This year's Xbox Games Showcase was light on cooperative content; Microsoft didn't seem to focus on co-op features in any of the game reveals. Still, the showcase did show some genuinely hot games, so we can't complain too much. Some of the games shown might even end up featuring co-op that hasn't been announced yet. In the meantime, let's look at all of the games that were announced and which ones we know will have co-op.
Today's Xbox Games Showcase offered few surprises. Some Xbox fans had hoped for bombshell announcements that would help Microsoft's console to better compete with PlayStation, but no such announcements occured. That's not to say that Microsoft didn't show any cool games! They just showed games of about the same hype level as were shown at last year's event. Additionally and despite reports to the contrary, several games were shown only as cinematic footage rather than in-game footage. Still, we learned about some cool upcoming co-op games, and that's always reason to celebrate.
While Bethesda’s Fallout 76 MMO experienced a famously troubled launch in 2018, it has slowly and steadily improved over the years. Case in point: the free 'Steel Reign' update has just launched on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. The update includes the Steel Reign questline that concludes the story of Steel Dawn, a new vendor, and a new legendary crafting system.
E3 2021 is the first E3 since Microsoft acquired Bethesda, and today’s Microsoft and Bethesda Games Showcase is the first joint E3 press conference from the two companies. The 90-minute event revealed a number of new and previously announced games that will be coming to Xbox and PC in 2021 and 2022. Naturally, we’re most psyched for the 10 co-op games featured in the showcase.
At E3 2018, Bethesda unveiled the newest entry in the Fallout franchise, Fallout 76. There is simply not enough time to go into the many trials and tribulations of this game, but the short version is that it had a rocky launch and didn't get a whole lot better over time. The one sliver of hope that some folks had was that the "always online" aspect of Fallout 76 would be mitigated by private servers, something Todd Howard mentioned they were "looking into after launch." Well, the last finger on your monkey's paw has grimly clenched down and private servers are here... if you pay for them.
In case you have not been playing Fallout 76 in recent weeks, or if you are a console player, Fallout 76 has received its first vault-themed raid in the most recent patch for PC players. This raid allows a team of up to four players to work together to clear out Vault 94, which was home to a plant-based people who were supposed to bring seeds back into the post-apocalyptic world before something went awry (as things in Fallout seem to do). The raid is set for players level 50 and is currently only available for PC, with developer Bethesda using this time to try and iron out any possible bumps before pushing the update to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
If you watched Bethesda's E3 press conference on Sunday and thought, "hey! A Fallout survival game! I can get behind that!" and then thought, "But I don't want 'SSGSSBoneLord420' to drop a nuke on me," then there's some (potentially) good news! In an interview with Geoff Keighley, Todd Howard discussed how they're looking at implementing private servers for Fallout 76 "some period later" after launch.
Wandering through the large, open world of Fallout can be a little lonely. Sure, you can drag along an NPC companion, but they will just stand in the line of fire, aggro deathclaws, and make you overprotective (looking at you, Dogmeat). NV:MP has a solution for Fallout: New Vegas PC players in a free mod that allows for multiplayer.
Welcome to 2014 and the latest edition of Beyond Co-Op, our week's end news piece that accumulates a few of the more interesting non co-op stories from the past several days. With the end of 2013, there were a lot of "best of" lists and "what to expect for gaming in 2014" going around. Once you get past those, however, there were a couple pieces of note, like a piece of malware stealing WoW players' account information and a new Ace Attorney game in the works.
Co-Optimus was recently approached by indie filmmaker Tim Pape while promoting his team's new film project, Desert Story. The first seven-minute chapter - hosted on YouTube - places us in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic setting, and introduces us to the Stranger. His motive is never quite revealed, but we get a good taste of what's in store for the future.
There are many different types of games on the market for many different types of people. So, what designates which games can be played together, and which can not? We at Co-optimus.com tend to preach friendly co-op gaming, and notice many of the single player games out there feel somewhat cheated out of a quality co-op experience.
It's time for another issue of Beyond Co-Op Reviews, the monthly feature where we look at some of the great single player experiences that you may be missing in the video game world. On tap this month is Persona 4, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, Skate It, Metal Slug 7 and Aquaria.
