Admit it, there are a lot of games on the market, and not a lot of time or money to go around. You really want the most bang for your buck, but who do you trust to give you the best possible recommendation. We give you our reviews, as well as other sites you may or may not trust, but who should really get the final say?
I say you should, the user, the one spending the money and taking the time. The best possible way to make that final decision is easy: Demo the game. A lot of full retail title games have Demos, but not all of them. Downloadable games have the benefit to have a requirement to show off a little bit of trial game.
Whether you’re a Playstation Network player, or an Xbox 360 Arcader, you’ll be given the opportunity to check out each game via brief demo. Some demos give you a taste of the full action, some check out a small aspect of the title you’re checking out, and some even allow you to play with a buddy, or two, or four.
Co-op in game demos is something that we’ve really come to appreciate, whether the budget is tight at home, time is limited, or you just want to try before you buy. I personally spent 3 days recently downloading and trying many, many games on the PSN and XBLA digital downloads just to see if the demo had co-op.
Here’s a brief (not even close to complete, at all) list of games that feature co-op in their free trial game:
Arkanoid LIVE: 2 player co-op available, local only XBLA
Bubble Bobble Neo: 2 player local co-op available, XBLA
Gauntlet: 4 player local co-op, XBLA
Zombie Apocalypse - 4 player shared screen local co-op, PSN, XBLA
What is the best way to find out if a demo has co-op in it? Check our game listing, of course. In each games listing, there is a box to the right of the game that says “Find it.” This will allow you to find the game easily online, but at the bottom of the box it also says “Co-op Enabled” if the demo or trial game has co-op in it.
This is where you come in. There are a lot of games on both networks that require confirmation on the co-op. Now, that doesn’t mean multiplayer versus, it actually means gaming together. We’ve put a lot of time into updating our database, but need your help if you see that we’re missing something.
On every database page here at Co-optimus you’re given the opportunity to give us a tip - these demo confirmations are valuable tips to us, and we’re happy to update our list to be the most accurate. Now, go out there and try out your games before you buy them.
Centerfold Of The Download:
He's lean, he's mean, he's kind of hot if you're into that sort of thing, he's the badass Clap-Trap of Borderlands. Don't be fooled by the adorable dancing, this bad-boy is really to kick some tail in his reinforced armor plating, and may join the taskforce of the newly leaked DLC to give you a bit of a challenge on the surface of Pandora.
New in Download/DLC
This edition of New in Download/DLC I’d like to call “the leaks” edition. Lately there have been a lot of accidental early announcements on DLC coming out for some great co-op games. Today, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair has been spotted with some leaked DLC. This DLC pack is rumored to contain at least one level, and two playable characters from previous games. Our second leak came about a week ago Borderlands DLC #4 was leaked just a little bit.
Actually, the DLC was leaked, then almost immediately confirmed via Randy Pitchford’s Twitter. This DLC is another great story arc for the Borderlands universe featuring an evil Claptrap whos Claptrap minions reanimate corpses by adding new parts to them. I’m down for a cyberpocalypse, and ready to return to Borderlands.
In other new releases Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will include zombies, and actually looks pretty good for a game based off a comic that became a movie. European gamers finally get the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 DLC a few weeks later than North America, and still restricted until the end of the year when the DLC will disappear forever, and they mean it this time.
Finally, Shank is running strong with its newly announced co-op mode, allowing gamers to rock slashy-stabby-platforming action together. Hopefully we’ll get a co-op trial game for this one, though it looks pretty solid so far.
Free for You
Since this entire edition was on free trial games, I’ll just tell you to go play one of the ones listed on our site either on XBLA or PSN. Do it. Immediately.