I realize I am late to the party, but I just beat Halo 3 in co-op mode.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I checked the official Co-Optimus news queue and lo and behold, there's a new video for the next Halo game, Halo Wars.  The video features lots of gameplay, along with a few well done cut scenes, no stranger to the Halo saga.  The developers offer their perspective on what makes Halo Wars different from the typical RTS, and some choice bits about translating one of the premiere FPS series into RTS form.

I'm a sucker for a good SHMUP.  I was pretty excited when last year we saw a solid remake of 1942 in 1942: Joint Strike and an Ikaruga re-release on the Xbox Live Arcade.  Since then, well I've been a sad penguin.  Especially since the island of the rising sun got Raiden IV.  Boo - no fair!

Warning, the following post is going to confuse, baffle and perhaps excite you.  

Last week during the Video Games Live concert in Seattle Washington, the orchestra performed for the first time ever the theme from Halo 3: ODST.  The Halo franchise has always been about atmosphere and mood, and Marty O'Donnel's music plays a huge role in that.

If you downloaded the beta yesterday, you may already know a bit about the Orks in Dawn of War 2.  Gametrailers takes a look at the class and some of the units.  Mostly it just shows a bunch of green dudes smashing and destroying the crap out of everything.   

As Co-Optimus celebrates its first birthday and the past year's staggering number of visitors, Ars Technica joins the celebration shortly after launching their own Ars 5.0 and announcement that traffic has doubled for the esteemed geeksite.

One year ago today we launched Co-Optimus.com with the hope of furthering cooperative gaming.  We had three main goals.

When you're in a war it's good to be friends with 50 Cent.  Taking nine bullets and surviving doesn't happen everyday - so it's probably a good idea to stick close to Curtis.  Perhaps this is why the latest co-op trailer shows lots of Fitty's friends blowing the crap out of everything with the rapper by their side.  DJ Whoo Kid, Tony Yayo, Lloyd Ranks, and others make an appearance.  Don't know those names?  Neither do we, but that doesn't mean we can't wait to be them in the game's two player co-op mode!

Tipster Kielaran sent in this 1UP article, which reports that MTV and EA want to expand on the Rock Band series' 600+ song lineup...a LOT.

As Co-Optimus celebrates its one year anniversary today, we thought we’d expand upon our “2008 Co-Op Year in Review” and our tenth Co-Opticast to look at just how much co-op has grown recently and what people inside the games industry think about it.

Back in May of last year, the word got out the Bionic Commando: Rearmed would lack online play despite sporting both multiplayer and co-op modes.  Obviously this disappointed us, as it seems to be the case all too often these days, developers get things almost right in terms of a fully featured game. 

If haven't had a chance to check out the Dawn of War 2 Multiplayer beta - well now is your chance!  The beta is available to download via Steam or Games for Windows Live Marketplace and allows players to battle it out online in five different maps.