There is a phrase that is commonly linked with any discussion of the co-op in an RTS: "comp stomp."  The phrase refers to the typical situation that occurs when a group of players team up to take on one or more computer opponents and proceed to thrash them about the place.  This can be fun for a few matches, but the novelty quickly wears thin as the computer does nothing new or interesting each time you face it.  AI War, Arcen Games’ first outing into the gaming market, shatters this stale and repetitive formula to create something that’s not quite an RTS, not quite a 4X, but completely fun and, most importantly, completely co-op.

 AI War, the RTS/4x co-op title from Arcen Games, is out today on Steam. The game features full on-line and local, drop-in/drop-out co-op for up to eight players.  It also includes online leaderboards and 129 Steam achievements for players.  As an added bonus, Steam is running a special on the game through Oct. 27th.  Order it now and you can pick it up for just $15.  That's a lot of game for that price, believe me.  AI War has been out for some time through Impulse and Arcen Game's official site, but the Steam release marks a major milestone in the game's development.

As Christopher Park mentioned in our interview with him, the update from the previous version to this release version included alot of changes and pretty much all of them were done to ensure a solid co-op experience.  We also mentioned in that article that if you purchased the game from another outlet, such as Direct2Drive or Stardock's Impulse, that you'd still be able to utilize the "activate a product on Steam" feature.  We've heard from Christopher and he assures us that this feature should be available within the next couple of days.  Until then, be sure to tune in tomorrow for our review!

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AI War, the co-op RTS/4x title from Arcen Games, LLC, has been out for some time now, but the game is about to hit a major milestone this Wednesday.  Not only will the game hit version 2.0, which will include new features and a few bug fixes, but it will also be available on Steam with 129 Steam achievements and online leaderboards.  We chatted with Christopher Park, CEO, Lead Programmer, and Lead Designer for Arcen, about this unique co-op game, how the taking on the AI with a group can be more satisfying than going alone, and the power of co-op gaming.

Arcen Games has just patched their co-op RTS, AI War, to version 1.301.  With it brings a host of improvements to both the interface, ship graphics, new units, new network code and a host of other tweaks.  Considering the game claims you can have 30,000 units in a battle at once I'm sure the net code needs to be very neat and tidy for a lag free co-op experience.

The best addition is the ability to drop-in and drop out of a co-op game whenever you want.  A good update all around.  While you wait for it to download, how about counting all of the units in that screenshot above?  

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There is no 'I' in co-op, but there is an 'i' in pie...
 

There is no denying it - co-op is on the rise! Developers are catching on to the fact that gamers like being able to play together rather than alone or against one another. One in particular, Christopher Park, has taken it upon himself to explain some of the reasons behind Co-op. This gives us a very solid Case for Co-op!

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Indie developer Arcen Games sent Co-Optimus an e-mail tip announcing the availability of their latest strategy game, AI War: Fleet Command.

The demo can be grabbed off their official website, CNet and other sites.  The full game or demo is also available via Stardock's Impulse service for $20.

From the images I've seen scattered around the 'net, it seems like an extremely robust game, definitely one for the Real-Time Strategy genre fans. See the full announcement below.

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