Amazon is doing an entire day of Gold Box Deals around videogames, and while it seems only one or two might be a co-op title (I believe I spy Dynasty Warriors 7 at 1PM EST) there is an all day deal on Microsoft's 360 Kinect bundle.

You don't bring a plunger to a toilet brush fight

Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Games Studios, recently confirmed Kinect support for the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary edition.  (Which begs the question: Did anyone, anywhere, ever, call the original Halo, "Halo: Combat Evolved?")  Cue all of the rousing support and "Hurrahs" which hardcore gamers are known for!  The Halo Waypoint forums erupted in jovial adulation.  Everyone loves the Kinect, right?

Holy Cow!  We missed two weeks of Co-Op Release Alerts.  We're sure that your wallets are absolutely bristling with money, since we haven't been there to tell you which co-op games are available.  Without these weekly notifications you may have missed out on games like Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, Men of War: Vietnam, Operation Flashpoint: Red River, Red Faction: Armageddon, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, and The Adventures of Shuggy.  Wow.  Looks like a lot of stuff came out while some of us were absorbed with E3.  Luckily, the rest of the Co-Optimus staff was on the ball and delivered awesome co-op reviews for Lantern, Red Faction, and Magic.  We even have an Op Flashpoint cooperative review coming soon!

I think that we can mostly all agree that the leaps-and-bounds improvement for the PS Vita is the addition of a second joystick. Visions of downloadable PlayStation 2 games dance in my head when I sleep. Many of the games and ports targeting the PSP suffered without that second stick. But tilt control? Touch screen? Rear touch pad? Are these just some Sony gimmicks designed to drive up the price, or are they viable gameplay enhancements?

Combine tower defense, mech action, an RPG-like loot system and online four player co-op and you have Trenched. The downloadable game from Double Fine Studios is the latest from the developer with plenty of style. We take the latest Xbox Live Arcade game for a spin for our review.

One of the reasons I created Co-Optimus was because of the confusion that occurs simply by reading a game box and trying to determine what kind of co-op the game includes.  A perfect example of this is the recently released Red Faction: Armageddon, a game we gave a favorable review to here.  If you picked up the Xbox 360 game box you may have noticed the back of it states it has local "Co-Op 2-4 Players."

Jimmy Fallon is a fan of video games, some might even call him...a gamer.  Last week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the show had guests every night from the videogame industry to show off some of the biggest titles of the upcoming year.  Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling and Sledghammer's Glen Schofield appeared on the show to reveal Modern Warfare 3's Spec-Ops co-op mode.

According to Eurogamer, there's been some pretty strong rumors that Bioware's upcoming action shooter/RPG Mass Effect 3 will have a 4-player co-op mode. As the rumor goes, it will be an online-only survival mode, separate from the main game, and involve some competitive elements. It's true, we've been burned before by rumors that upcoming Bioware games would contain co-op and they, well, didn't. It's also true though that Bioware has been pretty vocal that they're interested in including multiplayer in their francises in the future. March 2012 is the future, right? 4-player co-op would be an excellent addition to the decadent cake that is the Mass Effect series. We'll let you know if we find out anything more substantial about this rumor in the months to come.

So what is it about Radiant Silvergun that would make gamers lay out the big bucks just to play it? Why does it have such a following, a golden reputation, if you will? Is it really that different from other shooters?

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

It's been a couple weeks since we last ran this segment, as last weekend, we were frantically wading through the post-E3 news onslaught.  The tide has slowed down a bit, and it's time to put up our feet and take it easy with some games for the weekend.  There's a huge variety in store for Co-Optimus staffers in the next few days!