Wirehead Studios

I've been looking around for some good co-op games for my boyfriend and I to play. I think we'd probably get more out of an RPG, but I'm certainly open to other ideas. I've been through the most obvious options already, such as Diablo/Hellfire/Diablo II.

I was curious about Hexen II, but can't seem to get the new engine mods working with it.

I really wanted to given Titan Quest a go, but my secondary computer can't handle it.

Vampire: the Masquerade - Redemption looked awesome, but doesn't have much in the way of community support for new campaigns and such. I don't think I really want to put the effort into making those myself, and the Storyteller system, as uber-cool as it looks, isn't really suited for just two people.

I had heard that there are ways to host your own offline servers for a lot of MMOs. Is this true? That might just be up our alley.

Thoughts, suggestions, etc?

Co-op games are getting kinda rare, more so without the net being mandatory.

That said I think Neverwinter Nights is LAN compatible, and I think I recall hearing a mod or two that lets you play Morrowind with multiple people (possibly something similar for oblivion as well)

And then there's the obvious Quakes 1 - 2 and, Serious Sam

Depending on what kind of game you're wanting to play... The ones I know you can coop on LAN are:

Doom 1, 2, Final Doom, etc.
Quake 2, The Reckoning, Ground Zero
Serious Sam, Serious Sam:  The Second Encounter
System Shock 2 (tricky to setup... I've done it on the net once)
Sven Coop for Half-Life
Last Man Standing or Open Coop for Doom 3

Those are the ones I know of anyway.  I don't know any RPG's as I have not played one in a very long time.

serious sam is definitely a good LAN game

Serious Sam must make for an interesting coop experience if it's been listed every time thus far. What about Serious Sam II? It sounds as if it's a different game from "The Second Encounter".

Serious Sam II is definitely a different game from Serious Sam:  The Second Encounter.  SS:  TSE continues the story of the first Serious Sam and plays very similar.  Serious Sam II I have not played so I have no idea how it plays, but I do know that it's a newer engine from SS and SS:  TSE.  I'll speak about what I know regarding the first two as I've done coop with both.

If you've not played either game, Serious Sam and SS:  TSE are both first-person shooters, but a bit different from Doom and Quake in a few respects.  The first is sheer number of enemies.  Monsters in Serious Sam tend to arrive in waves and can arrive in any direction, depending on where you are.  Fighting can range from close hallways to open pits where you're attacked from all sides.  The games do have specific objectives - like reaching the end of the level - as well as secrets, but there's a large emphasis on arcade-style action and fighting in interesting environments.  SS:  TSE does get a bit more tongue-in-cheek with some of the secrets.  The first game is a bit more, well, serious.  As for weapons, Sam has everything from a minigun that Grunt would envy to Doom-style shotguns, a rotary-barreled rocket launcher (only shoots one at a time, not like the 8-baller from Unreal), a grenade launcher that can fling bombs VERY far or very short depending on desired effect, a quad-barreled laser gun (like a hyperblaster), and a cannon.  I mean, a literal cannon, like you'd find on a pirate ship.  It fires exploding cannon balls and its quite fun to use so long as you don't bounce the cannon balls onto yourself.  There's also a Thompson, Sheffield revolvers with unlimited ammo (minor technical explanation is given as to why), and a knife.  Not sure if I forgot any.  SS:  TSE adds a chainsaw and a sniper rifle to your arsenal, along with some new enemies as well.

Coop play is great because everyone's going to have something to do, and having someone to cover your ass is a huge help.  I think friendly fire is off by default as well.  The games are also very friendly as far as prediction goes.  Client-side prediction can be set so that if you shoot the monster client-side before it damages you, the server will acquiesce on the damage and kill the monster instead.  You don't have to lag predict in Sam coop.  If you like action games with a lot of emphasis on gunning down monsters, you can't beat Sam for coop.   :doom_thumb: