Skylanders Giants will be invading our homes on October 21st. The insanely popular franchise is back with a vengeance this year, and it has been super-sized for our buying pleasure. The action figure-based video game will feature eight new Giant Skylanders, eight new regular sized Skylanders, eight Light Core figures, and an assortment of reposed favorites from the original Skylanders. I've heard (or read) anywhere between eight and all 32 original characters will be getting the "reposed" Series 2 treatment. All that adds up to a lot of broke parents this holiday season.  

Get your tools ready because Paradox Interactive has a new co-op experience coming your way early 2013. A new dungeon-lord strategy game by Cyanide Studios has you controlling a power-hungry imp that is looking to gain status in the underworld. Biulding your Impire looks like it is going to take some skill, deceipt, and a whole bunch of labor and thankfully there is plans for campaign co-op. 

This September 18th, Windows owners will get their hands on Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, an update to the classic RPG created by Bioware.  The enhanced edition is not just a quick port, but a huge upgrade on the original game which includes the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack as well as a new 6 hour campaign called The Black Pits.  Also included are new characters, an enhanced interface, widescreen support, and brand new fully animated cinematic sequences.

Curious to hear more about Epic Game’s highly anticipated PC title, Fortnite?  Tanya Jessen, producer of Fortnite, went on to describe new details about the development of the game.

Wow.  It's been three months since we've done a round-up of our Beyond Co-Op Reviews.  For that, we apologize.  It was a pretty busy time up until a few weeks ago, but now we're back with a huge batch of reviews of the latest games that don't necessarily feature co-op play.  Without further ado, here are 8 game reviews for your reading pleasure from our staff.

Robot Entertainment have announced that a demo is available for their upcoming game, Orcs Must Die! 2, on Steam.  The action/strategy ame is slated to be released this coming Monday, July 30th.  The demo contains two of the early levels, fully playable in co-op as either the War Mage or Sorceress.  You'll also get a taste of a handful of the new traps and other whizbang things available in your arsenal.

To prep for this article I read more about Linux than I ever have before (or at all). I've come to the conclusion that Linux is not Windows and not a Mac. Apparently it involves penguins, and Linux users will be getting their very own port of Serious Sam 3: BFE later this year. Huzzah!?

We really liked Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.  And it looks like we weren't alone.  Stardock have announced that the game has sold over 100,000 copies via digital distribution channels.  The publisher was previously worried that Steam might have cannabalized their direct sales of the game, but instead, saw it only supplement them.  Obviously with direct sales Stardock is getting a larger piece of the financial pie, so they wouldn't want to cut into that.  Thankfully this looks like an everybody wins situation.

PAYDAY: The Heist’s newest DLC episode, “Mercy Hospital”, has got to be one of the best cross-over, non-canon gaming episodes we’ve seen in a very long time. Why not grab a crew and try fighting off the impending zombie doom yourself?

Hot off the digital presses, we have some new Transformers: Fall of Cybertron screens as well as a new action-packed video for your viewing pleasure. While the main focus is on the multiplayer mode, there is some co-operative Escalation footage in the video. 

Astro Gaming have launched their latest and greatest headset, the Astro Gaming A50 wireless headset, the sequel to the Astro A40 wired headsets.  We're a big fan of a quality headset here at Co-Optimus, communication is key in cooperative games, so a good headset is an important tool.  We went ears on with the Astro A50's at E3 and were super impressed with the quality.

Left 4 Dead 2's Cold Stream DLC is finally out on PC today, with your copy auto-updating via Steam as soon as you open it.  The campaign has been in beta for months, but is now finally available to the masses.  The cost to you, keyboard and mouse lovers, is a mere $0.  That's right - it's totally free for some more co-op zombie slaying.