Beyond Co-Op - December 9th through December 15th, 2013

Telltale gets hyperactive, mobile games kick it up a notch, and you can't take the sky from me.

So we can pretend all games can get along in this melting pot of a market, we present the latest edition of Beyond Co-Op, our weekly round-up of single player and competitive multiplayer news. We might even talk about that secret game the cool kids play in the park. Bases ball? Something like that. Or maybe Game of Thrones and Firefly are much more interesting.

So, Telltale Games, right? The company that made episodic gaming a reality (sorry, Valve) has been staying on top of things since its Sam & Max series launched half a decade ago. Back to the Future: The Game wasn't bad, but The Walking Dead: Season One was what really hooked us. The second season is kicking off in just a few days, and a grim little trailer is already out to get you all warmed up. Speaking of grim, Telltale also announced it's working on a Game of Thrones video game adaptation. Click here to murder main character? (Oh, uh, spoiler.) And finally, the studio announced a partnership with Gearbox Software to release Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic series that builds a storyline based on character choices. We're skeptical about Borderlands without the co-op, but we'll try anything once. Except real world bases ball.

Firefly lives on. In video game form! The team behind Firefly Online has finally divulged some information about its 2014 MMO, and the details will make everyone cautiously optimistic. The game puts you in the captain's chair and lets you hire a crew, take jobs, get into scrapes with Reavers, and fly wherever you want. Customization will be a big part of the experience, too, allowing players to carve out their own little niche in the Firefly universe. Sounds great and all, but the team at Quantum Mechanix is going to have to tread carefully, and they know it. Firefly fans can't take another hit, even after 11 years.

Source: io9

No longer an exclusive home to simple fruit slicing diversions, some seriously serious games are crawling onto iOS and Android devices as of late. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was just released for iPhone and iPad, for example. If you were alive during the heyday of Tiger Electronics handheld LCD games, this bit of news seems like something dreamed up after you went to bed with a burrito in your hand. There are also some heavy-hitting original games blossoming in the mobile gardens. One fine example of this is the recent launch of The Room Two, a sequel to last year's intense puzzle game that sticks you in a dark room and asks you to solve a box of puzzles one layer at a time.