At PAX East, Nick and Kat had the opportunity to check out Two Worlds II, the sequel to the good-in-concept but poor in execution third-person fantasy RPG Two Worlds.  Based on the version of the game that was shown there, Nick and Kat left impressed by a few features of this new entry, but also had a lot of reservations.  Earlier this week, I got some hands-on time with the game… and came away with many of the same reservations.

Although it wasn't received very well critically, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was one of my favorite beat-em-up RPGs from the last generation. Despite being pared down, its two-player co-op was still worth playing for hours. Snowblind Studios - responsible for Champions of Norrath and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - are bringing The Lord of the Rings: War in the North to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in 2011, and they're bringing three-player co-op with it.

Lightgun shooters are having a bit of a renaissance due to the pointer capabilties of the Wii controller.  The Playstation Move controller now brings lightgun shooters to your living room in glorious high-def.  One of the first comes from the venerable Time Crisis franchise.  Time Crisis: Razing Storm  is the latest iteration of the series in arcades, and is coming to the Playstation 3 this fall. 

Epic has recently announced a new Horde style mode for Gears of War 3 called Beast Mode.  While it may appear like an inverse of Horde mode on the surface, it's actually an incredibly deep cooperative experience that not only requires team work and communication - but some careful planning and strategy. 

Firefight was a surprise hit for a lot of gamers when the four player co-op mode was released with Halo 3: ODST last year. It took all the fun moments of Halo and wrapped them into a repeating playlist of action for players to experience with their friends while trying to accomplish an overall goal.  But the original Firefight had some major faults, most notably the lack of any match making.  Halo Reach is bringing us Firefight 2.0 - and for the most part is has stepped the mode up in a big way.

We admit we love a good co-op Shoot 'em Up, and the Japanese game Otomedius Gorgeous is just that - a great Shoot 'em Up. Unfortunately that game will never see American soil unless you have some imported stuff, so we can look forward to the sequel instead. Otomedius Excellent will be headed our way complete with co-op straight from the brilliant minds at Konami entertainment.

When we saw Monday Night Combat at Pax East we were definitely impressed. Monday Night Combat is a downloadable title featuring a co-op mode that makes our mouths water. Complete with quirky characters and a third person perspective on the gameplay mechanics of Smash TV, Monday Night Combat is a surefire win with the co-op "Blitz" mode.

The spiritual successor to Contra: Hard Corps was available on the E3 show floor for some hands on time, and I was lucky enough to co-op through a few levels with the game's associate producer.  

Welcome to Beyond Co-Op E3 Edition where I link up all I can from sister site Colony of Gamers and other trusted locations about single-player games that have little to nothing in relation to co-op gaming.

From the E3 2010 showfloor we got a peek at the Crackdown 2 demo, complete with some great news for co-op gamers. First up, the demo will feature 4 player co-op so you can run around the giant sandbox world with 3 of your buddies. The demo drops June 21st, so you'll have several weeks to get your skills honed in for the official release. Finally, and this is new to the demo world, the demo will allow you to unlock achievements and carry them over to the full game.

Sony's Press conference was highlighted by many great games, but one of the truly epic moments is one the Company's VP of Everything - Kevin Butler - came out and gave a speech about loving games.  The speech proclaimed how great it is to be a gamer, why we love games, and why everyone is a gamer that wants to play together.  

Following in the tradition of the dungeon crawler/action-RPG vein, with a bit of Gas Powered Games' own added flair, the Dungeon Siege series has provided quality gameplay and co-op experiences on the PC for some time and fans of the series have been eagerly awaiting Gas Powered to announce the next entry.  It came as some surprise, then, when the third game was announced as being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, a company best known for the Knights of the Old Republic sequel, the recent Alpha Protocol, and the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas game.  With a track record that's hit-or-miss, depending on with whom you talk, I went into the Dungeon Siege 3 demo a bit apprehensive, but left very eager to play.  Indeed, this may be the first co-op action-RPG I've seen that will be just as fun to play on a console as it will on a PC.