Grand Theft Auto V, or GTA V, has been revealed in the latest issue of Game Informer and it looks to continue the Rockstar Games tradition of making open world games that push the boundaries of technology and story telling.  But one thing the team has yet to tackle is a true co-op campaign in any of their open world games.  Sure GTA 4 had some co-op missions and Red Dead Redemption took things a bit further with gang hideouts and free roam, but we haven't seen anything to the depth the team at Volition have done with the Saints Row franchise.

As a smartphone gaming enthusiast, I don't feel as much need for a 3DS system as I would have a few years ago. In fact, there are only a few third-party 3DS exclusive titles I really long for: Resident Evil: Revelations, Code of Princess, and the upcoming single-player opus Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate. Well, the 3DS is pretty popular, but game makers can obviously reach a much larger audience by branching out to actual consoles. If the Korean ratings board is to be believed, Capcom has wisely decided to expand RE: Revelations to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 sometime in the near future.

Amazon is loading up for Cyber Monday - and if you're a PC gamer there are over 400 titles on sale including Borderlands 2 for $30, Civilization V with Expansion for $20, and  the Mass Effect Trilogy for $30.  Other titles like Dungeon Defenders, PayDay: The Heist, and Trine can be had for under $5.  There's even DLC for games like Saints Row: The Third for under $2 - normally priced $6.

There used to be an era of gaming when what you saw was what you got.  If a game was glitchy and broken out of the box, then that is how the game would remain.  Nowadays, the majority of games appear to be released half-baked with slow down issues, game breaking glitches, or save stealing blips making it onto the shelves.  Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is no different and Activision have released a first patch for each major platform.

Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, the weekend column that rounds up some of the interesting stories from the week outside of the co-op sphere of interest.  With a holiday in the US this week the news is pretty light, but there are a few interesting things worth checking out.

Forget the stores, you're a gamer.  You do your Black Friday shopping online.  And while we already pointed you too Microsoft's deals they are running, let's take a look at what some other online retailers are offering on the cheap from the comfort of your own home.

I've scoured the internets for the biggest, the best, and the most fantastic co-op news of the day.  Unfortunately, it’s a major holiday in the USA so news is sparse.  I did manage to find something deep behind the waste bins of the web; a new video for the upcoming 2 player local co-op title Ben 10: Omniverse.  Please feel free to remove the crusted food and enjoy.  

The Microsoft Store might not be the most popular online retailer, but Microsoft is certainly making an aggressive push this Black Friday for deals on videogames.  They are offering several titles, including many recent ones, for as low as $15.  

It's quiet in here today, almost as if there is some sort of holiday going on in a distant part of the world.  That does not stop Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse and it don't stop me.  Check out the launch trailer for the upcoming 2 player local co-op game that launched in the US on Tuesday and is in store UK style on Friday.

Consoles might have had the split-screen co-op advantage on Portal 2 that their PC counterparts didn’t for a good while, but those days are now gone. Along with some minor fixes, Valve has recently added the split-screen co-op mode to the PC version of Portal 2, making Steam the undisputed best way to experience the entire game on one platform.

This week in Indie-Ana Co-Op we hold a little Q and A with Steffen, the CEO of BetaDwarf, an independent development studio from Denmark. Their first release, FORCED, is looking to be a bit ambitious of an undertaking, but they are determined to see it completed and provide a new twist to a familiar cooperative experience.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is finally going to see the light of day on February 12th,2013.  The game has the current record for longest co-op game in our database without a release, and after numerous delays, it's finally going to happen.  Slowly but surely the Gearbox developed title is leaking out details about its offerings, including a full four player co-op campaign and numerous versus multiplayer modes.  But today we have a trailer for a co-op mode called Survival.  I bet you can't guess what you do in it.