It seems a little $5 indie game has caught the staff by storm in Skyward Collapse as almost half of the staff is checking it out. There's been a ton of other smaller titles out lately as well and it seems they are filling the late spring void for everyone. Cheap, fun games?  Yeah - sign us up.

It shouldn't take long to remember why you fell in love with Bungie games after watching the new "live action" trailer that teases their upcoming shooter, Destiny. Bungie has a storied past of creating universes from Halo, Myth, and even Marathon - their worlds are always rich with lore, content, and intrigue. If the latest trailer, titled "Law of the Jungle" is any indication of Destiny's future - well let's just say it's destined to fall right in line with the rest of Bungie's franchises.

The Raiden series is perhaps my favorite SHMUP series of all time, blending fast paced gameplay, slick sprite graphics, and a smooth upgradeable weapon system. Earlier this year publisher DotEmu released iOS and Android versions of Raiden Legacy, a collection of four classic Raiden SHMUP games. This collection is similar to the Xbox 360 version of Raiden Fighters Aces - but includes the classic original Raiden game. Sadly, Raiden 2 is still missing from the lineup.

As details are being revealed from the unveiling of the Xbox One, it appears Microsoft is going to be changing what it means to "own a game."  The changes could have a drastic affect on the used and rental market for games while also making it easier for co-op gamers in a single household. How are they going to do that? Every game for the Xbox One will be installed to the hard drive, and if you want to install a game to another Xbox Live Account you'll need to pay a fee. Perhaps this is the end to having to buy multiple copies of games to play co-op in one house?

Microsoft has officially unveiled their next generation console which will launch later this year. It's called the Xbox One  - bucking the trend of sequential numbering or the rumored Xbox 720, Xbox Infinity, and everything else. The one hour presentation focused on the console itself and the entertainment, architecture and partnerships around it. Perhaps we are seeing the end of the term "videogame console" as there wasn't a single game to be found until 32 minutes into the presentation.

Dungeonland, the three player co-op hack and slash arcade game, has gotten a few updates recently - all of which - are free. The first is the game now supports Mac on Snow Leopard and higher systems and it includes SteamPlay for cross platform play. So if you buy the game once, you can play it on either platform. Speaking of buying the game, DungeonLand is on sale right now for just $5 or the four pack for just $15.

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare your wallets for monetary departure. Keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times and commence the downloading. Amazon is holding a "Digital Games Mayhem" sale offering deep discounts on downloadable PC games both new and old. Want that new Star Trek game after catching the movie this weekend?  It's only $25. How about Saints Row The Third with all the DLC for $12.50.

Welcome to another edition of Beyond Co-Op, the weekly news round-up where we look at the gaming news around the industry that may or may not necessarily relate to cooperative gaming. It was a fairly quiet week as many gear up for the next Xbox announcement this coming week and E3 a few weeks away - still there's a few tidbits worth mentioning.

With the recent XBLA release of Monaco it seems a bunch of the staff have chosen to dive back into some co-op heisting. The Neverwinter beta also seems to be quite popular while the rest of us continue to trudge through site development. Soon folks you'll get a preview of that...soon.

We've got another exciting giveaway today thanks to the hard working people over at ROCCAT, makers of quality PC accessories. Up for grabs today are three items - The ROCCAT Kone XTD Gaming Mouse,  The ROCCAT Isku Gaming Keyboard, and the ROCCAT Sense Series Gaming Mousepad.

This generation has seen a variety of change occur on the gaming landscape with the introduction of microtransactions, the mass appeal of DLC, the rise of game prices, and the controversial "online pass system." At least one of those things are changing for the time being, with EA announcing it's no longer going to require an online pass for its games.

It was a crazy week in the gaming industry this week, with announcements, politics, excitement, and of course games. As we're gearing up for E3 in just under a month lots of publishers are unveiling some new titles and others are dropping the curtain on just what has been going on. But there was one major announcement this week that caught everyone off guard - and that had to do with EA.

With the recent XBLA release of Monaco it seems a bunch of the staff have chosen to dive back into some co-op heisting. The Neverwinter beta also seems to be quite popular while the rest of us continue to trudge through site development. Soon folks you'll get a preview of that...soon.

Civilization V's next expansion pack is entitled Brave New World, it's the second fully feature content expansion for the game adding nine new civilizations, eight new wonders, two new scenarios, four new gameplay systems and dozens of new units. This isn't your kid's DLC folks.

Co-Optimus didn't get to check out PAX East this year in full, so we missed the unveiling of Saints Row IV. The game was on display on the show floor with a hands off demo which showcased all of the game's new features. Lucky for us, Deep Silver have released the entirety of the demo in video form and put it on the interwebs - isn't technology grand?