It looks like somebody just ran out of gum.  As previously rumored it's now official; Duke Nukem 3D will be hitting Xbox Live Arcade "soon." 

And so the day is finally here when we can say that Too Human will be hitting store shelves tomorrow, August 19th.   Too Human is an Action/RPG title from Silicon Knights that features 2 player co-op through the entire story.  The game is very centered around character building and item collection which is sure to be right up any Diablo fan's alley.

Some of you might know the famous "odd and even rule" in the Star Trek movies, where the odd-numbered movies are inferior to the even-numbered ones. Well, Call of Duty has a similar type of rule, with the Infinity Ward games being rather good and the Treyarch ones being not so good. However, Treyarch is trying to bridge the gap with Call of Duty: World At War and are making some decent strides. One of the strides is co-op, which pleases the crew here at Co-Optimus. The game is still set in WWII, but a recent article by 1up sounds promising. The article discusses some of the featTures, like a destructive flamethrower (and flammable things, like grass huts and people) and an exotic locale (the Pacific).

A mere week ago, we reported a rumor via a leaked achievements list from Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise.  Today, that rumor has been confirmed: Viva Pinata 2 will support up to four co-op players, either locally or online.  This news makes the little gardener inside of me get a little woozy, I must admit.  The first game was great fun, and even my wife and kids liked to watch me play.  However, with up to four people being able to participate at once, I imagine this little game will stay in our 360's disc tray for quite a while.

Last week Lionhead's Fable 2 Pub Games were made available via Xbox Live.  While the games themselves will set you back 800 MS Points, those that pre-order the title receive them for free.  The games themselves don't offer any sort of co-op, but what happens in Pub Games is completely transferable to the 2 player co-op Fable 2 game when it's released in October.

We walked out of the theater, squinting in the brightness of the lobby.  The crowd rushed by, moviegoers headed off in different directions.  The smell of popcorn was strong.  Neon lights glared everywhere, and movie posters lined the wall.  My youngest son tugged on my arm.  "Hey Dad, can we play a game?"  Smiling, I nodded.  The little arcade in the movie theater was busy, full of children celebrating the last few days of summer break.  I walked over to the change machine, and the quarters clanked noisily down the chute in procession.  With a mild whoop, the two ran off to find a game.  Would it be the noisy, psychedelic DDR machine?  Perhaps the Air Hockey table would capture their interest.  I watched, curious as to what they would choose.  After a few moments hesitation at the mesmerizing electronic buffet, my oldest son led his brother to Area 51: Site 4, and they plunked in their quarters.

For those of you that don't know, GameDaily is a website from AOL that covers everything gaming and includes partner sites like Big Download and Joystiq.  The GameDaily HUD is a brand new feature on the website which features the most intelligent, important and sexiest voices in the games industry.  Will you look at that...there's me!

I know, you are sick to death of the Too Human coverage on Co-Optimus.  Months and months have gone by and you and your friends just want to get your paws on the latest action/rpg from Silicon Knights.   Well we have a way for you to do that, but not just anyway, how about a free copy of the game signed by Denis Dyack himself!

You will likely recall the recent hullabaloo over the change in art direction for upcoming blockbuster Diablo III.  If you were like me, you were too busy thinking about how much you wanted to play the game RIGHT NOW to worry about things like bright colors and rainbows.  However, as we reported earlier, a very vocal fanbase complained loudly.  A few rabid fans even whipped up some "new and improved" versions of the screenshots from Diablo III.  One of those can be seen above.  At this point, what was a laughable, fairly minor story took an odd twist. 

Sure we clamor for Co-Op in just about every game that's released around here...but I think CTRL+ALT+DEL has a point.

Good news folks!  After a few weeks of a rumored 1800 MS Point price tag,  The Behemoth Blog has revealed that Castle Crashers is officially priced at 1200 MS Points, that's 15 real dollars.   For those that don't know, Castle Crashers is a four player co-op side scrolling beat-em up, similar to those classic franchises like Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and others.  There are dozens of characters to choose from including some from previous Behemoth games like Alien Hominid. The game is set to be released on Xbox Live Arcade at the end of this month. 

Interested in Left 4 Dead?  So are we.  The game looks amazing, quite frankly, and will likely be one of the best co-op titles of the year.  However, waiting until the game's release on November 4 is enough to make you run through a corn field screaming, even without being chased by zombies, as in the screenshot above.  There's hope, though; Valve has announced that Left 4 Dead will be playable at several events in the near future.  The first is the Penny Arcade Expo, where the 360 version will be premiered.  If you live in or near Seattle, and are a gamer, you are probably going to PAX anyway, but now there's even more incentive to attend.  Euro gamers can find the game at the Leipzig Games Convention, (Germany), the Festival du Jeu Video (France), and the PC Gamer Showdown (UK).  Valve has already confirmed there will be no demo of the game available before release, so attending one of these functions is likely the only way to get your hands on it until launch.  More's the pity!