It's Tuesday!  Time to run off to your local game distributor to get your new game fix.  Some of you may be happily snuggling your 3DS.  Others may nursing your 48th lentiuclarly-induced headache, and some of you may be saying things like; "The system is two days old!  Time to get something newer and shinier."  Well, if you're craving a healthy dose of stylized Chinese military history, or wish to see giant sweaty men hug-out their differences, you're in luck!  Here's a list of this week's co-op releases.  For more info on each game, just follow the links.

It wasn't long ago that Valve asked the community for awesome mods for the four player co-op game Left 4 Dead 2.  Today, we get that answer.   A user mod containing new campaign levels is being released called Cold Stream, the focus is an outdoors type area set in the daylight and filled with plenty of zombies to kill.

It has recently come to our attention that the serene music puzzle game Chime (previously an Xbox LIVE Arcade title) will be making its way over to the Playstation Network, complete with four-player co-op in this Super Deluxe edition. Not only that, but it makes the trek today (March 29th). Chime Super Deluxe edition will be available on XBLA and PC sometime in the near future.

Who packs a hostage, rather than a parachute?

It's a special episode of the Co-Opticast as Charles Husemann from GamingNexus.com joins the Co-Opticrew to discuss the latest co-op news, the latest gameplay impressions, and then dive into some deep discussion about the gaming industry!

Moon Diver will be gracing the PlayStation Network with its presence before making an appearance on the Xbox Live Arcade.  The title has been touted as a spiritual successor to the classic action game, Strider.  This is mostly due to the involvement of director Kouichi Yotsui, who was a creative lead on the original Strider.  For those of you who are too young to remember the Strider, (curse you and your youth) the game centered around Hiryu, a member of a specially trained group of ninja warriors known as "Striders."  In this latest title, the world has gone to hell, and the only ones who can fix it are a new group of specially trained ninjas called, you guessed it, "Moon Divers."  

For the first time since their individual releases, the Alien Breed action shooter games are being digitally bundled as a trilogy on Steam. Alien Breed: Impact, Alien Breed: Assault and Alien Breed: Descent are all available on Steam in one nice little package, without skimping on the content. To celebrate, Steam is even offering one of their popular discounts on the new release (10% off until April 4th).

Remember when Beta meant that a game was being released to a select market to see what works and what doesn't? Darkspore on PC played the Beta release correctly and listened to the feedback of the Beta players in order to optimize the game upon release. Delaying Darkspore in all of its Spore-style action by a month to make fixes is a much better solution than pushing the game out and having to wait for patches in order to enjoy your purchase.

The release of Portal 2 is less than a month away, and many of us here at Co-Optimus can't wait. Today, we have a new trailer for your viewing pleasure.  It's 47 seconds of good times.  Wait! There's a catch.  The trailer is in German, which makes it even more hilarious, or possibly a little evil.  I was raised on Indiana Jones films, so to me, it is decidedly evil, in a funny, face-melting kind of way.  It also depicts robots taking human jobs, which is pretty evil, as well.  My knowledge of the German language is about as good as my Japanese, therefore I won't bother to translate for you.  

Arcen games have just sent out some new screens and videos for their upcoming online co-op game A Valley Without Wind.  A stark contrast from previous screens seen, the new images showcase a brutal looking world filled with lava and strange creatures - some as high as level 529!  I think we're going to need our Strange Creature Slaying Knift +2 for this journey.

The Total War series is a well-known and well-respected name out there in the strategy game world. A cooperative mode, however, is pretty new to the series. How does Shogun 2: Total War fare as a co-op strategy/RTS game?

Rumors swirled last week about a brand new Resident Evil title that looks to break the mold of the previous games, and today, Capcom has confirmed that game.  Called Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, the game is a reimagining of the events that took place in Resident Evil 2 and 3.  The game is a "team based shooter" first and foremost, being developed by Slant Six Games who have created several SOCOM games including the excellent SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 on the PSP.