After this single-player-turned-co-op session of Spider-man: Web of Shadows on our own, we were both craving some open world action that we could really share. What luck! We then came across Crackdown: a fantastic (very affordable) co-op game in an open world with almost super-hero type qualities for the main characters.
I was the Agent with corn rows, and he was a Agent with awesome face gear. We spent our time scouting for orbs, jumping or climbing to new destinations going “woah” in a Matrix Neo voice as we jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Occasionally, we'd even complete a story mission – but, we'd often ask “why so serious?” spending more time messing around than not.
While Xbox chit-chatting, we'll often bring up games that we'd played on our own and not enjoyed via co-op, or the other hadn't played at all. We walloped Gears of War on insane, played and lost a lot of Ikaruga, and I even convinced him to try Too Human in spite of his wariness toward the controls using this chat-tactic.
"Hey buddy - watch the hands! It's only the first date!"
The latest Xbox dashboard update has even implemented a way for the two of us to watch movies together, too. Netflix has added a party feature to their streaming movies over Xbox Live. Before, we might be able to both pick the same movie, and coordinate start and stop times – but now, Xbox does that for us. With this new Netflix system, Machine Gun Girl can be enjoyed cooperatively on the couch – even if it's not exactly the same couch.
Online co-op gaming and Netflix streaming movies let you say "it's a date!" even when an actual date isn't possible due to proximity. That being said, while we are around each other, local co-op is just as important – Ghostbusters on the Wii was a blast! Hear that developers? Yea, I said it.
Editors note: All of the current gen gaming consoles have pros and cons for connecting our games online. Xbox has the Gold fee, PS3 forces you to buy a bluetooth headset, and Wii....we won't even talk about friends codes right now.