Good morning! Or afternoon, or evening, I guess. I have no idea when you'll be reading this. Welcome to another edition of Beyond Co-Op, where we look "beyond co-op" and bring you some of the gaming news that doesn't necessarily revolve around cooperative play. Here are some stories that caught my eye this week:
We just posted our Awesomenauts review yesterday, giving it a healthy 4 out of 5 in our Co-Op Review. One of our small complaints about the game was that its hero roster was quite small - only 6 heroes currently. It looks like that issue will be addressed soon with at least one new awesomenaut on the horizon.
Heroes of Ruin is an upcoming hack-and-slash, action RPG for the Nintendo 3DS. It features a fantasy setting, four player drop in/drop out co-op, voice chat, and a half-lion, half-man character class. Neat! The latest trailer covers all of the co-op features nicely. It's almost as if the game was made with four player co-op i...
It is quite possible that Blizzard wanted to spite those people who have deemed Diablo III too colorful, contrasting it from the rest of the franchise. By hiding the magical fairy land of Whimsyshire within the depths of the Diablo III, players are given a land that no one thought they’d find within the confines of a Diablo game.
Here's a quick bit of information, folks. Shoot Many Robots is half off on Steam until 1pm EST tomorrow. That means you can pick it up for the low, low price of five dollars. The loot-and-shoot sidescroller also has a four pack available for $14.99. Give the gift of screeching metal death to your friends!
Man, there's been a lot of Serious Sam news lately. First there was story about Serious Sam 3: BFE and Serious Sam: Double D XXL coming to the XBLA this fall. Then Amazon announced a big sale on Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter and its new accompanying DLC. Not to be outdone, Steam is having their own Serious Sam sale.
The Borderlands 2 final box art was recently revealed. With all the commotion surrounding the $100 and $150 special editions it was easy to overlook the version that all the normal people will be buying. The cover image should be familiar to anyone who remembers the iconic artwork from the first game. I'll admit I thought the original Borderlands cover was badass. Here's a reminder, just in case you missed out on one the best co-op games of this console generation:
Many of you are likely aware of the fast-growing and popular PC genre known as MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas). Once only found as mods to RTS games, MOBAs have been taking the world by storm for the past few years, spawning communities numbering in the millions. The nature of the games have mostly restricted them to the PC, but Awesomenauts dares to ask why a MOBA can't succeed in the console world. What's the verdict? Find out in our co-op review.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is out next week on the 360 and PlayStation 3, PC owners will have to wait till early June to get their hands on the title. But if you're jealous and feel the need to catch up on the series, Steam has the perfect deal for you. All three Ghost Recon titles and the two expansion packs for the first game are now on sale for a total price of just $7.50. If you're just looking for the more recent games, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, (which support online co-op) you can pick them up for $2.49 each.
It is always sad when a potentially good co-op game arrives and turns out to be less so. This was the case with South Park: Tenorman's Revenge. The 4 player co-op title could have been a great platformer, but poor controls and awkward level design made it a low 2 out of 5. Rather than rest on their laurels, developers Other Ocean Interactive have come back with a major update that may just save the game.
When a game presents you with a combination of dinosaurs and futuristic guns, the normal reaction is to scream in excitement while running around the room like a child. Orion Dino Beatdown had the opposite effect on me. A great premise stunted by poor design and limited scope, this budget title fails on so many levels. What should have been a five man co-op Paleozoic romp turned out to be a broken, barely playable mess.
