When the original Left 4 Dead launched with a marketing budget of 10 million dollars, we were quite impressed. That's chump change compared to the Benjamins being thrown behind Left 4 Dead 2, something to the tune of 25 million dollars.
Last week we unveiled a special director's cut of Resident Evil 5. Titled the Alternate Edition, the content is being released in Japan in disc format on the PlayStation 3. In the rest of the world though? That's still up in the air.
Holy moly! When it rains it pours! And it's raining co-op games! We've got three solid co-op titles hitting this week, all bringing their own unique flair to the table, and representing just about every platform out there.
The Tokyo Game Show has given us a few insights into games that were just announced at E3, including the highly anticipated co-op sequel to Crackdown. Crackdown 2 was giving journalists a chance to test drive this sequel behind closed doors, and we have a preview or so to share. We have been looking forward to the sequel that was almost nixed by Microsoft due to low expectations before Crackdown knocked our socks off, but we have a new team behind the scenes this time. With Ruffian studio taking the reins with Crackdown 2, does the sequel hold up to the original, or are these shoes just too big to fill?
Perhaps we've come to take co-op a bit for granted here on the site, and we lose sight of what actually has to happen to make it a reality in a game. In a short clip on G4TV with Gearbox, they discuss how the goal of creating a solid co-op experience in Borderlands didn't come easy.
Last night during Sunday night football, Infinity Ward unleashed a brand new trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 called "Infamy." While the trailer had all the usual polish and grit of the previous trailers and screens we've seen of the game, it didn't contain something new. I won't say exactly what that is, because in my opinion, it's a huge spoiler for the game.
See that list up there? That's all the people that Gearbox employee Mikey Neumann needs to play co-op with come Borderlands launch day. Why? Mikey offered, via twitter, to drop some awesome loot for anyone that preordered the game that day and posted proof of it.
Some eager buyers of Atlus's upcoming Action/RPG Demon's Souls have snagged a copy at enterprising retailers that have broken the Tuesday, October 6th street date. If so, you may have thought the game's online mode is broken - you know, the one with the unique co-op aspect? Nope you've been banned from the game for life for jumping the gun. Sorry! Don't pass go, don't collect $200. JUST KIDDING.
Quite an impressive deal comes to us via Amazon.com today. After just over a month in release, Guitar Hero 5 is on sale for 50% off. The deal unfortunately only applies to the Xbox 360 version (sorry Wii and PS3 rockers). We found the game impressive and gave it a very good review. Don't forget that the Guitar Hero World Tour DLC that's on sale this week is compatible with Guitar Hero 5 as well. If you're a music game fan, and haven't picked this title up yet, now's the time to nab it!
Earlier this week Jeff Rubenstein from the Playstation Blog had a chance once again to talk with developer Level-5 about their upcoming PS3 co-op title, White Knight Chronicles. In the course of this discussion, additional details concerning the online portion of the game were revealed, specifically the three online modes that will be available to players: GeoNet (a social networking hub for players to meet and form parties), Georama (think SimCity meets Dark Cloud), and Subquest (the co-op portion). What's more, voice chat has finally been confirmed for online play as well! Occasionally, it does pay to be the squeaky wheel.
You're probably thinking, hey, what's this? A toy? Isn't this a column about kid and family friendly video games? Well, yes, it is. But is there any thing more kid friendly than a toy? Certainly there is not, especially when the toy is based on a fantastic video game. As soon as we learned about the existence of Halo Wars Mega Bloks, it was a foregone conclusion that we'd own them. Building our own Halo vehicles, with adorable little soldiers inside, is a lot of fun, and was certainly a cooperative effort!
