It seems summer has kept the Co-Optimus staff on the road, as it's been weeks since the whole crew was here.

We've already covered a bit about Madballs: Babo Invasion.  We know the game will sport a four player online co-op mode putting players in the role of classic 80's franchise Madballs.  Today though we've learned of an interesting option the game will allow on the Xbox 360 version of the game.  

  This month in our Beyond Co-Op Reviews we take a look at quite a few solid titles. We compare the open worlds of Prototype against inFAMOUS; we look at what happens when Plants and Zombies mix. We also check out Knights in the Nightmare, Bionic Commando and the latest Indiana Jones title. ...

The demo version for Trine has just hit the interwebs weighing in at around 500MB.  Trine, as you might remember, is a three player local co-op puzzle platformer.  Players are put in the role of one of three characters, each with unique abilities to solve environmental puzzles and move on through the levels.

Earlier this week Microsoft held an event to showcase some upcoming holiday products including Windows 7, Zune HD, and numerous Xbox 360 titles.  We've already written up some extensive coverage of Halo 3: ODST, which if you haven't already, you should go check out.  Despite ODST being a highlight of sorts, there were other interesting things worth mentioning

About a month ago we told you that Croteam was hard at work on a new Serious Sam title based on a brand new graphical engine.  A new Serious Sam game was announced today, but not being developed by Croteam, instead new developer Devolver Digital.  The game is called Serious Sam HD, and it's a remake of the original on the new Serious Engine 3.  

You have to admire the folks over at Epic.  Already, just over half a year since release, Gears of War 2 its fourth title update.  Not too many games get this level of attention, and we're glad to see that there's a lot of co-op goodness to be had in this latest update.  From Epic's official Update 4 Release Notes:

One of the coolest features in the original Army of Two was the weapon shop.  Not only could you buy new guns to use in your co-op missions, you could upgrade and customize the guns, even add gold plating.  Purchasing and upgrading weapons are cool, but what if you could design one from scratch?  Now you can in the latest contest from EA.

Ruffian Studios doesn't want to get into a pissing match with Realtime Worlds, the original developer of Crackdown.  Of course part of that reason is so many members of the Ruffian team that are working on the game's sequel were actually AT Realtime Worlds when they made the game.  How many?   Well almost half.  

Sometimes a game comes along that's premise is so awesome, so original, we simply can't ignore it - regardless of whether or not that game has cooperative gameplay.  Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS is that game.  

If you're looking to enter massive cooperative battles against thousands of soldiers, well then, you won't have to wait much longer.  Bohemia Interactive and Got Game Entertainment have announced their partnership for the North American release of Arma II on the PC.

One of our favorite old school cool co-op titles is Castle Crashers.  Apparently, we aren't the only ones who enjoy the game, either, according to the Behemoth development blog.  Just two days ago, on June 22, the one millionth player was listed on the Castle Crashers leaderboard.  This achievement makes Castle Crashers the fastest growing title ever released on Xbox Live Arcade.  It's good to see that such an honor belongs to a very strong co-op title!