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?

Recent Buys: Episode 1 - Saints Row: The Third, iCore Arcade Stick, digital Capcom fighting games

Here we are in the new year and I thought I'd start things off by sharing what my recent gaming purchases are for this week/month/part of the month.

Let's start with the intangible stuff. So I got a "loan" on a $20 PSN card, it was supposed to be on $10 but due to some unexplored complications with Sony limiting shared accounts to only 2 users from 5 it left my friend being unable to access the remaining $10. This was sort of an impulse due to a sudden sale of of Marvel vs Capcom 2 and the character DLCs for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 on PSN. Both were half-off so it was really hard to resist. Not too long after that Sony announced the 12 for 12 sale which included Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition so I had to jump on that. So that's two Capcom fighting games and a DLC character for another Capcom fighting game. Damn.

On to the disc based stuff. I got Saints Row: The Third brand new and was mildly disappointed that the Asian release of the game didn't give you a free digital copy of Saints Row 2, it is only available in Canada, America and Mexico. shoulda read that fine print. Saltyness aside, the game is pretty neat. Not as stupidly awesome as I was expecting it to be but good fun nonetheless. The best description of the game I could tell you is that it's basically GTA on crack. Still not satisfied? How bout if I told you that you can get a dildo bat that's called "The Penetrator" as a melee weapon?

Last but not least I caved and got an arcade stick. The iCore Arcade Stick is not the greatest arcade stick out there but for a budget stick, it certainly feels better than I expected. The buttons are responsive and feel pretty good and the stick has the little micro-switches so it does those delicious clicking noises when you move it around. The performance of the stick is not the best in the world as I find myself having to jam a motion as hard as I can before my in-game character does the desired move but maybe that's just me not being used to using an arcade stick. The PS Home button on mine is a bit faulty so I'm going to have it replaced within the week.

Watch my poor performance in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition while I was testing out the arcade stick.

Saints Row 2 free for PS3 owners who bought Saints Row: The Third

Kevin Butler's sidekick jack Tretton (President and CEO of SCEA) and THQ promised that the PS3 version of Saints Row: The Third would get an exclusive multiplayer game mode and a special weapon. No such mode or weapon exists in the game.

False promises aside, THQ will be making up for this with something that I think is a much better deal.

THQ's Jon Miller said this,

"For all players that purchase Saints Row: The Third on PlayStation 3 and redeem their online pass codes within the next 90 days, they will receive a digital copy of Saints Row 2 (a $19.99 value)... absolutely free!"

Don't think that this offer is a permanent thing. The promo expires on February 13, 2012 so if I were you, go grab a copy of "GTA on crack" cause you a another game (GTA on not as much crack) for free.

Source [IGN]

Saint's Row 3 should be out now

We're past the 15th here but so far the game is nowhere in sight in the Philippines . If you're still waiting and considering a different buy, maybe the launch trailer might just do the trick to keep you waiting for its release.

This is going to be one crazy open world game, I mean literally. Seeing all the weird stuff THQ added to this game makes me feel like it's worth a buy for that reason alone. This is GTA on crack people.

Saints Row: The Third - Pimps and Gimps Trailer

After the announcement of GTA V, I'm sure everybody is craving for some sandbox gameplay. Well I think Saint's Row will do instead of revisiting past GTA titles, and thankfully they just released a new trailer for Saint's Row: The Third that's pretty epic. Zombies? Farts in a jar? Deadly ATV's and Burt Reynolds? This game has FUN written all over it.

Game's going to be out on November 15 for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Not really into Saint's Row but looks like I should consider trying it out.