Welcome to a brand new edition of Beyond Co-Op Reviews.  We've given the feature a bit of a facelift, and are going to continue to bring you great game reviews of games that don't necessarily have a co-op mode.  

After the incredibly entertaining first episode of Claptrap's adventures in making Borderlands,  we had high hopes for Episode 2.  Thankfully it delivers as Claptrap gives us the skinny on working with difficult actors.   According to him "it's no vacation" trying to get someone to blow themselves up on camera.  Silly actors.

We know Tekken 6 was getting a 2 player co-op beat em up mode that can be played online, but what we didn't know is that there'd actually be a story involved with cut scenes and more.  The latest screenshots from the game show off some of this as well as a few action scenarios.

Army of Two: The 40th Day has had a strong showing to date, and the latest previews and media coming out of the Tokyo Game Show are no exception.

PlayStation 3 owners should be getting their hands on the new Lost Planet 2 Co-Op demo any minute now.  The rest of us?  We'll have to settle for these brand new screenshots and trailer straight from the Tokyo Game Show.

The news from the Tokyo Game Show keeps rolling in, bringing with it some more good co-op news for PSP owners.  Regular listeners of our podcast likely know by now that Mike and I have touted the virtues of Valkyria Chronicles, an action jRTS game released for the PS3 last year.  The one downside to the game?  No co-op.  Well it seems that that particular problem will be fixed in the sequel.  1Up reported today from the show floor that the upcoming Valkyria Chronicles 2 will feature custom characters, multiplayer mode, and co-op.  When asked about the new co-op mode, director Takeshi Ozawa had this to say:

Everybody loves a good pirate game, and there never seems to be enough around. With the resurgence of such classics like Pirates! and more recently The Secret of Monkey Island, there might just be some momentum in the genre. Enter Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy a PC game from independent developers Stickman Studios. It's all the pirate action, without the pirate mess. Aside from the booty, the best part of pirate games are the ship to ship combat, and that is what Buccaneer is all about.

When Kingdom Hearts makes its way to the PSP, Co-op will come with it. Focused around the characters Terra, Ventus and Aqua, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep will have 3-player link-up co-op. This particular co-op will take place in the battle realm called the Mirage Arena. This arena will give players the opportunity to replay bosses cooperatively, or select special co-op levels to play through.

Codemasters has announced that Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising has gone gold and will hit retailers on October 6th.   With Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions, everyone will get their chance to jump in on the four player co-op action.  

Here's an interesting bit of news for co-op fans.  Killzone 2 is the premiere FPS for the PS3.  It's gorgeous visually, but has one glaring weakness: no co-op whatsoever.  As we've covered before, the game really suffers as a result.  Even without our favorite feature, Killzone 2 has sold well by almost any measure, with 1.9 million copies moved since the game's release in late February. 

The first official screenshots have arrived for the upcoming 4 player co-op Crackdown 2.  The sequel to the wildly popular original, Crackdown 2 has some new tricks up its sleeve.  We see the agents look quite a bit different from these screens, and we also have a glimpse at some of the vehicle mounted weapons for co-op play!

We finally get to try out some Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker co-op! When it was confirmed via a special trailer, we still had no idea how the co-op would be implemented. At the time of this writing, we still don't...but rest assured we're looking into it.