Operation Flashpoint: Red River is Codemasters super-realistic modern military shooter.  Designed around 4 player online co-op play, the game takes place in the fictional-sounding country of Tajikistan.  Apparently, the United States Marine Corps. and  the People's Liberation Army of China are in some type of competition to see who is the best at urinating.  There are some insurgents that need killing, as well.  A new trailer sets the tone, and has the uber-bad-ass line: "We Feast on the Fury of Battle."  Hilarity ensues.

If you want first dibs on the multiplayer beta of Gears of War 3, you'll need to pick up Bulletstorm on February 22.  But not just any copy of Bulletstorm, you'll need to get the Epic Edition.  According to Computerandvideogames.com, those who pick up the Xbox 360 special edition will get "early access" to the multiplayer beta.  PlayStation 3 owners will get nothing, and like it.  (I'm just kidding.)

Capcom's flop of a third person shooter, Lost Planet 2, is for sale for only $9.99 at Amazon.com.  Why should you care?  Because the game is awesome, especially in co-op.  LP2 got some low review scores when it came out in May of this year, mainly because of the difficulty level and the necessity of relying on poor AI if you were playing single player.  We gave it a co-op score of 4 out of 5 in our review,  because we know better than those other guys.  Capcom even patched some of the difficulty problems, and you don't need to worry about bad AI if you have some co-op buddies.  You can use this link for the Xbox 360 version, or this link for the PlayStation 3 copy, and help support Co-Optimus.

It was a mere 5 days ago that Amazon started to sell the 160GB PS3 with $75 of credit towards other purchases.  Today they've sweetened the pot by adding an extra $25 in credit bringing the perceived price of the system down to $199.

Really, the title says it all.  Square-Enix have released a brand new trailer for Mindjack that showcases all the characters in the game you can hack into and take control of.  Among them?  A mechanized bonobo monkey.   Sure you can take over civilians that are cowering in fear, or you can take over enemy soldiers with rocket launchers.  You can even take over different types of robots armed with machine guns.  

Bumper Cars - Scream if you want to go faster!

I was playing the new Superhero Squad game with my son last night, and noticed that there was already DLC available for the relatively new release.  Said DLC consisted of a trio of playable characters: Captain America, Bucky, and the Red Skull.  My initial reactions were "What?  No Cap in the main game?  Outrageous!" followed by "240 MS points for that?  A dollar a character?  Seems pretty steep for a kiddie game to me."

Today developer Creative Assembly announced details for the two different North America editions of Shogun 2: Total War. There will be two available editions: the Standard Edition (the core game experience) and the Limited Edition. The Limited Edition will score you a unique playable faction (the Hattori Clan), an additional battle scenario ("Nagashino"), a full set of armor for your online avatar, and a starting bank of XP to spend on your online character. Well now doesn't that sound fancy? Now you have the option of making your Standard Edition buddies jealous as they watch your shiny Hattori Clan units strutting around on the battlefield during your fully cooperative campaign sessions.

With all the hectic activity of a live awards show, some things never make it to air.  That was the case for the full version of Insomniac Games' Resistance 3.  The original trailer was cut down to two minutes for the Spike TV VGAs.  Here's the full trailer, featuring more live action footage to set the mood.  

Hi there, loyal Co-Optimus readers.  Occasionally, we get a real gem of a press release.  The latest comes from our friends at Southpeak, who are diligently working on Two Worlds Two.  Normally, press releases are rather dry, but this one goes above and beyond in an attempt to get our attention.  Here is how it begins:

More and more shooter franchises are adding Hardcore modes into their team-based competitive multiplayer, which - of course - invite friendly fire accidents. We venture into Call of Duty: Black Ops' Hardcore Team Deathmatch for a couple of particularly dangerous matches.

Microsoft must be running out of room in their digital warehouse.  Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson has a preview of some new deals in the coming weeks.  Xbox LIVE is having an end of the year blow-out sale.  There are some great co-op titles for 50% off, like Castle Crashers and The UnderGarden.  Add-on content for Borderlands: Claptrap's New Robot Revolution is also half off.  There are some fun non-co-op titles available for a discount as well.