When Bodycount appeared in June after being virtually silent for a year, I was quite surprised to hear they planned on releasing it by the end of Summer. Billed as the spiritual successor to Black on the PS2, was high on a lot of folks watch lists. But the Houdini act is rarely a good thing.

This week in co-op... we actually have some new game releases!  Oh, thanks be to the video game gods!  We have looked into the abysmal void that was the summer release schedule and reeled back from the brink of oblivion!  We have some downloadable titles out this week, along with a real life, honest to goodness, full retail title.  Get your gaming in now while you can.  Hope you've caught up on your backlog.  September 6th is a week away, and with it comes the Fall gamesplosion in all of it's time leeching glory.

The latest videos for Bodycount focus on the demo, multiplayer, and co-op modes.  Like the previous entries, they feature the dev team in some dilapidated warehouse.   I hope that's not their office.  It's rather gloomy.  The demo is, well a demo.  You can try out Bodycount's lean mechanic and faux iron sights.  They take a second to get used to, but it's an interesting new aiming method.  The co-op is a two player "siege mode" where you battle waves of enemies with ever-decreasing cover.  One of Bodycount's unique features is the game's cover shred mechanic, and it should be a prominent factor throughout all game modes.

I've talked about Freddie Wong before on Co-Optimus, the YouTube film maker creates slick action shorts around some subject and loads them up with special effects.  His work has attracked the likes of John Favreau, Kevin Pollack, and Andy Whitfield who have all appeared in a short.  One of my favorite scenes he put together was one called "Flower Warfare."

This is part two of the Bodycount: Behind the Bullets developer diary.    Like the previous entry, the video is a mishmash of cuts and smash cuts, aided by some snazzy sound effects.  The way the whole thing is shot and edited is rather silly, but it does have some nice nuggets of information. The developers discuss the differing environments, character design inspiration, and enemy AI.  There are some juicy bits of gameplay footage near the end, be sure to check it out.

This four minute video from the creators of Bodycount is all about the guns.  As you'll see in the clip below, the developers aren't trying to bring a million weapons to the table.  They're focused on a few guns, and "polished the hell out of them."   The firearms look and sound great.  Environments absolutely shred beneath the barrage of bullets you can unleash.  The shotgun is a total beast.  One thing really stood out to be in this video: the apparent lack of iron sights.  They call it both a "semi-iron sight" mode and a "focus" mode.  I don't know what FPS players will think of this feature.  Check out the video and let us know what you think of the aiming and cover systems.

We've had our eyes on Bodycount for quite some time now with promises of co-op trickled every step of the way.  But it wasn't until now, about a month before the game's release, that we've finally gotten details as to exactly what co-op will entail.

Bodycount: Winner of most impressive muzzle flair 2011

Bodycount, to those of us who have been following it, has had a rocky few months at best. Game creator Stuart Black departed the company, public relations fell silent, and now Joystiq has gotten a firsthand look...which didn't seem to impress them much.

(This news bit - and its ridiculous, misleading, and super-corny title - is exactly why you name a game Bodycount. It's built-in public relations, and it's so hard for guys like me not to take the bait.)

While lost in the Texas tundra this weekend, my mind wandered to Black, an old favorite shooter game that was ahead of its time in some ways. My train of thought barreled into Bodycount - Codemasters' forthcoming follow-up game - and coincidentally the weekend headlines have revealed that the co-op bullet orgy has been delayed.

Some disappointing news today out of the camp creating Bodycount, the spiritual successor to the first person shooter Black.  According to the game's official Twitter account, Bodycount won't be offering offline or splitscreen play in its co-op campaign.