Happy first lunch break of the week, CST people! I hope you brought enough to share with everyone. Let's get our Co-Op Release Alert on! 

There was a time when we thought we'd see Aliens: Colonial Marines in the Spring...of 2010.  There was also a time when we thought we'd see the game coming this Fall.  Sadly I've run out of movie quotes to use for the latest delay.  Today, Gearbox and SEGA have announced the "official" release date for the four player co-op game - and that date is - February 12th, 2013.

Now here's a bit of interesting news that just appeared out of nowhere.  Overkill, makers of the 4 player co-op PAYDAY: The Heist and Valve, publishers of Left 4 Dead are collaborating on a new project that is "a blend" of the two aforementioned titles.   Overkill was just recently purchased by Starbreeze, who put out the recent Syndicate title, making this bit of info even juicier.

For denizens of co-op boardgames, Scotland Yard is a name that should have crossed their path.  It is a classic game in which up to 5 co-op partners play police officers as they hunt for the mysterious Mr X around London.  The boardgame is a co-op experience for most of the players, except for Mr X who must run on his own.  The new Scotland Yard iOS for iPad and iPhone aims to remedy this and can be played pure co-op if 5 players chose to go up against the Mr X AI.

With the upcoming release of Dragon's Dogma sans the inclusion of a proper co-operative mode, Capcom fans have been up in arms with the lack of a true multiplayer experience. However, asynchronous co-op could lead to an interesting way of being able to interact with your friends without actually playing at the same time as them.

Good morning! Or afternoon, or evening, I guess. I have no idea when you'll be reading this. Welcome to another edition of Beyond Co-Op, where we look "beyond co-op" and bring you some of the gaming news that doesn't necessarily revolve around cooperative play. Here are some stories that caught my eye this week:

We just posted our Awesomenauts review yesterday, giving it a healthy 4 out of 5 in our Co-Op Review. One of our small complaints about the game was that its hero roster was quite small - only 6 heroes currently. It looks like that issue will be addressed soon with at least one new awesomenaut on the horizon.

  Heroes of Ruin is an upcoming hack-and-slash, action RPG for the Nintendo 3DS. It features a fantasy setting, four player drop in/drop out co-op, voice chat, and a half-lion, half-man character class. Neat! The latest trailer covers all of the co-op features nicely. It's almost as if the game was made with four player co-op i...

And by hell I mean, playing Diablo 3.  

It is quite possible that Blizzard wanted to spite those people who have deemed Diablo III too colorful, contrasting it from the rest of the franchise. By hiding the magical fairy land of Whimsyshire within the depths of the Diablo III, players are given a land that no one thought they’d find within the confines of a Diablo game.

Here's a quick bit of information, folks. Shoot Many Robots is half off on Steam until 1pm EST tomorrow. That means you can pick it up for the low, low price of five dollars. The loot-and-shoot sidescroller also has a four pack available for $14.99. Give the gift of screeching metal death to your friends! 

Man, there's been a lot of Serious Sam news lately. First there was story about Serious Sam 3: BFE and Serious Sam: Double D XXL coming to the XBLA this fall. Then Amazon announced a big sale on Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter and its new accompanying DLC. Not to be outdone, Steam is having their own Serious Sam sale.