Games with actual LAN support

[MiseryIndex]

So, I have two sons and have just built a new PC for the youngest. His older brother got his 2 years ago.

I'm looking for some fun games that actually have LAN support. Not so I can use one copy of a game on multiple systems, but so we can avoid lag on online servers. I am more than happy to purchase every copy.

We do play games online, but our internet is not the best, latency wise. Considering we are on a local network, it would be nice to have some games we can play together that do not have to be ran on a distant server.

We do have some games we play like this, such as minecraft, but I would like some more suggestions. I have purchased games in the past that me and my eldest have played, just to realize there was no true LAN support.

I've noticed some games that don't seem to use LAN still seem to be lag free, such as 7 days to die. When me and my eldest son played that, I watched his screen while jumping and shooting, and it seemed instantaneous. Does that mean, in certain games, steam will recognize that we are on a lan and allow the game to be connected that way, or do all games without a LAN feature have to be connected through steam's servers?

Btw, I think 7 days to die actually has a LAN option, but we could not get it to work. It seemed like it was using a LAN connection anyway, however.

[[wan-clan.org] Gordy Freeman]

Rise of Nations does, but it requires an Internet connection to initiate.

It’s fun as though... 👍

[MiseryIndex]

Cool, thanks for the suggestion. I've actually been tempted to pick that up on many occasions, throughout the years, lol. Having a connection to initiate the game would not be a problem, as long as our games can connect to each other through a LAN.

[[wan-clan.org] Gordy Freeman]

Most of the original Half-Life 1 games are capable of running a LAN Server too.

[MiseryIndex]

Good suggestion. I hadn't thought about those games, though Gary's Mod did come to mind.

[MiseryIndex]

Does the first half life or any of the add ons for it have a co op option?

[Forcen]

Publicado originalmente por MiseryIndex:

I've noticed some games that don't seem to use LAN still seem to be lag free, such as 7 days to die. When me and my eldest son played that, I watched his screen while jumping and shooting, and it seemed instantaneous. Does that mean, in certain games, steam will recognize that we are on a lan and allow the game to be connected that way, or do all games without a LAN feature have to be connected through steam's servers?

1. Maybe. Could be something like picking up the phone when someone else in the same house was on it.
2. Mostly, yes. They would often use a online matchmaking and dont allow users to host servers on their own.

Here is a free one that will get you started: http://store.steampowered.com/app/223710/Cry_of_Fear/
This might only have lan/direct IP. It should be way easier to play this on LAN than online.
It's an old but decent horror fps with a co-op mode.

What games have you tried that you might expect LAN support in but didn't have it?

Here is a curator that's for lan-party games. That might mean that actually doesn't support LAN though but it might still be worth a look: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6859938-LAN-Party-Games/

[MiseryIndex]

Thanks for the suggestion and game! As far as what games we expected lan, well, 7 days to die was one of them. There were others I cannot remember right now, I will ask my son and update this tomorrow. I can't remember which games, but there were some, like 7 days to die, that actually had the option, but we could not get them to connect.

Usually when googling as to why they wouldn't connect, we would find out that LAN wasn't really implemented yet, even though the game has the option listed in multiplayer.

7 days is a bad example, because even though we couldn't connect using the LAN option, the regular multiplayer option seemed to use the LAN connection. Could be wrong, we could have just been having a low latency day. It does happen from time to time, lol.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Halo: Combat Evolved, IIRC.

[MiseryIndex]

Man, that would be awesome. I still have an old, retail copy of that, in a cardboard sleeve, lol.

[wuddih]

library -> tools.
everything with a dedicated server.

store search tags -> local coop/mp, shared/split screen
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?category3=39%2C37%2C24
i preselected all 3, play around with them and use more filters to narrow it down.
when something jumped your eye, if the storepage isn't clear about lan support, ask in the games board.

the games have to implement and do their own networking. Steam provides at max just helping functions for the devs to use.

[MiseryIndex]

Wow, I didn't even realize that tools section was in there. So, every game listed there will allow local multiplayer, I just have to download the server software? So, would that just be using direct connect to ip, then?

[MiseryIndex]

Thanks for the link wuddih