Hello gentle reader, and come with me on a journey into a relaxed world of gaming far away from your competitive versus.  This is a trip beyond even the laid back pleasures of co-op campaign with a group of friends.  We have arrived at our destination; the land of the hidden object game, a place that takes minimal effort to enjoy and has little in the way of challenge.  However, below its serene surface lies a cold hearted succubus ready to rip out your soul and leave you in tatters.  Interpol: The Trail of Dr Chaos was the game that almost broke me.

The demo for the latest band-centric music game, Green Day: Rock Band, is now available for download.  XBLA and PSN users can check out "Welcome to Paradise" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" to decide whether this title is worth the gaming buck this unusually busy summer season.  But a preview of the upcoming Green Day game isn't the most interesting part of the demo.

Killzone 3 - rumored in October and announced yesterday - is looking to get ahead in one area and catch up in another: the 2011-slated sequel intends to bring stereoscopic 3D support to the series...as well as adding co-op in both the campaign and side missions. For now, we have to tag the co-op support as an unconfirmed rumor...but to be honest, we'd be surprised not to see it. In light of recent and upcoming major releases, Guerilla Games and Sony should know all too well the marketability of cooperative gaming.

The Xbox Live Arcade Deal of the Week comes to the rescue of anyone needing a good co-op fix! Among Avatar props and other Arcade and Indie games are Madballs in...Babo: Invasion and Band of Bugs, two great co-op games sure to makeany Co-Optimer feel right at home rolling and skittering around as bug-sized characters. You can snag each one for 400 MS Points each - a 50% savings!

It seems that this generation will be defined as one of the last that we see platform exclusives.  We've seen Bungie go from Microsoft to Activision for an upcoming multiplatform title, and now another major "2nd party" studio is Insominiac - famous for the Resistance and Ratchet and Clank franchises - are now partnered with EA to bring a brand new franchise to multiple platforms.

Microsoft and Ruffian Games are launching a five part animated prequel to Crackdown 2 called "The Pacific City Archives" which will chronice the deteriotion of Pacific City from the end of the first game to the new game.  These will be launched weekly up until the game ships in early July.

Two co-op games are out this week and they might be the most drastically different co-op titles we've ever had in a single release alert.  We've got family friendly to mature rated here folks - and when you combine them together you get one really trippy dream.

At long last the final episodes of the Blue Toad Murder Files graces PSN users that have been waiting for the stunning conclusion to the series. Previously, we reviewed the first 3 episodes, and now it's time for the finale. Our four Blue Toad agents are back to finish solving the crimes of Little Riddle, but how does it all end? Happily ever after, or something a bit more sinister?

This week we get things rolling on Indie-ana Co-Op by taking a look at two local co-op XBLIG titles: one involves outer space combat, and the other combines action/adventure gameplay with tower defense ideology and retro gaming nostalgia. Yes, it is just as awesome as it sounds.

We've had several email tips regarding how to add splitscreen to a couple of favorite co-op games, namely Unreal Tournament III, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2. The console versions of these first-person shooters all supported splitscreen (even splitscreen online), but for some reason it was left out for the PC versions.

If you've been immersed into the world of New Austin lately in Red Dead Redemption, no doubt the twangs, plucks and piercing horns of the soundtrack have helped keep you there.  The soundtrack for the game is a perfect period piece for the western game, and thankfully, Rockstar has made it available for everyone - for a price.

After the Halo Reach beta test concluded, the results were tallied.  Over 2.7 million different gamers took part in Bungie's next title with more than 16 million combined hours over just 18 days.  It was the largest beta test in console history.  To put it in perspective, Halo 3's beta logged about 800,000 unique users.