Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.

There's a theme around the Co-Optimus HQ this weekend, and it sounds like Halo.  Halo Reach to be exact.  While there's no co-op to be had, the new game modes are quite addictive.  Plus, Invasion launches today for it, which is a team based objective mode.  

Lost Planet 2 finally hits next week, and we've got the final exclusive cinematic trailer for the game.  Showcasing a desert level with a train, a team of commandos, and a giant worm that makes the creatures from Dune look like a ball of yarn.  

We last spoke with Skate 3 producer Chris "Cuz" Parry at the community day back in November when the game was still in alpha. Now that the title is almost here, we spoke with Cuz again about what's changed since then, what challenges they faced, and why it's all about skating with your friends.

There appears to be a bit of an uprising in Red Dead Redemption, some may call it a revolution.  It's unclear from the trailer on which side the game's main character resides, but you can bet whatever side it is you won't want to be on the other. 

Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype plans on hitting the PlayStation Network on May 25th for $12.99.  With it you get a side scrolling shooter with a handful of game modes including two player local co-op play.  

The Xbox Live Indie channel is growing and growing in terms of quantity, but what about quality?  We've seen some improvements there as well.  One such example is a new game called Murky Horizon.  The game borrows from twin stick shooters of the past, like my favorite Smash T.V., but adds in the extremely popular tower defense genre to the formula.  Splash it all with four player co-op and you're in for a fun ride for only $1.

It's been a while since we've heard anything about Hunted: Demon's Forge.  The two player co-op action/RPG just got its first public unveiling at a recent Bethesda event, and out of it came a handful of previews and screens.

The Guinness Book of World Records launched a Gamer's Edition a few years back, since then they've slowly grown the book into a definitive collection of records and interesting stats for fans of video games.  The latest edition includes the "Top Videogame Series of All time" and is topped by the relatively young Halo franchise, a co-op favorite around these parts.

It's been a while since I've done one of these, huh? I suppose the realities of being a new father include forgetting to write the weekly column you only have to cover once every six weeks or so. So I apologize! Speaking of being a new father, my tale, albeit a short one, is about how co-op can soothe and restore the frazzled nerves of a man wracked with responsibility.  A few weeks back, I picked up the 360 version of Borderlands. I already owned it on the PC, but the lack of friends to play with combined with the slapdash manner of its release made me put it down early. However, upon obtaining the new version of the game, I downloaded all of the fresh DLC and started a new character, figuring I'd plunk a few hours here and there between shifts with the new baby.  One weekend, Jason came over to hang out, and we decided to fire up some splitscreen co-op (something I am usually adverse to). After twinking his new Berserker near a level somewhat closer to my Siren, we decided to set out for the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned. We've covered that content somewhat thoroughly on this site, so I won't bore you by describing it again, but it seemed like we were gonna lazily marathon our way through the entire DLC pack, and after several hours of headshotting and/or converting zombies to pink mist, we came near the end. As I'm sure you're all well aware, T.K. Baja makes his triumphant return to Pandora, in a new and improved zombie form, and he has QUITE the appetite for brains. We gathered brains. We gathered more brains.  Eventually, we gathered a hundred brains and figured his insatiable appetite would be sated. This was not the case. T.K. demanded we bring him 250 more brains. We cried, "DAMN YOU, T.K.!" with our fists raised at the sky. When he wouldn't relent, we looked at each other and decided that this was just one more thing that needed to be done, so we spent the better part of another hour resetting the Zombie Island and mowing down zombies until we had the requisite number of gray matter masses for our unflinchingly hungry acquaintance.  Once we turned them in, he thanked us, between gorging himself silly, by vomiting up a piece of crap handgun. After all this, hours had passed, and despite succumbing to the desires of our undead compatriot, I felt somehow refreshed, like nothing my new child could throw at me would faze me anymore. After all, I had met the challenge of T.K. Baja.

The family budget concept is alive and well among co-op couples in 2010, laying waste to dreams of uninhibited video game purchases. How does that translate to gameplay? You'd be surprised at just how well it does.

Black Box’s co-op skating title, Skate 3, is almost here and the good folks at EA Canada invited Co-Optimus to Vancouver to check the game out before it's released. With the final build of the game in front of us, we were given free reign to run around, explore, and try out everything we could.