It's an extra long podcast this week as Mike and Nick are joined by the illustrious Jason "OrigamiPanther" Love. E3 is dissected, from the major press conferences down to independent titles we checked out. An old bet is settled, much hate is dished out on motion controls and much love is expressed over thoughts of co-op to come. All this and more await in this week's episode!

The upcoming release of Fable 3 looks to take everything learned from Fable and Fable 2 and add its own unique flare to it. Sure, you've heard a lot of hype before and the games always seem to have great potential, but fall short in some aspects - this time, however, we've heard what the co-op is like, and we can at least give that aspect the Co-optimus seal of approval.

One game I was really excited to see in action at E3 was Spec Ops: The Line.  Published by 2K Games and developed by Yager Interactive, the setting and visuals have gripped me since the first teaser trailer.  The setting of the game is in the destroyed city of Dubai, which has been ravaged by a vicious sand storm burying most of it's structures.  We sat in on a demo of the game, in what looked like one of these buried buildings, at the recent E3 expo.

One of the surprise games of E3 for me was a beat em up title for the Wii called Batman: The Brave and the Bold.  Based on the cartoon of the same name, players take control of Batman or Robin through various levels taking on thugs and villains all to a gritty and over the top art style.

As someone who's a huge fan of 90's rap music, the name Def Jam is synonymous with quality like Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dawg, Wu-Tang Clan and many, many more.  So it should come as no surprise that many of those above artists will be featured in the upcoming game Def Jam Rapstar - the first music game devoted to Hip-Hop and R&B music.  In our behind closed doors meeting with 4MM Games at E3 we got a in depth look at what the game will offer.

Brink has been a game I've been following with intense anticipation.  While I was immediately gripped by the style of the game, it was the 8 player cooperative promises that tickled my spidey sense.  Having played the game for a good 30 minutes at E3 - including checking out the myriad of customization options - I'm happy to say I think Brink will deliver when it launches early next year.

By now you've seen just about all that you need to know about Rock Band 3.  What we have here quite possibly the pentultimate music game for a wide range of players from beginners to actual musicians.  Harmonix has finally created a game that's not only a game for fun, but a learning tool for budding musicians.  But despite all that there is more than there appears to be on the surface with Rock Band 3.

Sony's E3 press conference was filled with games, games, and more games.  While there wasn't a whole lot of co-op games on display we did enter the world of co-op and 3D with Killzone 3 - which was quite impressive.  Along the way we got a peak at some new Move titles including an impressive demo of a game called Sorcery.   Of course the highlight was the aforementioned Kevin Butler appearance and speech - one that shouldn't be missed. 

The Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2010 was filled with classic titles updated for the Wii and DS and seeing the return of classic characters like Kirby and Donkey Kong - both with co-op options.  But the highlight was the reveal of the 3DS.  We've just posted a handful of pictures from the conference.

Whenever you take the name of a popular franchise and then shape it to be that of your own, the controversy surrounding it usually speaks louder than the game itself.  It's a shame really because this is the field that XCOM has sowed as it's a first person shooter based on a classic PC turn based strategy franchise.  

When we first heard that the next entry in the F.E.A.R. series of games would feature co-op, and a form of co-op that the game's developer, Day 1 Studios, calls "divergent co-op," we were left with quite a few questions.  Early previews of the game helped clear up some of these, but we still were curious about how the game looked for ourselves.  Fortunately, Day 1 Studios and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive had a demonstration of the game's co-op in action at E3 and what we saw left us feeling a bit divergent already.  Specifically, how will we decide who gets to play as Fettel?

There were a lot of games to see during last week's E3; some of them co-op, others not so much.  Amidst all the announcements, demos, and chaos, though, there was one co-op title that Nick and I were eager to get our hands on and try out - inXile's upcoming co-op action/adventure/puzzle title, Hunted: The Demon's Forge.  Initial previews of the game likened it to "Gears of Warcraft" or "Spears of War," and those wouldn't be too far off, but the game certainly seems to promise more.

E3 2010 gave us a release date and Firefight 2.0 for Halo Reach.  It also gave us the first glimpse at the gameplay and music.  We gotta say, we're pretty excited to see the game in motion - and the co-op nature of the gameplay looked fantastic.  One surprise to us was the new music, a slight departure from the amazing Halo soundtracks of the past.

Apologies readers of Co-Optimus for not getting this and other various articles of E3 up sooner.  It seems that cataclysmic events of epic proportions all decided to happen in a seven day timespan - combined with the lack of stable or ANY internet - and I'm way behind on my duties for Co-Optimus.

Amidst all of the Beast Mode hoopla last week, you might have missed the demonstration of Gears of War 3's Campaign Mode.  Cliff Bleszinksi presented (and played through) the demo, which shows off the female Gears, some sweet visuals, the Lambent enemies, and a particularly nasty death scene (or twenty).  It's pretty impressive stuff.  Looks like the story mode of Gears 3 will be just as good (dare we say great) as that of its predecessors.