I had the chance to have a good look at Shogun 2: Total War at the Sonic vs. New York SEGA Event last month. The game was a hidden gem of sorts at the event, since developer Creative Assembly revealed the ability to play the campaign completely co-operatively, something we hadn't known before! They told us they were planning on a March 2011 release, and they've made good on that promise, recently announcing Shogun 2 will be released March 15, 2011. 

Zombies!!! is a co-op board game of which I've heard many good things. Sadly, I've yet to play it. Happily, however, for folks like me who for some reason are much more likely to purchase and play board and card games on a console or computer (no, I'm not sure why either), it appears that the Xbox Live Arcade version of Zombies!!! is still undead and kicking after acquiring a new developer. Babaroga is now in charge of its development, the same folks that just released Zombies!!! for the Windows Phone 7.

Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.

It's week two in November, and it looks like people haven't had a chance to explain their sanity to us for the months Blog theme CCV: Games Saved My Sanity! The digital crickets are chirping, the readers are waiting, and the front page will go without a fabulous quote this week.

A few months ago we at Co-optimus took a look at the space simulator shoot ‘em up co-op title Soldner X-2: Final Prototype. We really enjoyed the games style, co-op campaign, and replayability from the start, but now there’s a new piece of DLC called “The Last Chapter” out there to round out the story. We’ve taken a look at this DLC, and here’s the impression you can look forward to from a co-op perspective.

It seems like only 51 yesterdays ago that Alien Breed 2: Assault came out.  The third and final chapter in this epic alien twin-stick-shooter will be hitting the Xbox LIVE Arcade and PC next week on November 17th.  Alien Breed 3: Descent continues the story of Theodore Conrad and his embattled space ship, the Leopold.

To be fair, not a whole lot of the staff is playing Black Ops.  But I'm pretty sure most of the staff's friends list are.  Still when you say 80 bazillion copies it's bound to be mentioned, played, glanced, or thought about at some point this weekend.  From the looks of things, Black Ops have capped off the holiday releases with only a few minor releases coming up for co-op fans.  Now we trek through the back log.  

Treyarch gets a lot right with Call of Duty, but the bolts may be turned a little too tightly. Playing Call of Duty: Black Ops is like plunging your hand into a bowl of monkey balls to find the pecans. It all depends on how badly monkey balls irritate you, and how much you like pecans.

If you've picked up the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops, chances are you've been pretty disappointed.  The problems isn't the game is a bad game - it's that the performance and memory usage for the title have been through the roof even on the most high end systems.  We've seen complaints about constant stuttering, long load times, and plenty of lag.  Thankfully today, Treyarch have released a patch for the game, that by most accounts, smooths out the situation.  

Owners of both DJ Hero 1 and 2 found themselves in a bit of a conundrum when they realized their DJ Hero 1 DLC wouldn't work with the second game.  Thankfully Activision has been quick to answer the call - the latest patch for DJ Hero 2 will allow your tracks to be imported and played from the first game.  

There have been plenty of stellar sequels this fall/holiday season: Halo Reach, Call of Duty Black Ops, Fable 3, and Rock Band 3 immediately come to mind.  But one highly-anticipated sequel will be delayed past the holiday season: LittleBIGPlanet 2.  Held back to make sure it was the "perfect" experience, Sackboy will return early next year, just in time for the post-New Year's doldrums.  So what's a fan of the adorable little mascot to do in the meantime, apart from enjoying the thousands of user-created levels in the original LBP, that is?

Monday Night Combat is a fine arena shooter for the Xbox LIVE Arcade.  We gave it a 4 out of 5 in our review.  Fans of the game can now pick up some sweet merchandise from the Uber store.  There are four hand-painted resin statues available, pictured above.  You can adorn your office cubicle with the Assault, PitGirl, Tank, or Assassin models.  These quality statues stand 9 to 10 inches tall and will run you $69.99 to $89.99.