We're barely coming up for air here at Co-Optimus HQ as game publishers furiously release content for E3.   "Wait a second Nick, I thought E3 was next week."  Yeah me too.

The new Dark Souls trailer is out, and it is awesome.  Dark and foreboding hopelessness permeates the entire two minutes of soul crushing footage.  Opera singers do their best to let you know just how epic this game is going to be.  Giant demons stomp their way through the video, while expansive vistas fill the horizons.  This "spiritual successor" (or rebranded sequel) to Demon's Souls now has a "massive, seemless, overworld design."  This should mean: if you can see it, you can get to it.  If that's true, you're going to need a parachute right around the one minute mark. I don't know about you, but for some reason this whole trailer makes me feel like Count Rugen. 

LEGO Pirates is hardly innovative, but is still one of the better LEGO games in the series, especially with that rascally Captain Sparrow aboard.

Gunshine.net is a free to play browser based isometric strategy game with co-op play.  Got all that?  Good.  Now head over to the official website and sign up for the beta, it takes like 3 clicks, and you'll be on your way to a Syndicate like experience.  

The Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack is out on the PC complete with four new versus maps and a brand new over the top co-op zombie map.   Just how over the top is it?  It features famed director George A. Romero, Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Michael Rooker and Danny Trejo kicking zombie ass and whipping one liners, as well as an original music track from Avenged Sevenfold titled "Not Ready to Die."

The collective sound of the Serious Sam fans right now sound like the headless bombers from the series.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh.  The first trailer showing gameplay footage of Serious Sam 3: BFE is out and it looks downright impressive.  Graphically this game looks to be one of the best we're going to see this year.  But fans of the series won't be distracted by the shiny objects on their screen, instead two things stand out from the trailer - a sledgehammer and iron sights.

E3 2011 kicks off next week in Los Angeles, CA and Co-Optimus will be there all week to bring you the goods on all of the biggest upcoming co-op games and beyond.  Nick, Andrew and Kat will be bringing you news, pictures, video, tweets, and audio direct from the show floor all week.  To kick things off the Co-Opticrew thought they'd talk a bit about their most anticipated titles of the show.  

Another guest writer weighs in on his kinship with the Co-Op Couples of the world, and explains why cooperative games benefit two parents who see more than enough adversity in this thing we call...real life .

    Good news, for those of you who competitively play Brink.  You can now follow your stats online.  Just enter that little code you see on the in-game menu called "Online Stats" at the Brink website.  There are plenty of numbers to crunch.  You can see your average XP per match, which abilit...

THQ have announced a downloadable twin stick shooter set in the Warhammer 40K universe called Warhammer 40,000: KIll Team.  Players take the role of an elite Space Marine team sent to assault a giant Ork Kroozer en-route to an Imperial Forge World.  The game promises big boss battles and plenty of gory death as you try to "prevent the waaaaaagh."

Saints Row: The Third's new E3 trailer has hit the internet a little early.  While it may not have the brevity and simple majesty of the the first trailer, which debuted on April 1st, it does have that Kanye West song "Power."  You know which one I'm talking about.  Go watch a commercial for something like the Social Network or Limitless.  Yeah, that song.  Looks like the Saints are moving up in the world.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge was released this week on the 360, PS3 and PC with two player co-op gameplay.  The game centers around the story of two characters, E'Lara and Caddoc, and their adventures in the game's world to stop a nefarious plot.  We may have seen it all before, but developer inXile really wanted to drive home the cooperative elements in the game.