2010 is coming to a close and it was another great year for co-op gamers. 2011 looks to continue the trend with tons of great big releases. Whatever you do this New Years weekend, we hope it involves co-op gaming with friends and family - that's what the Co-Optimus staff will be doing.
The excellently awesome Castle Crashers has reached a gaming milestone. The Xbox LIVE arcade title hit 2 million players on the leaderboards over Christmas weekend. That's not including PSN players. For those of you who don't know, 'excellently' awesome is the sixth highest level of awesome. It only gets awesomer from there! Official* Top Five Awesome Rankings from least to greatest: incredibly, fantastically, moderately (weird, I know) , co-operatively, and finally, epically. Awesomely awesome is the worst level of awesome, for obvious reasons (If you're oblivious to the obvious, see inverse ninja thoery.)
AT&T is running a very co-op friendly deal on their Windows Phone 7 devices, something we looked at briefly when it was announced thanks to its Xbox Live integration. We've been hearing good things about its marketplace, with an ever growing catelog of games, it won't be long now till we start seeing some cooperative titles to play.
The player experience debate seems to be the topic that divides co-op fans the most. Is the story experience so important in some games that a complete absence of co-op is acceptable...or even a necessity? In the case of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Naughty Dog thinks so.
More DLC is coming out for the 6 player co-op title Castlevania Harmony of Despair. We like this game, giving it a 4 out of 5 in our co-op review. You and five friends can team up to blitz attack maps inspired by levels from previous titles. Two new chapters are due out in January. The first chapter will be based off of the Catacombs level of the classic Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Details will be coming soon on the second level.
Uber Entertainment's Monday Night Combat is on sale today on Xbox Live as part of the Countdown to New Years promotion Microsoft has been running. The price is a measily 600 which is 50% off its normal asking price. In terms of real money, that's about $7.50 instead of $15.
It's been almost a year and a half since Diablo 3 was announced, and in all these months, our desire for the game has not lessened one bit. The previous Diablo games were amazing to play through in co-op, and we're sure that trend will continue for the upcoming sequel. Of course, we're talking about players cooperating and working together through teamwork. But wouldn't it be something if the monsters used cooperative tactics against players?
Earlier this month we brought you news about the Gears of War 3 beta. If Xbox 360 owners buy the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm, you can can get early access to the Gears 3 multiplayer beta. Co-founder and president of Epic Games, Mike Capp, recently talked to Gamespot about the tie-in. He said the beta would be released "sometime around April or so." Attentive gamers may note that April was the planned release date for Gears 3 before it got pushed backed. to autumn 2011. Looks like Microsoft and Epic want some of that gargantuan holiday sales money games like Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops earned this year.
More affectionately know to some as Earth Defense Force 2, the original Global Defence Force is being ported to the PlayStation Portable. Two -player ad hoc (wireless LAN) co-op will be intact for every mission, which includes the original 71 and then some.
In the craziness of the holidays, you may have missed the launch of the new LotR: War in the North website. The site's homepage makes it a lot easier to see what's new content-wise on the site as well as adding some lore sections just waiting to be filled with Tolkieny goodness. We've kind of caught the notion that you guys are excited about this game, whether it's because it's made from the the same folks who brought us the classic Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, or because it will feature mixed split-screen and online co-op, or simply because you like how it looks, it seems like everyone's clamoring for more information on this game. We're just on the edge of 2011, which can't come soon enough if it means we'll get this game in our hands sooner!
The year isn't quite over yet, which means we still have more goodies to give away! Up for grabs are two sets of Video Games Live prize packs - included in each pack are:
Capcom sends word that their downloadable sequel to Dead Rising 2 is out now exclusively on Xbox Live. Dead Rising 2: Case West brings back our old pal from the first game, Frank West, to team up with Dead Rising 2's protaganist Chuck Greene. Together they are on a mission to clear Chuck's name of any wrong doing with the zombie outbreak.
