I've been a huge fan of Basic Instructions for quite some time now.  Scott Meyer seems to nail the finer points of human relationships.  The concept of the comic is simple; it's a guide on how to approach and handle the many situations that life presents itself.  Actually I'm pretty sure what you are supposed to do is read the comic and do the complete opposite.  

I was ecstatic to see that the latest comic tackles the one thing near and dear to our hearts here on Co-Optimus: co-op gaming.   Whether it's passing the controller, playing Rock Band, or giving helpful tips to your partner; Basic Instructions lays it out for you in only the way Scott Meyer can. 

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We've always said that playing co-op games online is a much different social experience, compared to typical multiplayer versus play.  Just hop into any versus game of Halo 3 and compare the chatter to that of a co-op game of Halo 3.  It's absolute night and day.  Perhaps the reason is John Gabriel's Internet Fuckwad Theory, or perhaps it's has to do with aggressive behavior trigger by the game type.

The latter theory was studied at the University of Missouri and its findings published in Evolution and Human Behavior, a popular science journal.  To create this test they set up groups of players that would compete in co-op/team oriented gametypes and deathmatch gametypes both with/against friends and strangers in Unreal Tournament 2004.

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Sometimes we find co-op in the most unexpected ways.  Take the gaming clan Tied the Leader.  A predominately versus clan, the folks cooked up a crazy idea - lets see how many medals we can get in one shot of the Spartan Laser in Halo 3.

The answer?  43.

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Look, we love co-op gaming as much as the next guy.  But I'm not quite sure we love co-op gaming as much as THIS guy.  He goes by the name of the GamingGoose - and he's pissed off at developers, publishers and just about anyone that gets in his way.  Why?  Because he can't figure out what games have co-op and what games don't.  He's pissed that games that say they have co-op don't really have a cooperative mode at all but rather a "2 player simultaneous mode."

Despite the use of some fowl language (see what I did there?), Mr Goose makes some truly excellent points.  Many of the reasons he's angry are the reasons we've created Co-Optimus.com.  It's incredibly difficult to discover exactly what the co-op mode of a game is before it's released, and even though we've made great strides to uncovering a lot of information - we're a long way from where I'd like us to be.

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In an effort to expand our horizons at Co-Optimus, we present to you our first review of a book.  Why would we review a book?  The premise of Little Brother, is at its core, cooperative.  Not only is the story about co-op, it's about gaming.  Hmmm, that sounds familiar.

Peter Molyneux is a lofty game designer.  His ideas are always very big and usually pretty innovative.  At the recent Game Developers Conference Mr. Molyneux sat with IGN and discussed his idea for a game that sounds a lot like Portal, an idea he had four or five years ago.

So just like Portal, the game utilizes two "mirrors" where players can put objects through.  Going through one portal has the object coming out the other.  The difference here is that when something goes in a portal, it comes out the other slightly different.  One example of this would be an orange going through a portal and coming out the other one twice as big. 

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Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the best games to come out this generation so far.  It's open world nature, tight story, and great characterization combined with tried and true game play make it a favorite of mature gamers.  If the sales numbers of the recent downloadable episode, The Lost and the Damned,  are any indication - no matter what format you put this game on people will eat it up.

One problem though with the game is it's lack of a true co-op mode, instead GTA came with three simple co-op missions with limited replay-ability.  The Lost and the Damned didn't add any new co-op content, which was very disappointing.  With one more exclusive episode on the way to the Xbox 360, IGN (and Us) hope to see some true co-op finally.  

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It's college Basketball season right now, and while most of the United States is glued to their television looking for the next big upset, most gamers are glued to their consoles.  This doesn't mean gamers don't have a chance to participate in their own March Madness as Hawtymcbloggy.com has launch their own video game March Madness.

Sixty-four games were chosen and seeded and ranked in a traditional tournament bracket.  Now it's up to gamers to vote which game should come out the champion.

I challenge you Co-Optimus readers to head on over there and vote for some co-op titles!  There's some good ones listed like Halo, Diablo and LittleBigPlanet! The full list is right ahead with co-op games bolded.

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When we announced that Bioshock 2 was set to feature Co-op, the Co-op gamer in me jumped for joy, but my inner horror gamer was very unsure. The recently released Resident Evil 5 sparked a similar doubt in me when trying to decide if I wanted to play alone, or hook up with a friend.

On the co-op side of things, sharing the experience of a horror game can be like watching a campy zombie movie with friends. Building fond memories of a time with scary monsters after our brains, or precious life force called “Adam”. Co-op has potential for amusing anecdotes to share down the road.

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It should come as no surprise to many readers of this site that co-op gaming makes any game much better.  And not only does it make a normal game something extraordinary, it adds longevity as well as meta games to them simply by the nature of itself.  The folks over at Platform Nation have recently had the same epiphany - yes folks - co-op gaming friggin rules.
 

As time went on and developers realized that co-op can make almost any game better and more fun, I have found myself playing games or doing things within them that I may not have been able to do otherwise because doing them with a friend is so enjoyable. Had it not been for online co-op sessions with friends, it would have been near impossible to sit down for hours on end looking for those last few agility orbs in Crackdown. Playing through the entire career mode of FIFA Street 3, a fun but admittedly flawed game, would have been much less enjoyable without having Nick on my team to run plays and have a great time with while running through the other teams.

That's a pretty good question, would you really have spent the time to get all 500 Agility Orbs if you didn't have a friend helping you look in Crackdown?  Or having that same friend help break up the monotony by allowing you to throw a car on his head?  I think not!

Of course as we've seen over the past year, co-op gaming isn't just an added feature any more, it's the staple and essence of a game. 

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