Work colleagues large player lobbies game suggestions

[Cvrk]

I need your powerful suggestions and gaming knowledge. Guys please fell free to spam this thread the more the better, all ideas count!

My and the guys from get together online on Fridays to play. Thing is we have been struggling, and for a long time to find the right games.

The genre of game does not matter, but it MUST have the following:

• Party or lobby with more than 5 players(5 being not enough- most of the times we are 10 + people)
• Lobby if possible to be private so we can play with one another, not the entire internet.

We tried old shooters. Most of them have servers closed like MOHAA, or Brothers in Arms etc - you must play via Hamachi etc...and those type of servers have huge drawbacks. So basically we need legit servers, like Steam where you just hit Play and that's it.
We tried Counter - it's very good but can get old, we tried Team Fortress. Age of Empires 2 and Warcraft but strategies are kinda hard, cuz not all of us are experts.
MMORPG's are out of the game cuz they are not fast pace, looking more for shooters
Also Dota 2 6vs6 is out cuz that games takes ages to learn.

We had super fun with Counter, Unreal Tournament, Ring of Elysium (unfortunately that's just for 4 players max). Next up we wanna try Overwatch - we heard tat it supports 6vs6 private custom play. Also Battlefield 1 is in discussion at the moment, still max party 5 players, and we donn't know if supports private lobby deathmatches.

Guild Wars 2 has max players per party 5, but it can be played with others cuz everyone can join an open word event basically - which makes the game amazing, but lets face it....lvl'up and all that is slooow and not that fun.

My GOD, auto - corrector for some reason whenever I type on this forum does not really work. I've seen better implementation. This is automatically done by Google right, so it should be the dame for all forums.

 

[Ahhzz]

Mech Warrior Online
12 to a side, but if you join as a group, you get placed against larger clans. Many people "sync drop": "3, 2, 1, drop" from discord or teamspeak. This will land the majority of you in the same game, if not the same side, which makes for fun ribbing (and aiming for) your mates.
drops rarely take more than 3 minutes or so to launch
drops limited in time, so you'll be back out and running again quickly, win lose or draw.
Free to play, with the ability to invest a small purse and inject additional space (mech bays required per mech) and maybe a Prime mech or two.
Sales and events often
Several game modes, altho to be fair, most devolve into skirmish.
My 2 pence Good luck!

 

[IceScreamer]

Killing Floor is great in coop, can vouch for it myself, about 2k hours sunk in with my friends. I know you said you were looking for a plug-and-play solution, but if you want private you can set up a ZeroTier network (if you trust your friends that is), if I can do it you can do it.

 

[Vario]

Been playing some Wreckfest off and on, it is pretty enjoyable for multiplayer racing with very large lobbies, though the price per game is very steep. The competition and collision aspect is very thrilling. There are so many empty servers that you would have no problem bringing your work group onto it.

 

[Vayra86]

Civilization V

Feature complete, solid (private/LAN) networking options, and allows you to drink beer while playing (one hand is enough). What's not to like

Another one: Company of Heroes (2?) I have fond memories of LAN parties... not sure about max player count but 8 should be possible?

You can also get into build/survival games like Space Engineers. Great fun, but maybe a steep learning curve/time investment.

And of course Quake, UT'99... arena shooter is hard to beat IMO

 

[Kursah]

World in Conflict if you want a more action-strategy game without base building, there was a gamer-driven resurgence for hosting this game's MP...and the game is free to boot. This one is really fun for team-based gaming, and is simple enough not to need to be a strategic pro to pull off a good play...sure strategy does help, but teamwork helps more.

Get more info here: http://www.massgate.org/downloads.php#fullclient

You can get old C&C games for free from CNCNet.org that also have a custom dedicated MP portal built-in. I recommend RA2 and Tiberian Sun. Good old school RTS fun for free.

SupCom FA + FAF might be another option, though that's going deeper down the strategy rabbit hole, so might not be what you want. In that case, SupCom 2 is a solid and cheap option that is quite fun. My kids and I still play SupCom2 more than FA, because it can be faster and is more fun, plus research strategies are something my kids enjoy more. Another one that can handle a lot of users, especially with recent dev work and dedication is Planetary Annihilation. It is quite fun and recent performance patches really seemed to help...though it can be a bear on modern PC's still as well.

Rusted Warfare is an indie RTS that is inspired by C&C and TA, has old-school pixel graphics, and is quite fun with basic base building and resource gathering, not as complex as the prior mentioned ones but still enough depth to be engaging. Can support a lotta users in MP.

Ashes of the Singularity Escalation can also handle a lot of users and units, might be worth a look if you guys go down the RTS rabbit hole any further.

What about AVP2010? I've been playing that one a little and it is still surprisingly entertaining...though probably for not more than a few rounds.

I think of LAN parties, I think Warcraft 3, Starcraft, C&C, UT, etc. But for the sake of keeping things simple...it also depends on what you guys want to play. BF1 might be a good way to go.

What about CoD4 or BFBC2? Classic for sure, and about the time I got out of MP gaming was when I finally grew tired of these two and was disappointed with what came after. But CoD4 was still pretty active last I checked, is easy enough to host a server for too. Frankly CoD4 is fun and fast paced action, BC2 is also fun and I heard that servers are still up...but haven't confirmed. Might be worth a look though.

Another game you guys could look at is one called Angels Fall First, it's still in EA, but it is very cool... think of BF2142 done today, but with more space and sci-fi, that's how I view it at least. It is cheap for what it offers, has surprisingly good AI, can do 64 vs 64 iirc. Has all sorts of maps both in space and on planet. Good gunplay, really a pretty surprisingly good game that hasn't gotten enough attention yet but is seeing solid dev updates...was originally a mod for Homeworld iirc.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/367270/Angels_Fall_First/

Angels Fall First Trailer 2018

Angels Fall First - Tannhauser - Incursion Battle | Singleplayer

Honestly this game makes me want to play MP again, I just haven't had the time to dedicate to MP gaming or this shooter and all it can do or rather what all you can do in it. But the time I've spent has been very cool. Check out the vids....maybe it is a good answer, maybe not. But I highly recommend checking it out.