Monday Night Combat has launched today via Valve's Steam service.  With it comes not just a port of the Xbox Live Arcade original, but a game that's been carefully tweaked, balanced, and customized for PC gamers.  The game has gone through an extensive beta process yielding a really balance and fun experience in both versus and co-op.   Along with your standard PC settings like cutomized graphics options and lots of tweaks for the mouse and keyboard - you'll also find yourself enjoying dedicated servers!

The PS3 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops just received a hefty patch, bringing its version number up to 1.06.  Some of the bigger fixes for co-op players are improved Zombie mode connection quality and stability, improved host migration, fixing of various issues related to combat training - including using friends names as bots - and more.

With only the likes of the LEGO games and Spiderman: Friend or Foe available for the casual co-op gamer, can EA Bright Light’s download only game, Spare Parts, fix this glitch in the system?

Last year, we reviewed Arcen Games' Tidalis, and we were quite impressed.  It was an editor's choice 5 point review, which we don't give out too terribly often.  One of the most impressive features was the easy drop in/drop out co-op for local play.  Tidalis can be played with either mouse or keyboard, and if someone walks by interested in playing, they can just grab whichever of the two the first player isn't using.  It's a perfectly seamless system, but Arcen wasn't content to rest on their laurels.

The First Templar is an action game from Kalypso for the Xbox 360 and PC, putting players in the role of Templar knights or a noble French woman in a two player co-op game set in the 13th century. We go hands on with the latest preview build and let you know how the game is shaping up.

I'm sure they're fine.

A new Ghostbusters game is coming this spring and it has what we want most in a game.  While it may not have the voice cast of 2009's Ghostbusters game, Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime has four player co-op both locally and online. This new trailer shows some of the different locations that you'll be vini, vidi, vici-ing in.  The gameplay looks fast and freneti, and no one's face is getting melted off with crossed streams, which is a good thing.  Judging from the above photo there might even be a vehicle element to the game. We'll have more details as they become available. 

Not to be outdone by the bevy of sales from Microsoft, the PlayStation Network has announced their "11 for 11" sale. That's right, eleven PS3 games for half the price, in honor of 2011.  (Personally, I can't wait for 2099. That sale should be incredible.)  There is a smattering of co-op goodies sprinkled into the lineup, including Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue, Hoard, Soldner-X2: Final Prototype, Comet Crash, and Shatter.  These offers are only available until the end of the month.  For a full list of pricing and games getting the half off treatment, read on.

LittleBigPlanet 2 is off to an astronomical start.  After scoring solid reviews all around, including our own 5 out of 5, the game has set online records for most users online at a time.  In fact, according to Media Molecule, the number "massively outstrips" LittleBigPlanet 1's record for the same feat.  Detailed numbers weren't given, but you can sign into the game yourself and see the reported player count at anytime - a number Media Molecule expects to double in the coming days and weeks.

Our next Xbox Live co-op night is upon us and we're headed to the Old West to take on gangs, bandits, and of course jackelopes. Yes, the game of choice is Red Dead Redemption, and we'll be gathering a posse together to take on the bandit hideouts, hunting challenges, and tackle co-op missions.

I know we've said this before, but this time its really happening.   Magicka has a release date, and that release date is tomorrow - January 25th, 2011.  The four player co-op spell casting action/RPG starring four wizards in robes will be hitting Steam for $10.  The game's concept is simple - players utilize different elemental spells to defeat enemies, but to truly shine, players can combine different elements to create spectacular effects and more powerful spells.  This was something we explored with great interest in our interview for the game.

EU PSN is throwing a huge January sale, which started January 19th and will be running until February 2nd. Most notably, you can grab Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP) for £15.99/€19.99 (usually  £31.99/€39.99), GTA: Chinatown Wars (PSP) for £11.99/€14.99 (usually £27.99/€34.99) and Zombie Apocalypse (PS3) for £3.99/€4.99 (usually £7.99/€9.99).