[Verious]

I've been playing Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360 lately and one thing that really impresses me is how smoothly multiplayer works. Here are some of the features that I think are really nice from a game design perspective:

* Players can join/leave a game at anytime during play

* Players who idle for too long are seamlessly controlled by the computer until they return and press a button (which means people can take short breaks during play without heavily impacting the other players)

* The game is heavily focused on cooperative play, to the extent that your team must rescue you in many situations, in my opinion, this greatly enhances the experience and raises the intensity

* Voice chat works really well and is almost mandatory to survive on the high difficulty settings

* You can see silhouettes of the other players through the walls, which greatly reduces people asking "Where are you?" and makes it much easier to rejoin the group if you get separated

* You can see the other player's health bars at all times, as well as a partial inventory of what they are carrying

Many of these techniques have been implemented in other games, but Left 4 Dead does a great job bringing them all together into a cohesive experience.

Has anyone played any other games with multiplayer features that really enhanced the experience?

[Captain Vimes]

...

*coughs*

...

I'll take the dead silence as a "no" then.

...

Anyway, this will probably seem like a kind of cop-out answer, but I thought that Halo 3 did a really great job with multiplayer. Especially when you're on Team Slayer on some place like Standoff - team coordination really becomes important then. I thought it was a cool experience.
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"Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness."
- Terry Pratchett

[mixzed]

monster hunter - Nothing like taking down a monster 20 times your size with 4 of your buddies. While wearing armor made from their own skins.

Resident Evil Outbreak - Classic Re-Gaming no voice chat and limited ammo makes it a frantic experience.

Resident Evil 5 - Resident Evil 4 + multiplayer = nuff said

-this from a guy who loathes the multiplayer experience.

I'm more of a fan of the old school local multiplayer y'know get together with your friends after school and play mario kart on the snes (I'm dating myself here).

I just hate how now a days most games for local multiplayer you need 2 game systems, 2 games and 2 tvs. Not naming any names though.
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pixoasis /The Search For... /K9

[BadMrBox]

[DeveloperX]

[BadMrBox]

While we talk oldschool I like to add that Secret of Mana was an awesome experience playing with friends.
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[Captain Vimes]

Great oldschool multiplayer = Kirby's Dream Course. It's golf... with KIRBY!
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"Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness."
- Terry Pratchett