Do you like grinding away for levels in an RPG with a pal? Or kicking back in a large, open world? Or would you rather just shoot things in a shooter's campaign together? Or is it something else?

I'll play nearly anything that has co-op, but I prefer grinding for levels with a friend.

A large open world, similar to Crackdown and Mercs 2.

It depends on the circumstances of the game, like I prefer co-op on Gears of War, but single player in Halo 3. Even then, I don't think that playing GTA 4 would have been the same without the introduction of co-op there, so really it's kind of a toss up for me.

Intense, something you can really get in to and then laugh at each other when you both jump when something awesome happens.

If you can play a solid 24hours and not be bored, then its a good co-op.
Thats asking a bit much perhaps. But the more you stay awake, the more gripping things feel.

Something tactical which takes team work, so you're shouting "OMG OMG ON THE LEFT" and things of such. I don't enjoy grinding that much with co-ops if you're in the same room as the person. But online is fine for that, but then you're not really in the game, you just chat about anything else.

Working towards a goal, in which you are completely absorbed and you are the characters. In short.

COR 2000:
A large open world, similar to Crackdown and Mercs 2.

I just played Crackdown yesterday, a friend had just started playing again and wanted some help taking out all the bosses since his character had relatively low stats. Its always fun to throw each others cars into stunt markers...or the roof...or into water...

Onyx Oblivion:

COR 2000:
A large open world, similar to Crackdown and Mercs 2.

I just played Crackdown yesterday, a friend had just started playing again and wanted some help taking out all the bosses since his character had relatively low stats. Its always fun to throw each others cars into stunt markers...or the roof...or into water...

Yeah, I played it a lot after it came first.

Sex

Mmos usually are my preferred tool of playing with a friend,
although i can't wait to get my hands on little big planet,
the idea of playing with other 4 idiots jumping around while
I'm the only one trying to beat a level is quite perplexing!

Richard Groovy Pants:

the idea of playing with other 4 idiots jumping around while
I'm the only one trying to beat a level is quite perplexing!

Sounds like what used to happen to me in N+...I was one of the idiots.

You and a mate, going to town on rampaging hordes with various fun items.

The way in which I imagined Hellgate:London to be, with a quick, nimble fighter and a stronger, heavy-duty character. Just beating the hell out of zombies etc.

Sex

Idealy something we can laugh at. With as little as possible ways to "annoy" your partner and no friendly fire. If the game seperates you to far away from your partner It can get annoying because theres nothing to stop them going to far off away leaving you there to die. One of the reasons I didn't like Crackdown Co-op. So far the best Co-op experiences in this generation I've had was Rock Band and Gears of War.

juandonde:
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Such creativity!

Something open ended and something which doesn't penalise you too much, if at all, for murdering your partner. A little friendly murder is healthy with each other once in a while.

Richard Groovy Pants:

juandonde:
Sex

Such creativity!

Richard Groovy Pants:
Sex

I really should stop quickly browsing through these threads, but it is what first popped into my mind ;_;

Edit: But great minds think alike right? =D

Amnestic:
Something open ended and something which doesn't penalise you too much, if at all, for murdering your partner. A little friendly murder is healthy with each other once in a while.

Oh yes. Many a friend has known the wrath of my kung fu kicks in Crackdown. And suicide 'nades in GTA.

juandonde:

Richard Groovy Pants:

juandonde:
Sex

Such creativity!

Richard Groovy Pants:
Sex

I really should stop quickly browsing through these threads, but it is what first popped into my mind ;_;

Edit: But great minds think alike right? =D

Dead on mate.

I have to say I wouldn't really consider an MMO/rpg/rts as a fun co-op experience even though I play them myself. When friends come round its normally a competative all on all or 2 v 2 shooter with the older the game the better. An example we play regularlyish is timesplitters 3 a party isnt a party without it (and a fair bit of drinking).

I think the best co-op's are ones where you can either free roam and cause havoc (ala GTA4) or you can actually do mission and both get some exp going, i don't want my hours spent on my friends system to be pointless i want a goal. Rather then just a few repetitive missions.

Do MMO raids count as co-op? If so, 40-man raids on WoW were my favorite co-op experiences.

Gamer137:
Do MMO raids count as co-op? If so, 40-man raids on WoW were my favorite co-op experiences.

If you can play together, as a team of sorts, against AI opponents, its a co-op game in my mind.

Richard Groovy Pants:
Sex

Edit: But great minds think alike right? =D[/quote]

Does that apply to weak minds too? BURN! ;-)

Seriously though a good co-op experience is when your partner actually helps and doesn't shoot you in the back of the head. That gets old really quick and why I stopped play co-op with my friends.

For me, Mario Kart: Double Dash was always a fun co-op experience. Also, Two-Player Mode in GTA: San Andreas provided hours of wanton destructive entertainment.

The major issue is being able to do it locally. I've never really seen the appeal of online co-op over local, and quite frankly, I'd much rather play with someone sitting on the couch next to me than someone a thousand miles away.

Fable 2 and Saint's Row 2 and Gears 2. All have (at least) 2 player online co-op. And that's gonna be fun.

Timesplitters Future Perfect is possibly the ultimate co-op game.
Co-op story mode is awesome, though the story isn't told as well.
The best however is capture the bag, with one shot kills.
When you and your mate are breaking through the enemy desperately trying to keep each other alive its just pure epic.

The only problem I ever find in co-op is my annoying friends who aim at me rather than the enemy, eg. Halo 3.

First level we treated as a deathmatch, and any enemies who also died were just the icing on the cake. After the third level it got boring really fast.

Then there's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 which would never actually let me play over live. It was good split-screen (minus the smaller viewing size and the badder graphics), and it functioned in the best way: Exactly the same as single player but with another player. It only got annoying when I was leading and my friend didn't bother using Michael and Jung.

All in all it should function the same as single player (someone mentioned Gears of War, which also does this well) and have the ability to trn friendly fire on/off.

Flying a UH-60 in Desert Combat while a friend in the same room mans the miniguns and we shout targets to each other. That's my favorite co-op memory.
It would've been more fun if we'd had Battlefield 2, but this was 2003.

I actually like "linear" split-screen co-op a lot, where the campaign is designed to be more fun with >1 person. Many are the happy hours I've whiled away with Gears of War, Dungeon Siege or old-school "pass the controller". Halo 3 left me cold because I always felt like I was competing against my buddies. (I can get that from any game!)

I'm not sure whether Rock Band is a good example, because the GAME is co-op from the ground up, not hybrid like most shooters / MMOs - and its target audience is "friends of hardcore gamers," so of course it's better at playing with your non-amazing buddies.

The 2 best features for co-op in my opinion are:
1. Split-screen play. My friends have 6 Xboxes and only 2 headsets.
2. Rescuing friends from death. Rock Band and Gears of War nail this perfectly, and MMOs let you do it full-time.

Honestly I don't mind as long as the people I'm playing with are cool and the game doesn't completly suck. I do enjoy a bit of Halo co-op though, specifically sticky grenades to team mates backs, all for laughs of course.

Fave Co-op environment? Me and my friends, on a game where we get to play, have fun and talk about random stuff. Doesn't matter on the Genre either. I've had lotsa fun just mucking about on Burnout, Ratchet and Clank, Killzone, even EverQuest Online Adventures on the PS2.

^_^ Fun.

City of Heroes is my favorite one.

Not one where you are encouraged to 'do better' than your teammates
should be about helping each other not competing, like has been said. Audiosurf is sweet (thought there are competing scores).

Sandbox co-op for me.

A fun co-op experience is when I can actually play with a friend on my console (Halo 3) and not only over Xbox Live (Mercs 2, GTA4,...) If anyone can recomend a game where I can play co-op and online without my friend having to go on a different console, please do.