Once a thief, always a thief, right? Well, don't forget to get your clown mask dry cleaned, because Payday: The Heist will be given a sequel in the not so far off future!

The spring gaming season is well underway and we've already seen a slew of co-op game releases, like Binary Domain, Journey, and Shoot Many Robots, where cooperative gameplay was a focus for the game from the start. Yet we've also seen some major AAA releases, like Mass Effect 3, hit store shelves where the addition of a multiplayer component is something new for the series; or an existing series, such as The Darkness II, swap it's formerly competitive multiplayer mode for a strictly cooperative one. Finally, you have the revival of older games that have had their format completely changed - leaving them ripe for the traditional player vs player multiplayer style to which we've grown accustomed - and still maintain the co-op gameplay (we're looking at you, Syndicate).

In my recent Syndicate review I mentioned a great scenario in which three of us managed to take on a particularly tough level and come out victorious.  The actual scenario turned out to be one of the final levels of the co-op campaign.  The most amazing thing about our victory was that my two partners, Mike and Andrew, were only level 1 or 2 characters with minimal upgrades as they had just gotten the game.  While my level 14 or 15 was nothing to scoff it, it still showcases how balanced Syndicate's co-op can be even with an unbalanced team.

As one of the worst kept secrets in a long time, the Syndicate franchise has gotten a reboot as a FPS. Developed by Starbreeze many nostalgic gamers were disappointed to learn of the more action oriented direction. But perhaps this was for the better? We go hands on with the single player campaign and deep co-op mode in our review.

I've been putting hours upon hours into Syndicate lately, gearing up for our review which will go live tomorrow.  Along side the single player, I played a ton of the game's co-op campaign this weekend on the Xbox 360, but ran into a few issues I thought I'd give people a heads up on before the review. 

"What's a Co-Op Spotlight," you ask?  It's our way of bringing extra attention to major co-op releases on launch day, providing you with highlights from past articles, information on co-op features, and plans for our future coverage.

The PlayStation Vita is launching this week.  Again.  Special people got the system last week.  I wasn't one of them.  I'm not jealous, or anything.  It features a handful of co-op launch titles.  Expect a full review of the hardware later this week.

On Tuesday, I hit up the train to Midtown to attend EA's Spotlight event. Our own Nick Puleo was originally planning on attending said festivities, but he was sadly down for the count, incapacitated by a nasty cough.

There will be no need to "breach" your 360 or PS3 in order to enjoy the 4 player online co-op mode in Starbreeze's upcoming revival of the PC classic Syndicate. In a move that's a bit different from how they (and many other publishers) are currently releasing games, publisher EA has stated that no online pass will be required in order to play the game with friends. This means that whether you buy the game used or new, you'll have access to all of the content that originally comes on the disc.

Many gamers today don't know they are born. Back when I started playing games you were lucky to get out of the first room, never mind complete the game (I'm looking at you Jet Set Willy). Today it’s all AutoSaves and constant check points. An upcoming game that may buck this trend is Syndicate. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Starbreeze have hinted that the game will provide around 50 hours of pleasure, but you'll have to work hard to complete everything.

The demo for Starbreeze's Syndicate shooter is out now on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.  The demo allows players to jump into the first mission of the game's co-op campaign with three other friends online.  The game's producer, Ben O'Donnel, has put out a video that showcases some of the features found in the demo as well as some that will appear in the full game.

Word from Major Nelson's Blog puts the Syndicate co-op demo's release date for January 31st on Xbox Live.  The demo should also be out on the PlayStation Network the same day.  The demo was officially announced last week and it features one of the nine co-op missions available in the full game.  It'll support four player online co-op.

We're a little over a month away from the release of a game that's certainly one of my most (hesitantly) anticipated co-op games of the year, Starbreeze's FPS remake of Syndicate. When I first heard about one of my favorite RPG, RTS hybrid games for the PC getting a new release, I was rather hesitant about the change to a FPS format. Then the game footage started making the rounds and I was a little more encouraged. The co-op aspect, though, is one that still leaves me wondering a bit about how well it will actuall work within the game's seemingly "twitch" framework. Fortunately for all of us, we'll be able to test it out soon enough.

Welcome to 2012 folks.  We're officially kicking off the February hype for game releases today with a new trailer for Syndicate.  You've got just about a month of a barren release calendar until we've got an onslaught of quality titles coming at the end of Winter.  Then we're hit with the likes of The Darkness II, PlayStation Vita, and many others.

There's a new video out for Syndicate that takes a look at the in game technology that powers the player's characters.  The agents in the game are utilizing something called the DART chip which allows them to see things other people can't see and do things other people couldn't do.   Want to hack into an enemy and have him turn on his fellow team mates?  You can do that.