Survival or Waves modes seem to be all the rage these days with co-op games.  And while we all love a good cooperative experience bolstered by solid exposition, it's hard not to love the arcade like nature of survival challenges.

Anyone who pays any attention to video game releases knows about exclusive pre-order deals for in-game content. Until a year ago, that content was a statue, a figure, a hat, or something we'd consider "swag" in the gaming world. That all changed when retailers and publishers started releasing codes for in-game content. It started off as a gold-colored Lancer for Gears of War 2, or a Warthog with flames on the sides for Halo Wars. While these were merely collectibles that changed in-game aesthetics, it has recently evolved to game-altering exclusives. I'm talking about exclusive characters or gameplay modes that could potentially change the experience of the game itself.

"Guitar Hero 5 has Johnny Cash in it!" "No." "It lets more than one person play the same instrument!" "No." "I get Guitar Hero Van Halen for free with it!" "Nope." "It lets you play as your Avatar..." "Really?"

And thus, Guitar Hero 5 was brought into our home.

Majesty 2 released on Friday, September 18th, a game I've been ridiculously excited about. It's as much a re-imagining of Majesty as it is a sequel, as it's been so long since the original came out.

If you never played Majesty, it's an odd combination of SimCity + World of Warcraft + The Sims. Weird, yeah. But it was fun and it worked. You basically built the buildings of your empire, had a simple tech tree and recruited heroes. You had no direct control over heroes. Each class had a unique AI and would pursue its own goals. But, you could encourage heroes to do what you wanted by placing reward flags around the map with money attached to them. Later in a game, you could directly influence the world through a variety of spells to aid your heroes (healing, buff and attack spells).

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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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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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Anyone involved in some sort of daily or ongoing operations department knows that there is always a cost of operations to each and every task. A bit of "give and take". This month we apply that principle to Co-Op Couples.

There are many different types of games on the market for many different types of people. So, what designates which games can be played together, and which can not? We at Co-optimus.com tend to preach friendly co-op gaming, and notice many of the single player games out there feel somewhat cheated out of a quality co-op experience.

Some games had co-op left on the concept floor, cut out in the final stages, or some that seem to have missed the co-op boat completely. This is the co-optimus list of games that we feel could really use co-op for an improved gaming experience.

E3 kicks off next week, and with that a plethora of gaming announcements.  While we at Co-Optimus hope to hear some great co-op news, it may be hard to top last year's show.  We decided to have a little fun today and give some predictions about E3 and what will be announced to the world, both co-op and not. 

Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption has all the makings of a definitive game in the western genre. So far, co-op has not been confirmed; should the Old West be wandered by lone gunmen...or trail buddies? We're not so new to these parts, so we've decided to spur up a another original Co-Optimus editorial. See you on the other side...Hyah!