E3 has come and gone but the Co-Optimus coverage hasn't stopped.  You can expect a steady stream of co-op previews, pictures and news from the show over the next few days.  Here's some (mostly) booth babe free pictures of the show floor for your enjoyment.

Sure, there's plenty of stuff to to see on the floor at E3, but if you've got "Co-Optimus" on your badge, you can get into special behind-closed-doors sessions and really sink your teeth into a game.  That's just what I did at the Deep Silver meeting room, where I got an hour of play time with Dead Island. 

Who here wants to play with a little bit of gravity? How about some 2-player co-op third-person shooter? You too, huh? Let me relay to you a little experience I had with a little game called Inversion here at E3 2011.

The developers were just as surprised as gamers were when Star Trek was announced to be in development for 360, PS3, and PC.  The title has actually been in development for a year and a half already and is based on the new Star Trek film series created by LOST co-founder JJ Abrahams.  So while gamers were surprised that a decent looking Star Trek game was actually coming, developers were surprised it hadn't leaked in that time period.  

I only got to spend a few minutes with Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine from THQ and developed by Relic, but it was all I needed to know this game was going to be a viscerally satisfying 3rd person action game.

While we still cry every year to see a true co-op mode in the Call of Duty franchise de jour, you know - one in the actual campaign - we still enjoy the offerings the franchise gives us whether it's a zombies or a Spec-Ops mode. This year Modern Warfare 3 is delivering the latter - though its a souped up version of the two player co-op mode we saw in Modern Warfare 2.

There are some games that are visually appealing, and then there are games that make your jaw drop when you see them.  Dragon's Crown is one of the latter.  It's no wonder the game is beautiful, as it was developed by VanillaWare, famous for Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade.  Dragon's Crown is a first for the studio in many ways: high definition, co-op, and online play.  

It's true, we've been getting teased a bit when it comes to the co-opability of the next installment in the Ninja Gaiden series, Ninja Gaiden 3. Well, the teasing officially continues, this time from E3! We've been told that online co-operative and competitive modes (2-8 players) are currently being implemented for the game, and that these modes will both be "rich" and "challenging." Those adjectives are certainly... not... vague? We've also been promised that "new challenges, characters, and missions await those who choose to join the Shadows of the World online!" Well, you're very cryptic, Team NINJA, but I can respect that. Ninja Gaiden 3 will once again follow Ryu Hayabusa, exploring what drives him to fight, murder, maim, and kill. I've heard it will change how fans think about ninjas. Now I just need to figure out exactly how I currently think about ninjas. Hmmm. Ninja Gaiden 3 is planned to release early 2012 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Comp-stomp co-op is becoming a fairly prominent form of co-op in PC-heavy genres like tower defense and RTS's, so the combo style game Defenders of Ardania is exactly that in beautiful 4-player compstomp co-op on platforms across the board. The demo was playable on iPad since that version is furthest along, but PC, XBLA, and PSN will host the game as well.

I'll admit, I was a little down when I saw the first trailer for Centipede: Infestation.  The franchise was one of my all time favorites form the days of the Atari 2600 and the thought of a modern version of the game, something in the realms of a Pac-Man DX, really made me want to see the game.  Instead what was created was a twin stick shooter based in the universe.  After getting some hands on time with the game, I'll admit, it's better than I thought.

As a twin stick shooter fan and as a Warhammer 40K fan, it's hard not to be excited for the upcoming game Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. Combining these two things players are put in control of one of four different characters Sternguard Veteran, Techmarine, Vanguard Veteran and Librarian. The classes all have base starting points and their own unique special attacks.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier plays faster than the previous Ghost Recon games. You need to know this before we go any further. In fact, when you watch the videos below you'll notice a striking similarity to Splinter Cell: Conviction, both in aesthetic and in gameplay. This may be a little premature to say without getting some hands-on time with it, but: it seems safe to assume that if you liked Conviction you'd be right at home with Future Soldier.

We're working through our coverage of games from Day 2 of E3 as we head into Day 3.  We're loaded with a dozen or so appointments today of some great co-op titles from publishers like Bethesda, Sega and others.  While you wait for more hands on previews from the Co-Opticrew enjoy some pictures from around the show.  

E3 2011 has brought us some goodies from DICE's upcoming Battlefield 3.  The single player, co-op and versus game was in full effect at the show, with a video unveiling of "Operation Thunder" at EA's press conference.  We've posted that video below - and yes - that's what it looks like in game.  The video follows a tank column on an assault of an enemy compound when they are suddenly intercepted by an enemy tank formation.  Things go boom.

Every year I loved to be surprised by games I had absolutely no interest in before E3.  My game for day one of E3 was Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure.  To call it a game though, is a bit of an understatement, in reality Skylanders is a new product line from Activision that melds the character  collection of Pokemon with an action adventure game and versus battle brawler all rolled into one.  Oh, did I mention there's real figures to collect that save your character data and transmit it between platforms like the Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii?