April was a surprisingly busy month, seeing the release of several major co-op games like Star Trek, Dead Island: Riptide, BattleBlock Theater, Defiance and many others. Lucky for you we were there with 13 reviews of several of these games. News was pretty light as the industry gears up for E3 2013 in June. Here are some of the features, reviews, and articles you may have missed for April 2013 in co-op gaming.
Space Hulk is quickly approaching and the team at Full Control have started their developer diaries. In this short video, Tomas Lund covers some of the basic questions people have been asking the team about their upcoming translation of the popular Games Workshop board game, Space Hulk.
Techland's "Project Hell" has officially been announced as Hellraid. They're calling it a "First Person Co-Op Slasher." Sounds good to me. Techland developed Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, so we should have an idea of how the game will play.
The day many of us have been waiting for has come, and Soul Sacrifice has been released for everyone to purchase. To showcase the game, the official launch trailer for Soul Sacrifice has been released. It highlights the action of the game, alongside cinematic music and grandiose captions. Whatever, its just a trailer.
Let me save you some time. This is a bad game. I played through the whole thing, and it felt like work -no, not even work. Worse. It was like an awkward obligation you have to fulfill for an ex in front of her family. As if you promised to help her move, then dumped her. You still help her move, because you feel bad. Now you have to talk to her dad while you help him carry a lust-battered mattress up three flights of stairs. This is not how you want to spend your free time.
The second map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, titled "Uprising," was released a couple weeks back on the Xbox 360. This $15 pack included with it a new co-op mode, Mob of the Dead, that kept with the Black Ops zombie theme we've previously seen, but with an Italian twist this time around. Set in the 1920s on the well-known prison island of Alcatraz, players step into the role of one of four gangsters (each voiced by a famous celebrity) and try to fight their way out. Nasty traps, gnarly weapons, and plenty of barbed wire covered undead inmates lie in wait for you and your friends.
Neverwinter, a free-to-play MMO with some pretty strong cooperative elements (it is based on D&D after all!), goes into public open beta tomorrow. Just in time for the launch, I had the opportunity to do a Q&A with lead developer Zeke Sparkes from Cryptic. Many of my questions touched upon the cooperative aspects of the game as well as similarities and differences to the pen-and-paper game for all you tabletop nuts out there. Zeke really went above and beyond the call of duty here in the depth of his answers. So read on!
Left 4 Dead 2 will be entering into its Linux version very shortly, integrating it with Valve’s ongoing “Extended Mutation System” beta. What is EMS exactly? Essentially, it’s an easy way for modders to change various scripts within the game, totally customize them however they choose, and so much more (not to be confused with the Steam Workshop). Up until now, this system has only been available in very small testing groups, but that’s about to change very soon.
Many of us here at Co-Optimus were very excited to play Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine this past weekend, writing about our plans to begin co-op games straight away. However, we quickly discovered that Monaco’s initial release was retracted off of XBLA rather quickly by developer, Pocketwatch Games. Many gamers are eager to begin playing as well, so here’s an update on the whole situation from last week.
Last year during PAX Prime we went hands on with Company of Heroes 2, the latest RTS from developer Relic - which is now owned by Sega. Right away we could tell the game was itching for official co-op support, but the development team was being coy as to whether or not it would be featured. Today the game has gotten a brand new mode in addition to the existing campaign and competitive modes called Theater of War - and it's designed around co-op play.
Leviathan: Warships is a turn-based strategy game featuring big boats and cross-platform play. The game will allow up to four players to strategize together via PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices. Leviathan: Warships features a full cooperative campaign as well as five challenge missions. Customize a fleet of warships and join your friends on the high seas of battle.
It's almost May, and that means horror is on the way once again. The revamped and improved version of the 3DS game Resident Evil: Revelations will be coming out later next month for all major consoles and PC. Like the 3DS original that came out some time ago, this version of Revelations will also come with a playable demo. ...
