Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.

Raise the roof, fellow lovers of all things guns! We brought the chips-and-dip, and DICE's BattleBlog brought the deets-and-screens on Battlefield 3's gun customization. Keeping in mind that much of what you earn carries from co-op to multiplayer - and vice versa - it's exciting to see some real info on the weapons you'll be using.

The Zombies lore of Call of Duty: Black Ops has come a long way. Adding more difficulty and more personality with each map pack, Treyarch has built a legend within a legend - a game mode that will be talked about for years, and a backstory that most gamers love to play over and over again.

It's a rather quiet weekend for those of us who weren't able to make it to PAX this year.  While those lucky attendees will be playing the latest, coolest games, meeting interesting people, and picking up lots of swag, the rest of us poor shmucks are... well, poor shmucks.  There's definitely a feeling of the calm before the storm, both of the upcoming fall rush and some hurricane you may have heard of.

Shortly after picking up an HTC MyTouch 4G Slide and realizing that I could finally run some high-res games on my phone, I hit the market and downloaded Dungeon Defenders: First Wave (which is now free for Android systems). Unfortunately a bug is preventing me from actually playing it, but while I wait I can indulge in its big brother - Dungeon Defenders - this October.

As PAX starts up, the game-related news is ramping up.  We've got details about Torchlight 2, the upcoming sequel to the excellent but (sadly) single-player dungeon crawler released in 2009.  The final remaining character class has been revealed: the Embermage.  Flaming wizard types have long been a staple of the genre, and the Embermage looks to be a solid new addition to the cast.  Can you say Lava Spears?  I knew you could.

Canadian gamers who enjoy co-op gaming but for some reason don’t own an Xbox 360 (or maybe they need a second console!) are in for a treat. A limited-edition 250 GB Xbox 360 bundle which comes with a whopping five 360-exclusive games has just debuted in the land of maple syrup for the low price of $299.99 CDN.

Blizzard has launched a community site for Diablo 3, a website touted as your "sanctuary for all the latest developments" with the game.  Blizzard is already promising in depth game guides, creature and enemy info as well as character info.  The site is also linked to Battle.net - which most likely means it'll be the home for all your Diablo 3 stats and information.  

Co-Optimus first brought you confirmation that the upcoming F1 2011 would have co-op and now Codemasters have reiterated our news that you and a pal can meet online and tackle a full F1 season as team mates.  To celebrate, a new video of game footage has been released that recreates some of the highlights of the actual 2011 Formula One season so far.

In case you missed it, the Warhammer 40k: Space Marine demo has gone live on the Xbox 360 and the PS3.  It popped up last week on the PC for lucky gamers who pre-ordered the title on Steam.  So now you can see if I was full of it when I previewed the game earlier this month.  It's bloody, brutal, and pretty damn boss.  If you like the Jump Pack in single player, just wait until you see it in multiplayer.  It's a thing of blood-splattered, gore-filled beauty.

By now we've all been bashed over the head with franchises that are purportedly getting PlayStation Vita iterations next year, so I won't repeat them here. New titles, however, have been added by Ubisoft and Sony in an announcement made during Gamescom.

The latest trailer for Crimson Alliance features an old grizzled wizard named "Direwolf."  That's pretty cool, as far as nicknames go.  He's got all the icy, fiery, lightning-y things you'd expect in a wizard, including a huge chip on his shoulder.  Crimson Alliance is an upcoming action RPG where you can join three friends either locally or online for some good old fashioned dungeon crawling excitement.  I got some hands-on time with the game at E3, and I liked what I saw.  It will set you back 1200 MSP, or you can pick it up for free if you purchased all of the XBLA Summer of Arcade titles.