Bleary eyed, I slammed my mouse down and growled out loud.  I could barely see my watch in the dark, lit only by the glare from my monitor.  2:30 AM.  How could I possibly have played this long, and not known it?  I sighed and stared at the screen.  There, in blood red hue, lay the corpse of my warrior, piles of gold everywhere, surrounded by acid spitting demons.  I crept into the other room to find the telephone, and dialed a close friend.  Luckily, I had started this session as a modem game, just in case.  "John?  Are you awake?  I need your help, man.  I died to those lame acid spitters on Hell difficulty again, and there is no way I can get to my corpse.  Dial in and help me?  I can't just restart, man, I just got that King's Longsword of Haste, I'll never find one again..."  So began another co-op rescue mission in Diablo, Blizzard's masterpiece for the PC.

Continuing our onslaught of Too Human coverage, we've got two tidbits of info today.  The first is a video interview with Denis Dyack where he talks a bit about the game based on community questions, but also talks about what it was like to design the co-op aspect of the game.  Oh, right, and the question was (indirectly) asked by me.  A lot of it is what was already said in our Exclusive Interview, but it's interesting none the less. Next up comes from the folks over at the Gamerscore Blog.  There's a perk for people who preorder the game from various retailers - exclusive armor.  In fact, 5 pieces of exclusive armor, one for each class in the game.  There's new screenshots of the armor and both videos embedded right after the break.

Please excuse the overuse of the homonyms in the title of this headline, but sometimes it cannot be avoided. Anyhoo, it seems that Sacred 2 : Fallen Angel (a game more known for its PC roots) will have co-op in its 360 version. IGN has a preview of the game, where they detail the game for those who are unaware of what the game is all about. But why should co-op gamers care at all? Well, we will let IGN explain.

Capcom has announced the arrival of Spyborgs, coming next year to the Wii.  The Spyborgs are a team of five bionic superspies who work together to save the world (naturally).  The game will have the look and feel of a Saturday morning cartoon, and Capcom promises to use the Wii remote in new and innovative ways.  Of particular interest to our readers will be the featured two player co-op play.  Spyborgs looks to have an entertaining style full of humorous moments as the five team up to beat the bad guys!  Read the full press release after the break.

Eurogamer recently held a Live Q&A with Insomniac Studio's Director Ted Price in regards to the upcoming Playstation 3 exclusive shooter Resistance 2.  By now you've heard about the amazingly promising 8-player co-op mode in the game, but what we haven't heard was any details on this - only that it would be a class based system. 

The game in the running for "most complex game title ever," Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, has created a bit of interest at Co-Optimus. So, it's not surprising that the game has sparked interest at other sites as well. Worthplaying has a nice preview about the game, focusing on the nostalgia factor, as well as the relatively simple gameplay.

A very interesting article is available over at MTV, of all places.  The article discusses the role co-op can play in getting experienced gamers to enjoy genres they typically dislike.  The article provides some anecdotal evidence that co-op can do just that.

This past week, one game has been on my mind. That game is Crackdown, a great co-op game for the 360. As is my nature, I always find the good games months and years after they come out. However, sometimes being late to the party can be nice, since I was able to discover Crackdown without the pretense of the Halo 3 Beta fury that was associated with Crackdown at that time. So, in the past week, I've been experimenting with the game and thoroughly enjoying the co-op experience.

Capcom has released a bunch of new screenshots and concept are for their upcoming Resident Evil title, aptly named Resident Evil 5.  News broke two weeks ago that RE5 would be the first RE title to have Co-Op Play.  The above concept art is that of your co-op partner, though no name or other details have been released. 

It's a fine line to walk: no one likes delayed games, and yet, no one likes playing games that are clearly underdeveloped, either.  However, as budgets for games rise, more and more titles are being delayed in order to add features that will make their titles stand out.  As we recently reported, Saint's Row 2 has been moved back to add in 2 player co-op.  Now, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has been delayed as well, and for similar reasons.  TVG had this to say after talking to developer Pandemic:

Are you ready to live the thug life with your gat in one hand and your mouse in the other?   Well then you're in luck!   Shacknews has confirmed that the recently delayed Saint's Row 2 will be making its way to Windows PCs this fall alongside the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 version.

An interesting article has been posted at Game of Design about procedural storytelling.  That phrase is a mouthful, but what it could mean for co-op fans is that the storyline of a game would alter upon different replays, depending on the players' actions.  The article  springs from a discussion of the AI in the upcoming Left 4 Dead (covered at length here at Co-Optimus) and mentions Diablo 2 in this snippet: