Offline LAN Games (play with my kids)

[MuffieSR]

Dear Community, I'm around 40s, and started playing (& coding) computer games since I was 11. Lived through all the revolution: 8Bit MSX with classics like Metal Gear 1 or Knightmare, Commodore Amiga, PC with 3dfx Voodoo 1! (Diamond Monster 3D) and so on. I was really good on Quake II, Quake III, AOE2, SFII & the arcades and etc.
Now that my two boys are getting better on gaming and we have a really good 5G/Cable local LAN, sometimes, when they're not online playing Minecraft, BF4, Far Cry 4, I'm able to convince them for some small in-family matches.

BUT, that's where the problem starts: What happened to LAN family gaming? I don't want to crack and/or torrent weird versions of games. I want to OFFICIALLY PURCHASE good LAN games from Steam.

Currently we have to play Open Arena (Q3 engine) and/or some old cracked versions of AOE2. Those are really nice, but I would love to play something more modern like Call of Duty, Far Cry in a simple local environment: start local server, they both connect and we start playing. NO Outside server, no Lag, no other players and etc.

Can someone give me some MODERN directions? if LAN is dead, can someone tell me WHY?

[V]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/6060/

http://store.steampowered.com/app/304930/

[Snapjak]

A lot of the older games still support LAN, you'd just need one copy (license) per person or do some finagling with offline mode.

You may want to simply create an account for each child and start buying games for them on your account to send to them as gifts (easy way to control spending).

Now as for more recent games, a lot of the time you can use the friends list to just join each other, but it depends on the game and what the devs have decided to do.

Payday 2 for example is purely peer-2-peer so a lan option doesn't really exist but you can make private lobbies just for yourself.

AOE2HD should have LAN mode (though I'll have to start it up and find out for sure) and it supports Steamworks so friends > join should work.

Other games you'd be best asking in their respective forum ahead of time, or do some googling.

[MuffieSR]

Thank you guys. Violet: I don't get it, you're suggesting these two games? The first one is exactly saying online will be no longer supported...

Snapjak, we already have three accounts. In some cases I wouldn't mind buying three copies of a game. For instance, CODMW2 or MW3. But I don't want to do it without being sure we would be able to play it in offline LAN.
Anyway, I'll follow your advice and ask directly on those games forums.

BTW, can you plz check AOE2HD? Still 'LOVE' this amazing game!!!

[MuffieSR]

Well, I posted there long time ago and...
http://steamcommunity.com/app/10180/discussions/0/371918937272569428/

Maybe I should try to ask on another forum like Toms Hardware.

[F1Guy]

Were you ever able to find solutions Muffie Sr? I have the same complaint. I have 2 kids and each has a PC with Steam. Out of the 1000's of game titles almost NONE of them support local LAN mulitplayer play. All I want to do is set up a server on 1 machine and play games with my kids. Seems like an OBVIOUS feature for EVERY game. I only assume that game companies looking to increase profit have given up local LAN play for online commercialized servers. Servers where experts cheat, or there is profanitty and are just not fun anymore.

[alphajulietbravo]

I am also in the same situation and specifically am looking for a way to play AOE2-DE with my kids on our home LAN. Is there still no way to do this without buying another copy on a separate account?

[Fishie]

The game will say if it supports Lan or not. When your in the game menu if no option then probably not. Or look it up on Google and if nothing pops up then it probably doesn't support lan or ask in the games form.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by alphajulietbravo:

I am also in the same situation and specifically am looking for a way to play AOE2-DE with my kids on our home LAN. Is there still no way to do this without buying another copy on a separate account?

Unless the game supports Steam's Remote Play Together, then you'll have to purchase a separate copy on a different account.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by GSharp740:

The game will say if it supports Lan or not. When your in the game menu if no option then probably not. Or look it up on Google and if nothing pops up then it probably doesn't support lan.

Regardless if LAN or not, in order for two people to play the game with each other at the same time, each person will need to own their own copy of the game.

[Fishie]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by GSharp740:

The game will say if it supports Lan or not. When your in the game menu if no option then probably not. Or look it up on Google and if nothing pops up then it probably doesn't support lan.

Regardless if LAN or not, in order for two people to play the game with each other at the same time, each person will need to own their own copy of the game.

Well thanks for describing lan. Everyone knows this. That is the definition of lan lol

[alphajulietbravo]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by alphajulietbravo:

I am also in the same situation and specifically am looking for a way to play AOE2-DE with my kids on our home LAN. Is there still no way to do this without buying another copy on a separate account?

Unless the game supports Steam's Remote Play Together, then you'll have to purchase a separate copy on a different account.

Thank you for the info! I didn't know about Remote Play Together. I'll try to figure out if AOE2-DE supports that feature. I went to the marketing webpage for RPT and it wasn't immediately clear how you're supposed to know if a particular game is supported. I suppose worst case scenario is dropping some change for another copy.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by alphajulietbravo:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Unless the game supports Steam's Remote Play Together, then you'll have to purchase a separate copy on a different account.

Thank you for the info! I didn't know about Remote Play Together. I'll try to figure out if AOE2-DE supports that feature. I went to the marketing webpage for RPT and it wasn't immediately clear how you're supposed to know if a particular game is supported. I suppose worst case scenario is dropping some change for another copy.

The list of features on right column of the store's page should list "Remote Play Together" with a little controller icon if it does. I don't believe AOE2-DE supports it. If you look at For The King's features, you can see it listed at the bottom of that section.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/527230/For_The_King/
If you click on the feature, it should take you to a store listing of all that games that do support it if you're interested in finding others that do:
https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category2=44

[alphajulietbravo]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by alphajulietbravo:

Thank you for the info! I didn't know about Remote Play Together. I'll try to figure out if AOE2-DE supports that feature. I went to the marketing webpage for RPT and it wasn't immediately clear how you're supposed to know if a particular game is supported. I suppose worst case scenario is dropping some change for another copy.

The list of features on right column of the store's page should list "Remote Play Together" with a little controller icon if it does. I don't believe AOE2-DE supports it. If you look at For The King's features, you can see it listed at the bottom of that section.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/527230/For_The_King/
If you click on the feature, it should take you to a store listing of all that games that do support it if you're interested in finding others that do:
https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category2=44

Thanks!