The Co-Opticrew is getting somewhat hot and bothered by a certain Steam Summer Sale, but not quite as much as you'd expect.  To be honest, our tepid reaction to all those sweet, sweet discounts is likely due to the fact that we've already bought everything we could possibly want (and more, Locke) over the last year or two of sales.  Combine that with the fact that Steam has distanced itself from the fun, creative events of years gone by, and you've got a recipe for a week that will likely pass without a huge amount of celebration.

Haemimont Games' popular action-RPG, Victor Vran, will be making its debut on the Switch this August with the Victor Vran: Overkill Edition. This version of the game will include the full game along with the DLC, "Fractured Worlds" and "Motörhead: Through the Ages," in one convenient package. The title will be available starting on August 28, 2018.

The 2018 Steam Summer Sale is underway with an alien theme (cards and mini-game) to enjoy. As usual, just about the entire site is on sale right now which means you can get a lot of great PC games for a little bit of cash. We've combed through the titles, picked some from our Curator Store, and picked what we felt are the top 10 best deals in co-op gaming on Steam right now.

At its core, co-op gaming is about working together to solve whatever problems a game throws your way, and no genres display this trait more explicitly than puzzlers.  The best co-op puzzlers, though, give each player a sense of distinct participation.  Everyone feels like they've contributed something meaningful to the cause, and no player dominates the path to a solution.  

The Bedrock Update launches today for Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition, meaning you'll be able to play the game with friends on a variety of platforms, including Xbox One, Windows 10, and mobile devices (still no PlayStation 4). Additionally, as of today, the Switch version of the game is officially being switched over to the Minecraft moniker.

Trying to pick a new game to play can be tricky, especially in the well-worn fields of tower defense and twin-stick shooters. Even though it may not hold any new ideas of its own for either genre, X-Morph: Defense does tower defense and twin-stick shooting almost perfectly in every single way....

With Ubisoft's big reveal of The Division 2 during E3 last week, we figured we'd hop back into the original Division to see how the game has progressed and improved over the past couple years. Getting back into something you haven't played in a long time is just like riding a bike, right?

There are hundreds of games now that fall into the “survival game” genre, but in my opinion, very few pack the narrative “oomph” to push them into something engaging (I can only collect 10 sticks to build an axe so many times). This is where I think State of Decay 2 sets itself apart. It’s an extremely focused survival...

E3 2018 may be in the books, but there are still a few news stories floating around there. Rebellion posted a narrated walkthrough of some gameplay from their forthcoming co-op adventure, Strange Brigade, last week, and the more we see, the more we like. Traps, puzzles, and more await you and your buddies.

While the Co-Opticrew's weekend plans certainly aren't dominated by Ubisoft games, they're getting their fair share of representation.  Maybe that's a testament to the lengthy support they've been offering for their franchises of late, or maybe it's a simple consequence of being knee-deep in the Summer Doldrums.  Either way, we'll be spending more than a few hours working our way through the best games France has to offer.

I recently had the chance to try out the Spearhead VR Gaming Headphones, which were graciously sent over by the folks at 1MORE.  While the Chinese company is primarily known for producing a range of excellent (and budget friendly) in-ear headphones, the Spearhead line marks their first attempt at catering to the gaming market.  Having now...

GOG.com's #SummerGaming sale wraps up on Monday, but you still have time to pick up a lot of games at a discounted price. We've even got our own collection of co-op titles for you to peruse! If "free" is more your speed, though, we've got you covered there, too.

If you watched Bethesda's E3 press conference on Sunday and thought, "hey! A Fallout survival game! I can get behind that!" and then thought, "But I don't want 'SSGSSBoneLord420' to drop a nuke on me," then there's some (potentially) good news! In an interview with Geoff Keighley, Todd Howard discussed how they're looking at implementing private servers for Fallout 76 "some period later" after launch.

Everyone's favorite British accent simulator, Killing Floor 2, just dropped a whole big thing of new content right in the midst of E3.  It looks like everyone's still a little startled by all the zeds running around on the showroom floor, so I'll take this opportunity to summarize what all's being added.

The next entry in the Trials series, Trials Rising, was announced during Ubisoft's press conference this week, but what they didn't mention is that it would include a two player couch co-op mode called "Tandem Bike." As the name implies, you and your buddy will ride on the same bike and have to successfully navigate through the levels as a team. The catch is that all the functions (i.e., gas, brake, lean) are split between you...

After a brief delay, Neocore Games' Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr has finally arrived on the PC (next month for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One). We took the game for a spin last fall when it was still in Early Access, and it's definitely progressed quite a bit since then. If you missed our "Let's Play Co-Op" stream this week, enjoy the recap video below!

While none of the Co-Optimus staff is at E3 this year, unfortunately, we're still scouring through all the news coming out of the event to catch any tasty co-op tidbits. This particular one comes from Christopher Livingston over at PC Gamer, who details his hands-on time with 10 Chambers Collective's co-op FPS, GTFO.

Yesterday's Nintendo Direct had a lot to say about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (I mean, A LOT), but they also revealed a sequel that we're super excited about. Overcooked 2 is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One this August, and will now include online co-op play. WOOOO!!!

Among all the chaos and hubbub of E3, the folks over at Holospark dropped a new trailer for their first person alien blaster, Earthfall.  In case you've missed out on it until now, the title features four player online co-op and tasks its players with surviving an alien onslaught by using 3D-printed weaponry and portable defenses.

Last night was Sony' E3 2018 Press Conference. They had some very solid and interesting games to show off during the hour-long event, but not a ton on the co-op front. In fact, the only thing that was revealed that (most likely) has co-op is Nioh 2 (wooo!)

Bungie had a new trailer for the forthcoming Destiny 2 "Forsaken" expansion during last night's Sony press conference. Look, this thing and discussion of what's in it is everywhere, so I'm not even going to try and claim some kind of "spoiler warning" here, but if you really don't want to know about the story in the expansion until you're playing it, then just don't read any further.

I truly admire Ubisoft for sticking with Just Dance being part of their E3 lineup. Every year they bringing out a dance crew, and they just commit. You may find it cringeworthy or awkward, but it is absolutely joyous and a refreshing break from how many of these presentations go. Just Dance 2019 will be marching its way onto just about every console produced in the past 13 years on October 23, 2018.

Last year, Ubisoft revealed a surprising partnership with Nintendo that lead to Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Yesterday, they announced they're teaming up again for their forthcoming action toys-to-life title, Starlink: Battle for Atlas. The core conceit here is you pick a pilot, a frame, wings, and guns, and assemble your own ship to play in the game. If you pick it up on the Switch, you can do all that with Fox McCloud and his Arwing.

Overkill’s The Walking Dead, a four-player online co-op zombie shooter from built in part by Starbreeze, will be released on November 6 on PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One. We got our first look at the game in action from publisher 505 Games with a trailer that debuted during the PC Gaming Show at E3 2018.