Awwwwwwwwww, look at the puppy!  Screw seeing the future in the latest Fable 2 DLC, I want to see more PUPPIES!

It's a good week to be a fan of old school co-op!  One of the most beloved franchises in co-op history is headed to the Wii.  The appropriately titled Contra Rebirth will be released on Japan's WiiWare service next week.  As you can tell from the screenshots above, Contra Rebirth is quite retro, looking like it popped up out of a Super Nintendo cartidge.

Our Bothan spies have returned with several new details for the recently announced Star Wars title.  The biggest news is that Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes will feature online cooperative play for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.  This goes along with local co-op as well as drop-in and drop-out support for two players.  

Last week we reported that Gunstar Heroes, the Sega Genesis classic, would be returning to the Xbox Live Arcade.  Today, Sega has officially confirmed the rumors stating that not only would the game find it's way to the Xbox Live Arcade with 2 player local and online co-op, but to the PlayStation Network as well.

After numerous delays, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel has finally hit the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  The game features a four player co-op mode that allows gamers to meet up both locally and online at the same time.  There's also drop-in and drop-out support so at any time you can bring a friend in for some dragon slaying action.

Our friends at Loot Ninja have worked up an editorial not too dissimilar from our 2008 retrospective "Co-Op Successes and Failures" (by Jason Love) and more recent "Innovations in Co-Op Gaming" (by Katrina Pawlowski feat. the staff)...the Loot Ninja staff seek the definitive answer to a question that has been hounding our forum-goers for several months now: Do All Games Need Multiplayer or Co-Op?

Another patch will be available tomorrow for RTS/RPG hybrid Dawn of War II.   The update will take the game up to version 1.3, and features your standard bug fixes plus a bit of new content as well.  Only a couple co-op specific fixes are noted.

IGN broke the news one year ago that the solitary Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare map pack had registered over one million downloads in less than ten days, on Xbox Live alone. To this day, it remains the highest downloaded item on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network.

As the ArmA II website beefs up with new content -- including gameplay footage -- Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising has been delayed from "Summer 2009" to "Fall 2009".

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you a new era of hype.  What we have here is a trailer of a trailer for an upcoming game.  It's sort of like an announcement of an announcement, but with a little more meat.  The trailer of the trailer of Modern Warfare 2 was shown during the NBA Playoffs on TNT, announcing a full trailer coming at a later date.

Despite strong reviews, it appears one of two things may have happened with the latest 50 Cent title to bring on disappointing sales.  

The final song list for next month's Guitar Hero Smash Hits has made it to the internet.  Previously, the songs included from the original Guitar Hero, as well as Guitar Hero 2, had been revealed.  Now, the contributions from GH3, Rocks the 80s, and even a song from the Aerosmith disc are all included.