Kalypso Media has announced a brand new co-op action-adventure title called The First Templar for the PC and Xbox 360.  The game is being developed by Haemimont Games, who recently developed Tropico 3.  The First Templar follows the story of a French Templar and his companion, a noble lady who has been proclaimed a heretic.  In single player, gamers can control either character on the fly - or a friend can drop-in and drop out both offline and online to assist along the way. 

Could we be playing as some of our favorite characters? (if they survived)

Square Enix, the company behind the much heralded and condemned (depending on who you ask) Final Fantasy series of games, has recently announced a new entry in the series, entitled Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, due to hit store shelves October 5, 2010.  Like many of the Crystal Chronicles offshoots, such as Crystal Bearers and Echoes of Time, Heroes of Light will allow jRPG enthusiasts to team up to fight the evil hordes.  There aren't too many details just yet about what kind of co-op this will be, e.g., local only, wireless, how the co-op system works, but it's a promising start, at least.  The press release and some in-game screenshots can be found after the break.

I don't know about you guys, but the beginning of the summer is always full of "I've been meaning to do this, let's get it done!" and left very little time for gaming. So, instead of my general impressions on a downloadable title, let us now take a look at the lineup for this summer.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't keeping an eye on Earthworm Jim HD since I first heard about it a few months ago.  Hot on the heals of the news the game would have co-op is a brand new trailer of the game in motion.  Earthworm Jim is a classic to most of us gamers of the Sega Genesis and SNES era, enjoying the side-scrolling action of a quirky game featuring an Earthworm who stumbles on a suit that gives him a body, and extra powers.

The Gears of War series has always been known for strong co-op.  Gears of War 3 would appear to be continuing that tradition.  The folks over at Gamesradar gave us a massive preview, and all sorts of new co-op friendly features show up.  In addition to the already established 4 player co-op, a few new weapons look tailor made for teamwork, such as the Silverback armor, pictured above.

Somewhat disappointing news for Crackdown 2 fans - the game's story mode, while playable in four player co-op, will only benefit the host player in terms of story progression.  The news comes out of an interview at Joystiq with Ruffian Games' Billy Tomson.

With Toy Story 3 the movie right around the corner, you can bet your favorite cowboy doll there's a game following close on its heels. Avalanche Studios was tasked with bringing the game version to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and producer John Day took the time to divulge some co-op news on the PlayStation Blog about Toy Story 3.

Generally speaking, we consider gaming together to be an achievement all on its own. Unfortunately, the folks responsible for bring Doom II to the XBLA seem to think we don't need any achievements at all when we play together. According to the official achievement list, and a hands-on experiment by Co-optimus user Tino, all of the achievements (except one multiplayer) are only available in single player. They even use capital letters to make sure we get it.

The long-awaited second expansion for Duels of The Planeswalkers was released a few weeks ago.  Unimaginatively titled "Expansion Pack 2", it adds a little bit of everything, tweaks a few things here and there, and in most respects does exactly what an expansion should.  But is it worth downloading, or would your points best be spent on something else?

If you haven't gotten Borderlands yet, or any of its DLC, Amazon is having a great sale on the game with both Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot and The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned included for free.  You can get the game for $37 on the 360 or $27 on the PC and both pieces of content on a separate disc are free.  Normally those content packs are $10 a piece!  For whatever reason the PS3 version of the game is not included with the sale.