Octopus Overlords

My 13yo son and I like to play co-op games together. We have run through everything I have and could think of. Below is a list of what we have played (that I could remember) ranked *roughly* in order of combined enjoyment, best first.

Borderlands 2
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Diablo 3
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Monster Hunter World
Conan Exiles
Ark: Survival Evolved
The Division 2
Warhammer: Vermintide II
The Division

Obviously we are excited for Borderlands 3 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint, but until then, what else should we be checking out? Generally looking for PC games.We have two good gaming PCs, but also PS4 Pro, Switch, XBOne, 2 3DSes. I know Blackhawk had something like this a while back, but I think it could use another pass.

The list so far:
Warhammer and Warhammer II: Total War - never played a Total War game, will have to check it out
Monaco - sounds intriguing
Orcs Must Die - I played these a long time ago, good idea
Sky Rogue - that looks interesting and the younger may even be interested
Broforce - I don't think I have even heard of this one
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Probably too deep. This one overwhelmed me solo.
Cuphead - heard of it, know nothing about it. Apparently the one my car is getting is a subset of the full game.
Overcooked - I am pretty sure I own this from some bundle, should probably check it out
Sea of Thieves - tried this at release but wasn't impressed. Should see if the kiddo is interested
Dauntless - I have over 200 hours in Monster Hunter World - I am not sure how interested I am in the lite version with weak graphics. Will check it out.
StarCraft 2 - RTS is a place I haven't gone in years, and I already own it.
Human Fall Flat - know nothing about it, will check it out
Towerfall - know nothing about it, will check it out
Hammerwatch - know nothing about it, will check it out
Dungeon Defenders - I am pretty sure have this and never got far, but I'll give it another look
Worms - I never really got into Worms, but now I am curious about the co-op.
Culdcept - know nothing about it, will check it out

If you want to mix it up, Warhammer and Warhammer II: Total War have excellent coop campaigns. Even if you don't have forces from both players in a fight, you can give the other player part of your force and split control, so there's a minimum amount of sitting around waiting for the other person to finish their turn.

Monaco is a fun little top-down puzzle-sneaking-thief game with coop as well.

The first two entries in the Orcs Must Die series were pretty fun tower defense games.

Check out Sky Rogue:



It's an underrated Star Fox-style procedurally-generated arcade/flight-sim shooter, and is immensely enjoyable to play co-op.

Broforce can be great fun, too. I'd also recommend Divinity: Original Sin 2 if you and your son are likely to enjoy a meaty RPG that can be played co-op.

Cuphead if you like screaming at each other and breaking stuff. Overcooked for similar reasons.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 11:49 am Cuphead if you like screaming at each other and breaking stuff.

And now you can play it in the car:

Teslas are getting a major gaming upgrade, with Elon Musk confirming Model 3, Model S and Model X are getting run-and-gun platformer Cuphead.
...
Cuphead should hit cars later this summer, but will only include the game's Inkwell Isle One segment due to storage limitations, Tesla told IGN. You'll only be able to play it using a wired USB controller -- it'd be impossibly frustrating using the display's touchscreen controls.

My daughter and I had a blast yesterday playing Sea of Thieves. We suck royally at it, but it's really entertaining. If you want to yell at your son to stop getting drunk and ram boats into islands then you can't go wrong.

I discovered Dauntless last weekend, which is a sort of Monster Hunter-lite (chatting about it here. You're hunting great big giant beasties in a Fortnite graphics style, but the battles are much shorter (but no less intense) and it streamlines much of the complexity of MH. The same engaging gameplay loop is in full effect: kill monster, carve it for bits, use those bits for better gear, rinse, repeat.

I spent about 4 hours with it yesterday, and had a ton of fun. It's free to play and cross-platform as well, with cosmetic "upgrades" available for purchase.

StarCraft 2?

some games my nephews liked:
Overcooked
Human Fall Flat
Towerfall
Hammerwatch
Dungeon Defenders

my son and i do co-op against the AI on Worms (any of them) and Culdcept (on console)

summarized everything in the OP... hitbyambulance wins the "I never heard of that" award.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 11:24 am Culdcept - know nothing about it, will check it out

Culdcept is a very cool concept (Monopoly meets MtG) and can be lots of fun, but also has the single most infuriating RNG of any game I have played in my entire life.

To this day, it holds the distinction of being the only game that has literally caused me to throw a controller across the room (my 3DS).

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:58 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 11:24 am Culdcept - know nothing about it, will check it out

Culdcept is a very cool concept (Monopoly meets MtG) and can be lots of fun, but also has the single most infuriating RNG of any game I have played in my entire life.

To this day, it holds the distinction of being the only game that has literally caused me to throw a controller across the room (my 3DS).

Which version are you playing? I played Culdcept Saga back on the Xbox 360 and loved that game.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 3:06 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:58 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 11:24 am Culdcept - know nothing about it, will check it out

Culdcept is a very cool concept (Monopoly meets MtG) and can be lots of fun, but also has the single most infuriating RNG of any game I have played in my entire life.

To this day, it holds the distinction of being the only game that has literally caused me to throw a controller across the room (my 3DS).

Which version are you playing? I played Culdcept Saga back on the Xbox 360 and loved that game.

Google tells me the version I played on 3DS was Culdcept Revolt. I played the XB 360 version back in the day too...and had a similar reaction. Cool game, frustrating RNG.

Warriors Orochi 4 (or whatever number they're up to now). The Dynasty Warriors games aren't good, exactly, but they are great fun when played as couch co-op. I haven't played this particular one, but it's the most recent (avoid Dynasty Warriors 9).

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 3:29 pm frustrating RNG.

Was it fair? I can get by being annoyed/furious if I know it's fair. If the devs have a finger on the scales, then I quit.

Doom
Doom II
Duke Nukem 3D
Serious Sam
Serious Sam 2
any MMO
Dark Forces
Dark Forces 2
Heretic
Heretic 2
Hexen
Alien vs Predator - 'I think'
Unreal
Unreal 2

I like ARPG's in general for co-op. You already have Diablo 3 on your played list, there is also Grim Dawn and Path of Exile. It's on the older side now but Torchlight II is also really good co-op.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is an awesome co-op game. Downside is there is quite a bit of DLC now, upside is there is quite a bit of DLC now and each pack is not that expensive.

Destiny 2 is a little pricey but great fun co-op. Game does to tend to run out of steam after awhile depending on your grind tolerance but it's a fun ride.

Have you not been following the City of Heroes thread??? Totally free and a LOT of fun to run duo teams with a ton of customization and "class" options.

Tabletop Simulator opens just a ton of options for digital tabletop gaming.

Don't Starve Together. I have played Don't Starve and find it an enjoyable rogue-like, haven't tried the MP version but it is highly rated.

There are quite a few free to play or Pay-once-to-play MMO's out there now.

stessier wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 3:54 pm

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 3:29 pm frustrating RNG.

Was it fair? I can get by being annoyed/furious if I know it's fair. If the devs have a finger on the scales, then I quit.

The game is very similar to Monopoly, where you roll dice and move around a gameboard. Each player builds up specific spaces on the board with more powerful creatures and when an opponent lands on them, they have to pay resources. Over and over, I watched the CPU get dice rolls that caused them to land right in between my powerful spaces, while I would almost always land right on their most developed tiles. It was infuriating.

My guess is that the dice rolls were entirely RNG and I just happened to have bad luck (and negativity bias is making my recollection even worse), but it was pronounced enough that it caused me to completely shelve a game I had otherwise been enjoying quite a bit.

I have played multiple versions of Culdcept. That thing you see with the computer "randomly" getting the good rolls is a consistent feature.
The playstation and xbox versions, the computer just straight up cheats. But that is all countered by the AI being an idiot.

Still its a fun game, the xbox version lets you create custom AI opponents and compete against them in a team match, and thats a great deal of fun.

Thanks for the thread Coop - my best gaming moments in the last decade have been playing LAN based games with my kids who are all now tweens and teens. They all have their own taste in single player PC games, but I will add a few LAN/co-op suggestions to the above:

Empyrion (early access but very playable)
7 Days to Die (early access but very playable)
Avorion (early access but still fun to build/fight in)
ARMA 2 or 3 co-op
Enemy Territory:Quake Wars
Unreal Tournament (GOG version)
Red Orchestra 2
Terraria
Forged Alliance (with Forever mod update)

If you're up for a modern version of Robotron 2084 / Smash TV, Nex Machina is a really well done twin-stick co-op shooter.

Also, for an amusing beat-em-up, check out Viking Squad.

Overcooked 2. I totally different type of game.

~Titan Quest and Torchlight 2 are both good choices, both good Diablo-likes, neither expensive.
~Strange Brigade if you can get it on sale (it's great, but short.)
~This one is very subjective, depending on how your feel about content, but GTA Online. Limit yourself to empty servers to minimize griefing. GTA Online is mostly about heists (elaborate bank robberies, etc), and plays a lot like Wildlands. But there is questionable content. You will encounter drugs, you will shoot people, you will rob. You may even spawn in a strip club once or twice. Most of it is no worse than prime time TV, but it depends on parenting style.
~Left4Dead 2 is a great, cheap, fun game. Vermintide is built on its bones. You can even play all the Left4Dead 1 content from within it (although I'm unsure of the particulars.)
~Dungeon Defenders is a great coop game
~Sanctum/Sanctum 2 are both good cooperative first person tower defense games with shooter elements.

I've played through everything on this list with friends or the kids, and they're all good options if they fit your style.

Jaymon wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:09 pm I have played multiple versions of Culdcept. That thing you see with the computer "randomly" getting the good rolls is a consistent feature.
The playstation and xbox versions, the computer just straight up cheats. But that is all countered by the AI being an idiot.

which is why i don't feel bad about having two human players ganging up on a tougher AI player

(and those are still nail-biters sometimes - can be very challenging to eke out a win. the AI is still going to have a better sense of when to, say, move a creature to an adjoining property you own when it detects it has a distinct advantage [unless you're paying attention *very* closely]. in any case, if you lose, you still get cards to add to your deck.)

i really think this is the best boardgame-esque title ever released for console, and own almost all of the versions released (still looking to get the original Dreamcast one...) - i basically keep my PS2 hooked up to the TV just for this game.

forgot Moon Hunters. the nephews aren't allowed to play overly-violent games, so this works as a Diablo-esque for them.

Why hasn't anyone thrown out Stardew Valley yet? Great game, accessible to all ages.

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:58 am Why hasn't anyone thrown out Stardew Valley yet? Great game, accessible to all ages.

It's not co-op, is it? If it is I'll be playing this weekend with the kiddo.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 8:41 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:58 am Why hasn't anyone thrown out Stardew Valley yet? Great game, accessible to all ages.

It's not co-op, is it? If it is I'll be playing this weekend with the kiddo.

It very much is. They introduced multiplayer a couple patches ago. I had a good time with my kid, plundering the mines and farming.

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:29 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 8:41 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:58 am Why hasn't anyone thrown out Stardew Valley yet? Great game, accessible to all ages.

It's not co-op, is it? If it is I'll be playing this weekend with the kiddo.

It very much is. They introduced multiplayer a couple patches ago.

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Multiplayer

Son has already played a ton and I have zero interest so I think we will pass.

I forgot to include Terraria and Destiny 2 on the list. He loves Terraria, I don't exactly hate it, but it's a close thing. Neither of us had interest in the Destiny 2 end game.

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:29 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 8:41 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:58 am Why hasn't anyone thrown out Stardew Valley yet? Great game, accessible to all ages.

It's not co-op, is it? If it is I'll be playing this weekend with the kiddo.

It very much is. They introduced multiplayer a couple patches ago. I had a good time with my kid, plundering the mines and farming.

Ho-ly crap. Nice. Looks like I'll need a second PC or console. Although it's not patched in on the Xbone yet.

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 6:58 am Why hasn't anyone thrown out Stardew Valley yet? Great game, accessible to all ages.

I know Coop has already passed but for anyone else reading along, I thought I'd put in a vote for Stardew Valley as well. My daughter and I played it a ton as a team before co-op was added, and then more when we could both play at the same time.

I kind of min/maxed it to keep my interest going (wiki for fishing spots/times/npc quests etc) but it was fun (my daughter loved it, I thought it was fun) and was one of the few games my daughter and I were interested in playing together.

I think the switch version finally got the co-op patch (was out first for PC) which makes it an ideal easy going couch game for 2 (I think it supports up to 4? on PC anyway).

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 10:37 am Ho-ly crap. Nice. Looks like I'll need a second PC or console. Although it's not patched in on the Xbone yet.

Oh, I didn't know it required 2 consoles. We definitely played it LAN.

i'll be surprised if the co-op patch makes it to Xbone or PS4 at this point...

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 2:20 pm i'll be surprised if the co-op patch makes it to Xbone or PS4 at this point...

My daughter said that the developer had "handed off" the console development to someone else. i.e. sold the rights. I don't know to who or what their plans are for the game.

Stardew Valley, February

I also want to let the Xbox/PS4 players know that the multiplayer update is coming along well… the XBOX update is in QA, and PS4 will follow shortly. I hope to release both, simultaneously, within the next couple of months.

I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything more concrete to share with you. Thanks so much for your patience.

NickAragua wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 11:33 am If you want to mix it up, Warhammer and Warhammer II: Total War have excellent coop campaigns. Even if you don't have forces from both players in a fight, you can give the other player part of your force and split control, so there's a minimum amount of sitting around waiting for the other person to finish their turn.

these are good games, but they have a down point, and thats length, including length of turns.
it can take a long time to get anywhere, and do stuff. If you are patient games and have several hours per session, these are good.
but not so good for jump in and jump out short session.



If ya both like shooters, and need something thats easy to jump right into the action, and can have fun even through short sessions,
I think that the borderlands games are great choices. the older ones should be all on sale at steam, I think borderlands 1 was just remastered into hd. there is a part of borderlands2, DLC assault on dragon keep, it is hands down some of the funniest gaming I have ever played.

Jaymon wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 5:16 pm

NickAragua wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 11:33 am If you want to mix it up, Warhammer and Warhammer II: Total War have excellent coop campaigns. Even if you don't have forces from both players in a fight, you can give the other player part of your force and split control, so there's a minimum amount of sitting around waiting for the other person to finish their turn.

these are good games, but they have a down point, and thats length, including length of turns.
it can take a long time to get anywhere, and do stuff. If you are patient games and have several hours per session, these are good.
but not so good for jump in and jump out short session.

Can't argue with that. When you've got five armies per player, each fighting a lengthy battle every couple of turns, it starts to take a while.

Doesn't Portal have a good co-op campaign? Ain't tried it myself, but I heard it's good.

Also, the thread title makes me think of the Sanford and Son theme.

Hipolito wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2019 11:00 pm Doesn't Portal have a good co-op campaign? Ain't tried it myself, but I heard it's good.

Also, the thread title makes me think of the Sanford and Son theme.

Portal 2 for sure. Can't remember if Portal does.

1 does not.

Started playing borderlands 2 with my 9 year old. Whoops, I forgot how much mature content there is. No F words, but plenty of B words, some innuendo, and other mature content, like the first pirate boss complaining about how he lost his favorite torture midget.