I must admit I know next to nothing about 50 Cent.  His name came up in the Transformers movie, that's about all I know.  Well, that, and that there is a co-op game featuring 50 Cent on the way.  (The extent of my knowledge then, is probably a couple steps away from nothing, I guess.)  A new trailer for 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand has been released on Youtube.  I particularly enjoyed the movie trailer style narration!  Check out the video after the break.

Earlier this week, you got a taste for classic co-op in Broodax's column, featuring ToeJam and Earl.  I felt it would be a good idea then, to discuss co-op games I played this week in my column.  As it turns out, I played one classic co-op game, one that will be a classic, and one that isn't a classic at all, but was a decent way to spend an hour or two.  I'll leave it you to decide which was which from this list: Diablo II, Lego Indiana Jones, and Ben 10.

We here at Co-Optimus are quite excited for the upcoming release of Bionic Commando Rearmed, an update of the classic NES game, on both PSN and XBLA.

Sometimes you just know the title of a game is going to sell it.  Carmageddon for example.  Yeah, I'll buy that.  Doom.  Yup, sign me up.  Blades of Steel.  I'll take two please. But when a game is called Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers we can't help but think they are going about this the wrong way.   Sure there's nothing wrong with women in bikinis slaying zombies.  In fact, we encourage it.  But something tells me the hardcore Nintendo fans of Mario and Zelda combined with the "non traditional" Wii-Sports gamers aren't your best target market.  You see, this is a Wii title.  Not a 360, not a PS3, not a PC...but a Nintendo Wii title.  Just think of the waggling possibilties for this one! All joking aside the game does promise players the ability to use the Wii-mote "swinging and thrusting into zombie enemy hordes."  And of course we wouldn't be talking about the game if there wasn't some promised co-op feature, which there is.  It looks like two players will be able to play through the story mode each utilizing their "own unique fighting style."  Bikinis optional.

The Pre-E3 deluge of information continues, this wave bringing news of Too Human.  Some love it, some hate it, but it looks to us like some great co-op fun.  A press release from Microsoft about their coverage of E3 reveals that a demo for Too Human will be made available for download next week!  No exact day is given for the availability of the demo, however.  That's not a huge deal, since you'll likely be logging in often to check on the E3 coverage offered over Xbox Live.  We certainly hope that co-op will be included in the demo, so keep your fingers crossed.

  Schizoid hit the Xbox Live Arcade this week, and it had one bold claim - "The Most Co-Op Game Ever."   After playing this last night for a few hours (co-op review coming soon) I must say there's some clever design decisions and slick level design that definitely reinforces co-op play.  The game was released awarde...

Gears of War is one of the best co-op titles on the 360 right now, and the upcoming sequel looks to be more of the same (in a good way, of course).  Over at the official Gears of War forums at Epic Games, a thread with some interesting speculation is found.  Apparently, a hidden message can be found on the GoW2 main page, if you hold your mouth just right, let your eyes unfocus, and say a few magic words.  In any event, the message, "ESC NOV 9", is speculated to refer to the release date for the game.  (November 9 is a Sunday, for what it's worth.)  The title is expected sometime around the holiday rush, so perhaps November 9 is correct.  We'll keep you posted when an official release date is given, but since the method for finding the message was so interesting, and Gears is so awesome, we thought our dear readers would want to know!

As a long time fan of the top down vertical shooters like Raiden II, Capcom's remake of their classic 1942 title for the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network really caught my eye.  Titled 1942: Joint Strike, the game has a renewed focus on co-op play as well as adding some new enemies.  Of course the most obvious overhaul is a totally new 3D graphics engine while still maintaining a 2D shooter feel.   Finally, if you are a music lover, the game features a brand new score by Norihiko Hibino, an international composer well-known for his work creating music for the Metal Gear series.

As we get ever closer to Rock Band 2's release, more and more information is revealed.  This time, it's really official, straight from Harmonix, as reported by Shacknews.  The confirmed songs at the moment are:

Joystiq got their hands on some rumored pictures of Duke Nukem 3D for the Xbox Live Arcade.  Well not leaked pics of the game so much, but leaked pics of the dashboard into the game.  Exciting, I know.  Listed on the achievement page is a picture of an achievement called "Piece of Cake" which is unlocked by completing the first episode in co-op mode.  Duke 3D was always know for its great co-op play, so it's nice to see that it (allegedly) made its way into the Xbox Live Arcade release.

The Gamerscore Blog has some information about the upcoming release of Fable 2.  Three minigames will be available in the Pub: Keystone, Spinnerbox, and Fortune's Tower.  As you can tell from the screenshot above, these minigames are based on casino games.  These minigames will be released as DLC for 800 MS points ($10).  However, you can get the games for free by preordering Fable 2 from participating retailers.  It's unknown what co-op features will be available in these minigames, if any, but getting content for free is always newsworthy.  More in-game content and other goodies will be available in the collector's edition of the game, but the Pub games are available with even a regular edition preorder. 

Astute readers will notice that "This Week in Co-Op" is a day early. Well, I'm heading off for a short vacation, but I figured you'd appreciate an early column more than no column at all.