A closer look at Quake II's eight-way local multiplayer split screen mode

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: Bethesda has given gamers a compelling reason to own an oversized 4K television. The remastered version of Quake II, which launched earlier this week during the annual QuakeCon convention, includes support for eight-way local multiplayer split screen gameplay on Xbox Series and PC.

Four-way local multiplayer is crazy enough (I'm looking at you, GoldenEye 007), but double that? I can't even imagine.

As chaotic and fun as that sounds like on paper, it won't be all that practical in the real world for a number of reasons.

With an average size television of around 55 inches, you are looking at windows of about 18.33 inches each (excluding the two bigger top windows and assuming a 3 x 3 grid, which we will get to in a bit). Even with a hulking TV like Samsung's 98-inch monster, each window would only be around 32.67 inches diagonally (double check my math because this certainly is not my strong suit).

Assuming you've got a TV large enough for everyone to play comfortably, you now have to round up seven local pals that are also into Quake II. That would be a struggle even as a kid with all my neighborhood friends, and I most certainly don't have that many nearby gaming buddies nowadays.

There is also the uneven window split to contend with. In eight-way mode, Quake II awards two players with larger windows than everyone else. Rock, paper, scissors decides who gets the wider windows, I guess? Or maybe, I'm older than you, so deal with it? And what about rampant screen cheating?

All things considered, I am glad the feature exists. In those certain rare circumstances where everything comes together, eight-way local multiplayer on a single screen could be an absolute blast. Just don't expect to use it all that often.

Interested parties can pick up the remaster on their platform of choice for $9.99 and if you already own it on PC, you can get the update as a free patch.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99758-closer-look-quake-ii-eight-way-local-multiplayer.html

 

[nnguy2]

Possibly the worst way to multi-play

 

[bviktor]

So it's gonna be as much of a "remaster" as Q1, as in, nothing noticeable.

 

[PEnnn]

Split screen is the pits!!

 

[d5aqoep]

A 4-way would be the best.

 

[amghwk]

Even if you have the biggest screen you can buy, you still need 8 guys/gals in the same room, 8 gamepads ( or god forbid, 8 keyboard/mouse combos in the same room!), and still squint on your box on the TV.

Whatever happened to LAN parties? At least you had your own computer screens and enjoyed fragging each other more.

 

[sreams]

Just gotta make a friend at the local drive-in movie theater...

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Just gotta make a friend at the local drive-in movie theater...

Along those lines, yes. Any public place where lots of gamers might go anyway, like in the middle of a mall, any arcade, QuakeCon itself. Those would be decent places to run a setup for 8-way multi-player. Me, personally, I have no interest in ever trying it. I think it would be very distracting. If playing Quake II at home could induce seizures does playing it this way increase the risk of seizure by 8x? Way too much data for the brain to be handling at once.

 

[MakeMSGreatAgain]

So it's gonna be as much of a "remaster" as Q1, as in, nothing noticeable.

I understand the pessimism, but it did get a new episode which makes it work something at a minimum. I personally would prefer a remaster be completely new textures and models keeping the original design, but that I imagine is quite difficult to do. Perhaps AI could do it. However the fact that these 20+ year old games are STILL getting love today is amazing to me, and being a long time Quake fan, and having it be the first FPS I played and grew up on - I'm happy to see this. It isn't what I wish for, but it is something in a time where most companies make a game then abandon it forever. I think it is great.