There is a phrase that is commonly linked with any discussion of the co-op in an RTS: "comp stomp."  The phrase refers to the typical situation that occurs when a group of players team up to take on one or more computer opponents and proceed to thrash them about the place.  This can be fun for a few matches, but the novelty quickly wears thin as the computer does nothing new or interesting each time you face it.  AI War, Arcen Games’ first outing into the gaming market, shatters this stale and repetitive formula to create something that’s not quite an RTS, not quite a 4X, but completely fun and, most importantly, completely co-op.

As gamers, we often wonder what goes on behind the scenes with game developers. What hoops are jumped through? What hurdles are cleared? And where did that bit of quirk in the game come from, exactly? Well, Game Informer got a fun list of things that went on during the development of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 that made it what it we get to play.  

While poring over Joystiq's interview with Crackdown 2 lead designer Steve Iannetta, we came across a little tidbit that means big news for co-op gamers...especially those who enjoy co-op survival modes...  

We haven't gotten a whole lot of new information about Perfect Dark on the Xbox LIVE Arcade, but we did get some pretty nice screens. It definitely looks to be shaping up to be a solid remake - cleaned up visuals, co-op, and that good old fashioned N64 feeling.

The rumor started with Ubisoft's financial earnings, citing a new Ghost Recon game to be released before March 2010, specifically Ghost Recon 4. Now, the Australian ratings board has a listing for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Predator, which many are presuming to be the fabled Ghost Recon 4.

Like Gears of War 2 and HAWX before it, Modern Warfare 2 will allow players to each choose their own respective difficulty in the game's co-op mode.  Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling announced the feature via his Twitter account.  

The first batch of invites went out late last night to lucky Xbox 360 owners who applied to be in the latest preview program.  With it comes the ability to access Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM, Zune Marketplace and instant 1080p on demand movies.

 AI War, the RTS/4x co-op title from Arcen Games, is out today on Steam. The game features full on-line and local, drop-in/drop-out co-op for up to eight players.  It also includes online leaderboards and 129 Steam achievements for players.  As an added bonus, Steam is running a special on the game through Oct. 27th.  Order it now and you can pick it up for just $15.  That's a lot of game for that price, believe me.  AI War has been out for some time through Impulse and Arcen Game's official site, but the Steam release marks a major milestone in the game's development. As Christopher Park mentioned in our interview with him, the update from the previous version to this release version included alot of changes and pretty much all of them were done to ensure a solid co-op experience.  We also mentioned in that article that if you purchased the game from another outlet, such as Direct2Drive or Stardock's Impulse, that you'd still be able to utilize the "activate a product on Steam" feature.  We've heard from Christopher and he assures us that this feature should be available within the next couple of days.  Until then, be sure to tune in tomorrow for our review!

Machine guns, jeeps, and rock 'n' roll...what more do you want? This month, the Battlefield Report helps you keep your sanity when explosions and in-game soundtracks pound your head.

This screenshot does the leaked Left 4 Dead 2 high-quality trailer no justice whatsoever. Effectively trumping every zombie movie trailer ever made, not only is the video shockingly awesome, you can't help remember that you will be playing these scenarios with your co-op friends in less than a month.

The co-op friendly, independently developed, tower defense title Sol Survivor received a patch last night that added, amongst other things, a new co-op map for players.  Also included in this patch is a new version of the Trial Game that’s available to download from the XBox LIVE Indie Marketplace free of charge.  The Trial Game now includes an in-depth tutorial and a Challenge level that allows players to test their tower defense chops on a mid-campaign map set to medium difficulty.  A full list of all fixes from the patch can be found on the Sol Survior forums.  Be sure to tune into Co-Optimus next week for our review of the game!

It may be a long way off, but Alive & Undead is sounding like a great co-op Halloween Treat for 2010. Alive & Undead isn't necessarily a zombie game as it sounds, which we've been saturated with this past year - it's more of an "everything horrible" kind of a game. You play as either Mr. Smith, a Vampire and Elvis impersonator, or his hired gun Welson. Welson is a witch hunter who's been asked to help Mr. Smith avenge his murdered (by his own bloodlust) family, and help cure him of his Vampire curse.