I've been knocked down for the count with some sort of strange African virus this week and it sounds like Mike has contracted it as well. Perhaps, just to be safe, you avoid playing any games in co-op with either of us. The rest of the staff, those healthy bastards, will be enjoying plenty of gaming this weekend.
In an extensive interview with Borderland 2’s developer, Gearbox, we get a small scoop on the current standings of the game, as well as the co-op features this game will be packing.
Did you hear? Aliens: Colonial Marines got some brand-spanking new box art! Game packaging is usually not that big of a deal, but, you know, it's Aliens: Colonial Marines. Some of us have been waiting for this game for a long time. Heck, the staff at Amazon still has their hopes up for a March release, despite the official delay until this Fall. At least we have some sweet, sweet box art to gaze upon:
A million billion years ago (OK, more like 2008), I wrote an article about open world co-op games and their overall awesomeness. The examples I used were Crackdown and GTA IV, but the list wasn’t a long one to choose from at the time, though Mercenaries 2 and Saints Row 2 came out around the time of the article and didn’t get a fair mention. Well, it’s been four years. Have the co-op gods been good to open world fans?
2009's awesome Star Trek reboot film received a decidely un-spectacular and barely related downloadable videogame tie-in: Star Trek D-A-C. Thankfully, when the sequel film rolls around in 2013 it will be accompanied by a much more substantial game at retail, which currently goes by the daring title Star Trek. Namco Bandai has officially picked up the publishing rights and announced it for a first-quarter 2013 release.
Owners of those shiny silver computers emblamized with a white fruit can now get their hands on id's RAGE for OSX. The game has been ported to the Macintosh operating system in all it's glory in what's being called RAGE: Campaign Edition. There's one problem - there's no co-op play.
The run up to a Triple A game release like Mass Effect 3 is always a massive tease-athon by the publishers and Bioware are no different. Not happy with the tantalizing promise of an upcoming co-op demo, Bioware are also releasing loads of cool teaser videos that highlight different areas of the game including; story progression, weapon creation and combat. Check out the Read More for a glimpse at a Mass Effect 3 future:
While it isn't a release date, we do have a release window for Diablo 3. The game is being targeted at a 2nd quarter 2012 launch - which puts it firmly in the April, May June window. This news comes from Activision's quarterly financial report, specifically a slide deck made available for investors.
If you've been browsing through PlayStation Store you may have noticed a few rough editions. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, and the sequel, Kane & Lynch: Dog Days, are now available for download. Both of the games received mixed reviews, but they're pretty good with a co-op partner. If you haven't played them yet, you may want to embrace your inner criminal and take one of these for a spin.
Trade events sometimes leak news of a game prior to the title's official announcement. That appears to be the case with LittleBigPlanet Karting, a kart racer-based spin-off of the LittleBigPlanet series. We don't know if this new Playstation 3 racer will support co-op yet, but more LittleBigPlanet is always a good thing... Especially if it's anything like Crash Team Racing.
In case you missed it: Dead Block recently launched on PC. It's a tower defense/action game where four players battle against, wait for it, a ZOMBIE HORDE! Set in the 1950s, the invention of Rock n' Roll has spawned a "musical plague" which threatens all of mankind. Build traps and barricades, upgrade weapons, and use one of three unique characters to survive the night. The stylized graphics and campy humor may make this title worth another look.
Resident Evil 5 had strong co-op, and now we look to Resident Evil: Revelations to continue the trend. Can a portable side-story about Jill Valentine and her new pudgy partner Parker searching for Chris satisfy our co-op needs?
