Open your pre-ordered copy of your new game and take out the scratch card.  Behold the free DLC (or access to online), everyone is a winner. Except for people who bought the game second hand; no free DLC for you (no free online access!). Even when you get a freebie, they sometimes take an age to arrive; Space Marine's Exterminatus mode, and Dead Island's Bloodbath DLC are two examples. Techland have finally announced the date for the Bloodbath - 22nd November, let's hope it does not slip again ...

Black Friday is a sales holiday that occurs the day after Thanksgiving each year in the US. This year’s takes place on Friday, November 25. It’s a fantastic time to pick up additional consoles on the cheap so that you and a friend or significant other can play online and system link games in the same room. Seriously, you can get a new 4 GB Xbox 360 for as low as $140 this year! But for most people, Black Friday’s just a great time to pick up relatively new games on the cheap.

This is it folks. The last big week for co-op releases.  There are still a few games coming out this year, but tomorrow marks the last day of the season with multiple retail co-op launches.  I hope your wallets are intact.

It's the busy fall gaming season, which means dozens upon dozens of games competing for your gaming dollar.  This is a good thing because it also means gaming deals!  Amazon is first up to the plate to save you some hard earned cash on some recent co-op releases like Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, RAGE, and even Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.  Right now those titles as well as others like Skyrim are available for Buy One, Get One 50% off.  

Saints Row: The Third steps out from GTA's shadow to move in its own insane direction. Is this a faulty misstep or a stroke of crazed genius? Find out if it works in our Co-Op Review.

PC and XBox Live Indie Gamers may remember a little title a couple years back called Sol Survivor, a cooperative tower-defense game that helped to kick-off the Indie-Ana Co-Op feature. The studio responsible for that game's development, Cadenza Interactive, has announced today that they are releasing their second title. Retrovirus, a "six degrees of freedom" shooter, will include an entirely cooperative campaign mode in addition to a few other multiplayer modes that, we can only hope, will also be cooperative in nature. Full details can be found after the bump.

Good Co-Op, Bad Co-Op - a tale of two friends who love playing games together.  The man who gives the best upsidedown hugs, Sunflower4000 and the love wizard Locke have put their differences aside and teamed up cooperatively in a battle against fate.  

We've got the full list of acheivements for Serious Sam 3: BFE kindly sent over by Devolver Digital.  There's a boat load of things to accomplish in the game including some gems like "Rip out 10 Gnaar Eyes" - that's what that picture is above.  In fact there's a whole boatload of achievements around the game's new, brutal, melee system.  Here's the trailer for that to see what you are up against.

The AAA co-op games have been coming thick and fast in the past few weeks, but there is still room for more co-op action in the form of Rayman Origins; due out on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii on the 15th November.  To celebrate the launch, Ubisoft got completely legless (and armless) with a new launch trailer.

The first time I saw "Gaming Glasses" I scoffed at the idea.  I immediately thought it was a gimmick designed to get gamers to spend even more money on their hobby for something they really didn't need.  But as we got into the Fall gaming season and my time in front of a TV and Monitor increased to almost 12 hours a day, my eyes told me they needed a break.  I figured it was a good as time as any to see if these glasses could help.

PSP-exclusive rhythm game Patapon 3 received some DLC earlier this week. Not only is said DLC co-op missions, but it's also free! Sounds like the best possible kind of DLC, really. In these missions, players will face off against Stone Golems, Salamandars, and Deth squads along with two named bosses: the poison-spitting Darantula and the fire-breathing sandworm Dokakanel. So what are you waiting for, pata-patapon'ers? Go get it!

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