Looking for some quick co-op games this long weekend?  PlayStation owners can snag a few co-op titles that are currently on sale on the PlayStation Network.

PixelJunk Eden is available for only $4.99 and features an offline 3 player co-op mode.  You can read our official review here.

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 is available for the same price of $4.99 and features both offline and online 3 player co-op modes.   Our official review of this is also available here.

Wow, that's odd.  Two 3 player co-op games.  Very rare!  Get it while the getting is good as this deal ends December 4th!

In similar PSN news, to celebrate Thanksgiving you can get yourself a Sackboy with a Turkey on it's head for free.   Enhance your Little Big Planet experience with poultry!

I've ranted about it before, but wow is the fall gaming season a busted mess.  Publishers insist on releasing way too many titles before the holiday hits in an effort to get a piece of the consumer pie.  Sure it's a nice problem to have, you know, having too many games to play.  But when it all comes down to it, the publishers are only hurting themselves.  Gamers only have so much time and money to go around, and eventually someone is going to miss out.

It looks like someone is finally realizing that, at least to some degree.   After some very disappointing numbers for LittleBigPlanet on the NPD charts, Sony has said "LittleBigPlanet would be a clear number one any other time of year."   Oh really?  Well then why didn't you release it any other time?   

Sony is pleased with the sales numbers, and claims the game is built more for word of mouth and longevity thanks to DLC and user generated content, just not any user generated content.  I guess time will tell, next month's NPD numbers should be very interesting.

Lets hope publishers start to learn their lesson, and decide to space this stuff out.  Otherwise well deserving games, both co-op and not, will get lost in the shuffle.  

LittleBigPlanet has been out for several weeks now.  You've likely played through the clever and quite well done story mode.  The meat of the game, a virtual cornucopia of user created content, is spread out before you like a Sackboy buffet.  You check a few out, find a few favorites, and then, the next time you log in, you find they are gone.  Poofed.  Disappeared.

You would expect some levels to be deleted, certainly.  All the countless Mario levels, for instance.  Mirror's Edge, Metal Gear Solid, and many other games have been "reimagined" in Sackboy form.  It's no surprise that these types of levels are being pulled.  (Personally, I don't think they hurt anyone, but I suppose the threat of a lawsuit is too much.)  But what about this report from AeroRant?

I booted up today and two of my levels had been taken down. They deleted my Election level, which had over 20,000 plays and had been hearted a lot. I can almost understand them taking that one down because of the use of images, but it still hurts. The one I don’t understand is my Object Creation Station level. This was just a bunch of objects that I have made in which you can collect them all for personal use. This level did not use any copyrighted materials at all. When I tried to republish any of my levels I found myself locked out of publishing any new levels at all.

Most uncool.  Particularly upsetting is the last bit there, about not being able to publish new levels.  In response to reports like these, Sony has released an official set of guidelines as to what is and is not allowed in LBP user created content.  First, inappropriate content will be removed (no phallus monsters, a la Spore).  Secondly, "don't use images, brands or logos that you're not entitled to use".  That's about as open ended as it gets.  Technically, can we even make a Sackboy object, for example?  It seems the proverbial can of worms has opened here. The official press release from Sony is after the break.

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The game that was meant to the first big exclusive game for Sony Playstation 3, LittleBigPlanet, has not had the easiest start. However, despite the delay and rocky start, we here at Co-Optimus have finally gotten a chance to sit down and “play, create, and share” with friends and on-line strangers alike. The verdict? Read on, good viewer, read on.

I'm sorry...I know...I used a generic image to head this post off. I didn't even dig this one up on my own -- I grabbed it from Co-Optimus' image library -- and I am usually a stickler for original content.

If it makes you feel better, I've posted a Japanese LittleBigPlanet advertisement after the break. Whether you speak Japanese or not, I'm pretty sure you'll understand the gist of the video...Gametrailers.com labels it "Co-opt the competition". How's that for interesting and original?

Click the "Read More" link to view.

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We continue to get reports that the LittleBigPlanet servers are down more often than a fat kid on a see-saw.  Despite a new patch being released yesterday, there's been mixed reports of it actually doing anything.  

Sony realizes that it's not all rainbows and unicorns, and in an effort to make amends, has decided to release some downloadable costumes for your SackBoys for free.  Sure we already knew about the SpaceSuit, which was only supposed to be available the first week, but now has become a "seasonal item" along with Mr. Pumpkin head over there.  Word on the street though is North American markets won't see these till November 11th.  I mean...why in the world would you need pumpkin-sack earlier? 

Along with these free items there are already half a dozen premium items that are going to be available soon for about $2 a costume.  Most of these you already know about.

Here's to hoping the folks at Sony can get some stable servers for the weekend!

Welcome to the final day of our humble little, uh, LittleBigPlanet promotion!  Today we have something special for our Co-Optimus readers - some super sexy wallpaper for your desktop or laptop PC featuring our very own Billy and LBP's own SackBoy!

Today is also the final day of trivia.  We have one more question for you to answer.  But for what?  Answer all questions correctly and you'll be entered to win a free copy of LittleBigPlanet!  

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Sackboy may look cute and cuddly on the outside, but he's really quite dangerous.  If you're the Playstation Network, that is.  MediaMolecule is already working on a LittleBigPlanet sequel, as just announced, but they might want to take a look at the just released original.  It seems that the online portions of the game have been, well, a bit lackluster, to say the least.  Aeropause has it all wrapped up in a nutshell for you:

I’d spent five or six hours over the weekend jumping joyfully through a few levels of the game offline and hadn’t even opened up the level making tools yet. Just being able to voice chat and make jokes with my brother James while we work together to reach some stuff out of reach to a single sackboy would be great. What I found was a nearly complete meltdown of the online portion of the game.

In the few days since the game servers were turned on, most of the online capabilities of the game have been ground to a halt.  The servers have been off and on sporadically. 

My own personal experience has been mixed.  I got the game yesterday, and played offline for an hour or two with no problems.  (Well, I watched my youngest son play, our PS2>USB controller doesn't work with LBP.  Cha-ching!  Marc's buying more PS3 controllers tonight.)  Once the annoying pests, erm, my loving children went to bed, I fired up the online portion.  I was never able to join others for a level.  The game would freeze for up to a couple minutes when attempting to do so.  However, I could browse levels, and play them solo with only minor lag.  That's good, and the game never totally locked up, at all; however, I really wanted to get in some co-op.  Hopefully these issues will be resolved soon, and we'll all be able to get our Sackboy action on.  (That sounds way dirtier than it is.)

 We know that in the world of games journalism that it’s usually the journalist who sits down with someone in the gaming industry to do the interview. But this week, we thought we’d have some fun and let the game industry interview us! Sackboy, of LittleBigPlanet fame, swung by to grill the staff and contributors of Co-Optimus about their first co-op moments, their favorite co-op games, and more. Want to know whose gaming life was changed by playing Contra? Read on!

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MediaMolecule’s upcoming release for the Playstation 3, LittleBigPlanet, is certainly causing quite a stir, both here on Co-Optimus and abroad. With the recent announcement that not only will there be Sackboys of characters from your favorite third-party Sony games, but all of the user-created beta levels will be available at launch as well, the hype for this game is growing more and more. With the game slowly trickling out to a release, we here at Co-Optimus thought we’d take a look back at the classic games that have helped to pave the way for games like LittleBigPlanet.

Throughout the week we'll be posting some special LittleBigPlanet content.  You may notice some trivia questions attatched to it.  Remember these and remember your answers (keep them private!) - you may have a chance to win something at the end of the week!