Oh Internet!  Is there nothing you can't provide?  The latest bushel of wholesome goodness to be thrown from your large bosom is leaked footage from the upcoming Halo Reach Beta.  Oh yes!  Be titillated by the new, almost Asian inspired, soundtrack.  Stare at the loading screen and ponder what Murder Mode is.  And then, well then watch as the guy quickly covers the camera and we hear some in game background chatter going on.  Seems almost intentional, no? 

Rumor has it that the hi-def Perfect Dark port headed to the Xbox Live Arcade is almost ready, and should hit virtual shelves in February. Furthermore, the rumor states that a price of 1200 MS Points ($15 USD) has been set.

On the Download is a new feature from Co-Optimus that wants to get you in on the low down for downloadable games. The meat of this feature will cover an experience with a current co-op downloadable game or DLC for a co-op game that I've played recently with friends.

Metal Slug XX has officially promised lots of bullets, lots of explosions, and lots of characters. Sticking with the 2D classic graphics by SNK, being brought to us by Atlus, Metal Slug XX (pronounced "double x") will be arriving to the U.S. late February complete with ad-hoc co-op for $19.99. With an approaching release, we get our first formal look at the available characters and specialties for Metal Slug XX.

As more and more news comes in about Crackdown 2, we here at Co-Optimus are often left with just one single question: when, exactly, are we going to get our co-op loving hands on the title?  It seems we're not the only ones that have been asking, as IGN UK asked a similar question to the game's producer, James Cope, and got the following response:

We've gone ahead and updated our review of Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter to include impressions and thoughts on the recently released Xbox Live Arcade version.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Rock Band Network will launch tomorrow.  I guess the rumors of "Early 2010" should have been "Extremely Early 2010".  Rock Band Network is a service by which any user can create and upload their own music into the Rock Band store.  I'm sure all sorts of smaller bands are anxious to get started with this, but bigger bands like Creed and Evanescence are rumored to make their music available via Rock Band Network.  The official Rock Band forums have a fan-made list of confirmed bands and songs, and it's well worth a look.

Splash Damage has released a new video for their upcoming 8 player co-op title, Brink, this time detailing how the character customization works when you're creating your police force or revolutionary avatar.  This video shows off some more of the brief demo we got at PAX 2009, including a rather brief mention regarding the effect your character's body type dynamic has on their in-game abilities.  Selecting a heavy body type means you can wield heavier guns and take more damage, but you're not as agile as a medium or a light. 

Candella Systems has announced a brand new top down shooter called Eclosion for a multitude of systems including Xbox Live Arcade, PSP, Wii and PC.  The game is a top down shooter with the classic gameplay to follow, and allows two players to team up.

Between learning more about Halo: Reach and still playing Firefight mode with our friends in Halo 3: ODST, we've got a bit of Halo on the brain. GameInformer.com is in the same boat, and have taken a look back on the development of ODST after the fact to supplement their desire for Halo. We take a look at the inclusion of Firefight mode and the history with the team behind the magic of ODST from the GI interview of ODST creative director Joseph Staten.

The original Army of Two was marketed to the fans of buddy co-op. In 2009 EA Vancouver promised to vastly improve on the original with Army of Two: The 40th Day. We were impressed with our PAX hands-on and community day visit - did the final game hold up?

Things on the music game front have been surprisingly quiet.  We know that Harmonix is working on Green Day: Rock Band, that much is certain.  But that's pretty much it.  Pretty odd when you consider how many upcoming music games we already knew about this time last year.  (Could it be that we've reached the point of saturation?  We have some thoughts on this we'll share with you soon.)  Rumors about two more music games are swirling; one of them is confirmed, while the other isn't as substantial.