Do you like the lore of Middle-Earth, but you're sick of the Fellowship? Have you had your fill of Frodo? Enough of Aragorn? Do you just wish Gimli would shut up about dwarfs? Snowblind Studios, the developer behind the PlayStation 2 version of Baldur's Gate and the Champions of Norrath series have got a game for you.
I don’t know about you guys, but I used to enjoy my Friday night get-together with my friends to play a bit of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop style. As we’ve grown older and had jobs and responsibilities, it’s been tougher to get together. We’ve often wondered “Why hasn’t a digital version of this come out for us?” And now our questions have been answered. Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale plans to do just that - bring Dungeons and Dragons to us in a digital format this Spring.
It’s already a month in to the New Year, and a lot of us have been working on our backlog of games - especially from our awesome Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule gifts. What we want to know in this months blog topic is: What are you playing from last year or earlier, and why?
The sequel to the reboot of the Capcom classic, Bionic Commando, is due out this week. The original game was best known for its bionic form of locomotion and unforgiving difficulty. Bionic Commando: Rearmed 2 launches today on the PlayStation Network, though as of this writing, it's not up on the PSN Store. It is scheduled to hit the Xbox LIVE Arcade tomorrow. Whichever Marketplace, Store, or flea market gets the game up first will receive my fifteen bucks (or 1200 Microsoft points). Two players can co-op locally as Nathan "Rad" Spencer.
It's been a while since Billy donned his fedora and leather jacket and went off to explore the depths of the modern gaming jungle in search of great independently developed co-op games. Indie-Ana Co-Op returns with an in-depth post-mortem with Sol Survivor developer, Cadenza Interactive.
In our latest co-op preview we've gone hands on with the PC version of Section 8: Prejudice. While the core of the game is a versus multiplayer affair, new is a single player campaign and 4 player co-op survival mode. After our impressions we chat with designer Mark Yetter about all things co-op.
Very shortly before shutting its doors and getting bought by Crytek, studio Free Radical Design had announced TimeSplitters 4, the next title in its flagship series. The shuttering put TimeSplitters 4 on permanent hiatus until further notice. Not only was this a blow to co-op fans (as TimeSplitters games have traditionally been very co-op friendly), but also to me personally - the comp-stomping vaperware Star Wars Battlefront III had been rumored to follow shortly behind, a game that to this day is my very own holy grail.
While the focus of Co-Optimus has always been on cooperative gaming, we also like to look at cooperative efforts surrounding gaming as well. One of these unique stories is the independent and slightly community developed Interstellar Marines by Zero Point Software. What makes Interstellar Marines so unique is that not it's four player co-op first person shooter, but one that is being almost completely community funded and driven. Also it has space sharks.
A recent dev diary for Hunted: the Demon's Forge detailed some in-depth specifics of the Wargar enemy type for the upcoming two player co-op action game. Most actions games have a type of enemy that is common and pervasive throughout most of the game. The Wargar take that role in Hunted. Far from being uniform, however, the Wargar come in three flavors: melee, ranged, and caster; furthermore, there are different classes within these standard roles. Melee Wargar are composed of Soldiers, Warriors, Guardians, and Zealots, Ranged Wargar can either be Archers, Scorchers, or Blastcasters, while the Infected are the only Caster Wargar.
Codemasters has been pumping up the troops ahead of the Operation Flashpoint: Red River release; the latest morale boost is this trailer, titled "Entry Into Tajikistan". Once again proving their knack for creating a seriously foreboding tone, Codemasters is promising difficult terrain and harsh guerrilla warfare.
If tomorrow's release of the new Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike map pack wasn't enough to get the disk back in your Xbox 360, how about a double dose of experience points? This weekend marks the first double experience points event for Call of Duty: Black Ops, so if you are close to your first Prestige, now's your chance to power through the level 40 doldrums. If you are already hit the level 15 Prestige, then you may want to take a break. (Or you hacked your PS3, cheater.) The new pack has four maps for multiplayer versus modes or co-operative Combat Training, plus another co-op Zombie map.
Attention PlayStation 3 owners! PopCap Games' Plants Vs. Zombies will be coming to the PlayStation Store. Originating on the PC, Plants Vs. Zombies is an incredibly popular tower defense game that made the transition to the Xbox 360. Along with this transition came co-op support, allowing two players to team up locally in order to battle the undead horde. Players are tasked with using a variety of specialized plants to stop wave after wave of zombies. We gave the game a 4 out of 5 in our co-op review.
