A new study from BYU's School of Family Life has come to the conclusion that co-op gaming between parents and daughters has beneficial effects for the daughter.  The study is titled "Game On. . . Girls: Associations Between Co-playing Video Games and Adolescent Behavioral and Family Outcome."  287 children and their parents were given questionnaires focusing on gaming-, behavior-, and family-related issues.  The doctors concluded that co-op gaming did have a positive effect on girls.  

Bulletstorm first took shots at Halo with its parody of the infamous commercial for the game.  Next the game has its electric whip set on another co-op title Call of Duty.  This time though its not a simple video but an entire game that you can download and play on your PC.

This Week in Co-Op Tally and Nick ride a magical mystery ship into the world of Magicka - the recent 4 player spell casting co-op game from Arrowhead Studios and Paradox Interactive.  If there's lessons to be learned they are: wizards a clumsy, their robes are flammable, water and electricity don't mix, and blowing up friends is often hilarious.  

It's been a few months since we've had an official Halo Waypoint Co-Op Night.  The Co-Opticrew needed some time off to recharge and the holidays certainly played its part.  But we're back this week and plan on digging into the game we gave our Co-Op GOTY award to last year - Halo Reach!

League of Legends developer Riot Games have announced a brand new game more for their game featuring co-op play.  League of Legends is based on, and developed by some of the team that create a mod for Warcraft 3 called Defense of the Ancients.  This psuedo RTS/RPG hybrid features a champion character that summons creatures, uses spells and items, as well as other ablities to conquer opposing champions.  The game is as much strategy as it is action, and loot plays a big part in the addictive nature of the gameplay.

Insomniac has just released a brand new trailer for Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One - the four player co-op platformer set to hit the PlayStation 3 later this year.  The trailer showcases some great co-op action in both platforming, puzzles, and gigantic boss battles.  Seriously, it's going to take at least 4 players to bring in a fish of that size - sushi for everyone!

Do you like the lore of Middle-Earth, but you're sick of the Fellowship?  Have you had your fill of Frodo? Enough of Aragorn? Do you just wish Gimli would shut up about dwarfs?  Snowblind Studios, the developer behind the PlayStation 2 version of Baldur's Gate and the Champions of Norrath series have got a game for you.  

I don’t know about you guys, but I used to enjoy my Friday night get-together with my friends to play a bit of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop style. As we’ve grown older and had jobs and responsibilities, it’s been tougher to get together. We’ve often wondered “Why hasn’t a digital version of this come out for us?” And now our questions have been answered. Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale plans to do just that - bring Dungeons and Dragons to us in a digital format this Spring.

It’s already a month in to the New Year, and a lot of us have been working on our backlog of games - especially from our awesome Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule gifts. What we want to know in this months blog topic is: What are you playing from last year or earlier, and why?

The sequel to the reboot of the Capcom classic, Bionic Commando, is due out this week. The original game was best known for its bionic form of locomotion and unforgiving difficulty.   Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 launches today on the PlayStation Network, though as of this writing, it's not up on the PSN Store. It is scheduled to hit the Xbox LIVE Arcade tomorrow.  Whichever Marketplace, Store, or flea market gets the game up first will receive my fifteen bucks (or 1200 Microsoft points). Two players can co-op locally as Nathan "Rad" Spencer.  

It's been a while since Billy donned his fedora and leather jacket and went off to explore the depths of the modern gaming jungle in search of great independently developed co-op games. Indie-Ana Co-Op returns with an in-depth post-mortem with Sol Survivor developer, Cadenza Interactive.

In our latest co-op preview we've gone hands on with the PC version of Section 8: Prejudice. While the core of the game is a versus multiplayer affair, new is a single player campaign and 4 player co-op survival mode. After our impressions we chat with designer Mark Yetter about all things co-op.