Coming two years after their well received PS3 launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man, Insomniac Games’ Resistance 2 launched last week with a couple of new twists. Amongst them is an all new co-op campaign mode that lets you and up to 7 of your friends team up on-line to tackle the deadly Chimera threat that’s invading U.S. soil.

One of the key titles in this year's PS3 holiday lineup is Resistance 2.  Many features we love here at Co-Optimus have been implemented, such as an 8 player co-op campaign and local split screen co-op.  However, it appears there are some serious issues with the latter.  Co-Optimus reader "blakepro" was the first to bring this to our attention, in a forum post.  However, it seems the word is out, as you can read in this snippet from a review at PS3Blog.net:

Gears mania has definitely hit here at Co-Optimus, but GoW2 certainly wasn't the only huge release of the week.  AAA title Resistance 2 debuted this past Tuesday, and IGN's review is already up.  You'll recall the game features an 8-player co-op mode, which is above and beyond most games of this type.

It's a clash of the virtual titans this week.  In this corner we have Marcus Fenix; big, brawny and wielding a chainsaw machine gun.  In the opposing corner we have Nathan Hale; quick, agile and infected with an alien virus.

According to a post on the NeoGAF forums by Insomniac Games community manager J Stevenson, the co-op campaign should take somewhere in the neck of 15-20 hours to complete on it's own.  This was in a response to a post complaining that the co-op campaign only had 5 maps.

The Resistance 2 multiplayer beta is underway, and lucky for us - it has co-op!  We dive head first into the game's 8 player co-op mode and give you the skinny on the Chimera slaying.  We also have 3 minutes of exclusive video footage!

With 8 player co-op title Resistance 2 a short few weeks away, the marketing campaign has kicked up in a BIG way.  The above picture is for a building size ad for the game featured in download Los Angeles.  Luckily no office workers were harmed in the making of said ad, though a few screamed in fear before having their morning coffee.

In case you missed it this weekend, there was some pretty good Resistance 2 Co-Op News.  First up, the beta started.  Those folks who preordered via Gamestop or subscribed to Sony's Qore service should have received their codes via email.  If you haven't gotten yours yet, you may want to check your spam filters.

Some good news out of the Sony camp today.  One of the more requested features we've been seeing lately is to have split screen co-op play combined with online play.  What does that mean?  That means you and a friend could be playing split screen with other people online as well.  Very few games seem to support this, Halo 3 being the biggest that comes to my mind.

The stories for this week:

Good news folks.  The 8 player co-op title Resistance 2 will support the PlayStation 3's Trophy feature.   Trophies are like Achievements on the Xbox 360, but they are shinier.  They may be more bling, but they aren't available in every game, so it's nice to see one of the biggest PS3 titles to come out this fall will support them.

RUN do NOT walk.  Quick.  Stop reading.  Click here.  Go go go.  If not you may not make it into the Resistance 2 Co-Op Beta. 

Sometimes it pains me that I have a real job.  I could be an intrepid reporter, working for MTV, living in Manahattan and playing games for a living like Stephen Totilo.  The lucky bastard recently got some hands on time with Resistance 2's co-op campaign with seven other reporters in NYC.

Resistance 2 is likely the most anticipated game for the PS3 this holiday season.  The promise of 8 player co-op earned it a respectable #4 on our own list of hot upcoming releases.  Oh yeah, and it features up to 60(!) players at once competitively.  It is for these reasons, then, that today's news regarding the beta for the game is noteworthy.  Shacknews reports that the online application form for the Resistance 2 beta is now available.  You can guarantee a spot in the beta by preordering, or subscribing to Qore (Sony's downloadable video magazine), but what about the more economically minded?  Just diddy-bop on over the the official Resistance 2 site and apply.  The beta will test multiplayer, including the previously mentioned 8 person co-op.  This sounds like a good way to spend some time until the games release on November 4!

This is a story from Joystiq where they sat down with Brian Intihar, Insomiac's Community Manager (and former 1Up/EGM Editor we might add), at PAX 08 last week.  They asked him a bunch of questions about the upcoming Resistance 2 game and at the very end there are a few questions about the co-op part of the game.