Back in the old-school days of video gaming, multiplayer was very different, but some might argue it was a lot more fun.
That’s not to say that multiplayer gaming isn't amazing today, because it still blows my mind that we can seamlessly play the likes of Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite, Street Fighter 6 and Gran Turismo 7 with someone on the other side of the planet.
Online gaming means that I’ll just get my ass kicked by more people across the world, but it's marvellous nonetheless, and I wouldn't change it for the world. Well, apart from those toxic party chat gamers, but that’s a topic for another day.
Back in the 80s to early 2000s, most multiplayer sessions would take place in the same room. Generations of gamers have warm feelings of nostalgia either playing alongside friends or against them sitting on the same sofa, immersed in the likes of Sensible Soccer, Mortal Kombat or GoldenEye 007 (no Oddjob), and more.
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Some lucky gamers in the 90s would even enjoy LAN (Local Area Network) multiplayer with the likes of DOOM with a group of PCs connected to each other, meaning that players had their own screen, rather than split-screen. These were more commonly known as ‘LAN parties’.
At least on a larger scale, LAN multiplayer would have a surge in popularity for console gamers with the arrival of Halo: Combat Evolved for the original Xbox in November 2001. Halo fans would lose countless hours in some Red vs Blue action on iconic maps including Blood Gulch, Battle Creek, and Damnation.
Sadly, when online gaming began to really take off for console gamers, not only with Halo 2 in 2004 but more so with the arrival of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the magic and popularity of LAN multiplayer soon began to fade away.
Thankfully, as reported by Pure Xbox (via Reddit), there's still a group of passionate and dedicated Halo fans keeping LAN parties alive in 2023.
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“Had a Halo 3 LAN party yesterday complete with Mt Dew, Pizza, and Doritos,” said RigoMortize, opening up the discussion of the thread, sharing a photo of their friends playing on Xbox 360 consoles. Fellow Reddit users praised RigoMortize and began sharing memories of their own.
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“Man, I remember having an impromptu LAN party at 17,” said UncoolSlicedBread. “Only some of us had our licenses and for whatever reason none of our parents wanted to mess with letting us host one that particular weekend. So we had it at the place I worked, the owner let me use the warehouse for the night.”
“Last LAN party I was involved in was five years ago at a friend's house. 4v4 on [Halo] Reach. Hope you guys had fun!” replied ThatOneGuy35312. “The good ol' days... wait[,] the good ol’ days were GoldenEye 007 with cardboard taped to the TV to prevent the other players from seeing where you were,” joked Glittering-Arm-9138.
In related news, fans have hailed Halo 3 as the ‘greatest Xbox exclusive of all-time’, which is a bold claim indeed.