If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, this week marked the longest day of the year along with the start of the summer season. Traditionally that means outdoor BBQs, late nights looking at the stars, and swimming in pools to cool off. For gamers it's just another excuse to stay indoors and crank the AC and fire up your gaming system of choice. After all, you don't want it to over heat.
Transformers: War for Cybertron is out now with its 3 player co-op campaign and survival style co-op modes. It actually hit earlier this week, but Activision decided to throw one more trailer our way to remind us we need to roll out to the nearest retailer and pick it up.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2's co-op mode, called Onslaught, is now available for purchase on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. The $10 / 800 add-on adds in a four player co-op mode on five maps - Valparaiso, Atacama Desert, Isla Inocentes and Nelson Bay.
One game I was really excited to see in action at E3 was Spec Ops: The Line. Published by 2K Games and developed by Yager Interactive, the setting and visuals have gripped me since the first teaser trailer. The setting of the game is in the destroyed city of Dubai, which has been ravaged by a vicious sand storm burying most of it's structures. We sat in on a demo of the game, in what looked like one of these buried buildings, at the recent E3 expo.
Although it critically bombed (at least, it did as far as we're concerned), The Scourge Project was a nice idea wrapped up in pretty visuals and slow-cooked over smart gameplay. It was marred by some nasty game-breaking tech issues, and Tragnarion Studios is working hard to hash out whatever bugs they can.
Spare Parts is a two-player co-op action game slated for this winter. With character names straight from the WALL*E playbook and a plot that facilitates collecting parts to upgrade your robot, this downloadable title has generated a few positive previews.
Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman: these are some of the most beloved franchises of all time. But now one of the biggest book/movie/theme park/etc. series is headed to your favorite console in LEGO form, and it looks to be just as fun as the previous LEGO games. LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 covers the first half of the series in adorable building block form. The demo is available now, and it looks like the folks at Traveller's Tales have brewed up a few new elements to combine with the components we all love to make a potion full of hours of casual co-op fun. To celebrate the upcoming launch of the game, a new trailer has been released. So waggle your wand to watch it, unless you're a poor Muggle. In that case, just keep reading.
Sin and Punishment was one of the most successful shooters on the Nintendo 64, though it never made it to American shores until it hit the Virtual Console in 2007. A sequel to the game was released in Japan last fall, and this time, there's no 7 year delay before we can enjoy Treasure's shooter here in the USA. Next week, in fact, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor hits retail shelves. We've got an impressive video showing off the intricate gameplay as well as a gallery of screenshots. Shooter fans will be able to partner up throughout the game, and from the looks of it, they'll need the help to avoid the onslaught of bullets.
Last year, Deathspank showed us a brilliant preview at PAX, complete with quirky characters, odd quests, and a lot of beautiful gameplay. Now that we're approaching release date, Deathspank has revealed its final ace: Co-op confirmed for both the PSN and XBLA release.
One of the surprise games of E3 for me was a beat em up title for the Wii called Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Based on the cartoon of the same name, players take control of Batman or Robin through various levels taking on thugs and villains all to a gritty and over the top art style.
Team 17 just sent over a new trailer for Alien Breed: Impact that showcases the game's cooperative mode. Impact has already been released on Steam, but should also be hitting the PlayStation Network soon.
As someone who's a huge fan of 90's rap music, the name Def Jam is synonymous with quality like Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dawg, Wu-Tang Clan and many, many more. So it should come as no surprise that many of those above artists will be featured in the upcoming game Def Jam Rapstar - the first music game devoted to Hip-Hop and R&B music. In our behind closed doors meeting with 4MM Games at E3 we got a in depth look at what the game will offer.
