Rejoice fellow listeners, we've finally managed to chase Mike away from the show, at least temporarily, while he tends to the birth of his first born child.

Publisher Hudson Entertainment announced yesterday that they are working on bringing a port of the PC adventure game Dream Chronicles to XBox LIVE Arcade and Playstation Network this Spring.  While the PC version of the game is single player only, this new port promises to include both online and offline co-op.  Given the point-n-click interface of the game, the co-op portion will likely entail the second player acting as another arrow pointer on the screen, as we've seen with similar types of games, though the press release makes no specific mention of how the co-op mode will function.

Do you find yourself wanting to repurchase games that you already own? Do you notice an imbalance in your bank account or credit card statements in increments of $2-$5? Are you addicted to Steam, PSN or Xbox LIVE Arcade games. If you've answered "yes," you likely have a case of S.A.D.*

It's difficult to follow up a title as widely successful, hilarious, and co-optacular as Lego Star Wars. So, Travelers Tales revisits the world of Star Wars for a bit more Lego action in Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. Only this time, instead of taking the cast of the two trilogy movies, they're bringing us the Clone Wars saga from the animated TV show.

Q Game's Pixel Junk Shooter was released last year on the PlayStation Network, and by most accounts, it was pretty damn good.  We would have liked to see some more co-op specific puzzles, but overall it was a beautiful and addicting game.  G4TV talked with Q Games Founder Dylan Cuthbert about the sequel.

Darwinia was released back in 2005 on the PC to much critical acclaim, with a multiplayer add on created almost a year later.  The game puts players into a cyber world and mixes genres like real time strategy, puzzle, and action.  Your goal is to wipe the computer system of viruses before they eradicate your poor little Darwinians.  

Like a strange alien creature that was once the dinner lady, the latest news about the Dead Space franchise could be described as missing a few limbs.  Rumors are abound that the fun on-rails co-op shooter Dead Space Extraction is being adapted to High Definition for LIVE and PSN.  Despite disappointing sales, we at Co-Optimus think it is a great game and I personally rate it as one of the best games I have played on the Wii. 

Despite selling 2.9 million copies of Left 4 Dead 2, as well as 2.7 million of Dragon Age: Origins, Electronic Arts posted a loss of 82 million dollars last quarter.  Sounds bad, right?  Considering the same quarter last year EA lost over 641 million dollars,  that's a pretty solid improvement year over year.

It seems as if this is the week for some good co-op deals.  Major Nelson posted on his site that this week's "Deal of The Week" includes not one, but two (!) co-op titles - TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled and Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao.  Turtles in Time will run you just 400 Microsoft points, while Invincible Tiger will be a little more at 800.  We took a shine to the co-op experience in both games, and both can be enjoyed locally and/or on-line with friends.  So if you're in the market for a couple of fun, digital co-op titles that won't break your Microsoft space bucks bank, then hop on your 360 and give them a spin.

If you've missed out on some of the great co-op titles of this generation on the Xbox 360, now's your chance to pick a trio up for around $40.  Amazon is running a promotion that includes 36 titles, 9 of which are co-op games, at a buy 2 get 1 free price.  Most titles are $20 a piece.

Did Fable 2's co-op mode piss you off?  Did you fling your controller while trying to adjust the camera?  Did you punch Grandma in the spleen because you couldn't bring your single player character into her game for co-op?  Would you say you were "super pissed?"  Hold onto that nerd rage because it's about to continue into the game's sequel.  According to Peter Molyneux there's going to be a big announcement for Fable 3 at Microsoft's X10 event in San Francisco this week, but he's a bit nervous about how it's going to go.

Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.