The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo is available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 wannabe combat fighters until next Thursday. We take it for a spin and try to gain a little dev perspective.

After hearing that Diablo III would be featuring both genders for each class, we have been expecting a whirlwind of news to come pouring out. We were right. The Barbarian class has unleashed the first images of the female warrior, as well as a general profile for our enjoyment.

SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 was released this week on the PSP, complete with four player local and online co-op.  But if you want access to any of the game's online modes, including the co-op and versus modes, you're going to have to jump through a few hoops to get it.  Why? Sony says it's to combat piracy.

Namco Bandai has just unleashed an assault of new media on us for their upcoming Ace Combat title on the PlayStation Portable.  Ace Combat: Joint Assault is a four player co-op aerial combat game that features a unique co-op mode called the "Joint Assault Mission System."  

The number of co-op gaming apps on the iPhone is, slowly but surely, growing, and a new one is possibly on the way.  It seems that Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front, the sequel to last year's Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes iPhone port, will include complete campaign co-op for all 13 of the game's levels for two players.  There's a catch, though: the co-op mode will not be available at the game's release.  Does that mean co-op will be patched into the game later, or will it end up being left out altogether?  We reached out to Gameloft, the game's developer, for clarification, but have yet to receive any word regarding whether or not the game will eventually have co-op.  For now, chock this one up to a solid "TBD" (but hopeful) status.

Last week we posted a news story that offered a few new screenshots for Crackdown 2 as well as details regarding the pre-order bonus.  We also initially stated that the release date for this anticipated co-op title would be June, but then updated the post that further details were pending.  Well all of the facts are now in and it seems, sadly, that Crackdown 2 still has no firm release date other than "later this year."

Less 'service with a smile' and more 'servers with a frown', as the news breaks that EA are to close down more online servers on March 16th.  This is bad news for co-op fans looking to complete Lord of the Rings: Conquest, as this is the highest profile co-op game on the list.  For those in Asia, the closing down of the Army of Two online servers on April 15th will be a double blow - no more fist bumping for you.  Finally, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames on the PC will be given its burns notice.

The StarCraft 2 closed beta launched today, and with it thousands...nay...millions of fans continuously hit F5 on their inbox checking for an invite.  Sadly the beta is pretty limited at this time, so there were lots of disappointed folks, but we managed to sneak a peak at the game and found some interesting things.  

Darwinia is what life would be like in a computer. Single "polygon" organisms called Darwinians live their simple lives learning, growing, and dying to be reincarnated as other Darwinians. In the game, Darwinia is under attack by an evil computer virus, and it's up to you to bring it under control.

 While we tend to cover a lot of popular co-op games on Co-Optimus, there's a whole indie scene where cooperative gaming is just as popular.  Xbox Live has their Indie Channel, we're starting to see iPhone titles pop up as well, but the place where this movement is most evident is on the PC.  This week we take a look at a small title from developer ItBGames called Kino One.

 Konami has just announced that it will be publishing Ninety-Nine Nights 2 in Europe and North America when the game releases this spring on the Xbox 360.  The two player co-op title does still have Microsoft's involvement, who published the first game, though it's unclear how.

Just in time for the release of the first of two new DLC packs, Resident Evil 5 joins the list of great co-op titles (one of which is slated for tomorrow's XBox LIVE Co-Op Night) available through XBox LIVE's Games on Demand service.  Now, I'm sure the question many of you are asking is, "Shouldn't I just wait and buy the Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition that's set to be released in three weeks' time?"  Well, if you crunch the numbers on all of it, snagging the Games on Demand version of Resident Evil 5 ($29.99) and all of the DLC as it becomes available, which in total will come to 1520 , will set you back about $48.98.  That's just a couple dollars more than the current pre-order price for the Gold Edition on Amazon of $46.99.  To put it another way, picking up the game and the "Lost in Nightmares" DLC now gets you an additional three weeks to enjoy the new Jill and Chris chapter, as well as zombie slaying with Excella and Barry Burton in Mercenaries mode, and an additional week with the "Desperate Escape" DLC, all for just $2 more.