Like so many other games these days online play eventually disappears into the Matrix - forever lost to gamers   forever.  Never again will you be able to walk those hallowed halls with your mates in online co-op.  On the 10th anniversary of the SOCOM franchise, Sony is shutting down the servers for several of their games, including SOCOM: Combined Assault and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 - both the co-op titles.

A typical conversation between Ubisoft and Co-Optimus goes like this; "What do you want?" - Information. "Who is Rainbow 1?" - you are Rainbow 6.  "Co-Optimus is not a number, we are free men!" We may consider ourselves free and not Prisoners, but we would still like more information on the upcoming Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots and some artwork if you please?  Ubisoft have duly obliged.

Earlier this month, out of nowhere, a long-lost PlayStation 2 game that never reached the end of its development appeared - a third-person shooter based on the Gremlins franchise. Someone must have pulled the shades before the game could be presented to the public.

This new video of Rage offers over five minutes of FPS gameplay.  The protagonist is pitted against the Shrouded, one of the many hostile factions in the post-apocalyptic shooter. We get to see some of the driving elements, as well as a few weapons and gadgets.  Did I say gadgets?  I meant death turrets and mechanical spider monsters.  Check out the video, you'll see.   We know that there is a co-op mode called Legends of the Wasteland, which allows two players to play through stories overheard during the single player game.  We don't know exactly how the co-op mode will work, but we will bring you more information as it becomes available.

It's Tuesday!  Time to run off to your local game distributor to get your new game fix.  Some of you may be happily snuggling your 3DS.  Others may nursing your 48th lentiuclarly-induced headache, and some of you may be saying things like; "The system is two days old!  Time to get something newer and shinier."  Well, if you're craving a healthy dose of stylized Chinese military history, or wish to see giant sweaty men hug-out their differences, you're in luck!  Here's a list of this week's co-op releases.  For more info on each game, just follow the links.

The original Splinter Cell trilogy is getting re-packaged on Blu-Ray and shipped this March, along with a similar offering for the last-gen Prince of Persia trilogy (starting with Sands of Time). Included in the Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy will be Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the first in the series to feature co-op.

If you've ever done any behind-the-scenes research on the wildly popular and legendary original Star Wars trilogy, you might know that George Lucas borrowed from many franchises for Star Wars. Pandemic did the same for Star Wars Battlefront, and the result was a die-hard fan named Jim.

Straight out of Capcom's "Captivate" event in Hawaii comes a fresh batch of screenshots from the recently announced co-op mode for Dead Rising 2.  With them, we get an idea of the variety in the character customization we are going to have for our own respective Chuck Greene.

The Red Star was a co-op game for the PS2 that arrived late in the console's lifecycle, well after the next gen of consoles had hit the market, but that didn't stop it from being a thoroughly enjoyable beat 'em up/shoot 'em title that's worth playing.  Well XS Games, the game's publisher, recently announced that this gem of a co-op title will be given a new life on the PSP and iPhone "early spring 2010."  As a huge fan of both the game and the comic series it's based on, I'm excited that this game will see a new release on some other gaming platforms.  Hopefully it does well enough that an XBLA or PSN version won't be far behind.

Today, we conclude our look at the shape of band-centric games to come. In part one, we identified the qualities that the current band-centric games all share. Now, we'll take these traits and see how some of the biggest acts of all time stack up. Which bands will have their own video game?

The Battlefield Report digs back a few years again, recalling the PlayStation 2 era and the glory days of splitscreen bot matches.

We've had quite a bit of fun at Band Hero's expense here at Co-Optimus. Is it a carbon copy clone of Guitar Hero, just another attempt by Activision to flood the game shelves? Or is it a kid-friendly, Top 40 music game that holds its own compared to other games in the genre?

It's been a couple months, so naturally, it's time for another Guitar Hero release. Following up the surprisingly great Guitar Hero 5 is Guitar Hero Van Halen. Is Guitar Hero Van Halen worth buying, or even playing? Find out in our review!

 Everybody wants some Guitar Hero Van Halen trailers, sadly you only get one and a few screenshots.

The Rock Band series of games is arguably the best in the genre.  The first Rock Band pioneered the full band experience.  The sequel brought us the disc export feature, allowing you to play previous disc-based songs using the latest and greatest game engine.  The Beatles Rock Band is the best band-centric game ever.  And LEGO Rock Band is far from just another easy cash grab, full of features that make it appealing to gamers of all ages.