I'm going to begin this news post with one of the most bizarre developer quotes in recent memory.

 Headed to PC, 360, and PS3 this May is Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.  A tactical shooter, the game will employ highly realistic gameplay.  PC fans will enjoy 8 player co-op, while PS3 and 360 users will have to settle for 4 players working together, in addition to NPC squadmates.  If you are a fan of real world based, super realistic tactical shooters, like a certain vacationing staff member, you might want to keep your eye on this one.  In the meantime, check out the first gameplay footage video after the break.

What's that you say?  House of the Dead, Left 4 Dead, and CoD World At War don't quite scratch your zombie itch?  We've got just the game for you.  Killing Floor is a total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2004.  Here's the description of the game from developer Tripwire's forums:

The GDC in San Francisco gave IGN.com a nice, specific and updated preview of Terminator: Salvation, set to be released on most platforms (no Handheld AI apocalypse for us) along with the film in May. This preview confirms the local co-op we already knew about, but with a bit of disappointing news for the online gamer.  

Major Nelson is reporting that this week's XBox Live Deal of the Week is none other than Alien Hominid HD.  The game sports a two player co-op mode through the campaign both online and off.  There's also four player co-op mini-games available online and off.

Peter Molyneux is a lofty game designer.  His ideas are always very big and usually pretty innovative.  At the recent Game Developers Conference Mr. Molyneux sat with IGN and discussed his idea for a game that sounds a lot like Portal, an idea he had four or five years ago.

This release almost slipped past us; we're not used to those weekend street dates!  Let's hope you've been doing some wrist and calf strengthening exercises, because Guitar Hero Metallica is here!  You and up to three co-op partners can now perform your best Metallica impersonations within the comfort of your own home.  Remember, using the links below saves you money off retail, and also supports Co-Optimus! 

We are big fans of Twitter here at Co-Optimus.  The site itself has an account, and so do most of the staff, including myself.  Many game companies have latched onto using Twitter as well, and often the latest news hits Twitter first.

Boom Blox Bash Blowout.  Boom Blox Bash Brouhaha.  Either of these titles would have kept the initial consonant sounds repeating.  But no, EA and Steven Spielberg had to go and break the pattern with "party", a super imaginative word that is totally underused in other Wii titles.  /facepalm

The rumor mill is ripe with co-op promise once again, and Aliens: Colonial Marines is next on the roster. After many previous rumors of it's cancellation, Aliens: Colonial Marines has made a minor news appearance. According to Sega Nerds, UK magazine Powerstation will be featuring a preview of the alleged Co-op title in next months issue of the magazine.

The rumors about a solid co-op mode in Xbox and PS3 versions of Ghostbusters were bounced around for a long time before finally being confirmed. We already know there were four original Ghostbusters in the film version that worked as a team to defeat some very memorable enemies, so what was the hold up? According to Tony Laborie, producer of Threewave Software, there were so many amazing things to be put in this game, Co-op almost didn't fit!  

This week the news is heavily influenced by what was shown off and announced at the Games Developer Conference.