CO-OP

It's our season 03 premiere! In our longest segment on a game yet, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves takes the spotlight this week. We also stop by indie developer Gaijin Games to grab a look at what makes an indie studio tick and to get a sneak peak at Bit.Trip Void. Also, of course, we had to share the quickie got with New Super Mario Bros. Wii! Arcades still exist, particularly if you're willing to expand your definition a bit. The Musee Mecanique is a remnant of a San Francisco past steeped in amusements for the emergent middle class of the late 19th and early 20th century. Within are some of the oldest coin-op amusements to be found anywhere. We take a trip down memory lane (not our own memories, mind you) with some true cultural predecessors to our favorite form of media.

Believe it our not, it's our first CO-OP: The Animated Series! Well... sort of. You'll see. We have a lively debate on whether Demon's Souls is as terrific as people say or truly awful, an in-depth about the ambient, indie RTS Eufloria and an iPhone round-up of some of our favorites: Canabalt, Geared, and Mr. Bounce! Yes, this is the premiere of CO-OP: The Animated Series! Except it isn't. Well, it sort of is . . . you'll see. The merits of Demon's Sous are hotly contested in this week's episode while our iPhone round-up and Eufloria coverage give you plenty of light-weight alternatives to the season's heavy-handedness in "Triple-AAA" releases currently flooding store shelves. Formerly known as Dyson, the indie darling Eufloria was given some quality play-time by Matt and it definitely lives up to the hype. The simplified RTS mechanics go a long way to making the graphical gem a playable wonder and were it not for the lack of multiplayer could easily be a must-have for any fan of the genre, even in such a crowded holiday season. It's been a while since we got a chance to cover gaming on the iPhone and we figured it would serve you better if we could offer up more than just a single title for your consideration. Within: the simplistic but addictive Canabalt, the groovy and though-provoking puzzler Geared, and a new take on a classic gaming form with Mr. Bounce. Bon appetit! Ray Barnholt from 1UP.com reviewed Demon's Souls for that site and gave it an "A." Kat Bailey, an industry freelance writer also thinks of the game as one of her "best purchases this year." Ryan and Matt hate it. We attempt to clear up some of the mystery as to why this game appeals greatly to some and causes others to toss it aside after repeated fits of rage.

Yes, Area 5 threw a Halloween party! It was awesome! We had the best costumes ever! There's no way your party was better than ours! Is there any way exclamation points can denote sarcasm as opposed to genuine enthusiasm? Honestly, we're better gamers than we are party-planers. Oh, and we talk about some games. Halloween is very special time of year - for everyone but Ryan. Still, he was convinced to dress up for this special occasion. He may have been better off avoiding the specialized Area 5 event altogether. Rock Band iPhone just got released. The Tap Tap games have graced the platform since the beginning and there's even a Guitar Hero clone, Guitar Rock 2, now in it's second iteration. We talk about them all in our iPhone rhythm game roundup and give you the skinny on which is the best bang for your buck. JayFresh is the biggest R&C fan at Area 5 and Ryan can always be convinced to give them a go even if he's not the biggest fan of the series. Still, this latest incarnation grew on him enough to make sure it made it into this week's show and it has plenty of charms to worm its way into even the most jaded gamer's heart. The MMO genre is has generated far more than cash-cows and spectacular flops over the past few decades. It's good to see some of the better ideas concerning game design take root in other genres. Borderlands happens to be both fun and and interesting take on design choices that most would consider the exclusive domain of its massive cousins. Arthur Gies of Eat. Sleep. Game. and RebelFM comes by to share his thoughts with JayFresh, Matt, and Cesar.

The words "movie" and "license" area anathema to gamers when paired and the exception is rare. Fortunately, this week's coverage of Jame's Cameron's Avatar may show us a way to one of said exceptions. We were invited to an event at the Dolby Labs in San Francisco to experience the game hands-on (in 3D no less). Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony ratchets up the excitement and the better-than-Diablo Diablo clone Torchlight receives some much deserved face time. Is 3D gaming a gimmick? Does anyone expect to actually own a "3D Ready" television soon enough to give a care as to whether Avatar is in 3D or not? We're on the fence on this one, but that didn't stop us from accepting an invitation to put on some goofy looking glasses and try it out for ourselves. Liberty City is an endless playground for ideas and implementation of said ideas and as long as Rock Star continues to deliver quality on the order of The Ballad of Gay Tony it's likely we'll keep buying each episode. Ryan, Cesar, and our friend from RebelFM and Eat. Sleep. Game., Tyler Barber get behind the wheel again for some insane, action-movie-esque times in the seedy underbelly of Liberty City's club scene. Diablo clones are many. Excellent ones are few and Torchlight is the best of them yet. Granted, it lacks multiplayer but given the pedigree of the developers (many of which are the same people that brought you the first two Diablo games) it should be small wonder that Torchlight feels like an evolution of the gameplay type rather than an also-ran. Arthur Gies from the RebelFM podcast and Eat. Sleep. Game. came over to talk with Matt about why any Diablo fan not caught up exclusively on multiplayer should give this one a go. We were invited (and accepted, of ourse) to go see Jame's Cameron's Avatar at the Dolby Labs here in San Francisco. 3D in the best audio environment imaginable? Yes please! We got to put the controllers in our hot little hands and give both the Human and Nav'vi char

Midnight launches are not for the feint of heart. You know, the whole staying up late, playing a game all night, trying to go to work the the next day. But that's part of what being a gamer is all about! We were there for a San Francisco midnight launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 so that we could cover the single-player, at least, on this week's show. It's the first of a MW2 two-parter. We believe it takes longer than a few days to evaluate multiplayer so we're going to give it a good shakedown before talking about that part of the game. The epically awesome Dragon Age Origins and the next, big rhythm game DJ Hero round out this week's coverage. Welcome to midnight at a GameStop in San Francisco and the launch-line for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2! DJ Hero definitely seems to be worthy of having yet another plastic peripheral in your living room. Richard Li of 1UP drops by to share his thoughts as an expert with the game with Cesar and Jason. The multiplayer of this game is worth an entire segment of its own and that's exactly what we're going to do. This week, however, it's all about the single-player. David Ellis from 1UP joined Ryan and JayFresh to talk about the sometimes controversial, sometimes awesome, sometimes played-out trek through the single-player experience.

We're going to be on our Thanksgiving break next week, so keep your eyes out for a special episode of CO-OP on December 1st that'll be a departure from the norm. We'll be back on December 8th with our regular programming. This week, though, is an almost-special episode thanks to our long-form coverage of Assassin's Creed 2. It's just too big to talk about in the normal time constraints of our show. Enjoy and remember to enjoy your holiday! And by "enjoy," we mean catch up on the holiday gaming rush. It's going to be a HUGE 2010 and you need to get started now ;p Better than it's predecessor in every conceivable way, one of the best games Ryan has played, ever, and nearly-equal high praise from our guests Will Tuttle of GameSpy and Arthur Gies from Team XBox, the RebelFM podcast, and Eat. Sleep. Game. One unfortunate, though important, point raised in the chat this week is that the PS3 version is clearly the inferior product. To be clear, we hate the console wars and find it inane to decry one console in favor of another, but the difference in AC2 is apparent enough to merit at least some quick discussion in this week's extra-long chat. And extra time is exactly the kind of favor that this game warrants and thus the nature of this only-two-game episode of CO-OP. JayFresh and Matt are the final two members on the AC2 Love-Fest board of directors.

We're still on holiday for one more week but that doesn't mean we didn't cook up something nice for you ahead of time. Jason stole Ryan's camera and all of AREA 5's backup drives to construct an all-new episode of the Jason Show. Despite our wishes, behind our backs, Jason has filled his episode with outtakes and behind-the-scenes moments that the rest of the crew wishes the world didn't have access to. Additionally, Bitmob.com's Dan Hsu and CO-OP composer Paul Greenleaf sat down with Cesar to chat about the multiplayer madness of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Sit back, relax, and get yourself a plate of leftover stuffing burritos and turkey fries and enjoy! We'll be back with tons of game coverage next week! Yes, it's a clip show, but clips of stuff you've never seen! We've had requests every so often for outtakes and a look at stuff that hits the cutting room floor (virtually, of course) so we thought now would be a great opportunity to deliver!

Half the team was on vacation for a while, so this week's show is a wee bit shorter than normal--but don't let that fool you into thinking it's any less awesome! 'Cause it ain't! The big feature this week is the latest offering meant to swell your collection of plastic peripherals: Tony Hawk: Ride. We've got some skaters in the Area 5 crew and they'll give you the skinny. Before that, though, is a look at the surprisingly well-done, PSP version of Assassin's Creed. Is it worth it to you PSP owners out there? Find out. Skaters just have no respect for property (or their own persons) and apparently the Area 5 crew are no exception! Ryan and Matt are both long-term Assassin's Creed fans and decided to give the PSP version a go. Low budget, yes, but a fair--if clipped--portable representation of the series original. The broadside conclusion is that it's worth while, provided you're a portable owner of the PlayStation kind. Perhaps having felt the sting of competition, the skating franchise most synonymous with the idea of risking life and limb on a skinny board with wheels has jumped on the plastic-simulacrum gravy train. Does the peripheral meet the demands of our own, dynamic skater-duo Jason and Cesar? What about the indoor-bound Ryan? IRL on an actual board-with-wheels may be the best place to "experience" the life of a skater.

Is December really the best time to be going to the beach in Northern California? Not really, but try telling that to Santa Cruz native Cesar Quintero . . . So, yeah, the team was convinced to follow him down to his old haunts in the interests of seeing sights better left until the warmer seasons, but also to visit Edmund McMillen, creator of many awesome games, but the most recent of which is sure to delight many: Super Meat Boy. Rounding out the coverage this week: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and we enjoy some 8-bit Vintners wine by the wintertime fire while discussing PixelJunk Shooter. Santa Cruz is a summer town, but that didn't stop us from swinging by one of the few real arcades left in our area. Our good friend Kat Bailey came by to talk with Ryan and Fresh about this next Zelda adventure which they all seem to agree is leagues ahead of Phantom Hourglass in both story and gameplay execution. It will surpass no one that we love this game. Ryan, JayFresh, and I all sit around a warm fire, enjoying some wine kindly provided us by 8-bit Vintners and reminisce fondly about playing the game the previous eve in a way that you should only reminisce about something you've enjoyed for years. Q-Games and the PixelJunk series just have that effect. If you're a fan at all of the PixelJunk games this is another no-brainer. Edmund McMillen invited us down to his apartment in Santa Cruz, California to see a super-early version of Super Meat boy! You never get this kind of early look at games outside of the indie scene and we feel privileged to have had the opportunity. If you've never heard of Edmund before, you're likely to now. Google him and go play one of the ton of free flash games he has up (including the original Meat boy and Time Fcuk), you'll love 'em all!

Android or iPhone? Perhaps not a nerd debate to be decided in a single episode, but that doesn't stop Cesar and Rob from taking some . . . extreme measures. Fortunately their adorable little feud didn't harm our interview with Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho when we got to go check out the game last week. A few of our friends stuck around to talk about their brief play-session afterward including one "J. Cannata"--if that is his real name! Avatar is no doubt going to break (or has already broken) some kind of box-office record, but the game leaves something to be desired. Lastly, the most-likely-overlooked LittleBigPlanet for the PSP stands up proudly on its own as a must-have for any PSP owner. Android Vs. iPhone! FIGHT! Cesar vs. Rob! FIGHT! LittleBigPlanet rightly made an impact upon gamers worldwide when it hit last year. Strange, then, that except for some television commercials almost no one is talking about the PSP version. In perhaps one of the closest handheld-to-console experiences to date, the online, creator-mixmaster nature of LittleBigPlanet isn't one you'd expect to be so excellently made for a handheld system. Ryan and Matt go into why this is a necessary purchase for PSP owners. A huge thanks to Adrien Cho, a producer on Mass Effect 2, for taking the time to talk to us during the preview event last week. JayFresh was the lucky bastard that got to represent Area 5 and play the game for a few hours, but these big-game preview events are always a reunion of sorts for us in games media and our friends Jeff Cannata of some show that I hear is both Totally and Rad stuck around to talk with him and Demian Linn and Brett Bates, both of BitMob, about why ME2 is looking (surprise surprise) like yet another BioWare success story. Biggest movie of the holiday season? Almost definitely. Biggest game of the holiday season? It'll undoubtedly do well in terms of game sales, but Ryan, Matt and 1UP's Justin Haywald all agree that "meh" is the best, one-

It's a CO-OP roundtable on what makes multiplayer shooters so special. Why do some succeed and others fail? Join as we go over some of the biggest shooters of this year and yesteryear and try to get to the bottom of what makes some stick while others flounder. Also, big thanks to Astro Gaming for providing the freakin' awesome 5.1 headsets used in this week's show. How many multiplayer shooters can we cram into one episode? We weren't sure, but when you're talking about an entire genre it's very hard not to meander a bit throughout the entire history of gaming. There are some standouts, though. Here's the quick list: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Team Fortress 2 Halo 1, 2, & 3 Killzone 2 Battlefield 1943 Tribes 2 Quake 3 Arena There are probably even a few others in there that we're forgetting, but it's best if you just watch it and see if you agree with our panel of experts on what makes 'em all so damn special. And who's on said panel? Why that would be Dan Hsu and Brett Bates from BitMob.com, Kat Baily, RebelFM and Eat-Sleep-Game.com badass Tyler Barber, and representing Area 5: Matt and Ryan.

We're on vacation this week, but we still wanted to get something out there to help fill up all that extra hard drive space you've got lying around. Yeah, this week's show is really short, but we hope the quality makes up for the quantity! If you've been following us since the beginning (meaning even before CO-OP showed up on Revision3), you might be familiar with "Area 5 Snacks." They're digital shorts that we were putting together in the early days before we found out we needed to make money to stay in business. Here's all four of them in a row. We would disavow these if we could, but we've all got our legacies to live up (or down, as the case may be). Robobank. Fresh on Fresh. Bad CO-OP. Hall of Meat. They're what happen when you give grown man-babies cameras and audio gear to play with. Hopefully you'll enjoy these four quick slice-of-absolutely-real-life events as much as we enjoyed making them. The Snacks are a concept we'd like to bring back if we can get the whole having-enough-time thing sorted out. Let us know if you'd like to see more!

2009 isn't wrapped up quite yet. There are a few leftovers we felt absolutely essential to take care of. Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is a huge success and Saboteur offers a bit of newish-ness if you're interested in expanding your open-world-gaming horizons via occupied, WWII France. Also, take a look at Matt and Ryan's Y2K time capsule. What was life like 10 years ago? We're a decade into a new millennium and STILL no flying cars! Still, it's a good time to go back and take a look at the memories of yesteryear. Ahh, yesteryear… Ryan, JayFresh, and Cesar are all huge fans of Capybara's new game, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes. It's an amazing new puzzle/tactical-RPG almagamation of awesome. They dive into why this absolutely should be part of your DS library Exploring an open-world game as a WWII terrorist intent on giving Nazi's a bad time in Paris may, on the surface, seem like a rippin good time, and it is! Of course every open-world experience seems have its share of quirks and Saboteur is no different. The much-vaunted "boobies experience" actually takes quite the back seat to the slightly marred gameplay of the rest of the game world.

2009 was a very good year--for video games. While much of the rest of the world is suffering an "economic downturn," to put it politely, the creators of gaming goodness out there haven't seemed to notice. We gather a bunch of CO-OP regulars for a giant, two-parter round table that delves into what was truly an epic year for the greatest medium ever invented by humankind. Our 2009 retrospective was too big and too long to fit into a single episode, so our crew and friends agreed to hang around for over three hours of filming so that we'd have plenty of time to go into what was such a huge, packed year for gaming. We've been hugely thankful for all the amazing guests we've had on CO-OP throughout 2009, and we're doubly grateful to have so many of them show up for this show: - From Bitmob, Dan Hsu. - Tyler Barber of RebelFM fame and Eat-Sleep-Game.com as well as regular work for GameSpy. - Kat Bailey, a frequent, favorite guest of ours and a freelancer at large. - Long-time blogger Tiff Chow. - Justin Haywald and David Ellis from 1UP.com. Of course we talked about all of our favorites and, hopefully, some of yours, including: Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, Assassin's Creed 2 (seeing a lot of 2's), Batman: Arkham Asylum, Shadow Complex, Fat Princess, Infamous, Red Faction, Trine, Plants vs. Zombies and, yes, MORE! Your favorite not in this episode? Come back next week and you'll likely see it there.

It's the second part of our epic, 2009 year-in-review special! We assembled a crew of the finest CO-OP regulars to share what their favorite games of 2009 wound up to be. This isn't a "Game of the Year" rank-a-thon, but rather a recollection of what made 2009 such a freakin' awesome year for gamers! Again, it's the same cast of all-stars from our first part: - From Bitmob, Dan Hsu. - Tyler Barber of RebelFM fame and Eat-Sleep-Game.com as well as regular work for GameSpy. - Kat Bailey, a frequent, favorite guest of ours and a freelancer at large. - Long-time blogger Tiff Chow. - Justin Haywald and David Ellis from 1UP.com. This week we reminisce fondly about Borderlands, Flower, Street Figher 4, Super Maro Bros. Wii, Mad World, Demon's Souls, Dragon Age, HALO: ODST, 'Slosion Man, Spelunky, and more! We loved 2009. You loved 2009! Holy crap-face was it a good year to be a gamer!

This is not a joke. CO-OP will be going LIVE starting next Tuesday, February 9th at 7PM Eastern, 4PM Pacific. No editing to cover our mistakes. It's just us sounding as lame as we do "IRL," but with one crucial addition: you. Twitter will be a great way to participate in the discussion. Follow http://twitter.com/coop_live and get in on the act! Live chat may show up as well, but we can't guarantee that just yet. The best way to participate in CO-OP Live will be to follow the show's Twitter at http://twitter.com/coop_live. We're going to try to have a live chat active as well. For now, the community participation part will come in at the end of the show. Ask us (and the guests that agree to stick around) questions at the end of our show or just comment and agree/disagree with our assessment of the games we cover. We've got plans for whole new slates of content above and beyond the normal CO-OP offerings for CO-OP Live. Make sure you head over to Area5.tv for a full blog-post update on how things are going to change for us and for you!

CO-OP comes into its namesake today by involving YOU! We'll tell you when you can join in and all you need is a Twitter account. Simply put @COOP_live anywhere in your tweet and we'll see it! Wait until we ask for it, though, as we don't want your tweets to get lost in the shuffle. We're going to have a musical guest that we think you'll love and right after his first performance is when we're going to go to the first fan segment where you can ask him questions. He'll then play himself off and right after that we're going to do ANOTHER fan segment where you can ask any of the Area 5 crew anything you want. Disagree with our Mass Effect 2 review? Tell us! Want to see more of the set? Want to tell JayFresh how bloody sexy he is and see him blush? Now you can! CO-OP could never have come this far without you and now we need you to make CO-OP Live the best it can be! Join in, talk to us and we'll talk back. <3 In our first ever LIVE show (oh god oh god!) we'll be taking a long, hard look at BioWare's latest epic, Mass Efffect 2. Pay particular attention to what we say as this is the first time you're going to be able to directly talk back to us and tell us what you think! At the end of our show (we'll tell you when) we're going to have a fan segment and all you have to do is put @COOP_live somewhere in your tweet and we'll see it! Ryan, Matt, and JayFresh have all spent some serious quality time with ME2 since its release and have been bursting at the seams to spill on the beans on what makes it such a paragon example of the western RPG. Nothing is perfect, however, and it'll be a lot of fun for the whole team to see where the game succeeds and fails for everyone else out there. Now's your chance to be a part of CO-OP! A big, ginormous and special thanks to our friend Jonathan Mann! Not only is he part of the duo (along with the fabulous Jane Pinckard) that created the original CO-OP theme, he's also done a Mario opera, musical numbers for X-Play (including their

We were invited to attend the X10 event last week and were able to get some hands-on time with some of the hottest games slated to come out in 2010 for the 360! HALO: Reach and Fable III had, essentially, no video assets so we're not going to have much to show you on that front. However, they didn't leave us empty handed! Splinter Cell: Conviction, Dead Rising 2, and Game Room were all available to us and we had a great time with them! Matt also got to sit down with Alan Wake, but they won't let us talk about it this week. CURSES! Make sure to tweet to @COOP_live during our X10 discussion to ask us about some of these amazing games. Oh yeah, and some little game called Bioshock 2 came out last week. JayFresh and Matt tell you what they think while Ryan takes your questions. We'll be starting out with Bioshock 2, followed by our in-depth X10 previews. Make sure to pay attention to when we're taking questions and then simply tweet to @COOP_live to get in on the act!

We're experimenting today with all-live gameplay. Come on it and chat with us as we play the delightfully delicious The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and two awesome Independent Game Festival finalists Monaco and Puddle. Ryan was an IGF judge for the festival this year so he's got some unique perspectives to share. Remember, once the show starts, tweet your questions to @COOP_live and we'll have Jason here collating the best. Well, Jason's opinion of what's best anyway! As an IGF judge this year, Ryan was on the ball for what was the best of the best in terms of the indie offerings in that most prestigious event. The Game Developer's Conference coming up soon is always a huge event for the indie gaming scene and as usual we've got some incredible games to look forward to. The student showcase is particularly strong this year and we'll be showing off one of the finalists: Puddle. Fluid dynamics with Loco Roco controls is the easiest explanation we can think of. One of the games up for the highest award of the festival is Monaco, a hugely innovative heist-movie-in-a-game that somehow manages to be retro and modern all at the same time. Finally, we're leading off the show with The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom--an XBLA title that is so charming it almost bleeds uh... charm! Sorry, we're not quite as original as the poetry and amazing "hint text" sprinkled throughout P.B.'s adventures. Such is life. Bear with us in this next, experimental episode of CO-OP Live!

A huge event in gaming for those paying attention, Matt and Ryan are going to talk in-depth about Heavy Rain. Nintendo had a media day last week and we got hands on with a ton of stuff. We take your questions and offer up some previews concerning Nintendo's latest announcements: WarioWare D.I.Y., Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, Art Style: Light Trax, Art Style: Rotozoa, and the create-a-fighter DSiWare title, Photo Dojo. They didn't allow us any video for Super Mario Galaxy 2 or Metroid Other M, but we can chat it up with you and if you ask! A leap forward in interactive entertainment, Heavy Rain should be on everyone's list of paradigm-shifting moments for the medium. While some question whether or not it's really a "game," Matt and Ryan are going to go into why the game's release deserves to be heralded as an important event for gamers everywhere. Unfortunately marred by some mediocre voice acting, the surrounding message to this talk is going to be: play this. Play this game and then make everyone you know play it, gamer or not. Big game companies and publishers every so often like to throw a "media day" where the invite the gaming press, feed them lots of free stuff and in return get a bunch of glowing previews about their upcoming period of new offerings. Nintendo's can sometimes be marred with fewer offerings, but this one suffers no such indignity. With almost every title on hand having a strong showing, this looks like it may be a very good year to own a Wii and a DS (or a DS Lite, or DSi, or DSi XL, or... sheesh, just how many of those things ARE there??). WarioWare D.I.Y. is like the game industry in a box. You can make your own game and then send it out to be discovered by the rest of the world--well, the "world" being the game world inside of the cartridge. Still, it's a great toolbox of intuitive tools that will have you making WarioWare hits of your own in no time. Add to that the ability to transfer your creations to your Wii and everyone i

We're starting off this week's show with a community segment where we'll gladly delve into the announcements you may have seen on Area5.tv concerning this being the the second-to-last episode of CO-OP Live. So, make sure you get those tweets to @COOP_Live ready for the start of the show! What else do we have in store? Just Cause 2 sets a new standard for what it means to have an "open world," the iPhone is still hitting it strong with Tilt to Live, and we show you what games are must-haves on the new iPad! Just Cause 2 has really raised the bar for just how open an "open world" game can be. With more freedom of movement than perhaps any of its predecessors, the only question that remains is if the rest of the gameplay can measure up (here's a hint: almost). Tilte to Live is an absolute must-have for iPhone gamers everywhere. Its unique control mechanism is perfectly suited to the platform and is likely going to spawn a horde of copycats. Laced rough with surprising humor and gameplay that belies the seemingly-innocuous graphical style, this is a game worth every penny of its $1.99 price tag! In case you were under a rock this last weekend, the iPad came out and Ryan and Cesar each got one. Get ready with your iPad questions (again, tweet to @COOP_Live) and we'll be happy to share our experiences and show you what this new platform is made of! Still, there are some games which we'll absolutely be showing off: Geometry Wars, NOVA HD, Command and Conquer, Charadium, Mirror's Edge, and a uniquely amazing iPhone upscaled game: Eliss. The iPad has a crazily strong launch offering of games, but the apps are amazing too. Simply tweet to us if there's more you want to see and (if we have time) we'll show them to ya!

It's our final episode of CO-OP, EVAR! Yes, we're sad to see it go, and the Area 5 team has had a fantastic time here at Revision3, but we're going out with a bang! We've got some very special guests for this final episode, a deep look into Alan Wake, watch us stumble and fumble over Bit.Trip Runner as we play it live, and our final iPhone game recommendation goes to . . . drum roll please . . . Enviro-Bear! While all good things must come to an end, our big hope is that your fond memories of CO-OP will help keep the dream alive! We've done our best to make this last show a special one, and with your help it will be! Make sure to stick around for our community segment at the end of the show and ask us all those juicy questions you've been saving up for just such an event! We've also got Alex Neuse of Gaijin Games on hand to answer your questions during our live gameplay of his latest game for WiiWare, Bit.Trip Runner. It's one part Canabalt, two parts Vib Ribbon, but ALL Bit.Trip. As the fourth installment of the Bit.Trip series, it has uniquely approachable gameplay as both a rhythm game and a platformer. Hopefully we don't just completely fail in front of the entire world as we'll be playing it LIVE. But first, Alan Wake FINALLY sees the light of day, today, and we're here to show you how it measures up. Does it really look like a game that was in development for over five years? Is the hype to be believed? Ryan and Matt actually have some disagreements on this and other aspects of the game. Right off, as well, this is where we'll be introducing our first special guest of the show: the return of JAYFRESH!! He was able to convince his corporate masters at Visceral Games/EA to let him come on our show one, last time. Lastly but not leastly, we felt the need, nay, the DUTY, to inform you of the ultra-awesomeness that is Enviro-Bear! Cheap on the iPhone and iPod touch and free on the PC, Enviro-Bear is the epic tale of a one-handed bear that has to drive (yes