Halo: Reach came out way back in September of last year.  Since then it has seen numerous free updates that have balanced and tweaked the gameplay.  Map packs are a different story.  These cost money, and the going rate for the Halo franchise has been ten bucks for three maps.  The Noble Map Pack DLC came out near the end of last November, and sadly, no co-op-friendly Firefight maps were included.  Tomorrow, March 15th, marks the release of the Defiant Map Pack DLC, and this time, a brand-spanking-new Firefight map is part of the deal.  We got our hands on the new co-op map called Unearthed and here are our impressions on how it stacks up.  

PAX East 2011 has come and gone.  The Co-Opticrew are now home and recovering, but their work is hardly done.  Over the next couple of days expect plenty of hands-on impressions from numerous co-op titles.  We were pleasantly surprised over and over again at the sheer amount of quality cooperative content available on the show floor.

On the last day of PAX East I wandered the show floor looking for anything interesting that I may have missed during the many co-op filled appointments we had the rest of the time. One of these stops was a visually unique title with a side-scrolling twin-stick shooter style gameplay called Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet by developer FuelCell games. To my shock and surprise, one of the staff on the game actually mentioned that the game will be Four-player online and offline co-op. How did we miss this, you ask? It's simple really, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet wasn't given the green-light for a co-op announcement until March 13 on the PAX East showfloor!

The Behemoth has always been one of the most co-op friendly developers out there and our hands-on time with Battleblock Theater confirms that the trend will continue. While we've seen some details of BBT creep out over the past months, this was the first time we could get some concrete details about the game's co-op adventure mode.

The first game in the Dishwasher series, Dead Samurai, was a fast-paced action game with an only slightly insane premise. It was absurdly violent, and had an art style closely resembling the notebook sketches of your average 8th grade social outcast. While it did have co-op, it was restricted to a survival mode, and left us wanting to see it in the story mode. Luckily, Ska Studios was kind enough to develop a sequel called The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, and not only does it include two-player co-op in the story, it also allows for some good old-fashioned BYOB co-op.

If you've never played Earth Defense Force: 2017 on the Xbox 360 - do yourself a favor and go out and pick it up - it can easily be found for $15 or less.  The original game was this campy, sci-fi, B movie style co-op action game where players tackled swarms of giant bugs, robotic aliens, and more as you protected the world from certain doom.  The game was actually a launch title on the Xbox 360 in Japan, so graphically, it left a lot to be desired - but this was also part of its charm when it hit Stateside.  The game's sequel, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is set to release on the 360 and PS3 this summer and we got some hands on time with the game at PAX East 2011.

It was only last week that Fallen Frontier was announced and we were immediately gripped by its unique art style and developer backing from ex-Halo team members.  At PAX East today we got some extensive hands on time with the co-op platformer from Moonshot Games  and walked away mightily impressed as well as a bit bummed we'd have to wait until 2012 to get our hands on the title.  

While cruising the show floor waiting for our Duke Nukem Forever appointment, a little game called Bastion demanded my attention. I had heard a lot of buzz about it recently, and once I laid my hands on it, I knew I was playing something special. Sporting a unique art style, and even more unique narration technique and some of that old-school isometric gameplay we all love, Supergiant Games' first effort appears to be a classic in the making.

Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.

I must say, I was a pretty big fan of 2007's The Darkness, from 2K Games and Starbreeze. While the sequel had been acknowledged in the past, it was only recently revealed that Digital Extremes had taken over development duties, and have put together what appears to be a worthy followup to an already solid original.

Duke Nukem Forever will not have a co-op mode.  That's right folks -  a gameplay element that helped give Duke 3D a special flair will not be available in Duke Nukem Forever.  That's the news that came straight from Gearbox Software's Adam Fletcher when I chatted with him today at PAX East after getting some hands on time with the game.  While the lack of co-op is heart breaking to me, the fact that I actually played Duke Nukem Forever today is in a way, unbelievable to me.

Another week has come and gone, and the weekend stretches before us, ripe with gaming possibilities.  Half of your devoted Co-Optimus staff are enjoying dusk til dawn gaming, and the rest of us... well, we wish we were there.  Alas, we will have to settle for actually playing games that have been released.  The horror!