The stories for this week:

Thirteen months, just over a year.  That's how long it has been since Guitar Hero Aerosmith was released.  I picked the game up as an impulse buy when it was heavily discounted a few months ago.  It lay in our game drawer until about a week ago, mostly unplayed.  When we moved, the games got shuffled around, and when I reached in to see what caught my eye one night, tired from opening box after box, GH Aerosmith caught my eye.  I summoned my 8 year old partner, and we grabbed our guitars and went for it. The first thing we noticed was that thirteen months may not be too long in real life, but that's not the case for music games.  Guitar Hero Aerosmith runs on the GH3 engine.  This was an awkward time for the franchise.  Rock Band was the new hotness, and the obscene difficulty and ill-conceived boss battles of GH3 didn't hold up well in comparison.  This awkwardness is even more apparent now; GH Aerosmith feels like a game from a different era.  Only two player co-op, no drums or vocals, and a general lack of polish put a damper on the experience somewhat.  The simple fact is, older music games just don't hold up well, reminding one of annual sports game franchises.

Looks like we're a little short-staffed this weekend, what with our own Nick "bapenguin" Puleo on travel, but we ALWAYS find time to play games.  Here's what we're hitting up this weekend:

As August nears, more Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 3 (including Nazi Zombie map Der Riese) teasers are dropping: pictured above is a chunk of the newest wallpaper made available at CallofDuty.com this morning.

Atlus' upcoming hardcore RPG Demon's Souls has been on our radar since it was announced- Just ask Jason! Atlus has been posting developer blogs to their forums for some time, and this week's edition focuses on the online play, which sports "seamless" online integration. It also provides a wealth of information about the three-player co-op!

More news coming for co-op fans straight out of Comic-con.  This time it's regarding some upcoming additions to the lofty Halo franchise.  First up is Halo Waypoint.  Described as the "a new destination for "Halo" fans on Xbox LIVE", it sounds like a channel devoted to Halo news, trailers, screenshots, and the like.  A career system with ranking based on both in and out of game goals should keep Halo fans busy.

The Borderlands hype machine is in full effect, and if the latest preview is any indication, the game looks to be worthy of all the buzz.  G4 has a preview of Borderlands' co-op mode, and it's pretty sweet.

Remember what I said about the San Diego Comic-Con the other day? Well, it's proving to be a goldmine of Co-Op news, as the new "Gold Rush" co-op mode in Uncharted 2 has had its veil lifted. Essentially, it plays like a mashup of the multiplayer beta's co-op mode and capture the flag. You and your buddies have to snag a piece of treasure and bring it to a capture point on the map while taking out waves of AI enemies.  You can pass the treasure to other players, and you'll have to team up to get the treasure over obstacles.

It's like deja vu all over again.  Band Hero has been announced for the Nintendo DS via press release.  Wait a minute, you say.  The DS has a microphone built in, and the Guitar Grip has been out for a while now.  How are folks supposed to play the drums?  There's a miniaturized and likely finger cramping attachment coming that will allow just that.  The aptly named Drum Grip (which you don't really... you know, grip) will let you pretend to play the larger pretend drums you have back home, while you're on the go!

Kung Fu Panda was not a must-buy for Xbox owners, but if you bought an Xbox 360 this past spring, it's very likely that you got stuck with a copy anyway. Is there any better way to grab some Achievements than by spinning through a co-op children's game on a rainy Saturday afternoon? Answer: yes, there is.

There's a new video from the San Diego Comic-Con show floor that shows Pixel Junk's next co-op creation called Pixel Junk Shooter.

Capcom has released a fresh batch of screens for Lost Planet 2 on the Xbox 360.  There's no co-op being shown off in the pics, but rest assured, the game supports a robust four player co-op mode.