Blake "Broodax" Corner's Great Features in Co-Op Gaming couldn't have landed at a better time. Hot off the heels of this season's Saints Row 2 and Mercenaries 2 releases comes the news that Halo 3: Recon will feature open-world gameplay for a significant portion of the story mode.

CVG reports that New Mombassa will be partially explorable as the lead character searches for clues surrounding the events teased in the Prepare to Drop trailer. Gameplay will consist of these exploration segments tied together with linear flashbacks more reminiscient of Halo 3's levels.

Players will be able to control different members of the ODST squad, including the now-famous "Rookie" (pictured above), who is being voiced by Nathan Fillion of Firefly reknown.

Click "Read More" for some choices quotes from the article and from Bungie's Joseph Staten.

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As you can see, this is not "This Week in Co-Op." Today marks the debut of a new column, "Great Features in Co-Op Gaming," that will alternate with This Week in Co-Op. So, this week you get our new column, next week it's back to This Week in Co-op. Well, with that clarified, let's get on with the column. This column is dedicated to discussing fun features that make co-op games worth playing. Everyone has played a co-op game and (to themselves or aloud) said "Oh man, 'feature x' is so cool" So, what feature is the focus for this week? Open world/sandbox gameplay.

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Like many Xbox 360 owners, I am a big Crackdown fan. So, recent news regarding a possible sequel for the supercop simulation game got me interested. In an interview with Videogaming247, Realtime Studios boss Colin Macdonald said that Crackdown 2 could be a possiblity. While the team is currently working on its next game, All Points Bulletin (which is essentially a MMO version of Grand Theft Auto), a sequel to Crackdown is not out of the realm of possibility. So, nothing confirmed, but at least the door is not shut on the possiblity of a Crackdown 2.

Please excuse the overuse of the homonyms in the title of this headline, but sometimes it cannot be avoided. Anyhoo, it seems that Sacred 2 : Fallen Angel (a game more known for its PC roots) will have co-op in its 360 version. IGN has a preview of the game, where they detail the game for those who are unaware of what the game is all about. But why should co-op gamers care at all? Well, we will let IGN explain.

Games in the vein of Diablo like Sacred 2 scream for multiplayer options. Don't worry, Sacred 2 has them. The PC version will allow 16 players to join up simultaneously but that number has been limited to four on Xbox 360. You can play with two players offline confined to a single screen, or hop online to roam anywhere and play alongside a few others. And yes, you can play online with two players on the same box. Extra players can be added on the fly and drop out whenever they want seamlessly, too, and the game automatically scales the difficulty to match it.

So there you go, drop in, drop out action-RPG gameplay for up to four players. Sounds good to me, though the Sacred series is somewhat obscure to non-PC gamers.

This past week, one game has been on my mind. That game is Crackdown, a great co-op game for the 360. As is my nature, I always find the good games months and years after they come out. However, sometimes being late to the party can be nice, since I was able to discover Crackdown without the pretense of the Halo 3 Beta fury that was associated with Crackdown at that time. So, in the past week, I've been experimenting with the game and thoroughly enjoying the co-op experience.

I should first thank my Crackdown teammate, yimmt666, who I met randomly and is now my "Crackdown guy." So together with my fellow Crackdown gamer, I discovered the great fun that is Crackdown.

Hilarity described in detail, after the break.

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CVG reports that a full list of the multiplayer modes of the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV has been released.  Spain's PSM3 magazine reveals the names of an impressive 15 different multiplayer modes.  At least two of these modes will feature co-op.  One mode will allow up to four criminals to team up in opposition to the police.  Another, called Hangman's Noose, is based on a mission from the single player campaign.  Players will team up to escort a Mafia man across the city.  When a SWAT team ambushes them, they will have to fight for survival, and to complete the mission.

Other multiplayer modes will include deathmatch, fetch quests, and races, as well as the open ended "Free Roam".  It is unknown if any of these other multiplayer modes will feature co-op.  The full list of multiplayer modes is available after the jump.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a nice preview up of Prototype.  Prototype seems to be an evolution of sorts of a Crackdown style game in which the player controls are character with super human powers that are upgraded and grow over time.  Of course, it wouldn't be news if the game didn't have a cooperative mode, and to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest co-op experiences in a game like Crackdown is no small feat.  Thankfully, it sounds like the developers are up to the task.

Co-op seems like another obvious angle for a game like this to take. Where once developers moaned about how hard it was to create co-op games, now it’s often the first thing they’ll mention. What will Prototypes co-op do for gamers? “The short answer is, ‘Something they’ve never seen before,’” claims Bennison. “Online co-op is a key feature in Prototype. You’ll be able to have two completely free-moving Prototype characters in this open-world environment simultaneously. One of our favorite events that happened recently in co-op testing was pretty cool: We had one Prototype piloting an Apache chopper over Time Square, while our second Prototype back-flipped off an 80-story building and landed right onto the Apache’s wing. Once there, he began ripping Hellfire missiles off the firing rack and hurling them at elite units in tanks below. It was insane! When we say we want to bring new experiences to bear, that’s exactly what our designers have in mind. The entire game story can be played in co-op mode with a friend online, and the opportunity for player-driven improvisation on how you approach the missions together is mind-blowing.

Be sure to read the full interview with Producer Tim Bennison over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.