Whoever says the Wii is for kids clearly hasn't taken a look at the new (NSFW, uncensored) House of the Dead: Overkill trailer.

Here's what the Co-Optimus Staff will be up to this weekend.

Microsoft has announced that Halo Wars has gone gooooooooold and will be ready for its late February release.  Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 is Ensemble Studios last game, and features a "ground breaking control scheme" for a console RTS.  

The new column has a name!  It seems totally obvious in hindsight, but what better title could there be for a series dedicated to the casual gamer that happens on Fridays?  Congratulations to Co-Optimus reader "roland", who won our "Name the New Co-Op Column" contest.  He'll get a brand spanking new copy of casual-friendly title Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 and a set of the critically acclaimed Co-Optimus stickers!  Read on to find our thoughts on a colorful, family friendly title for the Wii! It was a bit difficult to pick the first game to cover for Co-Op Casual Friday.  When I was writing the review for Mortimer Beckett, I thought perhaps that game would be appropriate.  But it's too close to the date of the review, and I know you want new content.  I even thought about Lips, which was a huge hit with non-gamers in my family.   However, I really wanted to cover something for the Wii , the system that has earned the casual console crown this generation.  I decided to save it for later, so for now, the Lips are sealed.  (Ba domp BOMP!)  I wanted something big, surprising, and still appealing to the kiddies as well.  So, I chose one of the finest titles available for the Wii, Super Mario Galaxy.

In an interview with Gamepro, Bungie's Joseph Statin talks about the upcoming Halo 3 co-op game called Halo 3: ODST.  Mr Statin spills the beans on some of the common questions to the game.  No you won't run into Master Chief.  Yes the game is going to contain it's own multiplayer modes, saved films, screenshots and more.

I'm going to officially declare January as the worst month in the history of the gaming industry in terms of employment.  By my count there have been over 10 separate instances of job loss with over 30,000 people having lost or about to lose their job.  

 Sega has just released a handful of new screenshots for their upcoming Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  The collection features tons of classic Sega games like Phantasy Star 2, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage and more.  The best part is all of these games are upgraded to hi-definition graphics and most feature online play!

To introduce this news post, we give you an inside look at the actual day to day operations of Co-Optimus.com, archived from 11/14/08.

The first rule of Ghostbusting club is don't cross the streams.  The second rule of Ghostbusting club is don't cross the streams.  

This week I attempted to trudge through the recently release Lord of the Rings: Conquest.  I say trudge because in single player it's an incredibly frustrating experience.  The constant knock downs, pinning against the environment, and the constant rain of enemy arrows really rub my hobbit feet the wrong way.  Thankfully the game supports co-op, and jumping into a session of that helps alleviate the pain.

No this isn't the latest Carmen Sandiego game, it's the latest in a string of XBLA casual titles.  We're hot on the trail of Dr. Chaos with our magnifying glass in hand and a team of crack investigators.  Ready to read what we uncovered?  Read on.