Forgive me a moment of self-indulging idiocy, but the first half of this Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One video evokes images from a certain partially slow-motion advertisement that ran about six years ago and is responsible - to this day - for periodically polluting my headspace with its catchy, bubbly music track. Now whenever I see cartoon characters jumping and flipping around in low gravity I can't help but murmur a few lines to myself.

Gears of War 3 packs an incredible amount of co-op content into one game. The game will get even bigger in just one month’s time. The 'Horde Command Pack' DLC lands on November 1 for 800 Microsoft Points. As expected, it will include new maps, characters, Achievements worth a total of 250 GamerScore, and lots more.

There's nothing like waiting till the last minute to announce your game has a cooperative mode.  That's just the case for Ace Combat: Assault Horizon on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 which has finally announced the details of its cooperative mode after months of speculation.  Just how close to release are we for the game?  It's out next week.

Last week’s massive Xbox Live Arcade game sale was probably the best ever from a co-op standpoint, with over 10 co-op games on sale for at least 50% off. This week XBLA sales aren’t overflowing with cooperative multiplayer titles, but they still include a few good ones: namely Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 and Doom II.

Thanks to some slick detective work by Joystiq, namely checking every online retailer known to man, they were able to lock down a solid release date for the upcoming four player co-op Ghost Recon: Future Soldier on the 360, PS3 and PC.  I know what you are saying, internet retailer release dates aren't anything concrete - even if they are all lining up together.  It's ok, I agree - but in this case Joystiq went a step further and confirmed directly with Ubisoft the date in question.

As we previously reported, Namco Bandai decided to switch the mini-guide in Dark Souls’ Limited Edition package from physical to digital a few months prior to release. While that change was disappointing for some, many gamers like me continued to look forward to the Limited Edition regardless. It seems that lots of those people will be disappointed today, as reports indicate that one or more retailers who offered the Dark Souls Limited Edition for preorder only received the standard edition to offer to customers.

I’m one of those people that consider id Software to be the father of the modern day shooter. Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake all raised the bar for the genre with their respective releases. Each game had a new 3D engine created by John Carmack that pushed the bounds of technology. After more than six years, we’re finally seeing a brand new game and a brand new engine from the studio. But is RAGE the game and engine to move the genre forward once again like it’s older brothers before him?

Dark Souls will be hitting store shelves this week.  Think you're ready for the challenge?  We have four new videos for your viewing pleasure.  We've got a little character creation, some early boss and mini-boss battles, as well as a plethora of punishing death scenes.  Some are a little spoiler-tastic, so you may want to avert your eyes.  While these videos may not show any co-op, you will get a definitive sense of the game. 

Shotty shot! Stabby stab! GameSpot has been quietly trickling videos of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Spec Ops gameplay from the Call of Duty XP gathering in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Payday: The Heist is showcasing another one of it's... um, heists, in this latest video.  We've seen the crew pull of jobs in a bank, a drug den and a sky rise.  Now they're on a bridge.  Looks like those wacky criminals are trying to Batman a convict out of custody.  What will they think of next? 

October is here, as are a ton of new games.  This week we've got a wrestling title for the Kinect, an FPS set in a gorgeous wasteland, and the second entry in one of this generation's most punishing (and rewarding) franchises.    

Shank was one of those games you really really wanted to like...and you did, but certain aspects of it just kept frustrating you.  Our own review points to that numerous times - the biggest culprit being - some control issues.  Well, the game is getting a sequel called Shank 2, and like any good sequel it's getting a bunch of tweaks thanks to fan feedback.