The Co-Optimus staff is growing, and we need your help. We have a writing opportunity available for someone who loves cooperative gaming. Here is the first part of the interview:

We take a look at the Secret World dropping its subscription, Final Fantasy XIV preparing for its Realm Reborn relaunch, and Asheron's Call 2 being resurrected from the graveyard of dead MMOs.

We've been keenly eyeing SimCity for a while now, anxious to see Maxis return to the game that spawned the studio.  The latest iteration is a lot more ambitious than previous games, not only blending Sims like statistics on a micro level, but larger intra-city possibilities on a macro level.  All of this was actually birthed from looking at previous games and the isolationist experience they gave - which - in relation to the "real world" isn't so real after all.

LittleBigPlanet 2 has been out for two years now and over that time seems to have had more DLC than the entire Wii catalog combined.  It is hard to know what to buy and what to miss; thankfully Media Molecule have removed this tricky life decision and created the LBP 2 Extra Edition.  This new retail version of the game is coming soon and will contain the original game, plus a 'best of' selection of DLC.

Beyond Co-Op returns after its end of year hiatus with chock full of news straight out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las, Vegas.  CES 2013 was this week and it was full of technology goodness that you'll want to add to your living room.  Let's take a look at some of the highlights.

Last year's Happy Action Theater wasn't exactly a traditional game, but that's one reason why it succeeded with the Kinec's non-traditional controls. Less than a year after the first installment, Double Fine returns with the more understandably titled Kinect Party. We can safely assume that just about every Kinect owner grabbed it for free oover the holidays, so the question becomes: does Kinect Party provide a better co-op experience and improve on its predecessor's handful of shortcomings?

  With the new year comes new games, but sadly,  those are few and far between.  Luckily for the Co-Optimus staff one of the games that did come out this week seems to be an absolute blast.  Other than that we've got the old favorites of Halo 4, XCOM, and a few others showing their face. ...

Koei keeps on pumping out videos and screenshots for Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2. The latest trio of trailers feature everyone's favorite post apocalyptic warrior, Kenshiro, as well as Rin and Bat. That's right. You can play as Rin and Bat!

We are only a few days away from the third installment of Borderlands 2 DLC. "Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt" will go live on January 15. Jason and I have played through the new adventure, and I really can't say anything more than that. I can say that if Gearbox decided to have a weekend event where they offered high powered weapons, you should probably take advantage of it. Oh, what a coincidence! Sir Hammerlock himself, or whoever happens to be running the @ECHOcasts Twitter feed, just announced a "Gear Up Weekend." What does that mean, exactly?

We had a chance to try out the Monaco Beta thanks to the folks at Pocketwatch games. We have been covering the game for a number of years now and have played it at countless trade shows, but it is nice to finally sit down in the comfort of your own home and execute a heist. We captured it all on tape, so check out the two videos we have from the early levels of Monaco: What's Yours is Mine.

Well this is sort of embarassing.  As the prime source for co-op gaming, you'd think we'd have a beat on things like this, but Defiance just sort of snuck up on us.  We've seen it on display at numerous shows like E3 and PAX, but just never paid much attention.  Sure most MMOs are natively cooperative in nature, but Defiance is doing something different - it's bringing the genre across the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, the PC and even...onto TV.    The latest trailer for the game showcases some insane co-op play where dozens upon dozens of players are working together to take out giant creatures in dynamic world events influenced not only by the community, but by the TV show, which is also influenced by the game.  Got that?  

Halo 4's Spartan Ops mode has been on a re-run schedule since December, with 343 opting to put the game's earlier episodes into match making.  During that time they've been running a contest giving gamers a chance to win things like a Truck and a spot in an upcoming Halo game.  As the tournament begins to wind down it's about time for some fresh co-op content.