The next 24 hours of Steam's Summer sale is upon us - and there's a lot of good co-op games available for a little price.  Here's what's on the menu.

Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.

Just a friendly reminder that the PlayStation Network's "Welcome Back" program, a promotion which welcomed back PSN users after 3 weeks of service outage with free games and other discounts, expires tomorrow - July 3rd.  

It's a three day weekend in the United States as we celebrate our independence.  How do we celebrate it?  By spending time outdoors, blowing up chemicals, and eating chemi...I mean hot dogs.  There's probably going to be beer involved too.  

Vincent's jaw is not unlike a snake's - he can unhinge it to consume his prey.

Here we go folks, just in time for the three day weekend in the US.  We've got three Xbox 360 codes for the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack called Annhilation.  You can read our impressions of it right here.

Hothead Games has released a new video announcing The Baconing, the follow up to Deathspank and Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue. It seems that Deathspank has vanquished all the evil that needed vanquishing, and so it was that Deathspank mourned his lost Valeria... At length he sought adventure in distant lands and trod the jeweled thrones of the earth beneath his sandaled feet. Until at last he found his own kingdom and wore his crown upon a troubled brow. Wait, that's the end of 1984's Conan the Destroyer. Never mind.  

Dungeon Siege 3 is here, a distinct departure from the previous games but still retaining the classic Action/RPG feel. We dive into the game's online four player co-op and two player local co-op. Does the game make you feel like a hero...or just a mule?

Ironically, Gun Bros up until this point had no co-op play despite its name.  You see, instead you imported AI copies of your friends to help you along your way.  Now the iPhone/iPod game - as the developer Glu Games points out - it FINALLY has realtime co-op play.  

A fresh batch of screenshots were just delivered from Mexico, I mean, Ubisoft for their upcoming three player co-op shooter, Call of Juarez: The Cartel.  The game has been surprisingly quiet, other than a small stream of media from the Techland developed title.  The game was supposed to have a late summer release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3,  and that still might be the plan, but things just seem all too off the record right now for that to be concrete.

Samoza was impressed with the model they had made of his ripped abs

I had the opportunity to play Rage at E3, and honestly, it was great.  Simply great.  It was beautiful, the graphics were silky smooth and the level of detail was truly impressive.  The inventory handled with ease, and each weapon had a satisfying function and feel.  But don't take my word for it.  The masterminds at id Software have made a four and a half minute video in which they tell us exactly why Rage is the greatest game you, or your children, will ever play.