From the PAX East Expo Hall, we've heard from the folks at EA that a demo of the co-op skater's dream, Skate 3, will be arriving on the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 "about April 15th."  Nick recently attended an EA event in NYC where he had a chance to check out the most recent build of the game, and came away intrigued by the concept of co-op in a skating game but unsure whether the execution will truly feel like a "co-op experience."  You'll have an opportunity to find out for yourself soon enough, and we'll be eager to hear your thoughts on it.

Puzzle Quest was one of the surprise hits of 2007.  It's combination of a popular casual puzzle game with RPG elements proved to be an addictive formula for casual and hardcore gamers alike.  D3Publisher was showing off the sequel at PAX East, and there's been quite a few improvements made to the original, including a better overall graphics style, some new challenges, and a brand-new loot system akin to Diablo and other dungeon crawlers.

Some of my fondest memories in gaming harken back to sleepless nights with my best friend growing up, playing hot seat co-op Civilization 2.  Overnight we'd transform our empire into a vast and conquering civilization in 30 minute shifts.  This may be the closest the Civlization franchise ever gets to co-op, but I'm still incredibly excited about Civilization V.

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

As if Bungie wasn't already upping the ante with Halo: Reach by finally including matchmaking support for this, presumably the last, entry in the beloved Halo franchise.  G4's Patrick Klepek spoke with the system's designer, former journalist Luke Smith, about the new feature, including what the system is and what players can expect from it.  

A lucky few of our number are enjoying PAX East, with its video game previews and general geek nirvana.  The rest of us poor slobs will be crying in our favorite beverages, sure, but we'll still enjoy a game or two to cheer us up.

We've been following the development of Aragorn's Quest pretty closely.  A kid friendly co-op brawler set in Middle Earth?  Yes please.  So far the game has been delayed from a Fall 2009 release to Spring 2010.  It appears we have to wait a bit longer, as it has been delayed once more, this time to Fall 2010.  But there is a bit of good news to go with the bad.

Microsoft has announced an that April 6th is the day for the next Xbox 360 Dashboard update, and while we don't know what other features it will include, we do know it'll include the ability to use USB devices for storage, a first for the console.  

There's very few details on the upcoming Ghost Recon title called Future Soldier, but what we do know is the co-op game is going to kick some major ass - at least if it's any where near as awesome as this live action teaser trailer that was released.

Og, Blizzard, we love your level of support.  Diablo 2, released two full Presidents ago, has been patched yet again.  The biggest change is oen of the most often requested by fans: a free respec, allowing characters to choose new skills without starting a new character.  Bug fixes and the like aren't quite as exciting, but the improved options for playing on modern widescreen monitors and higher resolutions are certainly appreciated.  Asa always, Blizzard's long-term commitment to their games is second to none.  Now, about that sequel...

Volition - creator of Saints Row 2 - spilled the beans on just how difficult crafting an open-world co-op game can be. Doing so without implementing tethers (like in Mercenaries 2: World in Flames) is apparently more of a technical achievement than most of us realized, according to designer David Bowring. "Pain and suffering" were the words David used to describe the process, but followed shortly by "gratifying". In fact, he went so far as to claim that a game's shelf life is extended by cooperative play, thanks to the inherently social nature of co-op.

iPhone-exclusive shooter Eliminate received an update recently, and beyond just adding a co-op mode to the competitive versus game, the update is completely free.