What if you were reading this review, and instead of a review, you were reading about yourself reading this review? Quite the dichotomy, isn't it? Alan Wake by Remedy Entertainment in a way poses the same predicament for the lead character who shares his name with the game's title. Mr. Wake, who is also a bestselling author, seems to have lost a period of time in his life. Unsure of what happened to the past week, he starts stumbling on pieces of a novel which describe the events that are currently unfolding in his life. Is Alan just a pawn in a novel himself? Could some sinister dark force be at work here? Or perhaps Alan is just crazy.

This weeks On The Download will feature plenty of brand new downloadable co-op news, including some hot topics like Halo Reach's Beta, loads of new releases and even a rumor. We're also going to revisit the world of Aces of the Galaxy - one of my favorite recent co-op purchases on the XBLA.

The video onslaught continues from Lost Planet 2, as we've got another video showing off gameplay and cinematics from the four player co-op title.  Episode 2 showcases the urban and industrial environments you'll encounter in the game when it launches next week.  If there's one thing you can take away from the video, it's that Capcom has managed to make the rust and gray look incredibly good.

It's no secret we've had a game-crush on Brink for some time now.  Whether it's the cinematic trailer or previews of the game, everything we've seen from the 8 player co-op title makes us want it more and more.  The latest batch of screens straight from Bethesda for Splash Damage's title are no exception.

Co-Optimus was recently approached by indie filmmaker Tim Pape while promoting his team's new film project, Desert Story. The first seven-minute chapter - hosted on YouTube - places us in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic setting, and introduces us to the Stranger. His motive is never quite revealed, but we get a good taste of what's in store for the future.

The new Call of Duty has been revealed and it's... sci-fi? Halo news of all stripes dominates our news segment, Mike rages about the implication that Co-Op gaming may be a "fad" and Nick tells us all about how much fun he's been having playing games no one else has access to. All this and more can be yours, on this episode of The Co-Opticast.

Konami has just released a boatload of assets for Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker on the PSP.  Included in these screens are the cross overs with Assassin's Creed 2 and Monster Hunter as well as plenty of action, well, sneaking, shots of Snake and his co-op pals in action.

Well, well, well...look what we have here.   A release date, from Blizzard!  There are those that said this day would never come, but here it is.    Starcraft II: Wings of LIberty is set for an early summer release on July 27th.  Launching with the game is a completely revamped version of Blizzard's Battle.net service which includes friends lists, match making, achievements, cloud storage and more.

Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition had a bit of a delay (it was supposed to be released March 31st), but it's finally coming to XLBA this Wednesday, May 5th. Atlus has also released a video showing off two more of the new features added to the Ultimate Edition: the Character Gallery and Awareness System. The Character Gallery allows you to view the 3D models of characters (friendly or hostile) you've come across in the game along with bios. The Awareness System is part of the fighting interface. If an enemy that you're fighting is off-screen, an icon of it pops up at the bottom of your screen, helping you keep track of where it is.

This week's Xbox Live deal of the week is Zombie Apocalypse on the Xbox Live Arcade.  This was an under appreciated 4 player co-op title that hit last Fall, featuring a top down view into a Left 4 Dead style game.  Players choose one of four characters, and take on swarms of zombies in numerous levels with various set pieces like an airplane that can suck up zombies or an electric fence that does the dirty work for you.  

We've just been passed three minutes of Lost Planet 2 gameplay footage in what was called a "cinematic select" look at the game.  Whatever you want to call it, it certainly wets our appetite for the 3rd person co-op shooter which hits in a little less than two weeks now.

It wasn't long ago we told you that all paths were cleared, and MechWarrior 4 would be released for free via the interwebs.  The time is now to fire up those Jenner and Mongoose and get ready to do battle.  MekTek has the download, which actually hit over the weekend, but servers were hammered so hard it completely brought the site to its knees.