multiplayer

Though this game can't decide if it wants to be for kids or adults, it definitely lives up to its name. Fun Run - Multiplayer Race is a side-scrolling racer that lets you do unspeakably awful things to its cute characters to win. This game is enjoyable enough racing against the computer, but really shines once you start racing against your friends or people worldwide.

To start the Fun Run - Multiplayer Race game, you need to register. Luckily, you don't need to give the game anything more than a username and you can sync with your Facebook … Read more

Forget all the talk about the unique tablet-turned-game-pad controller in Nintendo's new Wii U game console. Forget, as well, the highly hyped possibilities of dual-view second-screen gaming. The real triumph of the Wii U is in its advocacy for a nearly lost concept: same-room multiplayer gaming.

Yes, a reasonable amount of same-room gaming still goes on in living rooms and dorms, usually in the form of Street-Fighter-style beat-'em-ups, or sports games such as the Madden NFL series. But the classic concept of sharing a physical space alongside a virtual one has been eclipsed for years by other forms of multiplayer gaming that are not reliant on the participants being in the same place or even playing at the same time.

Let's call the experience of playing NintendoLand or New Super Mario Bros. U "synchronous-local" gaming. It's how we would play classic games from Combat on the Atari 2600 to Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It's also how we've played games from chess to Monopoly long before video games existed (apologies in advance to the legions of correspondence chess players who will no doubt object to this description).

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Video game designer Peter Molyneux has a proven track record of successful games (Fable and Black and White are the biggies) and a style unique enough to inspire a hilarious parody account on Twitter. Molyneux was recently the head of Microsoft's gaming division, but left the company earlier this year to form his own game shop, 22Cans. Yesterday, 22Cans released its first game (or "experiment") for iOS and Android: Curiosity, a massively multiplayer puzzler that promises a "life-changingly amazing" secret to the one (and only one) gamer who can make it to the middle of … Read more

For most gamers, the summer is a time for self reflection on the busy season ahead. It's a time for us to gather our thoughts, to compose ourselves, and perhaps venture out to what most normal humans refer to as "outside."

Today we're reminded of what awaits us this holiday season with a first-ever multiplayer mode trailer for the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops II, due out on November 13.

Arguably the most sought-after element of Call of Duty games are their online modes, and the trailer above certainly packs in plenty of drool-worthy … Read more

Is multiplayer gaming actually causing more harm than good?

Speaking to Wired U.K. in an interview published yesterday, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said multiplayer games tend to be played for much longer than single-player titles. Therefore, gamers are spending less time shopping for other titles, thus reducing the industry's overall revenue.

Pachter went on to tell Wired U.K. that a typical single-player campaign generates $2 of revenue per hour per user -- a measure, apparently, of total play time divided by the game's cost. However, when one takes the same calculation and applies that to a … Read more

Everything will change immensely for players of Star Wars: The Old Republic in early April.

Last week, a video emerged from BioWare describing a massive 1.2 update for the popular multiplayer online role-playing game. The content patch--named Legacy--offers several major benefits and a plethora of little changes that could make things much more enjoyable for those invested in the game.

The big-ticket items include a new warzone (Novare Coast) and operation (Explosive Conflict) located on the planet Denova. We also spotted a new flash point named The Lost Island, which you can further see in the trailer below. … Read more

Real Racing 2 is the long-awaited sequel to popular driving game Real Racing, and it definitely lives up to all the hype. Like the original game, Real Racing 2 offers the same sensitive accelerometer steering that feels just right on the iPhone. But there are a lot of new features in this sequel that make it even better than the original.

One of the biggest changes is the ability to drive real-world cars; Firemint managed to get 30 officially licensed cars, and each car sounds and drives like its real-world counterpart. You also can take part in automatched 16-player online … Read more

Photographer Robbie Cooper explores the modern convergence of personal and social identities in a portrait series that pairs gamers with their virtual avatars.

Cooper traveled around the world for three years, visiting places like Korea, China, France, and Germany to capture the online and in-person lives of MMO participants.

His photo project evolved into a photo book called "Alter Ego" that further scrutinizes the role of absorbed fantasy in the gaming metaverse through interviews, biographies, and essays.

The book also paints a range of identities behind the avatars. It's not just a bunch of oily adolescents mashing keyboards in a basement; Cooper's subjects range from a gold farmer in China, a paraplegic in Texas, and even an octogenarian who all teach a valuable lesson to never judge a gamer by his or her avatar.

Plenty more pictures of gamers and their avatars after the page break.… Read more

Two of the year's biggest games are going head to head this holiday season, both seeking the crown as best military first-person shooter. Unless you've cut yourself off from all forms of media consumption, I'm of course talking about Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.… Read more