Any of the Lego games. (Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Harry Potter)

Castle crashers ^[1] is fun for 4 friends on a couch.

This may sound strange but Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ^[1] actually has a fantastic local multiplayer component. Its call Spec Ops (which can be played online too). I played them all on local and it was far superior to any other online experience. It was quite literally the reason I bought the game. Its you and one other person trying to complete some difficult mission.

Examples include:

• One of you is on the ground trying to run to safety while the other supports in an attack helicopter.
• Breaching into a shower prison cell to reenact the scene in The Rock ^[2]
• Racing Snowmobiles down a mountain through enemy gunfire
• Sneaking through a snowstorm onto an enemy base to take out key structures.

To me, the most obvious multiplayer game is Rock Band (or Guitar Hero) in some form or another. You don't have to be musically talented to have a good time with it. It's a little bit of an investment, but if you have a group of people who like to spend a lot of time playing together, you can split the cost.

• Halo 3
• Left 4 Dead 1/2

If you are try some shooters, these are quite good to play with friends. Halo 3 is also one of few games which allow you to play online, and with friends on the one console, at the same time. And for offline, 4 way matches of Halo 3 with friends are often more fun than online games.

I'm sure a PS3 owner can better tell what has more replay value, but from my experience, when with PS3-owning friends, LittleBigPlanet seems to be one of the better offline multiplayer PS3 games.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance ^[1] is pretty fun in a group of friends.

Little big planet and Modnation Racers support 4 players offline.

Gears of War series.

Deathspank just came out today for PSN and Xbox Live. It has a couch co-op mode. It's described as "Monkey Island meets Diablo". Pretty fun!

For 2 players, I liked N+ (XBLA game) quite a bit. It has a 4-player mode that I haven't tried, but the game is entertaining any way you slice it.

You do need to be online to get the game in the first place.

My friends and I got plenty of offline entertainment from playing Nazi Zombies in Call of Duty: World at War.

There is the original level that came with the retail game and additional level that came with each map pack (3 map pack are available). The level that came with map pack 3 Der Riese ^[1] is my personal favorite

If you want a turn-based strategy game, you can't go wrong with Carcasonne ^[1].

• Splosion Man.