The living room is back, and it has co-op on it. This sample essay is a small thank-you to the games that still know how to seat four people on one sofa and give them something kind to do with their hands.

A living-room couch and a second controller
The most luxurious hardware is a second pad.

A geek newspaper can have a light rail. Not every desk needs a scandal. Some need a Friday. Local multiplayer, couch drop-in, a campaign you can pause when the kettle boils — that is civilisation too.

A GPU lighting a living room
Native resolution, on the same sofa.

Co-op Nights and the Return of the Living Room
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We will cover games as craft and as hospitality. Difficulty that teaches. Art that looks expensive even when the studio is small. Sound that makes a room feel bigger than it is. We will not invent outrage. We will not dunk on a named private developer.

Split-screen on a Saturday
Joy has a geography, and the geography is a room.

The Standard's Games desk is one rail on purpose. It exists so the paper still feels like a paper a nerd would leave on the table. Sample copy, marked as such. Replace it when someone at the Host's house actually finishes a co-op run.

A living-room tower at rest
A 240-hertz panel is not a number. It is a friendship.