Screw winter.  Dark Souls is coming.  The "sequel" to one of the most difficult games of this console generation has gone gold, and it's coming for you.  From Software crafted a truly diabolical game in 2009's Demon's Souls, and they're back at the helm for this menacing spiritual successor.   How vicious are the makers of Dark Souls?  Word on the webs is that some Japanese gamers have acquired the game before the scheduled September 22nd release date.  The developer's solution?  Invade these players' online games with high level Black Phantoms.  And by high level, I mean 99's across all stats.  From Software doesn't mess around with a ban hammer.  They have a damn kill hammer.

Dungeon Defenders has been a long time coming to consoles and PC.  It has been delayed for over a year while making the rounds on Android and iOS platforms.  For those of you who don't know, Dungeon Defenders is an action RPG/tower defense hybrid that offers character customization and sweet, sweet loot.   It's shaping up to be one heck of a downloadable title.  It's absolutely packed with features which you can see here.  This new video from Trendy Entertainment focuses on the build phase of the game, where you prepare your defenses before the onslaught of the enemy hordes.

You can pick up House of the Dead: Overkill - Extended Cut at a reduced price right now on Amazon.  The Move-supported rail shooter is going for $29.99.  That's $10 off the regular price.  I played the heck out of the Wii version, which we gave a 4 out of 5 in our Co-Op Review.  It's got a cheese-tastic story and great(?) B-movie voice acting.  Plus F-bombs.  Lots and lots of F-bombs.  The PS3 version boasts more levels and improved graphics.  These deals don't last long, so pick it up RIGHT NOW!

A port of the legendary shooter Radiant Silvergun, long rumored to be in development, has finally become available. Now that the king of shmups is in the wild, does it really live up to its near-mythic status?

Are you a Harry Potter fan distraught that you have no more movies to look forward to? Or did you breeze through LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 with a friend and are currently feening for some more wizardly action within a boxy universe? Well worry not, friend, for LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 now has a release date! The second installment in the LEGO Harry Potter series will be available in the UK on November 18th, which presumably puts a NA release on Nov. 15th and an AUS release on the 17th, but those haven't been confirmed yet. As the name suggests, it will cover major events of the last three books. 

This Week in Co-Op makes its return as Nick and Jason take to the island of Banoi only to discover it's become over run with the undead.  Like any good hollywood movie, what follows is an account of their epic adventure through Dead Island.

We haven't heard much on Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City since we got our hands on the game at E3 back in June.  Despite the radio silence, Capcom confirmed to Kotaku today that the game is still on track for a "Winter" release in North America.

The thought of strapping yourself to the back of a mythical beast may sound fun, but most of those stories involve death, destruction and more than their fair share of turning people into stone. If, like me, you prefer to keep your magic animal riding strictly to Kinect, then you are in luck.  The spiritual successor to Panzer Dragoon, Project Draco, has announced 3 player online co-op.

Blizzard has sent out a limited number of beta invites this evening for Diablo 3.  It seems mostly press, media and a select few of lucky individuals got the invites, but this is the beginning of the game's beta ramp up.  Over time Blizzard will surely open it up for more players.  The beta used an installer similar to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and allowed us to play after installing around 700MB of the almost 2GB total installation.  From the little we played we learned there's full four player campaign co-op play with Battle.net support for friends.

Oh good!  Another Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombie Lab video.  The last video was pretty gory, but it was missing something... I can't quite put my finger on it... ah, yes, shock-induced projectile blood vomiting.  Now it's a party.  Watch your mashed potatoes.  This video is pushing the CoD: Black Ops "Rezurrection" map pack, which happens to be the co-op-iest of all the map packs.  The DLC offers four classic maps along with the all-new Moon level.  

Do you know what we need more of?  If you said cover-based third-person shooters featuring blue locator lights and wicked bayonets, but with a twist, boy, have I got a game for you!  Inversion features all of the above, plus funky gravity mechanics!  We've been talking about Inversion for a while now, and the game seems promising.  This new teaser doesn't offer up much new information, but it looks cool.

F1 2011 is one of the few titles brave enough to come out on the same day as Gears of War 3.  It probably helps that they are going for a totally different audience.  F1 2011 will take you through the Formula One season.  These guys turn left and right.  The launch trailer is full of those awesome slo-mo racing shots that are always so close to convincing me to buy a racing game.  And then I realize that 99% of my time will be spent sitting in the driver's seat, wondering where everyone else went.  Man, I am awful at racing games...