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My wife and I like to play games together, but PC devs often skip couch co-op options. For example, I bought Halo Master Chief Collection because I know Halo co-op is legendary and I never really played Halo growing up, nor did she. But the PC version specifically doesn't have split screen co-op where the console version does.

We already own and play Stardew Valley, Outward (fantastic game if you aren't aware), and Civ 5 (we prefer it over 6).

So what other options have you enjoyed that I may have missed?

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[-] InspiringOne@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

Halo, call of duty, not all games are. Say this some how about halo

It was called halo combat evolved, because combat evolved into something else, it was to smite call of duty, and take halo from being considered any type of military training. Instead beating halo on legendary means you can be a master computer programmer at Microsoft.

It’s just combat evolved probably made it seem like the second game like halo 2, but halo 2 was already on the market. I started doing the same thing customers do with calling on phones to peoples houses or cell phones or their friends neighbors or family’s houses or asking around for them or about them and the calls or anything they do didn’t go on anymore and eventually nothing was bought and sold, and actual slow calling and talking or having meetings business actually went on, and a service economy started where everything was normal and high quality stuff with the real approved formula was bought sold. And just democracy and or business fascism went on and that’s what call of duty was actually still made for. Everyone is forced to buy it and play it for older ones you just download them unless you’re that lazy. It’s too risky to leave the house we could get kidnapped by someone else or have homeless people convincing us about the economy crashing by what they’re doing or saying or how the area looks. When we all hate money or don’t need it or want to use it or it to go on, they all still need and use money for something and expect the other thing called a service economy to go on, bums didn’t work or sell anything in service economies, they all wanted to be cashiers or already were and stole something or money or got fired. And it’s the opposite when we do. Socialist selling businesses can’t exist, it means the employees were doing some kind of communism and breeding.

Where it says the planet turned into a ring world called halo we should have said universe, or there isn’t other planets and stars but halo wasn’t necessary to be Star Wars and traveling through space. Or who knows what can happen with video games, prequels or some new sequel branch. Halo is intense it becomes like fighting bosses in other video games the whole time where you get use to them so they throw more at you and more intense stuff. I let Justin put as much as he could or would ever put in a game into the game, and it was quite a bit that he’d put in it. What great evil man. A god damn award to Justin holt if you may. A windows award print out and a gift card or some big check like in “Happy Gilmore”. I use to do shit like that in person and that’s why they said different kinds of capitalism goes on or that capitalism still went on. I was on the PGA tour, but I didn’t miss while putting. No one wants to walk that far when golfing no one really eats any food and beer is common.

In halo you have to use alien pistols very good to even beat it or to beat it on legendary, the assault rifle sucked completely. I’d still say this blew ass and not to make any more and now we’d have to take them all away. They make someone beat it on legendary for anyone to get paid from it or anything else they did. No one beat it on legendary because they didn’t want too, playing video games is supposed to be fun and not much of a challenge unless your getting better. People just played video games to relax or blow off steam, or wait out natural disasters, they don’t build full on neighborhoods and cities and put in restaurants for it, it’s possible that if you don’t make video games that you may end up playing the same ones. Or any game that ever existed.

So it was that Trojan horse virus Tony doing this yo me or us. He didn’t want me only getting a salary amount and that’s because that’s all anyone wanted to spend in a year as a regular person, but I still needed my investment into it back. I did this thing where I acted like I was his son saying “oh can’t you just give me an allowance dad, like 5 or 10 bucks a day and 20 or 40 on Friday for the weekend movie theaters and places. And him being bisexual he got into it, it turned me into an almost prostitute for my own money back, all because I didn’t beat halo combat evolved on legendary for the master simulator to see. What a long large video game. It seems short until mission 5. They have you go in to the place then you have to fight your way back out when reinforcements arrive.

Then one day I hit my head on something or became immune to him by a vaccine or using Vicodin, he bought them sometimes to stop me from taking them. 25 thousand dollars stuck somewhere with Tony using it as business loan or student loan money making it seem like student loan money gets paid back because he did, yeah well that wasn’t Tony’s money so he had too or he couldn’t use Microsoft Windows anymore or the old versions. The simulator just wouldn’t allow it. So I convinced him not to and to try out Ubuntu and Linux.

But still we could just start programming after using a computer and having ideas for programs of new ones or improving some or by starting over on an operating system and calling it the same thing when the new one comes out.

[-] unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov 23 points 2 years ago

It Takes Two is a masterpiece for co-op gameplay and is great for casual gameplay. A Way Out was made by the same studio before It Takes Two and it's easy to see where they were able to improve on the experience, but it's also a great game for local co-op.

[-] Skunk@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 years ago

+1 for it takes two.

There’s also a pretty nice list already in the comments.

I do like a lot Portal 2 but wifey cannot play for too long with me as she becomes impatient. When that’s the case and she just want to watch a story like you would watch a movie, I play A Plague Tales (both of them) and she ends up wanting to know more and finally, crying.

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[-] warmaster@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago
[-] FlavorPacket@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is SO good.

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[-] Fushi@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

It Takes Two is co-op masterpiece. It’s mostly a puzzle platformer but changes up the gameplay style every level. Lots of little mini games to get distracted by too. Can’t recommend it enough

[-] gk99@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

LEGO games are fantastic

It Takes Two and A Way Out are co-op masterpieces

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[-] _st0f@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago

Me and my gf loved playing Divinity: Original Sin 2.

And we're super excited for Balder's Gate 3 made by the same Devs as DOS2. It's just had its release date move forward to Aug 3rd woo!

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[-] vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago

Not exactly a recommendation (most of what I would have said has been covered below) but, my partner and I use Co-Optimus to find new games to couch play together. Here's a filtered list of PC split-screen and couch co-op games.

https://co-optim.us/1m8Ysft

Hope that helps!

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[-] SetheryVanDamn@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

If you and your wife are into D&D-type stuff Divinity Original Sin 2 has local co-op. It's an isometric turn based adventure game. Super fun to play and on sale for about $18 at the moment, I think. I will say, it's a little more involved than some of the more casual games like Stardew, but if you're willing to put in a little time to learn the game it's one of the most rewarding games I've ever played.

My girlfriend and I actually played through the whole thing together!

[-] scrawdaddy@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I wish there was something else that had a similar experience to divinity! That’s my favorite game to play with my wife.

Sill waiting on baldurs gate 3

[-] SetheryVanDamn@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Same here! Good news is that baldurs gate 3 is coming out on August 3rd - not long now!

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[-] Risk@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Have you plaid Divinity: Original Sin 1?

[-] scrawdaddy@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I have! In some ways I liked it more than the second.

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[-] mtcerio@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

We just played It Takes Two. Great variety of gameplay and level styles. Always something to learn, always something new happening, very different environments. Also, good story for husband and wife coop. Great game, I can recommend!

[-] nop@vlemmy.net 9 points 2 years ago

Out of Space is a ton of fun, starts out hard, but stock with it and you can overcome.

Others I've seen mentioned already, but deserves more: Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime and It Takes Two

[-] axby@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago

I tried "Out of Space" last night with my partner and wow, you weren't kidding. I really liked it, but we died every time. Eventually we switched to the easier "zen mode" and were able to win a few matches. I couldn't help but wonder if the balance wasn't finely tuned for 2 players, maybe they balanced it for 4.

For anyone interested: this is a really fun game, but it's not quite as much like "The Sims in space" as I expected. It's closer to "Overcooked, but with some placeable furniture that you need to interact with".

If anyone knows of a co-op (not necessarily local, but that's a huge plus) game like "The Sims", I'd be very interested. Rimworld is close, but the multiplayer mod didn't work well for us. I think my partner's old laptop couldn't keep up at 3x speed, causing big desyncs. Factorio is great for co-op IMO (though not at all like "The Sims", more like Sim City)), but my partner doesn't really like it because of the gritty environment.

[-] alouderback@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Shocked It Takes Two isn’t up here. Fiancé isn’t a gamer at all, but she LOVED this game. Brings us back to the great PS2 era 3D platformers.

Besides that, I’ll echo the other comments of Lego games (especially Lego Skywalker Saga)

[-] Kainsmasquerade@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

It’s not split screen, but an enjoyable game for two players in the same screen (so couch coop):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritfarer

You play the new “Reaper” and his cat. Collect lost souls, that still have some issues to solve, travel the “in between” spirit world, build a house boat, take care of gardens, make music, etc. The artwork is cute, while the topics of the lost spirits can be unexpected sad. Still a great game to relax!

[-] Cirom@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

A few that I've played:

20XX and 30XX - Megaman-style roguelites. Built with 2-player co-op in mind (either local or online) - when playing local, the screen space is shared but the screen zooms out when players are far apart (similar to Smash), so you still get about the same amount of view distance.
Hypercharge: Unboxed - FPS Horde Shooter/Tower Defence hybrid. Up to 4 players (local or online) have to defend cores from hordes of enemy toys, with the ability to place defences to make the job easier. It's mostly about the FPS shooter aspect over the tower defence stuff, though.
Streets of Rogue - GTA1-style sandbox roguelite. Up to 4 players (local or online). To describe Streets of Rogue is difficult. It's a very silly sandbox game where you're given a few objectives (usually neutralising folks or getting an item from another group of guys), but there's always many ways to go about things. It's also one of the few games where the 32 playable characters actually play wildly different from eachother (except the red/blue gangters but that's also the joke), and multiplayer adds another level on top of that as you can easily help (or hinder) eachother's Main Objective, as each class has their own goals.
Helldivers - Top-down shooter. Up to 4 players (local and online, at the same time) get dropped into a planet to complete various objectives. There's a lot of mechanics in this game which would probably kill other games (like how friendly fire is mandatory, or how reloading your gun discards the rest of your clip), but the devs (who also made Magicka, just fyi) made it work very well. There's a sequel coming later this year, too.
Sonic Robo Blast 2 - 3D Platformer. Up to 2 players local splitscreen, or 32 online can play together to run through co-op Sonic levels. Also the only game in this list that's completely free (by nature of it being a Sonic fangame).
A Hat in Time - 3D Platformer. Up to 2 players local splitscreen, and 50 online can play together in a platformer which I honestly find a lot more fun than Super Mario Odyssey. Also, Player 2 is an equal to the main hero this time instead of a glorified "little brother mode" - heck, Player 2 can actually trigger cutscenes and stuff without Player 1's involvement at all. Great stuff.
N++ - 2D Precision Platformer. If you've heard of Super Meat Boy, the original N is the game that inspired it. N++ is just a perfected version of N, with a brand new co-op mode with its own unique levels, which now requires two players to flawlessly move their way through levels where even a single slip-up means starting the level again (though that's fine - they're at max only 60 seconds long, but there's over a thousand of them)
Mercenary Kings - Metal Slug meets Monster Hunter. Up to 4 players local or online. Rise up the difficulty ranks by completing missions, upgrading the parts on your very modular guns and don't forget to eat before you go on a hunt- er, mission.
Pretty much the entirety of the side-scrolling beat-em-up genre, including Streets of Rage 4 (4 player local), River City Girls 1&2 (2 player local) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (6 player local and online, yes 6). This entire genre is based on local co-op, so just pick a game and dive in.

[-] iRyu@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

There are a lot of good suggestions here already. I want throw out Escape Academy. Split screen escape room game. My brother and I started playing it and had a blast in just an hour. Not sure about any story because we glossed over it, but we enjoy puzzles a lot.

Edit to include: Cuphead Wildermyth Overcooked 2 Terraria TMNT Shredders Revenge

[-] dwindling7373@feddit.it 7 points 2 years ago

It's not my favorite but I feel like it deserves to be mentioned: Alien Swarm.

[-] sverit@feddit.de 7 points 2 years ago

Both Rayman games are really nice

[-] Omnimater@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

Not really familiar with them tbh I'll look into them

[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 7 points 2 years ago

Not "split screen" but "same screen":

Unraveled 2

Great for couples.

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[-] 227@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago

There's a mod that allows borderlands 2 to be split screen

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[-] decadentrebel@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It Takes Two.

Which reminds me, we really need to finish that game.

[-] RankWeis@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It’s not co op but head to head. But if you haven’t played duck game, I feel like you are missing out on some of the best local multiplayer pc has to offer.

If that’s too competitive, try Ultimate Chicken Horse - if you want some incentive watch a guy named Northernlion play it on YouTube

Next on the semi co op is Crawl although it’s still a little competitive, I can’t do it justice by describing it but it’s great, videos will do better to describe it.

If co-op is a must, I second divinity.

[-] WMTYRO@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Really enjoyed “Heave Ho!” Co-op 2D arcade-style game where you play a character with two arms, can control the direction and grabbing of each arm, and must cooperate to climb/heave each other through obstacle course levels. Couch co-op, best with controllers.

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[-] Lazz45@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago

My girlfriend and I both have computers (i built her a gaming PC so she could move off her laptop). The games we have enjoyed are Halo (no local co-op), Overcooked 2 (local co-op available), The Escapsists 2 (local co-op available), and "Keep talking and nobody explodes" (only 1 person needs the computer other is reading material helping them). Games we play together with co-op but we need to be on our own rigs are Apex legends (if we can call that Co-op), Starship troopers Extermination, Deep Rock Galactic, Left 4 dead 2, Satisfactory, The forest, Terraria, and Call of Duty BO3 custom zombies.

Honorable Mention: Old School Runescape. I grew up playing this game, played it again in college and got my girlfriend into it as well and now we both play often. It can be played on PC or even has a very well made mobile client that lets you play the same game on mobile. (be careful, the joke is that the game is called Run-Escape, since it tends to pull you in like a crack addiction lol)

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[-] allaun@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago

It's not a split screen game, but it can be CO-OP. My partner and I play For the King (currently 75% off on steam).

[-] Risk@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime!

Another not split screen but local co-op, up to 4 players.

If you're willing to get just a little technical you can use nucleus co-op (check out the sub-reddit for details) to split screen many, many games.

[-] theyseemeroland@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Castle Crashers and Guacamole 1/2, hands down

[-] thelsim@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago

A lot of great games mentioned so far. I’d like to add Streets of Rogue to the list. It’s a lot fun playing it together. Especially when things don’t exactly go to plan :)

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[-] Still@programming.dev 5 points 2 years ago

if you want some chaos; unrailed, overcooked, and plateup are good

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[-] yokowasis@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

How about firing Dolphin emulator and play some gamecube and wii games.

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[-] HongoBongo@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Divinity: Original Sin (and it's sequel) are two of my favorites that I played split screen with my wife. They're classic crpgs, so can be a bit slower paced, but both have great stories and are very good about allowing freedom to both people playing

[-] x12mike@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

Much like others, I can't say enough good things about It Takes Two.

The storyline, great! The gameplay, fantastic! The soundtrack, amazing!

That damn book, pissed me off to no end. (you'll understand that if you play it)

I'd put it up there in my top 10 games I've played of all time.

[-] imrichyouknow@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago
[-] Quentinp@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 years ago

Grim Dawn has split screen coop?

[-] sunbunman@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

Not split screen but my partner and I are really enjoying nine parchments. She's not a gamer at all, but the game on casual difficulty gives just the right amount of challenge for her.

[-] ScreaminOctopus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

My girlfriend and I thought It Takes Two was excellent. We also enjoyed A Way Out

[-] NeryK@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

Renegade Ops is a favorite of mine, with its 90's action movie vibe and explosions-filled gameplay. It's reminiscent of Desert Strike but more forgiving.

HELLDIVERS is another top-down shooter which borrows from Starship Troopers and features surprisingly engaging and deep mechanics.

[-] ADandHD@vlemmy.net 3 points 2 years ago

Magicka and Magicka 2 are great! Can't recommend them enough. Both are on sale rn for like $2.50

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[-] FroZenYoGert@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

The Goose Game, Bro Force, Diablo 3/4, Don't Starve, Moon Hunters. Just for a short list, I got more!

The goose game and moon hunters are easily two favorites. Peace was never an option.

[-] buedi@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago

Diablo 4 does not have couch coop on PC, which I find infuriating. I am not sure about 3, but I think it does not have one too, only on consoles.

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[-] devils_advocate@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Screencheet. It's the only fair combative experience.

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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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