Xbox 360 and PS3 owners have been enjoying the new songs, improved instruments, and added features of Rock Band 2 for over two months now.  To this point, Wii and PS2 rockers have been left out.  We have a bit of good news for half that group, namely the Wii owners.  The Wii version of Rock Band 2 will be shipping on December 18th, which means if you're lucky, you can be playing it on Christmas Day.  The Rock Band Forums have the official news, coming from Harmonix themselves.

We still don't know too much about Demigod, but we did have some hands on time with it back during PAX.  We came away impressed with the Diablo-ish RPG action combined with an RTS style game.  

As we previously reported, Fable II's DLC Knothole Island is coming this month, and as per Lionhead Studios' official announcement, both the host and henchman in a co-op session would need to have the content installed come December 12th.

It's a holiday extravaganza on the Co-Opticast as we chat it up about our holiday gift guides. Not only that we find out what we've been playing lately from the dreaded fall season that's full of co-op gaming goodness. Finally we dive a bit into the uncharted world of user created content. Be sure to give this show a listen, as next episode we want to hear from you! That's right we're taking user questions for the final podcast of 2008.

Hit the Podcast Page to Listen or Download

Looking for some fresh new maps to slaughter the Locust Horde in with four of your friends?  Then look no further than the "Combustible" Map Pack for Gears of War 2.  The three new maps;  Flood, Gold Rush, and Fuel Station, are available in both versus and co-op Horde mode form.  

Billy seems like a happy robot, doesn't he?  Sometimes, though, things happen in the world of co-op that make him sad, and even angry!  Today, we let Billy rant a bit about a feature near and dear to our hearts: user created content!  Also, we interview Dennis McCauley of GamePolitics!

 In many ways, co-op gaming is going through a sort of renaissance. The past few years have been a rebirth for co-op and 2007/2008 could be considered “Co-Op Year.” With most systems having several AAA titles featuring co-op (including Halo 3, Resistance 2, etc.). However, many would say that this renaissance of co-op gaming could not have happened without online co-op. This is because the rebirth of co-op seems to have coincided with the rise of online co-op.

Our friends over at GameDaily are running a super contest celebrating the holidays.  Called the Holicraze, today's giveaway should interest you fine folks.  By simply sending an email and telling them who you'd spend a zombie apocalypse with, you can be entered to win some fine co-op friendly prizes.

Forget the traditional chocolate advent calendars this year and check out neighbor site The Blue Skittle's special treat for the gaming community...

Last night was the Spike TV Video Game Awards, or the VGAs.  And while the spectacle was about gaming, the focus tends to be on the hollywood glamour and glitz of celebs attending.  Hosted by Jack Black the entire thing was a mildly entertaining experience.  The highlights for me personally were trailers for Mafia 2 and Uncharted 2.  

Amazon is currently running their 15 Deals in 15 Days of Video Games deal.  Every day there's some new video game related deal, today's just so happens to feature the very co-op friendly game Saint's Row 2.  In fact, the best deal is the collector's edition, which is available for $49.99 (regularly $79.99).  Also available are the regular editions for cheap, the PlayStation 3 version will set you back $42 while the 360 version will set you back $45.

I remember when they announced the co-op mode of Prototype was cancelled.  They left us with a glimmer of hope, hope that perhaps they would come to their senses and add back in some sort of cooperative mode.  We all had visions of Crackdown in our heads, and despite a possibility of a sequel, this was as close as we were going to get.  But now a recent 1UP interview with Radical Entertainment's Chris Ansell, well it looks like there's no chance in hell.