True or False: Mechs make everything better. I know what you're thinking. The obvious answer is "true," but you're wrong. There was a mech in Earth Defense Force 2017, and it, along with the rest of the vehicles, were some of the most vile, uncontrollable abominations to have ever been presented in the medium. The Bazelato (helicopter), the Vegalta (mech), and the Gigantus (tank), simply existed to mock the player, and nothing more. It's a good thing the rest of the game was so damn fun.

It's a bit early to call the year's best of, worst of, etc. But anyone who has played the original Zeno Clash might expect its sequel to end up just as bizarre looking, if not even weirder. Well, thanks to a new batch of screenshots from Atlus, we know Zeno Clash II is indeed one different looking game. Sure, something more bizarre could come along, but t would take some strange minds to do it. Even then, would such a hypothetical game feature drop-in, drop-out co-op like this one? Highly unlikely!

Let's look back at 2012 at some of the most popular stories we had here on Co-Optimus.  Across the board it looks like several of the big games were equally popular in their stories, with the likes of Borderlands 2, Minecraft, Dark Souls, Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 all making it into our top 10 stories.

Another year has come and gone.  December ended 2012 with an unexpected whimper, with barely a co-op game on the radar.  Far Cry 3 and Guardians of Middle-Earth were really the only standout titles, but there was plenty of co-op gaming to still be had from earlier in the Fall.  Here are some of the stories you may have missed in December of 2012.

Runic Games sent out a tweet last night letting the world know that Torchlight 2 has done quite well since it launched in September on the PC.  The 6 player co-op, action/RPG has sold over 1 million copies to date.  Not bad for a game our community chose as their Indie Co-Op GOTY.  

Day Z clone War Z has been through some rough times lately. The game launched on Steam in a buggy and unfinished state, prompting numerous customer complaints and the raising of pitchforks and torches. This culminated in War Z being pulled from Steam. Throughout the whole process, the game's creator Sergey Titov  behaved in a manner that many gamers consider to be arrogant and dishonest. Apparently the game's initially brisk sales had gone to his head. But all that's behind him now, according to an apology letter he recently sent out to players.

Looking back at 2012, it was a bit of a downer overall for co-op gamers. Not that we didn't have a lot of great co-op games, but it just seems that the field of truly standout games was a lot thinner than previous years. This year we're doing our awards a little different - awarding just two winners in two categories - Indie and AAA. Let's see who is up for the coveted Golden Fitty award.

As our resident beat-em-up enthusiast, I am of course highly stoked for Japanese developer 5pb’s upcoming brawler Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds. Since its announcement, we’ve known Battle Grounds would feature 4-player co-op, but details were scarce – partially because the tiny developer doesn’t seem to have an English-speaker on staff. At last they have released a couple of trailers highlighting the game’s cooperative and competitive modes, so now we know what to expect!

It's not quite the new year yet, so there's still plenty of time to wrap up those purchases from 2012 that were missed.  It seems XCOM has taken the staff by storm again, and with good reason.  Halo 4 still seems to dominate a few staffers game time as well.

Let the great debate begin! It's that time of year. The end of 2012 brings about another round table discussion by the Co-Optimus staff on what our Cooperative Game of the Year should be. You, our beloved readers, have already made your voices heard in our community polls for Co-Op GOTY and Indie Co-Op GOTY.

Amazon is running a one day sale on Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, discounting the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC version of the game to just $39.99.  Black Ops 2 features a revamped four player co-op zombies mode which we covered in our review.  Of course the game still has the high action single player campaign and plenty of competitive multiplayer to keep fans entertained.

The Wii U library may be slightly limited for now, but come early into next year Nintendo will be unleashing sequel to a Wii Ware title favorite, Bit.Trip Runner! Not only is Gaijin Games bringing Commander Video back for a second helping of track-star feats, but they have added a new co-op mode in Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien that will be featured in the Wii U version!