Didn't some pessimistic jerk just claim that there's nothing coming out this week?  Man, I'll have to talk to the boss about him.  Anyway - Gear of War 3 DLC is coming out tomorrow, December 13th.  It's titled "RAAM's Shadow" and it's a prequel to the trilogy we all know and love.  You'll experience a new take on the Gears universe as you step into the heavy boots of the Locust General and unleash hell on the COG forces.  That's right, this additional storyline will include a campaign from the Locust perspective.  Not only that, the whole thing will support two player local co-op and four player online co-op.

Poor Billy. Poor, sad, Billy. Poor, sad, lonely, Billy.  Poor, sad, lonely, depressed, Billy.  Poor, sad, - okay I think you got it.  I regret to inform you, dear reader, that there appears to be a shortage of co-op game releases this week.  And by shortage, I mean none.  Even the XBLA and PSN have let us down.  So what's a gamer to do?

Another game that was revealed at this year's VGA Awards was a game named The Last of Us.  Created by Uncharted developer Naughty Dog, The Last of Us looks to be an interesting departure from their most recent series which focused on archaelogical adventure.  The new game is a post apocalyptic story where it appears some sort of virus has wiped out the world's population.  The trailer focuses on a middle aged man and a young girl as they attempt to survive in what's called their "daily routine."  It already feels much darker, but still strongly character driven.

Bioware's been putting out some videos for upcoming RPG/action game hybrid Mass Effect 3, splicing together some general information on stuff like pre-ordering and edition details with some behind the scenes interviews with developers. The latest video in this series highlights collector's edition details and class combat.

Last night at the VGA Award, Epic Game's Cliff Bleszinski revealed a trailer for their new game called Fortnite.  From the trailer we see a group of folks working together to gather supplies and then use those supplies to fortify a base during the day.  As night quickly approaches so do the strange creatures which the survivors must defend their base from.  It's a bit like a tower defense game and a bit like Minecraft.

The SpikeTV VGA Awards were tonight - and in case you missed it - well...you really didn't miss much.  That being said there we a few highlights in terms of new footage, namely one new trailer for Diablo 3 which showcases some story elements in typical Blizzard glory.  That means it's some of the most gorgeous CG work you've ever seen.

Ruffian Games, the developer behind Crackdown 2, has some rather interesting teases for what could be their next game. Last January, the Scotland based team was in search of some more programmers to help them work on some "really exciting, high action, visceral titles that are heavily focused on online [components]." Speculation began about what their next game might be, if it would have co-op, and if it would be another Crackdown title. Now, word comes from Ruffian that the company has "signed a major contract with one of the biggest publishers in the industry."

Driver: San Francisco is an enjoyable open world driving game. With a single-player story, separate split-screen co-op modes, and extensive 8-player online modes, it certainly gives players plenty to do. Any game of that scale is likely to have a bug or three out of the gate. Thankfully, Ubisoft has just released a major patch for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 that corrects numerous issues. The update doesn’t seem to affect the split-screen co-op experience much, but at least it improves on an already solid title.

A lot of the staff will be hitting up Uncharted 3 for our community night this weekend while the rest of the staff will be playing Dungeon Defenders in anticipation of our community night NEXT weekend.  With those two games out of the way there's still plenty of time left for the falls biggest releases and I'm pretty sure we've hit them all.

Oh, sweet!  Killing Floor is free to play this weekend!  For those of you who don't know, Killing Floor is a PC horror themed FPS that offers online co-op for up to six players.  We reviewed it way back in 2009, and we really enjoyed the title, giving it a 4.5/5.  Not only is the game free to play, there's also a "Twisted Christmas" event going on.  That's right, you can blast mutant reindeer and gruesome gingerbread men into tiny little bite-sized pieces.  The "Twisted Christmas" event also includes new weapons, new achievements, and a new map.  All of the details are right here.  Check out the following video for more information.

These days, online passes are a point of contention between gamers. People who purchase mostly new games (like me) don’t mind them, while used game aficionados hate the idea of an online pass cutting into their welfare checks (just kidding). The whole purpose behind online passes is to allow developers to recoup some of the lost profits from used game sales. But at least one developer doesn’t want one included in his game – namely David Jaffe, director of the upcoming Twisted Metal reboot.

Fan films are all the rage these days, but most can't seem to actually hold a visual candle to the source material.  While their hearts are usually in the right place, these films lack the financial backing to turn their creator's true vision into a reality.  That's what makes the Left 4 Dead fan film so unique - it's being created by several folks from Airsoft GI, manufacturers of Airsoft guns.  They also seem to have a few sponsors on board helping fill the coffers and creating something that looks like Left 4 Dead..