A lot of people who play games have some inner desire to also create games to share with the world. Epic Games wants to help you reach your goal by unleashing the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) for individuals and new companies to use. UDK will give new game creators access to the Unreal 3 engine for free, as well as all the other amenities you may need to get your creative juices flowing. Anyone can start building games on their PC by Downloading the UDK, gaining access to ongoing Unreal Engine 3 support and all the tools necessary to start building your games.

It seems that Ruffian Games will be showing off Crackdown 2, the sequel to the "still fun after all these years" Crackdown, to the general public next weekend at the NEoN Digital Arts Festival.  This is the first time the game will be shown and demoed outside of a major trade show event like E3 or TGS.  The catch?  The event is in Dundee, Scotland.  So unless you live in the area, have already acquired plane/event tickets, or are really good friends with Nightcrawler, you likely won't be amongst those lucky few that will get to check out this promising co-op title in person for the first time.  Fortunately, any new details that are shown will undoubtedly be disseminated across the Internet in less time than you can say "I wonder if the sequel will come with a Halo: Reach beta," and you can be sure we'll be posting all the latest and greatest co-op related news just as soon as it does.

The weekend stretches ahead, full (we hope) of free time for gaming.  Here are the games of choice for Co-Optimus staffers.

One year of chainsaw dueling -- that's what Epic Games is celebrating this holiday season, and a nice Gears of War 2 playlist changeup is rolling out for your enjoyment.

EA Vancouver invited Co-Optimus to their headquarters in Redwood City to come check out the pre-alpha build of Skate 3, announced in September and due May 2010. We came away impressed; find out why in our hands-on preview.

From the darkest depths of the internet, we bring you this startling insight into the minds of today's youth.

It appears the boycott isn't really working at all!  Preorder sales for Left 4 Dead 2 are doing quite well, according to CVG's interview with Valve's Chet Faliszek.  How well?  Try four times the level of the original Left 4 Dead.  After playing through the demo, I can easily see why; the game looks to be one of the year's best.

Activision has announced that the demo for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has hit the Xbox Live marketplace for Gold members.  The demo allows players to check out the Washington D.C. mission in the game and also allows local co-op play.

In a Walgreens world, co-op would be completely fluid and friendly. In reality, it has its roadbumps and stop signs. This month Co-Op Couples comes to a quick four-way stop with Pass and Play.

US PlayStation owners may have just gotten their hands on Trine, and it might need a patch, but PC owners have had the game for a good four or five months now.  Southpeak has released a patch for the retail edition of the game bringing it to version 1.05 and it fixes a variety of bugs.

Some blurry images were apparently leaked for Halo Reach.  Not much can be garnered from the shots, though we do see at least two new weapons.  Graphically it looks like Halo...with a return to the familiar HUD with a radar.  The game also apparently uses a perks system with three on display: sprint, cloaking and halogram.  

Capcom has released a brand new trailer for Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, the on rails shooter for the Wii which wraps up the missing pieces from Umbrella Chronicles.  The trailer showcases new environments, new characters, and some sticky situations for our cast of characters.