We walked out of the theater, squinting in the brightness of the lobby.  The crowd rushed by, moviegoers headed off in different directions.  The smell of popcorn was strong.  Neon lights glared everywhere, and movie posters lined the wall.  My youngest son tugged on my arm.  "Hey Dad, can we play a game?"  Smiling, I nodded.  The little arcade in the movie theater was busy, full of children celebrating the last few days of summer break.  I walked over to the change machine, and the quarters clanked noisily down the chute in procession.  With a mild whoop, the two ran off to find a game.  Would it be the noisy, psychedelic DDR machine?  Perhaps the Air Hockey table would capture their interest.  I watched, curious as to what they would choose.  After a few moments hesitation at the mesmerizing electronic buffet, my oldest son led his brother to Area 51: Site 4, and they plunked in their quarters.

For those of you that don't know, GameDaily is a website from AOL that covers everything gaming and includes partner sites like Big Download and Joystiq.  The GameDaily HUD is a brand new feature on the website which features the most intelligent, important and sexiest voices in the games industry.  Will you look at that...there's me!

I know, you are sick to death of the Too Human coverage on Co-Optimus.  Months and months have gone by and you and your friends just want to get your paws on the latest action/rpg from Silicon Knights.   Well we have a way for you to do that, but not just anyway, how about a free copy of the game signed by Denis Dyack himself!

You will likely recall the recent hullabaloo over the change in art direction for upcoming blockbuster Diablo III.  If you were like me, you were too busy thinking about how much you wanted to play the game RIGHT NOW to worry about things like bright colors and rainbows.  However, as we reported earlier, a very vocal fanbase complained loudly.  A few rabid fans even whipped up some "new and improved" versions of the screenshots from Diablo III.  One of those can be seen above.  At this point, what was a laughable, fairly minor story took an odd twist. 

Sure we clamor for Co-Op in just about every game that's released around here...but I think CTRL+ALT+DEL has a point.

Good news folks!  After a few weeks of a rumored 1800 MS Point price tag,  The Behemoth Blog has revealed that Castle Crashers is officially priced at 1200 MS Points, that's 15 real dollars.   For those that don't know, Castle Crashers is a four player co-op side scrolling beat-em up, similar to those classic franchises like Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and others.  There are dozens of characters to choose from including some from previous Behemoth games like Alien Hominid. The game is set to be released on Xbox Live Arcade at the end of this month. 

Interested in Left 4 Dead?  So are we.  The game looks amazing, quite frankly, and will likely be one of the best co-op titles of the year.  However, waiting until the game's release on November 4 is enough to make you run through a corn field screaming, even without being chased by zombies, as in the screenshot above.  There's hope, though; Valve has announced that Left 4 Dead will be playable at several events in the near future.  The first is the Penny Arcade Expo, where the 360 version will be premiered.  If you live in or near Seattle, and are a gamer, you are probably going to PAX anyway, but now there's even more incentive to attend.  Euro gamers can find the game at the Leipzig Games Convention, (Germany), the Festival du Jeu Video (France), and the PC Gamer Showdown (UK).  Valve has already confirmed there will be no demo of the game available before release, so attending one of these functions is likely the only way to get your hands on it until launch.  More's the pity!

Apparently August is going to be the month of casual and arcade games for me. I've played some Lego Star Wars, some Rock Band, and now I'm playing Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2. The game has many of the signature features of good casual/arcade games. Its gameplay is not too complex and you can play it for ten minutes (or less, really) and have a blast. However, like the best casual and arcade games, it still has depth and soul.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then surely the above screenshot could replace the quite lengthy title of the game.  Flames?  Check.  A mercenary?  Yup.  So there it is, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.  IGN has posted a hands on preview of the game as played in co-op.  Perennial favorites like seamless drop in-drop out co-op make the feature list, and there are a few other nice little touches as well.

We are one week away from Too Human!  One week!  The onslaught of media continues as Gametrailers is hosting a new video from Too Human entitled "Insane Combos."  Combos in Too Human can be one by yourself, but really gear up in Co-Op play as players can juggle enemies between them for lots of bonuses.  Check out the full video after the jump and be sure to look out for some exclusive Too Human content later this week!

Along with the Collector's Edition Details came some assets from Microsoft with Fable 2.  Among those comes a little treat - a Master Chief model from Fable 2.  While it's not known exactly how and where John 117 will be showing up, but the character in the game looks awesome.  You can see the full picture after the jump.

If you don't know what The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is, here is a brief refresher. The game was a product of Microsoft's XNA platform, which allows indie developers to create games. The game was also part of Dream-Build-Play and was available in demo form for a limited time on Xbox Live. Well, Xbox360 Fanboy has news that the game will feature 3 player co-op. The details are from the blog of the one man team behind Dishwasher, James Silva. Having played the game, it seems very impressive for a game consisting of a one-man dev team. I'm also excited about the co-op capabilities, since the single player mode was pretty epic.