GLITCHES CAUSE I PLAYED 1 DAMN MATCHMAKING GAME!!!!! after playing it, my time looking for a match versus actual time in a match FAR outweighs the time playing. it works like this.
>
>
>
play time: 5%
time in menus: 95%
>
>
>
thats bullshit.
Thu, 02/05/2009 - 13:48
Posted by xpects the xpctd
Gears 2 is close to kicking the bucket, the glitches and bugs kept people away. And the fact that nearly EVERYONE is playing Call of Duty World at War or even COD4 also hinders other games. Halo 2 and 3 will never die, they're fun but for some people the fun never goes away.
Wed, 02/04/2009 - 19:53
Posted by Allanon6666
Kind of sad that GTA IV's multiplayer has died out. Never played it personally, but it sounded really good. And is Gears 2 dead already? I have a hard time believing that since it was released only a little while ago.....
As to TF2's PC gathering, it's still going strong and better than the 360's online offering anyway. Just my 2 cents
Wed, 02/04/2009 - 17:54
Posted by oldguygamer
From theoldguygamer
I've recently began playing on-line. I've had this Gold account for a while, but never actually did any on-line play except for some original XBOX games. Then, I started playing Call of Duty 3 on line with the capture the flag mode. What a ball that was. Then, I tried call of duty 2. Finally I got call of duty 4. It was pretty good. But the game I like best so far is call of duty, world at war. I like the maps and all that goes with the game. I suppose the older call of duty games will fall by the wayside eventually, but people are still playing the 360 versions of them. My son began playing world at war after I did, and while I just made 2Lt, he is already playing prestige mode (he has a little more time to play than I do...). Last night, call of duty 4 and world at war both had more than 1,000,000 players logged in at once. I also heard that the latest fallout game is really good. If you're asking what's the best older game still being played? It has to be call of duty 3. I just wish that it had the mode of keeping track of your rank and so forth like call of duty 4 and world at war.
Wed, 02/04/2009 - 15:32
Posted by ill sue y4
wow... i really wish that gears 2 was still alive. i cant believe people still play halo 2 online. there is one game you forgot to put on the list... TEAM FORTRESS 2!!!! iheard it has a thriving PC community though.
Wed, 02/04/2009 - 14:29
Posted by TeenBowser
GTA IV was a blast to play online and I still enjoy playing it. I don't believe it will be flatlined again for awhile though with this new batch of DLC that's about to hit. A major game that was forgotten on this list was Gears of War 2. That game was amazing online, but there's no one EVER playing it. It is either dead or dying. I'll miss both of those games, but I guess that their spots will be taken over by even better titles.
Wed, 02/04/2009 - 14:07
Posted by xpects the xpctd
I'm sad when it comes to Unreal Tournament III and ET: Quake Wars, those were both good games. Shadowrun deserves a sequel, that game was insanely fun. GTA IV's multiplayer died off like I kinda expected. I thought it was ok at best. Frontlines was ok too, I thought it'd be like Star Wars Battlefront, but it wasn't.
Wed, 02/04/2009 - 12:46
Posted by shadowover93
This is cool that you did this. Stuff like this help me to decide what to buy or not to buy because who wants to buy a game that no one plays. It would be a waste of money. Nice article!!!