A lot of people who play games have some inner desire to also create games to share with the world. Epic Games wants to help you reach your goal by unleashing the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) for individuals and new companies to use. UDK will give new game creators access to the Unreal 3 engine for free, as well as all the other amenities you may need to get your creative juices flowing. Anyone can start building games on their PC by Downloading the UDK, gaining access to ongoing Unreal Engine 3 support and all the tools necessary to start building your games.

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Dundee, Scotland: home to the Tay Rail Bridge (seen above) and Crackdown 2 dev Ruffian Games

It seems that Ruffian Games will be showing off Crackdown 2, the sequel to the "still fun after all these years" Crackdown, to the general public next weekend at the NEoN Digital Arts Festival.  This is the first time the game will be shown and demoed outside of a major trade show event like E3 or TGS.  The catch?  The event is in Dundee, Scotland.  So unless you live in the area, have already acquired plane/event tickets, or are really good friends with Nightcrawler, you likely won't be amongst those lucky few that will get to check out this promising co-op title in person for the first time.  Fortunately, any new details that are shown will undoubtedly be disseminated across the Internet in less time than you can say "I wonder if the sequel will come with a Halo: Reach beta," and you can be sure we'll be posting all the latest and greatest co-op related news just as soon as it does.

Additional information about the NEoN Digital Arts Festival can be found at the following link.

Source: Link

The weekend stretches ahead, full (we hope) of free time for gaming.  Here are the games of choice for Co-Optimus staffers.

Nick - "Getting to see some family this weekend I haven't seen in a while so we'll check out some DJ Hero co-op and possibly Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  I plan on enjoying some Uncharted 2 in both single and multiplayer"

Marc - "We'll be out of town this evening, which limits me to Fire Emblem on my DS.  When we return, Guitar Hero Van Halen and more of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo!"

Mike - "It'll be a bit of a light weekend for me, but I'm definitely going to be playing more Borderlands and perhaps gun through the Left 4 Dead 2 demo a few more times."

Jim - "I'll be playing Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron for PSP, Call of Duty 4, and the Left 4 Dead 2 demo."

Katrina - "Fairytale Fights will be my big co-op fun (hit up "Shadokat Regn" with a message to play Fairytale Fights if you have it!) Otherwise I'd really like to get in some more Overlord 2 or Batman: Arkham Asylum."

Jason - "Borderlands whet my appetite for dungeon crawl/loot-whoring so I picked up Torchlight earlier this week so I'll be getting my fill of it this weekend. I also need to play through the latest chapter in the Tales of Monkey Island, and hopefully checking out the Left 4 Dead 2 demo with some folks instead of comp AI."

How about yourself?

Merry Christmas.

One year of chainsaw dueling -- that's what Epic Games is celebrating this holiday season, and a nice Gears of War 2 playlist changeup is rolling out for your enjoyment.

Starting right now, players can rack up triple XP in Horde Mode and multiplayer. Plus, all public Horde matches are automatically bumped to Hardcore difficulty, and playlists are being tweaked so that you can find your favorite game more easily. To top it all off, "tactical mode" is available in all game modes, limiting ammo and increasing damage.

The special event lasts until November 16th, so get your Horde on asap!

Source: Link

EA Vancouver invited Co-Optimus to their headquarters in Redwood City to come check out the pre-alpha build of Skate 3, announced in September and due May 2010. We came away impressed; find out why in our hands-on preview.

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From the darkest depths of the internet, we bring you this startling insight into the minds of today's youth.

Begin chat transcript.

TaylorFan4Evah: r u buying band hero?

Sparkles14: omg ya of course it has Taylor! why wouldn't I buy it? you can meet her if you buy lol

TaylorFan4Evah: MEET HER?  how?

Sparkles14: just buy the game and enter a code u can go backstage and meet her i think i would die shes so awesome

TaylorFan4Evah: i know right? but what about gwen stefani she's all mad at band hero or something

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It appears the boycott isn't really working at all!  Preorder sales for Left 4 Dead 2 are doing quite well, according to CVG's interview with Valve's Chet Faliszek.  How well?  Try four times the level of the original Left 4 Dead.  After playing through the demo, I can easily see why; the game looks to be one of the year's best.

Maybe you are on the fence about the game, and can't decide whether to preorder?  You might want to check out this video at G4TV.  It's a twelve minute walkthrough of the new "realism" difficulty level.  There's quite a lot of interesting information, including a few tidbits about the AI Director, which controls in-game events.  The new and improved Director will monitor how well players are progressing, and alter the environment to compensate.  For example, if a group of players is working well together, the amount of rainfall might increase to make shooting more difficult.  A nice touch, for sure, and we can't wait to get our hands on Left 4 Dead 2 later this month.

Source: Link

Activision has announced that the demo for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has hit the Xbox Live marketplace for Gold members.  The demo allows players to check out the Washington D.C. mission in the game and also allows local co-op play.

Also available on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is the $10 DLC content pack which contains five new playable characters including Carnage, Cable, Psylocke, Black Panther and unveiled today - Magneto.  The DLC also includes four new challenge missions and boss encounters.  You may also optionally purchase the previously exclusive pre-order character Juggernaut for $1.99.

In a Walgreens world, co-op would be completely fluid and friendly. In reality, it has its roadbumps and stop signs. This month Co-Op Couples comes to a quick four-way stop with Pass and Play.

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US PlayStation owners may have just gotten their hands on Trine, and it might need a patch, but PC owners have had the game for a good four or five months now.  Southpeak has released a patch for the retail edition of the game bringing it to version 1.05 and it fixes a variety of bugs.

Most of the fixes are for bugs, but there's a few technical optimizations to make the gameplay experience a lot smoother.  

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