Happy Valentine's Day from Uber Entertainment.  The developers of Monday Night Combat  have a new update out for the Steam version of the title on PC.  There are a number of features, adjustments, and fixes, which you can see below.  New Crimson Gear is available for all the pros.  It might sound tough, but it's really just Valentine's Day-themed armor.  In honor of Valentine's Day, Uber also has a super-sensual music video, "You are My Pitgirl," which you can also see below.  It's no "D!@% in a Box," but what is?

Something is amiss.

Microsoft and 343 Industries have announced the second map pack for Halo Reach.  Titled the Defiant Map Pack, spartans will gain access two three new multiplayer maps, one of which is playable in Firefight, for 800 .  The previous map, the Noble Map Pack, didn't contain any co-op Firefight maps - so this is a welcomed addition for co-op gamers.

It may be the only co-op holiday in existence and there's simply no denying the "oldest form of co-op," but it seems a lot of games are hopping on the love wagon this Valentine's Day.  Valve's Portal 2 is the latest title showcasing its red hearts with a brand new Aperture Science video about the holiday.  

Roses are red, violets are blue.  When I explode, I'll probably kill you.

Indie strategy game APOX just released a few short weeks ago, boasting impressive 16-player comp-stomp on the co-op side of things along with single-player and competitive multi-player options as well. Now players will have another co-op option for the game as a survival mode was added just last week. Available in both single-player and co-op, players will have to defend their base for a whole 25 minutes as relentless waves of enemies swarm in. Players can enjoy this mode on not one, not two, but SIX new maps. Pretty nice for a free game update.

How many levels are enough?  If a game had 1 million levels available, would that suffice?  Or would 2 million be better?  How about 3.6 million?  That's how many levels are currently available in LittleBIGPlanet 2, counting all the user created levels as well as those on disc.  It would take over 6 years to play them all, if you spent one minute per level and didn't do anything unimportant like sleep, eat, or use the bathroom.  Impressive, eh?

We've got another trailer for you today, this one for Total War: Shogun 2.  This trailer doesn't feature any gameplay at all, but is really sweet and totally worth a watch anyway.  I learned a couple things watching the video.  1, apparently the weather changes very quickly in Japan.  2, the historical Japanese quivalent of "don't bring a knife to a gun fight" is "don't bring a katana to a longbow fight".  Shogun 2 releases on PC next month, and will feature two player online or LAN co-op.

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

Brace yourself, the release date for PixelJunk Shooter 2 has snuck up on us all. It looks like we’ll be ready to get our puzzle co-op together on March 1st. That’s just over 2 weeks for those curious. Sure, the much-anticipated sequel has been bounced around for quite some time since being officially announced last May, but it’s official this time.

Apparently everyone is just about caught up on their backlogs, as this months Co-optimus Community Voice blog topic seems to have quieted down a bit after just one post. If you’ve been playing a game from last year at any point, hit up our blogs section and write a backlog blog. MrMcJerk has, and I'm sure he'll tell you it's great fun.

The MMO playing model has moved away from a lot of the pay-to-play aspect - that is to say, they’ve been largely moving away from the monthly subscription fee. Instead it looks like games like the upcoming Age of Empires Online will only cost money if you really want that premium experience. Players of a casual persuasion and the hardcore crowd will be able to play together to complete the games co-op quests in an MMO/RTS environment, all without restriction.