It looks like we've been slacking on our Wii research, as a beautiful version of a classic comes to light. Sonic Colors has shown its face recently, complete with two player co-op campaign that really looks like a world of colorful fun.
Over a year ago we brought you news of Spelunker HD, the umpteenth re-release or re-imaging of the original Spelunker. This game has been available in Japan for some time (over a year), so it's nice that it is finally making it stateside. If you do not know what the word 'spelunker' means, do yourself a favor and ask the most mature, kind-hearted person you can find. Do not ask me, for I am neither mature nor kind-hearted, and whatever you do, do not consult the Urban Dictionary, to which I have linked for some reason. Don't do it.
Baldur's Gate 2, which may as well be called "This is Dungeons and Dragons," is now available for your six player online co-op pleasure at Good Old Games.com. For those of you not familiar with gog.com, they have an amusing 'about us' page that pretty much gives you the nuts and bolts of the operation. The long and short of it is that gog.com offers out of print PC games as digital downloads when they aren't faking going out of business. Stupid marketing ploys aside, the site seems solid.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator is a game we really haven't heard much about since it was announced sometime ago. Supporting three player co-op via AH-HOC wireless, players can take on the game's missions working as a group of Ghosts to save the world from what is sure to be its end. Or something like that - you know how these Clancy games go.
Microsoft have released the first sales numbers for Kinect, covering the first ten days it was on the market, and the numbers are impressive to say the least. Over one million devices have been sold, either individually or bundled with the Xbox 360.
Crackdown 2's Deluge Pack hit Xbox Live today, as promised. We notified you guys a couple weeks back of what this DLC had to offer and offered up a trailer. Most exciting to us, of course, was mention of the Horde-esque co-op mode called, well, you guessed it, Deluge. If you're on the fence about the Deluge Pack, you can preview it. The Deluge Pack Preview gives you a single-player version of Deluge and the other mode that's included in the pack, Capture the Orb (playable with up to 16 players competitively). If you like what you see, you can purchase the Premium Deluge Pack for 560 MSP which unlocks the full version of Deluge (up to 4 players), new achievements, avatar rewards, and Capture the Orb over 6 arenas.
The past two years that I’ve been here with Co-optimus I’ve noticed one very important trend: Co-op games are coming in nice, affordable, downloadable packages. That being said, I’ve also noticed my hard drives filling up quickly - Be it my Xbox 360 250gig, or my PS3 80gig, space is running out...
It's that time of the week again, when the new deal of the week is available for those with an Xbox Live Gold membership. Shank is the featured game, and the savings is 33% off the normal 1200 points down to 800 points, or ten bucks for the math-challenged. We reviewed the game earlier this fall, and though it wasn't without its problems, the overall verdict was that Shank is a decent way to pass an afternoon with a buddy. And until November 22, you can do just that, at a decent discount.
Who needs Call of Duty: Black Ops when you can get adorable action figure-like versions of Marvel Superheroes in video game form instead? I suppose the answer to that question is "most people". Still, Black Ops is a grown up's game, and folks like Thor and Iron Man are far more appropriate for the E10+ crowd. Last year, the first game based on the hit Cartoon Network show was released, and we weren't exactly fond of it. The new game, subtitled The Infinity Gauntlet, is available today for the Wii and this time, for Xbox 360 and PS3 as well. Perhaps the camera and co-op, increased to four players, are a bit more thoughtful this time around. And a high-def makeover can't hurt, either.
Capcom is talking about a sequel to their latest successful zombie slayer, Dead Rising 2. Not only was DR2 a big hit, the XBLA exclusive Case Zero did very well, too. The publisher says that Case Zero has had over half a million downloads. I think making money is part of the Capcom business model, so expect more downloadable content to be heading your way.
We don't do a lot of coverage of the executive shuffle that takes place in the games industry here around Co-Optimus HQ, but one change that might be worth covering is one that actually took place in 2008 when THQ hired a man named Danny Bilson. Bilson came from an 8 year stint at EA doing a lot of creative work on various franchises, but when he arrived at THQ he had a vision to transform the company.
