The casual gamer is becoming a major factor in the videogame industry. The makers of Farmville are worth more than EA. Popcap games are invading consoles, from Peggle to Plants vs. Zombies. Atari's latest game, The Undergarden, is vigorously promoted as a "casual, Zen-like" experience, perhaps in an attempt to appeal to the Farmville loving social gamer.
Last Tuesday many of us tried to fire up our Xbox 360 copy of Fable III to see if the co-op was up to snuff this time, only to be met with an error screen. This error screen complained about incompatible DLC between players, not allowing us to play together based on some unknown DLC error.
Face it, when you saw images of Kirby's Epic Yarn you thought it was a pretty cool concept. A world built around and taking place on yarn figures, fitting perfectly with the performance capabilities of the Wii? Yes, please! In fact, we gave Kirby's Epic Yarn a perfect general score, with a bit of room to improve in the co-op.
Prepare to set up your LAN party computers in a way that reflects your favorite starship from your favorite sci-fi series as Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator allows players to perform functions of a Spaceship Bridge. Sure, it doesn't have the Star Trek name to it, but it certainly feels similar as your team performs critical functions to bring your Spaceship full circle with the crew intact.
If you pre-ordered Dead Rising 2 through Amazon.com you may be saddened to find out that the pre-order bonuses for it are missing in action. We've just received an email from the retailer telling us the bonuses, pictured above with ServBot Helmets and Chuck motorcycle jackets for your avatar, have been delayed indefinitely. Two weeks prior Amazon gave out $10 in credit because of, at that time, a short delay in receiving the codes. Now it appears your virtual goods will never see the light of day.
There's a pet theme to this week's Xbox LIVE Marketplace Deal of the Week sale. The discounted items include Snoopy Flying Ace, Risk: Factions, Blade Kitten, and the Avatar Items Pug Dog and Cat. Both Snoopy Flying Ace and Risk: Factions support local and online co-op. We liked Snoopy in our review, giving it a 4.5 out of 5 overall and a 3 out of 5 for our Co-op score.
Another Fable game, another buggy mess. Many gamers are having problems with Fable 3, and the good folks at Lionhead Studios are aware of it. Game crashing bugs are not a common occurrence, but they are happening. To address the situation, Lionhead studios has set up a support page for concerned gamers.
Dungeon Defenders is out this month. It's hard to believe it's come so far from when we first saw it as a simple game called Dungeon Defense. Developer Trendy Entertainment recently released a video highlighting one of the four Defenders, the Apprentice (the other three being Huntress, Monk, and Squire):
It's time for another Halo Waypoint Co-Op Night - and its a good a time as any to finish the campaign as that's our focus. Thanks to campaign matchmaking we'll be hopping on Xbox Live and playing as our Noble 6 with the Co-Optimus and Halo community. Want to join in? Want to win prizes? Read on!
Treyarch continues its love/hate relationship with the co-op community, as mere days after stomping our guts with the dreaded "story is too important" PR line they've begun the path to reconciliation. First in Call of Duty: Black Ops news is an informative interview with senior producer Anna Donlon, who has confirmed that the Nintendo Wii version of Black Ops will include both the Combat Training mode and co-op Zombies. These modes will be playable online with Headbanger Headset support.
F.E.A.R. 3 - which we saw in action at E3 this year - finally has a release date: March 22, 2011. Sporting a two-player story mode, this shooter is bound to fill a certain gap in games with co-op campaigns. The new release date comes after having been delayed from this holiday season into next spring.
