Hmm.  It appears I may have forgotten to do one of these for March.  For that, I apologize.  April's round-up though isn't particularly interesting, it was an incredibly light month for co-op gaming with not a single AAA retail release.  That's not to say we didn't see a few interesting titles come out, A Valley Without Wind stick in my mind, but overall things were very quiet.  Here are some of the more interesting stories and features to come out in April, of 2012.

Gamers under 25 don't know how lucky they are.  When I was a lad all of this was fields and the arcade was full of games with near impossible difficulty.  A prime example of this was Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair, a spectacular looking game that was harder than Jason Statham holding a diamond tipped hammer.  Now you can relive this glorious gaming torture on XBLA from 18th April.   This time bring a pal in local 2 player co-op, but is it co-op?

Welcome to another edition of Beyond Co-Op, the weekly piece that looks at some of the more interesting stories around the gaming industry that might not necessarily relate to cooperative gaming.  Up this week we've got several "new game" reveals and a trailer for a game that claims to be co-op...for one player.

There are those that said this day would never come. The day that hardcore gamers talk openly about Free to Play games and actually admit to playing them. And that's exactly what happens this episode. Along with the Free to Play discussion the crew discussed the Diablo 3 beta and the slim pickings of other co-op news that is going on.

I've been playing a little Armored Core V lately, and I'm really enjoying my time building, customizing, and fighting with the sleek mechs the series is known for. The other day I logged in and was greeted with a message/warning that Online Boss Battles would be available this weekend. What the heck is an "online boss battle?" I was about to find out.

Free-to-play strategy/MMO hybrid Age of Empires Online will be introducing a slight change to its payment method when the game's summer update launches. Currently, players can elect to purchase additional content (such as new civilizations, booster packs, and vanity items) for real-world money. Non-paying customers are, to the best of my knowledge, unable to access this content (though it is by no means necessary to successfully play the game). When the summer update goes live in 5-7 weeks, all the store content will be purchased with Empire Points, not standard credit card transactions.

What happens when you take a cute candy treat and turn it into a video game? Welcome to World Gone Sour, where the sweet and tasty Sour Patch Kids have turned bitter and nasty. Check out the review if you're itching for a decent XBLA platformer, or just have a hankerin' for some candy at the moment.

Some of the Co-Optimus staff are going to take this chance to get their last few minutes in with Diablo 3 before waiting just TWO WEEKS until the full game is released.  That's not the only beta on tap, some of us will be checking out betas of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.  The rest of the crew's weekend is going to be spent partying it up at a Comic-Con, playing some classic Halo games, or developing their own.  

Good news PlayStation 3 owners!  Mass Effect 3's weekend XP events are now available on your platform!  I told you it was a good time to buy the game.  This weekend's challenge is called Operation Exorcist and you can net you and your co-op buddies some sweet packs of goodies.

There's a new trailer out for Legends of Pegasus that showcases some of the RTS game's unique features.  The most obvious standout feature is the "unlimited" ship customization that allows you to build up your fleet piece by piece.    Also on display is an impressive terraforming feature, plenty of space battles,  and of course lasers. 

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series returns after a long absence this May as Ghost Recon Future Soldier. Ubisoft has taken advantage of the copious development time since GRAW 2 by adding lots of fresh ideas such as the new Gunsmith feature. They've even created a humorous trailer just for Gunsmith, which at turns had me either smiling or cringing, but did nothing to lessen my excitement for the game.

OOOOOOOOOH YEAH!  These people are super stoked to have found a nifty feature in the upcoming Rayman Legends.  Utilizing the Nintendo Wii-U's controller they are able to "scan" objects into the game to assist on their quest with Rayman.  In this case it looks like they heal each other by placing a heart shaped object on the pad, in another example we see a Raving Rabbid figure placed, and in the final tease....Ezio from Assassin's Creed.  There's absolutely 0 details on how something like this will work, but it's an intriguing concept none the less.