As tough as times seem to be in the world economy, we always love to point out co-op gaming deals.  The one deal though that can never be beat, is that of a free game.  Today we bring you two free cooperative titles, courtesy of The-Best-Free-Games.com.

The first game (pictured above) is called Warrior Epic.  The game is a classic style action rpg where players can build characters and collect loot.  Up to five friends can team up and complete missions by recruiting them to your barracks.  Warrior Epic supports online and LAN play.

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You have to admire the folks over at Epic.  Already, just over half a year since release, Gears of War 2 its fourth title update.  Not too many games get this level of attention, and we're glad to see that there's a lot of co-op goodness to be had in this latest update.  From Epic's official Update 4 Release Notes:

• Adds the ability to collect multiplayer experience by playing Horde mode.

• Adds the ability to restart Public Horde from the current failed wave instead of having to start over from wave 1. Title Update 4 also allows the host to kick players from a Public Horde session.

• Adds support for the new campaign chapter, "Road to Ruin."

In case you had forgotten, "Road to Ruin", an hourlong deleted campaign chapter, will be available in the upcoming DLC pack Dark Corners, along with several new maps.  All Fronts, a collection including Dark Corners and all the previous DLC, is coming as well (though the retail version of All Fronts has been cancelled).  Both are headed your way on July 28, so get your Lancers gassed up!

Source: Link

Stardock has sent word that their co-op-ish RTS Demigod has gone gold and will be available for download via their Impulse service and retailers on April 14th.

While we've been covering the game for some time, we've yet to see just how deep the co-op is.  If you've read our interview with Mike Marr of Gas Powered Games, you know it seems very team based, but there doesn't appear to be any story co-op.  That being said we haven't seen just how persistent the online Pantheon mode is, which may allow players to keep a stronger vested interest in the game for a more co-op feel.

Demigod will retail for $39.95 or you can get the above pictured collector's edition for $49.95.  You know you want that little Rook figure.

Arstechnica caught up with Diablo III senior artist Mike Nicholson to chat about the user interface design for the upcoming five player co-op title.  Adding more fodder to the fire, Mike let us know that we'll be seeing a lot of borrowing from World of Warcraft.

The biggest place the game will be borrowing will be World of Warcraft's inventory system, though fans will be happy to know different sized items will still be retained from Diablo 2.  World of Warcraft on the other hand uses a singular size item method.  But what is borrowed is a tabbed UI for separating these items, large and small, as well as quest items.

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I like a good rumor every now and then, and the latest rumor for the upcoming 5 player co-op RPG from Blizzard would be something I could totally get behind.  The rumor goes that Diablo III would be seeing an open beta on September 11th of this year, testing out both the new Battle Net as well as the game.  

The rest of the rumor claims that the game would release on December 24th of this year.  The Rumor Killer column on The Game Reviews contacted Blizzard for comment, and well, it wasn't completely shot down.
 

“As for Diablo III: Blizzard has not announced a release date for Diablo III at this time.” Says Ryan Arbogast, Associate PR Manager at Blizzard to TGR.

So they got the standard PR line - which in a lot of cases is good.  Why?  Because that usually means at least part of the rumor is true, or has some shred of truth to it.  I suppose all would be revealed this August during Blizzcon, we'll just have to wait until then.

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Gears of War 2 has been updated before, and a new update is coming up later this month.  First up is a revamp of the online experience system, which doesn't really apply to either the campaign or Horde mode.   A few tweaks and fixes do apply to co-op, though.

Public Horde has been outpacing almost all of our multiplayer game types. But one of the things that sort of sucked about playing Public Horde was the fact that if the host quit on you after three hours of playing, then your high score never got updated. So one of the things we're doing now is, at the end of each wave, if the score that you have is a new high score for you, then that'll get posted to the leaderboard right away. So if a host quits after three hours, then you know at least that your high score has been saved along the way.

Not a game breaker at all, but still nice to see the Horde mode love.  The title update is coming on March 24. 

Also of note to Horde mode fans is the announcement of the next map pack.  Coming on March 31, the Snowblind map pack will feature 3 new maps, plus a remake of Gears 1 fave Fuel Depo.  Soon there will be a few new options for you when it comes to a prime location for fighting the Locust with a pal or four. 

Source: Link

I'm a big fan of indy games, they generally offer something unique and fresh.  And every once in a while a game comes around that looks completely standout features and quality.  Project Aftershock is a multiplayer Sci-Fi racing game set in the future. Massive earthquakes were occurring all over the globe and destroyed most of earth’s major cities.

GamerdDailyNews sat down with a member of the team to talk about the game.  Up for discussion was the game's co-op mode.
 

 

How will the co-op work?

There will be 2 teams (4vs4 or 5vs5) racing each other around the track. Each team member can only carry a specific weapon which can be combined with other team member’s weapons.One of the most basic gameplay is where the winning team is determined by the average time taken by all team members so it helps if all the team members are fast. Team members will also be able to utilize traps to their advantage.

 

There's no release date yet for the game, but the official website has a blog tracking development progress.  We've posted a video that's a short tech demo of the game right ahead - it's impressive to say the least.

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Rough economy got you down? Here's your chance to keep your money in your pocket and still acquire some new toys!

Microsoft Game Studios is running a contest wherein you can win potentially $25,000 worth of prizes (see the full list after the "Read More" link). For 13 days beginning February 1st, Gears of War 2 players can jump into a gametype that is specified on the official schedule (see also after the "Read More" link) and are automatically entered to win, provided that you have registered ahead of time, either via online registration, or by applying the free "13 Days of Gears" Gamerpic.

Read on for the prize list and schedule...

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Tomorrow night is our monthly Xbox Live Co-Op Night, and as you may know the game de jour is Gears of War 2.  What you don't know is that we have something extra special planned!  Several members of the Gears 2 development team will be joining us to mercilessly slaughter the Locust Horde in co-op mode all throughout the night!

That's right, you can fight side by side with members of the Epic Games team as you learn all the tips and tricks to getting to wave 50 in horde mode.  Want to know how to join co-op night?  All the info you need is right here.

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It's been about six months since Diablo 3 was announced.  It's hard to believe we've been dreaming of Wizards, Barbarians, and Witch Doctors that long, isn't it?  The game is still a ways off, it seems, but the steady trickle of information keeps on coming.  1UP sat down with the director of Diablo 3, Jay Wilson, and talked about the development of the game.  Wilson commented that the combat in Diablo 3 was deeper than that of it's predecessor.

1UP: Can you elaborate on your "deeper combat" comment? What makes Diablo 3's combat deeper than its predecessors?

JW: Combat is as deep as the options the designers give themselves. Whenever you add a new capability to a monster -- potentially something that feels unbeatable -- it's more of an opportunity to expand the depth of your characters so they can respond to those threats. A good example would be if you look at Diablo 2: There were a couple of problems with just the power of the characters and the way they were made powerful. A player could run faster than any monster, so you could escape just about any threat. You had endless health and resource -- by resource, I mean mana -- because of potions. And you had the Town Portal, which could instantly get you out of any problem. Those were incredibly powerful mechanics to escape danger and were not class-specific. So every kind of class really had no need for anything like an escape skill or reactionary ability. They simply needed to attack, and if they ever got in over their heads, they simply ran away or drank potions. And it's the same response across the board.

So one of the things we focused on is that response -- 1) setting up scenarios where the players can't easily get out of danger without the use of class-specific skills, and 2) giving them really simple controls to use a broader range of skills without making the game that much more complex to play.

Coming from a co-op perspective, I find the last bit, which I italicized, quite interesting.  Perhaps we are looking at scenarios where a monster might be almost undefeatable with one class, or skill set, but are a cakewalk for another.  Sounds like working together with your friends will be even more effective and exciting in Diablo 3 than in the previous games!  The entire, lengthy interview is at the link below, and a few selected quotes are included after the break.

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