It's one of the most influential video games of all time.  Two brothers.  A kidnapped heroine.  A trek to the distant lair of an evil overlord.  The description might fit Super Mario Brothers, and that game is excellent, for sure.  But this is Co-Optimus, and only co-op will do.  We're talking about Double Dragon, a game that is synonymous with co-op; indeed, for many people, it was the first co-op game they ever played.  We'll take a closer look at this genre-defining brawler for this week's installment of Co-Op Classics.

Right on queue the Call of Duty: World at War PC patch has come out.  Version 1.5 of the patch includes a host of bug fixes as well as Map Pack #2.  This contains the next four player co-op zombie map called Shi No Numa, or Zombie Swamp.

The staff has been busy, but it looks like it's finally time to get back to gaming.  Here's what we're doing this weekend.

If there is anything Konami is especially good at (besides designing some amazing game titles,) it's teasing the loyal Metal Gear Solid fans. The latest tease involved a countdown clock, some mysterious written characters, and a trailer potentially showing co-op for the first time. Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker has captivated our attention, and we take a close look at a few passages from a Konami interview that allude to potential co-op.

Ready to get your own Night Vision goggles with Modern Warfare 2?   Amazon has made all three versions of the game for the PlayStation 3, PC and 360 available for pre-order.  If you do preorder you'll get $10 credit towards another video game purchase.

Our friends over at Colony of Gamers had a chance to send in questions drawn from the community regarding the upcoming 2 player co-op Army of Two sequel.    Most of the questions revolved around the "What changes" type of scenario, and there's definitely some good answers here.

Do you like guns?  Jim, put your hand down.  Do you like explosions?  Jim - it's ok, really.  Do you like large scale tactical warfare set in a giant open world.  Yes Jim, we know.  

Valve has announced a new update is available for the PC version of Left 4 Dead.  The biggest addition to the update is a new lobby browser which helps you pair down and choose the exact co-op or versus game you are looking for.

When I was growing up, I was your stereotypical Nintendo Kid.  Sure, I knew of the Sega systems and I had played them from time to time, but I never owned any of their systems aside from a pair of Game Gears that a well-meaning grandparent sent my brother and I for Christmas.  Knowing this, you would also be able to extrapolate that I grew up playing Contra, the seminal co-op shooter we all know, love and memorized the Konami code for. Why am I bringing up Contra in this review? The reason is simple: Gunstar Heroes ruined Contra for me. The very first time I played this at a friend's house, I knew the game had changed. I couldn't go home again.

While the main part of ArmA 2 can be played cooperatively, there's a whole other aspect to the game that allows players to customize the battlefield by scripting their own missions.  You may have seen some of the insane videos we've posted - all of them were created with the game's mission editor.  

We've recently experienced a bit of disgruntlement regarding the aspect of cooperative teamwork in competitive games and how it applies to co-op as a genre. So here's the latest Battlefield Report, where we dig into team-based combat games for a glimpse of co-op.

Capcom has announced that Resident Evil 5, the two player cooperative survival horror shooter that was released earlier this year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, will be making it's way to Windows PC on September 15th.