Multiplayer: When Good isn’t Good Enough

Joystick Division writes: "Of the many games I’ve played so far this year, only a handful have been entirely solo affairs. Aside from games like Infamous, Wolverine and Prototype, most titles have offered some kind of multiplayer mode. That’s a good thing, right? After all, we gamers want to get the most for our money, and multiplayer modes help extend the time we spend with our $60 games. But is a multiplayer component necessary for all of these games? Did, for example, Bionic Commando need a multiplayer mode? A friend of mine has played through Bionic Commando’s campaign three times already, but he’s only spent two or three hours with the multiplayer. So was the mode a good use of the developer’s time?"