You may recall Activision announcing a couple months back that no further DLC would be released for the Guitar Hero franchise. Desperate fans cried out across the interweb, and the powers that be relented, releasing more new songs to download once again. Alas, even the reprieve turned out to be quite brief, and no more DLC is scheduled to be released.
Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
You'd think there was a major release this past week, by the amount of folks playing the same game this weekend. Valve's masterfull Portal 2 is the most popular game among the staff this weekend, by a large margin. Not even Sub-Zero and Chris Redfield can compete.
New Moon Diver DLC has hit the PSN, assuming you can connect to it. A new character and mode are available now, and new modes are coming soon. This isn't budget busting DLC, either. You may recognize the new character (pictured above). His name is Silence, and you battle against him several times over the course of the original game. For a whopping $0.99 you can pick him up, along with a new Score Attack Mode. The Score Attack Mode stage is called "Flow." It features an ever-scrolling level where players compete for a high score. The mode is single player only, but gained XP carries over to the regular game.
The upcoming third-person shooter, Warhammer 40000: Space Marine, has high aspirations. The video game industry has its fair share of generic "space marines," but 40k enthusiasts will say that they had them first. Orks are threatening the Imperial Forge World. WH40k: Space Marine finds players taking control of a beefy, armored, death machine named Captain Titus. It's your job to killify any and all threats to the Imperium of Man. VG24/7 had a recent interview with WH40k: Space Marine developer, Relic. In the lengthy interview they discuss things such as staying true to 40k lore, going up against Gears of War 3, and the lack of a cover system (Space marines don't need no stinkin' cover system).
It looks like Arrowhead Games has two more pieces of DLC lined up for Magicka after Magicka: Vietnam. Titled Caverns and Marshlands these two challenge maps put players in brand new environments for slaying enemies with their co-op pals. The Caverns map is said to be focused on trolls with an "appetite for wizards" while the Marshlands map is focused on zombies.
The last vignette from Dungeon Siege 3 focuses on one of the earliest revealed characters, Anjali, the Archon. She's a staff-wielding sorceress that can take on a fire elemental form. I had the chance to play through an early level with her and Lucas Montbarron at an Obsidian event a few months ago. The two characters complimented each other nicely. Lucas's strong attacks benefited from Anjali's ranged assault in co-op play.
The latest trailer for Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale highlights the story elements of the game. Apparently there's an evil tower inside a cave!? Crazy. Mr. Off-the-Shoulder-Tunic up there is Rezlus, "an agent of evil." You have to stop him. Create a character, level up, collect loot. You'll have four classes to choose from. Daggerdale is actually the first part of a three part series. This portion will encompass the first ten levels of character progression, with more to come in the sequels.
That can't be good. Last night, the PlayStation Network fell down, and it can't get back up. Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director of Corporate Communication and Social Media, posted these words of encouragement on PlayStation.Blog:
Do you love survival modes in an RTS setting? Or do you really love heroes in RTS games and would rather focus on playing a hero instead of micro-managing units? Or do you love the idea of DoW2: Retribution, but gosh-darnit, you have two other people you want to play with, not just one? If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, then great news! DoW2: Retribution's the Last Stand Mode, the mode that focuses exclusively on co-op, is now available as a stand-alone game for just $9.99 on Steam. This is the mode where you and two other friends try to outlast waves and waves of enemies, each of you only controlling one hero. As you progress in levels, you receive new equipment for your heroes. A recent update also added new achievements to this mode which also unlock new gear. We're big fans of the Last Stand around here, and Mike and Jason even recently did a This Week in Co-op on the DoW2: Retribution flavor of it.
Serious Sam 3: BFE is a prequel to the series' previous games. We just got four new screenshots that showcase some of the new enemies, environments and over the top action the game will provide. From the looks of things, the 16 player co-op game is going to offer plenty of eye candy when its released on the PC later this year.
Kalypso Media have announced that their two player co-op action game The First Templar has gone gold and will be released on May 10th for the Xbox 360 and PC. The game supports two player local and two player online co-op through the entire game. We went hands on with the game a few months back and you can find our preview right here.
