The LittleBigPlanet beta has come and gone, and now we're all in the same boat: waiting impatiently until the game's release on October 21, an interminable eight days from today.  Perhaps a few tidbits of LBP news will tide you over in the meantime, while you daydream of Sackboys.

First of all, 1UP reports that user created levels from the LBP beta will remain in the final game.  Previous news had indicated that the content would all be wiped for a clean slate at launch; however, Media Molecule's Alex Evans has confirmed that all the hard work people put into their levels will not be wasted.  So, even from day one, there will be plenty of cool stuff to check out.  Personally, I'm quite happy to know we'll be able to see some of the sheer imagination and flat out ingenuity people have when creating these levels.

What are some examples of that ingenuity, you ask?  How about a recreation of the classic puzzler Tetris?  Old school Russian music included!  That's pretty impressive, but wait until you check out the working calculator, with a bajillion parts, after the break.

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It's an expensive time of the year, for the co-op gamer.  Some premiere titles have just been or will shortly be released.  So, money can be tight, and any good deals are worth looking into.  One such good deal has been posted over at PS3News. 

PSN users who purchase PixelJunk's Eden between now and October 16 can download the expansion for another PixelJunk title, Monsters, for free.  So, for $10, you get a $16 value.  That's not too shabby, at all,  especially if you already have Pixel Junk Monsters and were looking to get the expansion, Monsters Encore. 

PixelJunk Eden is a bit hard to classify, but you can check out our review of it here.  It seems like one of those more abstract titles, with some truly hypnotic art design.  PixelJunk Monsters is a bit easier to describe: it's a Tower Defense game.  It is also ranked fairly well by our users, with 4.0 stars.  I know I'll be downloading both games to see if this deal is worthy of my increasingly scarce gaming dollars.

Beyond Co-Op is where we talk about other news around the industry that isn’t necessarily tied to co-operative gaming. Each week will see the subjects of the column listed on the front page with more in-depth discussion after the break. If you have any suggestions, please contact us at tips@co-optimus.com with a subject related to “Beyond Co-Op”.

The stories for this week:

- Halo 3: Recon Finally Announced

- Resistance 2 and Resistance: Retribution Connectivity Announcement

- Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3 Go Gold

- Beginning of the Fall Gaming Avalanche This Week

- Xbox Live Experience Week 5: Xbox Live Marketplace

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Hot on the heels of yesterday's Little Big Planet news, a couple more new Sackboys have been revealed.  Solid Snake of Metal Gear fame, and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII will be reresented in Sackboy form.  You've gotta love these guys!  Taking popular video game characters and making little burlap sack versions of them seems simple, yet they are certainly fun.  No details about how to get these little fellows are given, but you can see some higehr res pictures here.  I'm wondering who's next?  Sackboy Optimus Prime, I hope...

Have you been wondering what will happen to all the user created content for LBP after the beta?  So have we.  Some of the work done has been amazing; there are some real gems in there, reminding of just how creative fans can be.  It would seem like a shame for all that hard work to be ereased, wouldn't it?  A poll has been put up at the LBP News Site, to decide this very issue.  Currently, 82% of voters feel the content should remain, while the remaining minority would prefer a clean slate for the game's upcoming launch.  

If what 1UP is reporting is correct, the majority have already got their wish.  And that is good news as we can all co-op our way through some sweet user created levels as soon as it launches.

You've probably seen the Sackboy of Kratos, of God of War fame, announced as a downloadable character for Little Big Planet.  Ripten reports that the GameStop preorder bonus will include quite a bit more.  Those who preorder will get Kratos, Minotaur, and Medusa Sackboys (Sackpeople?), plus a God of War-themed level.  Quite a nice bonus, I must say.

It looks like more familar characters will be available in Sack form, too.  According to the latest EGM magazine, characters from third party games will also be making appearances as DLC for the game.  Even Disney characters included!  Let's hope these characters are free, or at least, quite inexpensive.  If the game ends up being as popular as the hype would suggest, I'm sure companies will be lining up to get their characters featured in LBP.

Lastly, For those of us who aren't lucky enough to be in the beta, Wired has posted a top 10 list of their favorite user created levels.  I personally enjoyed the "Red Rings of Burninating" level, myself.  The list is definitely worth checking out, here. 

Japanese gaming mag Dengeki Playstation recently revealed that Level-5's upcoming PS3 RPG will be featuring a four-player online co-op mode! Players can connect to a central lobby and form groups of four adventurers to take on quests.

While we have no word on whether or not the online component will be tied to the single player content at all, the recent wave of Phantasy Star Online-like co-op modes in Japanese action RPGs (Monster Hunter/Phantasy Star Portable & Zero, et al) is reassuring.

Call of Duty: World at War's announced four player co-op mode certainly put the game into the collective mind here at Co-Optimus. Well, it seems like the crew at Treyarch have co-op on their mind this week. The latest blog entry into their IGN blog is entitled "Building Co-Op From the Group Up." In the blog post, they discuss cooperative and competitive co-op, as well as the design behind them. In the blog, they also discuss the risk they were taking by adding co-op to a Call of Duty game.

After all, there is a certain trend-setting standard that you have to live up to with each new Call of Duty title – this would be the first time in the title’s history that players would be able to play online together through the kinds of levels that were previously only playable in Single Player.

The blog post is very informative, and gives great insight as to why World at War has co-op. Hit up the link and check it out.

Mercenaries 2 has been covered many here at Co-Optimus. Having played a bit of the game, it seems like a decent mercenary simulator. Well, for those of you clamoring for an update for Mercs 2, your prayers are being answered. According to Shacknews, an update for the game will be coming out on October 13th for the 360 and PS3 versions of the game. The update will add cheat codes to the game (essential for a game like Mercenaries 2) and several new playable characters.

On the co-op front, the update is supposed to loosen restrictions for playing with buddies from other regions. So, sounds like everyone's getting a bit of what they want.