Epic’s Director of Production, Rod Fergusson, recently revealed numerous details about Gears of War 3 via a live video stream. Of chief interest are the game’s downloadable content details. First off, Epic will be selling a Season Pass that includes the first four major DLC releases for 2400 Microsoft Points. That’s a savings of $10 as the items will cost 3600 Points separately. Sure, you could wait a year and get them on sale for even less than the cost of the Season Pass, but who wants to get so far behind in Gears 3’s multiplayer? Actually, at least one piece of content will add to the single-player campaign and apparently be more significant than Gears of War 2’s “Road to Ruin” Deleted Scene.

The Dead Nation “Road of Devastation” DLC we mentioned earlier this month is coming around sooner than expected: September 27, to be precise. It’s going to cost an affordable $3.99, according to a post from the game’s designer at The Playstation Blog.

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

EA just sent along the first Battlefield 3 trailer taken directly from the Xbox 360 console, up until this point, the trailers and gameplay for the game have been from the PC or PlayStation 3 version.  

Cooler temperatures and a hint of fall are in the air.  You know what that means: there are many, MANY new games available to play.  The fall rush of video game releases is keeping your friendly neighborhood Co-Optimus staff very busy this weekend.  One lucky staffer is playing a game so new, it hasn't even been released yet!  Are we living in the future or what?

In "we should have seen this coming" news, Dead Island's upcoming DLC has been delayed.  We recently reported that the Bloodbath Arena DLC would be out by the end of the month.  It turns out Techland wants to focus on fixing the many issues that have plagued the title since launch.  There have already been patches for the PC and Xbox 360 versions, with a PS3 patch yet to come.  Despite the game's flaws, it has been selling incredibly well.  We're rather fond of it, ourselves.  

The Gunstringer was murdered by his former gang. Returning to the world of the living as one angry skeleton with a six-shooter, he’s on a quest for revenge. Oh, and it’s all a puppet show and players pull the strings with Kinect. Has Twisted Pixel made their best game yet?

  Some things I noticed in this new Starhawk trailer: the game's awesomeness, space combat is fun, Transformers are cool in any franchise, and the developers are pretty unclear as to how the whole "space" thing works.  I don't think a thermal sweater/gas mask combo will help you in a vacuum, but hey, I'm ...

If you are a rabid fan of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, a lover of tactical decision making, or you just like co-op games in general, Space Hulk Death Angel The Card Game is absolutely worth a purchase.

A new developer diary has been released by Trendy Entertainment for their upcoming four player co-op Action/RPG/Tower Defense game Dungeon Defenders.  The game has been a long time coming to consoles and PC after seeing versions appear on Android and iOS platforms, despite the game first being seen on the PC.  

Eurogamer 2011 is fast approaching, which reminds me of my co-op surprise of last year; Kirby's Epic Yarn, a game I previewed at the show.  Whilst that was a fun two player co-op title, Hal Laboratory have upped the stakes this year with the 4 player drop in/drop out Kirby's Return to Dreamland.  A new trailer details the game and shows some 4 player action.

If you picked up the recent Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad on Steam or at retail, you may be having trouble finding the game's co-op mode.  We'll save yourself some time, and have you stop your search right now,  because the game is currently missing the planned co-op mode.  There's an update to the game that'll be available in the coming weeks, after the developers wrap up the "post release fix those bloody bugs" phase, which will add the campaign co-op play in.