Beyond Co-Op, May 30th to June 5th
Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
This week's Left 4 Dead 2 mutation should be considered a "fan favorite." Called Chainsaw Massacre all four survivors must survive the campaigns of the game with only a chainsaw at there disposal. Like the slogan says, 4 chainsaws - millions of zombies. Well zombies, jockeys, boomers, spitters and tanks.
Red Dead Redemption still seems to be on just about everyone's plate but there's plenty of variety in what we're playing. Blur seems to be popular still as well, and Alan Wake is still holding strong. And to think, this is usually a dry season for gaming. I guess this year is a bit out of the norm, and the trend look to continue through the summer.
It looks like Treyarch is following in the footsteps of Infinity Ward in regards to the Call of Duty franchise and its implementation of co-op in Call of Duty: Black Ops. In a recent interview with the MTV Multiplayer blog, studio head Mark Lamia dropped the no co-op campaign bomb in a way that sounds strangely familiar.
SEGA's Genesis is one of the most beloved consoles in gaming history. Many a gamer became a fan of co-op due to the Genesis' strong library of cooperative titles. Now, via the power of Steam, several co-op classics are available with the click of a mouse. The SEGA Genesis Classics Pack is available for PC gamers, and includes such co-op heavyweights as Golden Axe and Altered Beast. There were even a few co-op games I'd never heard of: Gain Ground and Crack Down. (Yes, Crack Down; we're just as surprised as you are!) Each title will set you back a mere $2.99; as of yet, there is no discount for buying the whole package. I know I'll be checking out Crack Down to determine if it's worthy to be called a Co-Op Classic...
IGN has the exclusive reveal of a game called Hard Corps: Uprising, which is the sequel to the 1994 classic Sega Genesis game, Contra: Hard Corps. Despite the lack of "Contra" in the new game's title, which will hit Xbox Live and PSN later this year, Hard Corps: Uprising is very much a Contra game at heart complete with plenty of weapons, side scrolling action, aliens, and one hit kills.
A game that slipped under our radar this week is Snoopy Flying Ace for the Xbox Live Arcade. This arcade flight game featuring the famous Peanuts characters contains a two player co-op mode where players can complete various challenges together in both online and offline co-op.
Harry Potter was shocked to read about the delayed PSN demo
The Match.com Happen Magazine online published an article a little while back, one that we thought was appropriate to include in the Co-Op Couples series. See what gamer/author Julie Taylor suggests for modern dating gamers.
Rockstar Games has dated the free co-op DLC for Red Dead Redemption for June 22nd. Called the Outlaws to the End mission pack, the content includes co-op for two to four players through six different missions. Rockstar promises more screens and info over the coming weeks for the content which will hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Konami just sent over a fresh batch of screenshots for Ninety-Nine Nights 2 for the Xbox 360. Graphically the game is looking really slick and if you got your hands on the recent demo, you know the game looks just as good in motion. Sadly the demo didn't contain any of the game's co-op, which will be an online only affair through specific missions.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light came out of left field for most fans of the series, but Crystal Dynamics knows their franchise well. So while this "bite sized" game may seem small at first, getting our hands on with it reveals there's a lot more here than first though. We go co-op hands on...