It's another exciting episode of the Co-Opticast! We're rapidly approaching 2010 as Nick and Mike take a quick breath to look at 2009 spouting all the wonderful titles they've been playing. News is of course on the agenda, with a few items that may peak your interest. Finally they discuss the eternal question in co-op - Do more players make a better experience? Find out all this and more as Mike and Nick save Christmas during Episode 32 of the Co-Opticast.

Hit the Podcast Page to Listen or Download

By way of the Capcom-Unity blog comes the most retro news of the day, and great news for fans of the old-school beat 'em up.

Somehow during the holiday rush, we missed that Dawn of War 2's first expansion pack, Chaos Rising has been given a release date!  I know I'm looking forward to continuing my testosterone-fueled domination of the galaxy, how about you?

We hop into the shoes of the main characters from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series for a romp around the galaxy. Can two-player co-op change the destiny of future Star Wars video games?

Are you getting tired of playing 6 hour shallow games? Splash Damage hears you on that, and promises that Brink will be a truly massive game. The single player experience will keep you busy for quite some time with intense story, character animations that promise to deliver that human feel to the game, and of course co-op with incentives for playing together. Splash Damage's CEO Paul Wedgewood had this to say on the game.  

A year after Little Big Planet's release on the Playstation 3, the developers Media Molecule have added a hefty patch that will allow for some streamlined online co-op play. First, the connectivity is better, with matchmaking nicely streamlined for better communication and less lag.

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter is still steaming...and the Xbox Live Arcade version isn't even released yet - but Croteam has officially announced Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter is coming to PCs and 360s next year.

If you missed out on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 earlier today, perhaps you'll want to try to snag the recently released Guitar Hero 5?

The Duke Nukem Facebook Fan page has posted what appears to be a screenshot of something Duke related.  The album titled "D-Day Pics" shows one shot in the infamous stadium level.  We saw some video footage of this level back when 3D Realms shut down earlier this year, adding to the authenticity of this rumor.

The folks over at Hellforge had an interesting conversation with Diablo III's Lead World Designer, Leonard Boyarksy.  There is relatively little information related to gameplay in the interview, but for fans of the intricate lore and storyline of the Diablo saga, it's definitely worth a read.  Boyarksy discusses how the random quests are still tied into the main storyline, and also gives some insight into how closely the lore team works with artists and programmers.

Rumor on the street is the next co-op Pixel Junk game is set to hit the PlayStation Network next week.  Pixel Junk Shooter is a mix of strategy and action as players descend through caverns filled with lava, water and rock to rescue trapped miners.  It's looks a bit like the classic game ChopLifter, except with absolutely stunning animations and visuals.

Sure we had plenty of Black Friday Co-Op deals, but Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year.