For once the image said it all

To contrast the last rage-filled edition of On the Download, we’re going to take a look at all of the great things that digital content offers us. From great sales to prolonging a games experience beyond the retail version, all things that are worth loving about digital content.

Apparently, 2010 ended a few weeks ago.  Once again a year in the 21st century ended without the handing out of jet-packs, tri-corders, or flying cars. This millennium has been very disappointing.  Silver lining alert: it has not been disappointing for co-op games.  Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson recently released lists (everybody loves lists!) revealing the top games played on Xbox LIVE in 2010.  The numbers were based on the amount of unique users who played the game within seven days of its release.  Unsurprisingly, the top five games were big brand sequels or Red Dead Redemption, which is basically "Grand Theft Cattle."  Notice anything interesting about these titles?

Lord of Arcana is billed as Square-Enix's answer to Capcom's Monster Hunter. As direct head to head competition on the PSP, does the brand new franchise have what it takes to play with the big boys? We take the four player co-op title to town in our latest review and find out just how big they are

We've got a ton of Dungeon Siege 3 details to share with you today including a new trailer and screenshots, a release date, and some info on the co-op.  

Like sands through the hour glass, so are the releases of Dynasty Warriors games.  I'm saying there's a lot of them.  After the umpteenth retelling of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, someone over at Koei decided the Gundam series had a story convoluted enough to make an acceptable plot for a  DW game.  So they added giant robots to the mix.  Enter Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3.  By now you know the drill.  If you are new to the DW franchise I'll sum up: Pick one of dozens of characters and fight hundreds, if not thousands of enemies by mashing the attack button.  Now with robots.  Amazingly, it's not as awesome as it sounds.  If you haven't played a DW game in a while it is nice to pick one up every now and then, if only to remind yourself of why you don't own all the DW games. (Confession: I loved DW 3 and 4.)

Today we're proud to announce some new site features and improvements for Co-Optimus.  These improvements aren't merely just cosmetic, they will hopefully be fun and useful to our awesome community of co-op gamers.  So lets take a look at what we've added.

It's been awhile since we've talked about Inversion, an upcoming sci-fi shooted from Saber Interactive (the folks who developed Timeshift). The last time we talked about the game, it was expected to release sometime in 2011. A few days ago, however, publisher Namco Bandai gave it a solid release date for Feb. 7, 2012. That's right - a year from today you may be spinning objects in gravity fields you've created using the Grappler weapon and hurling your body through space in zero gravity environments. The extra year will be used to give the game a suitable polish.

Joystiq.com has found a real treasure in the zombie/ninja/baby-maker quagmire that is Xbox LIVE's Indie Games library.  The game is titled Corrupted, and supports four player local co-op.  Corrupted charges you and three friends with capturing princesses.  You're play as the bad guy.  Well, a pawn of the real bad guy. More than just a twin-stick-shooter affair, you can upgrade and customize your character as you progress through the game.  Stat categories include Damage, Blocking, Combos, and Range.  As you fill up your Corruption meter you can dish out special moves against hordes of enemies.

PC gamers who preorder the Bulletstorm Limited Edition from the EA Store will recieve a free digital copy of  Shank.  The offers begins today, February 7th, and it is available until Bulletstorm's release date, February 22. We gave Shank, a stylish side-scrolling brawler, a 3 out of 5 in our Co-Op review.  

Magicka is an ambitious title which puts players in the shoes of a wizard with the powers of eight elements at their finger tips. You'll carefully craft your own method of destruction from these by yourself or with three other friends in co-op. We take this PC title for a spin in our latest review

The Resistance series has been one of the most highly regarding on Sony's Playstation 3.  This fall, the third entry into the franchise, aptly named Resistance 3, will be released.  This time around, the seperate 8-player co-op mode has been dropped in favor of the two player local/online co-op campaign that we enjoyed in Resistance: Fall of Man.  A couple trailers have been released into the interwebs.  The first is a bit more cinematic, while the second features four minutes of actual gameplay, along with the explosions, guns, and ape-like cyborg aliens you'd expect.  It's definitely worth checking out for PS3 owners.