Co-Optimus

The Co-Optimus staff has really taken a liking to Monaco: What's Yours is Mine. The four player online and offline co-op game earned the coveted Editors Choice award for being an all-around great co-op gem. Our staff and community have enjoyed the heck out of this game and we want to spread the joy.

Don’t let Call of Duty: Ghosts distract you from the current CoD title that’s out and thriving! Treyarch recently announced their latest additions to the game in the next Call of Duty: Black Ops II DLC, including a new Zombies map that makes players go "cowboy". Kick off your July 4^th weekend with the upcoming “Vengeance” DLC pack.

A new trailer has surfaced that details some of the gameplay mechanics of Signal Studios' Ascend: Hand of Kul. In Ascend, you are a Caos, a champion of the gods. You are tasked with ridding the lands of other god's shrines, titans, and creatures. Overall, you are trying to diminish the presence of rival gods and make yours stand above all others. Along the way, you will fight many mythical creatures, conquering them in a brutal fashion.

Space Nomads, the cooperative defense from Loading Studios, has recently launched a crowdfunding drive on Indiegogo. The team is looking for a push to finish out some of the more elaborate features in the works, including fleshing out the explorable terrain, creating flying vehicles, designing a PvP mode, and adding underground areas and ocean biomes. Even more exciting is the alpha demo is available to download!

Remember that time Fable III was given away for free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers? Looks like the deal will officially end on June 30th. Fear not, though, for Microsoft is using the opportunity to kick off its Games with Gold program. Each month on the 1st and 16th until the end of the year, Xbox Live Gold subscribers will get a game for free. Pretty simple. Fable III is short of retroactively shoehorned into the program, but July promises both Halo 3 and Assassins Creed 3, which isn't too shabby.

We've seen teasers from the Cars, Monsters University and Pirates of the Caribbean play sets. We've seen the franchise-mixing Toy Box Mode in action. We even got our clammy hands on the game during E3. Now it's back to basics with Disney Infinity: a nice, colorful set of screenshots. Ten new images from the upcoming action adventure game show off characters from Toy Story, The Lone Ranger, The Invincibles and more, all hopping about with big grins on their faces as they play together in Toy Box Mode. It's kind of like a sickeningly cute utopia where everybody's just a touch insane.

A new console version of Minecraft for the Xbox One was revealed during Microsoft’s E3 press conference last week, hopefully exciting avid Minecrafters for the system. However, those that have put in countless hours into their worlds on the Xbox 360 Edition may not be able to continue their hard work on their Xbox Ones.

I spent a few minutes at the controls of Armored Core: Verdict Day. I didn't really take the time to drink it all in. Not much has changed as far as core gameplay is concerned. So if you enjoyed the mech combat from ACV you'll find yourself right at home behind the twin sticks. Despite the similarities to the title Armored Core V, this game will be a full sequel, including a new story, characters, and persistent world.  There will still be plenty of content for single, co-op, and versus players. 

I got the chance to play some great games at E3 this year. I'm not going to lie - it's pretty awesome to get a early little hands-on time with some of  my most anticipate cooperative titles. One of those games was the third-person sci-fi shooter, Earth Defense Force 2025. Players must defend mankind from armies of giant insects and massive robots. Part of the fun is destroying your own city while trying to eradicate the Ravager menace. It's just easier to shoot bugs when those pesky buildings are out of the way.