Back in the old days, before online, console multiplayer meant having a bunch of friends in the same room playing on the same tv. Now, multiplayer means online play. Why are games increasingly moving away from splitscreen? It's a feature that should exist. Most developers say it's because it is too hard to get the game to run twice on the same screen. This arguement makes no sense. Goldeneye did it back in 98 on the N64, which didn't even have powerful hardware when it was new. Halo did it, Army of Two did it, so why can't Far Cry 2? It's a real deal breaker for me.

A lot of games have it (I'm actually trying to think of a game I have that has multiplayer but no split screen and I can't). I don't agree, I don't really see companies moving away from split screen.

Ahh, I remember the good old days of calling up some friends and kicking back to play some multiplayer.

I have a N64 (my only system) but no one really played multiplayer with me, so I don't really miss it. There were a lot of flaws with it though. Screen peaking, smaller view, sound confusion...

screen hopping. lol

There's plenty of new games that have online multiplayer only, ex. Burnout Paradise, Crackdown, Mercenaries 2, Splinter Cell 4, etc. I was really disappointed at the lack of splitscreen for Mercenaries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cooperative_games_for_the_Xbox_360

Far Cry 2's predecessors: Far Cry Instincts/Evolution/Predator all had split screen (After all, I use to play them a lot), I'm not entirely sure why Far Cry 2 doesn't have it but it should.

And it's good to see that I'm not alone with the British by playing this game.

It's not so much that they don't have split secreen, it's that they don't have online split screen. CoD4 has splitscreen, but only offline for some reason. It only allows one player to play online per console. It's an arbitrary restriction.

Games that don't have split screen but should:
The ones Fatal listed
Far Cry 2
The Orange Box (really no reason for this)
Rainbow Six Vegas
Battlefield 2
Battlefield: Bad Company

This.

I don't really buy multiplayer games cause no one would play with me

I just either buy single player games or try MMOs.
I did used to have some friends with N64 that we used to play multiplayer games. I had games like Turok, Banjo Tooie, Golden Eye. That were always fun to play like that. I used to play car racing games too but not that much cause I don't really get them. Mario Kart and Diddy Kong racing were fun, though.

Splitscreen + Multiplayer.

The only drawback is the fact that you can just "screenlook" and hunt down your opponents. Takes alot of trust and *ahem* honour, to have a fair match that way.
Used to do that alot, 16 player halo on 6 TVs.

Local Area Network? Eh. And besides, Halo 3 suffers screenlook in splitscreen. Especially if the second, third and fourth player all have different gamertags, there will be mixed teams.

dumbducky, any particular reason why you are purchasing Far Cry 2? And of course, I know you're not a mapmaking veteran player like I am (Despite the Editor brought easy to a whole new level).

I'm not because of it's lack of splitscreen. I meant that it was a deal breaker for me.

LAN requires that I have multiple Xbox's in the same house. Fail.

Wait, what? Splitscreen for mapmaking or by not purchasing Far Cry 2 because it doesn't have splitscreen? Just get Xbox Live.

I have Xbox Live. I want to play on Live with splitscreen. Far Cry 2 has no splitscreen.

Then get another Xb360, and another TV. Voila, SPLIT SCREEN.

Turok, Banjo and Goldeneye were amazing.

Although designed for multiplayer, Turok:Rage Wars was the best.

No. Thats 2Skreen.

I can tell you this, Far Cry 2 is certainly not following Halo 2's footsteps.

PS, Since Ubisoft Montreal had definitely followed my wish list more than anyone else, that's why I <3 them.

Split screen always annoyed me.
Online play is definitely the way of the future.
Though split screen should be kept for those rare ocassions your friends get grounded and you go over to theirs, you should really move forward with the times and accept that most games will simply just be online since with stuff like XBox that's what sells...

... Or, ya know, what you're just being actually SOCIAL and not sitting around alone to play video games.