Super Mario Galaxy was a fantastic game, but the co-op elements were less than stellar, if you'll pardon the pun. You'll recall a second player could join in and shoot stars at enemies, and that was pretty much it. Perfect for younger gamers, but not exactly compelling for more experienced Mario lovers. If the above screenshot is any indication, co-op in Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be better.
Have you heard of Blacklight: Tango Down? It's a multiplayer shooter being developed by Zombie for the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC. Until now it only featured multiplayer versus modes of play across a variety of game types, but sadly nothing was sad on co-op. Today the team has announced a new mode called "Black Ops" which pits four players against the computer in co-op action.
When I was young and started losing baby teeth, my mother always told me to tie one end of a string to the tooth and the other to a door, then slam it shut. While I never had the guts to actually go through with it, I'm pretty sure what I've just seen in this video for Crackdown 2, I won't have a problem with doing. Perhaps this method of dental removal was inspiration in Crackdown 2, a game where you can attach a car on a rope to your head, and then proceed to run around the city leaving a wake of destruction behind you.
Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
A few weeks back we told you about a price and a date for Left 4 Dead 2's upcoming DLC called "The Passing." But like all things in the games industry, they're subject to change, and this time for the better. The official Left 4 Dead blog has announced that we'll see the content hitting sometime next week, slightly ahead of schedule!
Splinter Cell Conviction is on the mind, but so is Halo 3, ODST, and Madballs. Probably because we've putting on events 3 days in a row for these titles. Still the staff finds time to game this weekend.
Last week we heard that F.E.A.R. 3, the latest entry in Day 1 Studio's first-person shooter/horror series F.E.A.R., would include co-op. Not much else was revealed at the time about what that co-op experience was like, but the latest issue of Game Informer magazine has the details for us. It seems that Day 1 Studios will be playing around with the idea of co-op some and introducing a new experience they call "divergent co-op." This system will tie in with the game's overall story and basically means that while you'll want to trust your co-op partner and assume they're with you all the way, they may have an agenda all of their own...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is a first: a competition ladder group has made good use of Halo 3: ODST's stat tracking and begun coordinating global challenges for the Firefight co-op survival mode. We love Firefight, but thanks to its painful lack of co-op matchmaking we've had to resort to our Waypoint Co-Op Nights and Co-Optimus matchmaking tools in order to secure a full four-man squad. Websites like HaloCharts.com are not only innovative...but useful in this regard.
Personally, I've been experiencing a desire to sneak, steal, and puzzle my way around - In video games, of course. The winner of the Independent Games Festival, a new title from developer Pocketwatch Games brings us those elements all at once. Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine has you stealing from the rich, and keeping it for you and your buddies. A Locksmith, Prowler, Hacker, and Cleaner join forces to take the world by storm - or at least take all of its stuff. It also goes to show you that co-op wins prizes, or at least gets our attention.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen in on a conference call with some of the folks behind Iron Man 2: The Game. Dean Martinetti, Producer, and Mike McHale, Development Director, both from SEGA, answered questions from the gaming press.
What happens when you take Diablo and mash it back together with the roguelike genre that inspired it in the first place? Odds are, you'd come up with something similar to Din's Curse, an action RPG from indie developer Soldak Entertainment.
Kick-Ass hits theaters today, a cheesy movie about a bunch of kids who pretend to be superheroes. The game however, won't be out for a few more weeks when it hits the PlayStation Network and iPhone. We just got a fresh batch of screens and a trailer showing off the game - which I can't help but be reminded of the Watchmen game. Uh oh.
