One of the games that sort of went under the radar at E3 was a little title from Capcom called Flock.  The games developers have a resume that include such titles as Lemmings and Crackdown, and in a sort of twisted way share some characteristics of both games.  The basic gameplay is much like a Lemmings game, use your UFO to guide sheep, pigs, and cows through a maze like obstacial course to the Mother Flocker (that's your big herding ship).  Flock promises to have plenty of physics based puzzles as well as a 2-player co-op mode.

I've always had a sweet spot for classic and/or older co-op games. Maybe it's because it takes me back to my childhood, or maybe I just like games to be simple sometimes. I've mainly covered newer games in this column, and recently covered an older one. So I decided to meet somewhere in the middle with my current co-op game of the week: Halo.

Many of you probably don't know about Watchmen, the sublime (limited) comic book series. However, to summarize, it's very good and was the only comic book to ever win the Hugo award (for excellence in sci-fi writing). Oh and it takes place in an alternate reality where Nixon is president forever and we won Vietnam. I hadn't even heard of Watchmen until I saw the epic trailer for the upcoming movie version of it when I went to see The Dark Knight. However, after seeing the trailer I was excited about the movie. I was made even more excited when I discovered (via MTV) that there will be a downloadable, episodic Watchmen game debuting alongside the movie. The game will have split-screen co-op, featuring the heroes Nite Owl and Rorschach. The game  is also a prequel to the series, taking place in the 1970s. Little more is known about the game, but it will feature up to 20 enemies on screen and is apparently a rather pretty game. The game will come out with the movie in 2009. Any Watchmen fans out there?

What do Aliens, Co-Op, and Battle Star Galactica all have in common?  Well in some way or another they are all involved with the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines title from Gearbox Software.   According to a Shacknews interview with Gearbox head honcho Randy Pitchford, the game's story has been written by two veteran BSG writers.   Both Bradley Thompson and David Weddle helped write the story, so much story in fact, that they could make an "entire TV season" out of it...ironic I know.  So how did Gearbox manage to snag these fine folks away from the awesomeness that is Battlestar Galactica?  Two words: writers strike. 

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow night is our next official Xbox Live Co-Op Night.  We'll be playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance which supports 4 player co-op.   So dust off your copies of the game and join us online as we beat up some evil villains.

An N+ would be a really bad grade in school, but as far as co-op goes, it has a lot of class schools you definitely makes the grade.  Available tomorrow, a DLC pack for the game will include 150 single player levels in addition to a whopping 50 new co-op levels!  All of this content costs a mere 200 points.  We like the ratio of levels to points in there, for sure!  This would be a good excuse to join up with some buddies for some more puzzle/platform action! 

Unveiled officially at the Microsoft Press Conference, Resident Evil 5's gameplay will be built entirely around co-op.  The co-op is a first for the series, one that traditionally is about lone wolf style survival, but it's a welcome addition.  The developers aren't cutting any corners either, making sure to design levels with co-op in mind.

Last Monday night I was lucky enough to be invited to a pretty exclusive Gears of War 2 preview event.  Donned with celebrities like Lester Spreight (voice of Cole Train above), Zachary Levi (of NBC's Chuck fame) and numerous others; we all got our hands on with Gears 2's new co-op mode called Horde. 

As is we weren't already going to pick the game up on release day, November 4, now there's all the more reason for this title to stand out from its competitors.  Left 4 Dead's box art has been finalized, and yeah, it's pretty fantastic.  Blood? Check.  Missing appendages?  Check.  If they had fit in a giant robot somewhere, it'd be perfect.  Only 2,544 hours to wait...

Well, as we said not too long ago, the release of 1942: Joint Strike is fast approaching. And as the Gamerscore Blog says, 1942: Joint Strike is coming out this week. It is one of the XBLA releases of the week, but it will also find its way to the PlayStation Network. The WWII-themed co-op shooter is all nice and updated in hi-def 3D glory, which we've detailed in the past. The game will set you back 800 Microsoft Points (on XBLA), which translates to $9.99 for the PlayStation Network version. So, if you want a nice spiffy shooter (that still stays true to the 2D roots) this could be the game for you.

If there was one good thing to come out of E3 2008 this year (despite the bad), it's the fact that co-op has been moved up from an afterthought to a bullet point. Right from the get go at the Microsoft Press Conference we were hit with a plethora of AAA titles all that featured co-op as a major bullet point. Fable 2 and its integrated co-op mode to 3rd party titles like Resident Evil 5 and the official unveiling of its coop focused gameplay, the Microsoft press briefing had one overwhelming message - it's good to play together. Sony followed suit with titles like Resistance 2 and its 8-player co-op mode on display; and even though Nintendo didn't show much their big game Animal Crossing for the Wii was built around cooperative play, even introducing a new microphone peripheral for online play.

In a truly shocking turn of events, Wired is reporting that Rock Band instruments will be compatible with Guitar Hero: World Tour.  You might be wondering how this is possible, since the RB drums have one less input than the upcoming GH:WT drums.  Director Brian Bright says that the tracks will be "compressed" if a RB drum set is detected.  All in all, this is great news for fans who are running out of space for more instruments.  If rival games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero can play nice with each other, surely world peace is not too far behind.  Perhaps soon, we'll even see dogs and cats living together!