If it wasn't obvious that Microsoft was pushing hard to capture the family demographic, what with Kinect and all its related software, today, it's even more clear.  Playing together as a family on your Xbox 360 is about to get a little easier.  The Xbox Live Gold Family Subscription Plan is coming this November.  For the price of two Gold memberships, the Family Plan will give you up to four individual memberships, all included under one family umbrella.  That could be a savings for families with 4 different gamers, but the real news is some extra options making it easy to manage each account.

Sony's E3 press conference was filled with games, games, and more games.  While there wasn't a whole lot of co-op games on display we did enter the world of co-op and 3D with Killzone 3 - which was quite impressive.  Along the way we got a peak at some new Move titles including an impressive demo of a game called Sorcery.   Of course the highlight was the aforementioned Kevin Butler appearance and speech - one that shouldn't be missed. 

The Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2010 was filled with classic titles updated for the Wii and DS and seeing the return of classic characters like Kirby and Donkey Kong - both with co-op options.  But the highlight was the reveal of the 3DS.  We've just posted a handful of pictures from the conference.

Rockstar Games has released six co-op missions today for Red Dead Redemption.  Called the Outlaws to the End mission pack, players will steal gold, rescue a heard of cattle, battle it out with gangs while crossing the river on a boat, and take on the Mexican army with cannons. 

Whenever you take the name of a popular franchise and then shape it to be that of your own, the controversy surrounding it usually speaks louder than the game itself.  It's a shame really because this is the field that XCOM has sowed as it's a first person shooter based on a classic PC turn based strategy franchise.  

When we first heard that the next entry in the F.E.A.R. series of games would feature co-op, and a form of co-op that the game's developer, Day 1 Studios, calls "divergent co-op," we were left with quite a few questions.  Early previews of the game helped clear up some of these, but we still were curious about how the game looked for ourselves.  Fortunately, Day 1 Studios and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive had a demonstration of the game's co-op in action at E3 and what we saw left us feeling a bit divergent already.  Specifically, how will we decide who gets to play as Fettel?

There were a lot of games to see during last week's E3; some of them co-op, others not so much.  Amidst all the announcements, demos, and chaos, though, there was one co-op title that Nick and I were eager to get our hands on and try out - inXile's upcoming co-op action/adventure/puzzle title, Hunted: The Demon's Forge.  Initial previews of the game likened it to "Gears of Warcraft" or "Spears of War," and those wouldn't be too far off, but the game certainly seems to promise more.

E3 2010 gave us a release date and Firefight 2.0 for Halo Reach.  It also gave us the first glimpse at the gameplay and music.  We gotta say, we're pretty excited to see the game in motion - and the co-op nature of the gameplay looked fantastic.  One surprise to us was the new music, a slight departure from the amazing Halo soundtracks of the past.

Apologies readers of Co-Optimus for not getting this and other various articles of E3 up sooner.  It seems that cataclysmic events of epic proportions all decided to happen in a seven day timespan - combined with the lack of stable or ANY internet - and I'm way behind on my duties for Co-Optimus.

There's only one significant co-op video game release this week, and it's perfect for fans of giant freakin' robots.  Transformers War for Cybertron appears to be the best Transformers game yet.  Three player online co-op is available for the two campaigns (Autobots and Decepticons), plus there are co-op skirmish modes, as well.  As a major Transformers nerd, I've got high hopes for this one; maybe it'll erase the painful memories of the last movie?  Who knows, but we'll have our hands on this game soon enough.  Anyone else planning to pick this up?  If you are, use the links above for a $10 credit at Amazon, and you'll help support other famous robots: namely, Billy, #1 and #2.

Amidst all of the Beast Mode hoopla last week, you might have missed the demonstration of Gears of War 3's Campaign Mode.  Cliff Bleszinksi presented (and played through) the demo, which shows off the female Gears, some sweet visuals, the Lambent enemies, and a particularly nasty death scene (or twenty).  It's pretty impressive stuff.  Looks like the story mode of Gears 3 will be just as good (dare we say great) as that of its predecessors.

Fat Princess has been a hit on the PSN for 2 years now. Friends competing to weigh down their princess so they can't be stolen, sort of a twisted take on capture the flag. The goal is to "rescue" the princess from the other team, but that team can steal her back if you're not careful. Best way to prevent that? Feed her cake, so the fat princess is harder to reclaim.