Multiplayer Coop for the family-ish

Gaming
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Can you tell I have a day off? I come alive…! :rofl: It has been a busy, busy week of flying. Whew. Enjoying coffee, the fireplace, and settling in on a cold and rainy day.

So - as I mentioned in a previous thread, I bought the kids each a PC this year for Christmas. Ages 10 and 12…which is about the age when I got my first PC (a TRS-80! - followed shortly thereafter by a Commodore 64 and a $100 phone bill with my 300 baud modem!)…

I’m trying to compile a list of fun, but somewhat age appropriate multiplayer coop games we can play. That there will be flight sims is a given. Not all on Day 1 as I have to accumulate stuff for them over time…but:

X-Plane
MSFS
DCS World
Maybe IL-2 of some fashion - any recommendations on that?

On the gaming side of things:

FIFA 2021 is the only thing for certain at this point. Found a 50% off deal on that (ouch…still costs me near $100 to buy 3 copies of it…sigh…)

Generation Zero looks kind of good for the three of us to play in co-op mode. It has shooting, but it appears to be against robots. I’m not even opposed to shooting games at this point anyway, but I don’t want any “rip the heads off” types of games.

Wreckfest looks like a lot of fun. So waiting to find that on sale.

I never played any of the Portal games, but from what I’m reading, co-op mode in Portal 2 looks pretty fun…and I can probably catch that game on sale pretty cheaply.

Given that me and the kids haven’t really done much mainstream gaming…I can probably go back a decade worth of games to find some cheap but fun MP games that won’t cost an arm and a leg. So I’d love some suggestions you’d have. (Like I never played any of the Halo games or anything like that…)

Arma 3 co-op seems like a no brainer at some point. Not sure if ages 10 and 12 are ready for that yet or not.

Obvious titles like Terraria and Minecraft are easy choices.

Don’t Starve Together (yay or nay?)

The aforementioned Halo - I’ve never played ANY of the games. If the three of were to play it…is coop something that is included in all of the versions? Might be a bit too much gore according to the game description though…but there is a “total version” available: Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Elite Dangerous. Probably - given both boys will have VR headset hand-me-downs. And I’ve only played about 20 minutes of Elite myself.

American Truck Simulator - anyone given the TruckersMP mod a whirl?

Raft looks like it could be fun too. All three of us could play…looks like one of us can save the game and then all three can rejoin and continue when we all have the same time to play.

No Man’s Sky - sounds like it has co-op mode for 2-4 players? This might be a good co-op VR title maybe…?

The Forest in VR / co-op looks like it could be fun down the road…probably a bit too much at this age for now.

MudRunner - again, a game I’ve owned but never played. Looks like it could be fun in co-op with the three of us collaborating to accomplish stuff. Is the original SpinTires any good in MP?

I also see that SpinTires (the predecessor to MudRunner…I think there was a split among the developers and drama drama) is still available for $2.00 (Daily Deal today) and has some DLC. Looks like (glancing at the Steam forum) there were some issues, but the single remaining developer (?) is still working on it and a patch was just released in the last day or two fixing some issues. Some fun looking DLC available for it as well (Sherp and China). Might be an economical buy even if it is a flop.

The Crew 2 - wish I could figure out more about what this offers in terms of coop - if any. Finding information about it is tough. Seems like the original The Crew might have been a bit less glitzy but maybe better gameplay.

Project Cars 2 - VR support…general consensus seems to be that PC3 is terrible…or at least…diverges from the driving experience of PC2. If we all three get it (I actually own it already)…can we all three join in races together in multiplayer? Can I host my own races? More research needed. This one frequently goes on sale too I think.

BAJA: Edge of Control HD - looks like fun.

Star Wars Squadrons - yeah…we’ll need that.

IL-2: 1946 - Multiplayer still working on that?

I would really like a persistent universe, space building game. Looks like maybe Kerbal Space Program 2 might fit that bill next year…

Wow. That was a fun two hours of browsing the internet. Sorry you had to go along for the ride… :rofl:

Oh…and yeah…the boys are going to become Air Hauler pilots…whether it is X-Plane or MSFS to be determined…probably MSFS though… That should be fun.

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Left 4 dead 2 is great fun, jake and I played it lots together but he was about 14 at the time.
Also for taking turns in VR and the family can join in is

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Farming simulator 19.

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Elite Dangerous?

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Absolutely- and it has probably the friendliest, most supportive and wholesome online community I’ve encountered in a long time.

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Rocket League. Where did my 700+ hours go… And so much great Multiplayer Coop with a 3 player team.

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+1, plus Free to Play via https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/rocket-league/home

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Multi-player Co op withing the family is super fun with “Keep talking and nobody explodes”
I can’t add details now but it’s insanely fun!

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If you can get 6 people together, Among Us is incredible fun. It’s more like a traditional “guess the murderer” tabletop game but can be played with friends during lockdown. It works on tablets and every potato of a PC. You will need headsets and separate rooms in order to keep some things secret…

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In my steam profile i feed a list of good coop games (my fav style of playing):
order):

  • 112 Notruf 2
  • 7 Days to Die
  • Barotrauma
  • Bus Simulator 18
  • Call of Duty - Cold War
  • Don’t Starve Togheter
  • Door Kickers
  • Escape from Tarkov
  • Escapists 2
  • Falcon 4
  • Firefighting Squad
  • Generation Zero
  • Guns of Icarus Alliance
  • Hunt Showdown
  • Il-2 BOM/BOS/BOK
  • Insurgency Sandstorm
  • Keep Talking and Nobody Explode
  • MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries
  • Minecraft
  • Mordhau
  • Mother Russia Bleeds
  • Overcooked
  • Overcooked 2
  • Police Stories
  • Precision Simulator X
  • Pulsar: Lost Colony
  • Rainbow Six Siege
  • River City Ransom Underground
  • Space Hulk Deathwing
  • Snowrunner
  • State of Decay 2
  • Steel Beasts Pro PE
  • Storage Inc 2
  • Stormworks Build and Rescue
  • Swat 4 Gold
  • theHunter Call of Wild
  • Wolfpack
  • X-Plane 11 (with Smartcopilot add-on)
  • Zero Hour
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No Mans Sky is cool multiplayer exploration and base building. Don’t Starve Together is a little hard - players need to be a little task oriented to survive, so if the kids just want to run of and whatever, it will be left up to you to make sure they survive - just like real life I guess :slight_smile:

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If you are looking for a more laid back experience, Stardew Valley is a good farming game like Harvest Moon, or whatever. You can usually get a 4-pack on sale on steam.

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IL2:1946 still works for MP, still the “only” option for your WW2 bote needs

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I’m gonna second this. A very cool game with beautiful worlds and combat that is not too hard or frightening. I think it would be an amazing experience when the three of you acquire a freighter, warp to a new system and descend on a new planet from that freighter with each of you piloting your own fighter-sized ship. The game is also facultative VR. You can play the whole thing in standard 2D but you can also play the whole thing in VR, including first person view in the vehicles and robots you can man.

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+1 for No Mans Sky

I also think something they can do on their own is important, that they can show you. I’m rubbish at recommendations here, but my boy spent ages showing me Assassins creed. It looked amazing on the PS3, but I never felt the draw he did.

We also spent a ton of time in Lego Star Wars on the PS2 when both kids we’re under 10.

He looks back on all that time now he’s >20 with fondness.

I think regardless of what you end up playing, it’s important to stay in touch with them and be interested. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks for all the great suggestions guys…!

Quick question - @Wes touched on this in a different thread, but I want to verify that I can do this. In order to speed along the “deployment” of the games to the new PCs, is it correct that I can copy MY Steam folders for games we will ALL have installed, then on each of their machine’s I can log in to their Steam accounts, import that Steam folder, and hit verify files to allow Steam to just check the files as opposed to downloading them all correct? The would still be individualized to the account owner correct?

This a bunch of times over. I’m so excited that the boys are getting PCs…I envision us playing Wolfpack together…or IL-2. I feel I’ll be emotionally invested in their survival…:rofl: wheras before I always put AI with ex-girlfriend names on SEAD. :man_shrugging:

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Why did I never think of this??

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Should work, game settings are stored elsewhere.
The main thing is you should copy FROM your computer, rather than copy TO theirs. This way it is their user accounts making files on their PC’s which should avoid any file permission / ownership issues. Should any occur, you can always see how steam set that up with your files on your PC and replicate it.

Doing this copy is no different than taking a steam drive to a new build PC with a fresh windows install, which I have done multiple times.

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That’s why, when my wife was out of town, I built my CoD fire team with our twin 7 year old girls. :rofl:

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I will say…there is something particularly gratifying about picking up IL-2 1946 for three players and spending only $6.36 TOTAL for all three keys…sure beats what I spent for three copies of FIFA21…:see_no_evil:

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