Pick 5: Great Co-op Games

Dead Space 3 is now out and the biggest change for this survival horror is that there is now a drop-in drop-out co-op for the campaign. So it made me think what are my favorite co-op games of this generation. There's a lot I know, but here are 5 special games  that I loved playing with a buddy or three.

Army of Two

This isn't the best series, but it's definitely one co-op I had the most fun with a buddy joining me. The aggro mechanic, allowing you or your player to draw fire from your partner, is a great concept that requires teamwork and coordination with your partner. There's also those back to back moments where you just lay waste to all those poor soldiers that can't seem to hit two guys out of cover. The first Army of Two is the best, 40th Day was a joke, and the third game the Devil's Cartel is coming up and I can't wait to play that game for the heck of it.

Saint's Row: The Third

Volition Games got the right idea when they were creating Saint's Row: The Third. Forget multiplayer, let's make the whole campaign playable in 2-player co-op. One of the best decisions ever made because a GTA-ish game that can be played with another player online is great. It's a simple drop-in, drop-out feature and you can literally experience everything the game has to offer with a friend. Saint's Row: The Third is hilarious and obviously doesn't take itself too seriously. It was hard to go through the story since wandering around with a tank messing things up is way more satisfying and disturbing at the same time.

Portal 2

One of the best games of 2011. The solo campaign was amazing, and to my surprise the co-op wasn't an after thought for the sake of adding more variety. The co-op is a whole new take with the use of the portal gun with test chambers designed for 2 players to figure out. You are now working with 4 portals, not two. It's a real challenge, pure teamwork and a mic is needed. Don't play the co-op though from some random guy in the internet, some have already done it and ruin the experience by showing you how its done. Grab a friend that's as clueless as you in the co-op and you'll have a great time with Atlas and P-Body.

Trine 1 and 2

Here's one more game that require a lot of teamwork, but with two buddies instead of one. Trine was my first purchase in the PSN store and it was well worth the $15. This game is quite dull on your own, only when you have two other people controlling the other characters is where it gets interesting. All three character's unique abilities complement one another and requires everybody cooperation in order to reach the end of the stage in one piece. The game was a bit short but well worth the playthrough.

Castle Crashers 

If you don't know what Castle Crashers is, then your missing out. This beat 'em up 4-player co-op is a great game to de-stress, have a few beers, and play with some buddies. You are simply a bunch of knights off to save a group of princess' that were captured. It has an amazing cartoon art style that may seem childish at first glance but when you see all the carnage and gore that occurs when you start playing, you will take back that thought. There's level ups, stat building, weapons to unlock, and characters to unlock giving it a strong replay value once your done with it. This game reminded me of the good old days when I was playing the X-Men beat 'em up arcade game. Speaking of which, I think that needs to be remade...

There's a lot of great co-op games that weren't mentioned like Borderlands or even Diablo, but these are the games that I enjoyed the most when playing with friends. What about you? What are your Pick 5?

Portal 2 'In Motion' DLC hits PSN next week

If by any chance you still have your copy of Portal 2 on the PS3, you are in luck. 'In Motion', a DLC created by Sixense Studios for Valve's Portal 2, will be hitting the Playstation Network on November 6. This DLC is a Playstation Move enabled campaign with 20 new test chambers that includes new game mechanics such as scaling or rotating objects.

Together with the release of the DLC, the digital version of Portal 2 will be released on the PSN which will include move support patch. For players with physical copies of the game, a free game patch will also arrive at the same day to implement the move support. The move support coming from Sixense is not only for the In Motion DLC, but also for the original campaign and co-op campaign of the game.

We are excited to now work with Sony and Valve to deliver content that takes advantage of the advanced motion tracking of the PlayStation Move. Portal 2 In Motion introduces gameplay mechanics, including scaling and rotation of objects as well as portal surfing. These new abilities are all required as the player progresses through an increasingly challenging set of test chambers that look familiar from Portal 2, but require new thinking to solve.

For this DLC, you get to pick either P-body or Atlas, the playable test robots from the co-op campaign.

The 'In Motion' DLC will set you back $9.99. For PS Plus members, you will be receiving a 30% discount on the DLC when it hits PSN.

[Source: official PS Blog]

Mario Portals (Online Multiplayer)

Yes, you read right. The Super Mario Bros. x Portal 2 indie game will have 2 player co-op and online multiplayer.

If you have played the Portal 2 co-op then you know how crazy that could get. That craziness is seen in the first few seconds of this video. Again, my brain is not powerful enough to even imagine the level design that is going in to this game. I mean just look at them, I could barely even keep up with who owns what pair of portals and the video isn’t even 2 minutes long.

Bottom line is I want this game but they can take their sweet time as long as the game is perfect once they are finally done.

Mario Portals Splitscreen

Remember that Mario + Portal indie game I mentioned before? Now it has a 2-player mode.

Much like Portal 2, Mari0 looks to have a 2-player feature. Each of the brothers holds their own portal gun and I assume that it'll have the same properties as the 2 player aspect in Portal 2. I can't wait how the puzzles will turn out with this one.

What's interesting in this video isn't the 2-player aspect though but about the splitscreen. When the two brothers are close to each other there is no split. When one ventures off too far that's where the split happens. However the screen splits depending on which side of the stage each brother is in. Watch how the screen moves in 0:25 too see what I mean.

I can't wait for this one. :D

Portal 2 DLC coming out next week for free

For free? I know, that's pretty rare especially when its DLC(Downloadable Content). It's not those useless free DLC that gives extra clothing for your character or an item that will most likely be useless in the next few hours, this is actual content that Valve wants to give for free. Thanks Valve.

The DLC called "Peer Review" will be out on Wednesday next week or Thursday for gamers in Asia. It was announced in Portal 2's official blog. The post is mainly about the game's soundtrack, and after 2 paragraphs about it they mention the new DLC coming out soon and for free. It will include new test chambers, leaderboards, plus single player and multiplayer challenges. How many extra test chambers or challenges? They didn't say, but content is content, especially when its free.

Got Portal 2 on my PC, so I guess I'll be playing it again next week.

[Source: Gameinformer]