The Army of Two: The 40th Day demo will let players experience the majority of the first level of the game, after the bombs seen in the opening trailer radically change Shanghai's skyline.

"THE 40TH DAY is non-stop action in an explosive Shanghai. The game has been designed with a focus on co-op gameplay and it has been our goal to refine this core experience in all aspects of the game," said executive producer Reid Schneider. "The demo will give players the opportunity to experience this evolution and the new co-op moves and tactics available to players at any time in the game."

A demo for the PSP version of the game will be released on January 7th in North America (Europe on the 14th), just in time for the game's January 13th release date. Check out the trailer below to see what's in store for our pals Salem and Rios.

Killing Floor is incredibly fun, and now it's even more so. The free Level Up content pack punctuates Tripwire Interactive's dedication to providing lasting value to their fans, keeping the game fresh with a healthy injection of new content. There are three new maps, including one set during the aftermath of a Halloween rave in an abandoned lunatic asylum, which would probably be more enjoyable if you arrived while the rave was going on. They're introducing The Husk, a new specimen with a fireball launcher grafted to its arm, which sounds uncomfortable, along with a demolitions perk for those who like blowing up the crazed mutants. All perks now have an additional level, hence the Level Up moniker, and several new weapons are introduced, including a medic gun that shoots healing darts from afar.

All of this new content is free to everyone who has purchased the game, as well as those who take part in the free Steam weekend, going on until Sunday. As an added bonus, those who opt to purchase the full game this weekend get it for 25% the normal price. $14.99 for Killing Floor is an absolute steal.

Check out a detailed list of the new features below, or just go to Steam and see for yourself.

New Features in the Level Up Pack:
* KF-Wyre: a map set in the dark forests in southern England, with a hidden Horzine facility buried underground.
* KF-Bedlam: this map is set in the aftermath of a Halloween rave at a crumbling and abandoned lunatic asylum, forcing your squad to fight through claustrophobic corridors and haunted hallways, all to the left-over rave tunes and lighting.
* KF-Waterworks: the winning map from Wave 1 of the Grindhouse mapping contest, Waterworks' stunning visuals and gameplay blew the judges away. Now you have to blow away all the specimens from the ruins of the pumping station.
* New Demolitions Perk: this one is for all those who like to blow stuff up. This is the guy who knows his explosives. Proximity-fuzed pipe-bombs and grenade launchers – you get the idea!
* All Perks now have a Level 6 to achieve – with even more goodies for getting there.
* Introducing our new Specimen – the Husk: this was Horzine's first serious attempt at a clone with a ranged attack. Grafting a fireball-launcher to his arm gave him a vicious long-range attack and gives the gameplay a whole new dynamic. Just don't stand still when he arrives – and have a Sharpshooter handy to keep him at bay.
* MP7M Medic Gun: Horzine took a submachine gun and added their prototype healing-dart gun to it. Now the Medic has the perfect combo of fire-power combined with the ability to heal team-mates from a distance.
* The M79 Grenade Launcher has been tucked away in Army arsenals for decades. It may be old, but it is ever-reliable and still packs quite a punch.
* The M32 Multiple Grenade Launcher takes the basic grenade launcher and allows you to fire multiple rounds in quick succession, for even more "boom".
* AA-12 Auto Shotgun: a prototype every Support Specialist wants to get his hands on. Devastating firepower, but just eats ammo!
* M14 Enhanced Battle Rifle: the EBR is a Special Forces version of an old favorite, just right for all the Sharpshooters amongst us.
* SCAR Mk17: another Special Forces weapon, featuring a good rate of fire, good accuracy and a good heavy round. Just what every serious Commando wants!
* Proximity-fused Pipe-bomb: an all-time favorite of Demolitions guys the world over. Arm it, drop it and wait for a horde of bad guys to run over it. Just don't be there when they do!
* Game Lobby Movie Trailers – short movie trailers will now play during the game lobby before a match. These ads will help keep the free content packs rolling!

Naughty Dog multiplayer designer Justin Richmond spoke to Eurogamer at Sony's London HQ recently, revealing that he'll be working on downloadable content for the game for the foreseeable future, and while he's "fascinated" by cooperative gameplay, time and size constraints will keep the focus on the competition.

"What you'll probably see is more of the competitive type: more maps, more modes, stuff like that. The co-op stuff is hugely time-intensive and the size of it - the physical download size - is huge, so that's probably not an option. I'm not going to say never, but for the foreseeable future we're not going to be doing that."

That doesn't mean there won't be more cooperative in the franchise's future, however, with Richmond explaining that he'd be keen to explore playing together in future Naughty Dog titles.

"Naughty Dog does a really good job of defining things, and I think no one's really done a definitively amazing amazing co-op experience and I think we can do that, and it's something that at some point we'll tackle," he said. "If I have my say, then that's what we'd do."

I'm of the mind that co-op in Uncharted isn't entirely necessary, and while it is a nice inclusion, the series wouldn't suffer without it. Your thoughts?

Naughty Dog details Uncharted 2 DLC [Eurogamer]

The Uncharted 2 multiplayer demo goes live today at 11AM Pacific, with just under 1.3GB of multiplayer goodness for all PS3 owners to love. It includes not one but four different maps, four competitive modes, and two co-operative modes, meaning it's a great deal more than the dinky multiplayer beta had to offer. The demo also includes Cinema, allowing players to view and share their multiplayer match replays, along with a Stage map that's perfect for creating your own machinima videos.

That's an amazing amount of content, and the price is definitely right. If you don't download this there might be something wrong with you. Just saying.

Uncharted 2 Multiplayer Demo open to all today [PlayStation Blog]

As always, don't watch either of these Modern Warfare 2 clips if you want your game-playing experiences to be virginal. The top video gives us a taste of standard campaign gameplay, and shows off what may be a very cool new feature.

The second video lets you see what the game's Special Ops cooperative mode, that we've all been talking about, looks like.

[Thanks Kris]

The level had its first outing at Cologne's Gamescom this week, drawing crowds to Microsoft's booth to spend ten minutes each with the game in a four-person coop firefight.

ODST's firefight mode is Bungie's answer to Gears of War 2's horde mode, throwing never-ending waves of enemies at the four Orbital Drop Shock Troopers controlled by players.

The walled-off ODST area took up the largest section of Microsoft's Gamescom booth, allowing 32 players at a time to check out the game.

When I swung by this weekend, the main line into the area had a 45 minute wait. Xbox Live gold members were able to sign up to wait in a shorter line and after playing were giving a free hat or poster. Players who scored more than 15,000 points in the timed firefight were also given a Halo 3 backpack.

My ten minutes with the game netted me a mere 5,000 or so points and two deaths, but I didn't manage to bring down the Wraith that spent the early part of the firefight peppering us with plasma mortars.

As with the three other firefight maps already shown off in ODST, Rally Point is drawn from an area in the single-player campaign. Because the maps have the potential to weaken the single-player experience if seen early, Bungie has been very tight-lipped about how many there are in total.

Rally Point is set in sector 10 of New Mombasa. This piece of the city forms a natural crossroads, making certain parts of the relatively small map killing zones. The spawn point for players is in a bunker of sorts that opens up onto the map near a series of plateaus leading down to the ground. There are also some rooms higher up on the map where covenant troops can spawn and flank what initially appears to be a relatively defendable position.

The bunker spawn point has areas for grabbing extra ammo and grenades. There are also mounted weapons that can be manned or pulled off to help mow down incoming troops.

The initial wave of enemies come from drop ships, but as the level progresses enemies begin to spawn in those rooms at the top of the map, forcing the four players to move back and forth between the high and low ends of the map to prevent getting flanked.

It's a map perfectly suited for the four-player coop mode, providing enough cover and enough enemy access points to create a difficult, but not impossible challenge.

The key to survival, as with any map in this mode, is to remember to stick together, something that becomes increasingly difficult as enemies begin to spawn at different ends of the map.

I've only played two of the Firefight maps so far, but this was my favorite because it felt a bit more like an arena than a big rectangle with a monster closet on one end.

Check out our Bungie-guided tour of the three other maps if you're interested in the coop that ODST has to offer when it hits the Xbox 360 in September.

It looks like a great deal of fun, doesn't it? I haven't really gotten into the Ninja Gaiden games since the first one on the original Xbox kicked my ass from here to next Tuesday, but there's just something endearing about getting your ass kicked with a friend. I can fill in the role of the hapless, comic relief character, making Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 into a sort of ninja buddy cop movie, with the tough-as-nails veteran and the unskilled new guy with a heart of gold.

The patent, #7,559,834 was invented by James York of Austin, Texas and filed back in the original Xbox era on December 2, 2002.

Seven years later, this is what the government assigns Microsoft a patent to:

A squad-based shooter video game allows players to dynamically join and leave the game, while that game is in progress, without the players having to save and restart the game. When a new player joins an in-progress game, a new squad member is allocated to the new player and the screen is split to present a viewing panel for the new player that depicts scenes from the perspective of the new squad member. When an existing player leaves the game, the screen is unsplit to remove the viewing panel for the exiting player and that player's squad member becomes part of the squad being controlled by the remaining player(s).

The patent specifically refers to squad-based shooter games, reducing the likelihood that it would apply to, say, re-making Halo matchmaking so that online battles were persistent with players smoothly dropping in and out. Instead, it reads like a brief on the co-op in Gears of War 2.

The patent is full of sketches (including the one in this post) that depict a shooter game being played on the original Xbox.

Microsoft did not return Kotaku's request by press time to elaborate on why the company patented this concept.

UPDATE: Several readers have noted the sketches included in the patent resemble screenshots from Xbox co-op shooter Brute Force, which was developed by the now-shuttered Digital Anvil. The company, like the inventor noted here, were based in Austin, Texas.

What Is It?
Why, it's PixelJunk Shooter, the latest model in the PixelJunk line of quality PlayStation Network titles. Rescue trapped miners while exploring the way lava and water interact with each other...or, in co-op mode, spill lava on your friends for shooting the trapped miners.

What We Saw
I played a good 20 minutes worth of the newly available co-operative mode with one of Sony's crack team of people there to play the game at E3 with me, creating a bond of friendship with what's-his-name that lasts to this very day. I apologize for the name thing, but I have eight new Sony business cards and wasn't going to take the chance.

How Far Along Is It?
Q-Games likes to spring release dates on us. They're the Apple of game development. It could be released tomorrow, or a year from now. They'll wait for the most opportune moment, then wait another few days for dramatic tension, and then BAM...there it is.

What Needs Improvement?
Not Released Yet: They have yet to release the game, so we cannot play more of it. They need to fix that.

What Should Stay The Same?
Classic Co-Op: Q-Games likes to distill the video game experience into small, easily digestible yet highly recognizable chunks, and PixelJunk Shooter's co-operative mode is no exception. The game play lends itself well to classic arcade co-operative moments. For instance, when my ship was about to explode due to overheating in the lava and my wingman shot the ceiling to douse me with water...that's a classic co-op moment.

Classic Anti-Co-Op: Conversely, PixelJunk Shooter also gives you plenty of opportunities to be a dick to your friends. Did your teammate accidentally shoot one of the miners you're supposed to rescue? Shoot open a pocket of lava and watch hot justice rain down, or better yet, uses the sponge of doom! What is the sponge of doom?

Cool (and Hot) Devices: The Sponge of Doom! Probably not what it is called, the sponge is a circular alien creature that you can pick up and carry with your ship's grapple. Pick it up, drop it in some water, and it begins to swell up, filling with liquid that then pours out everywhere once you fly off with it. It also works with lava, so if your friend needs a lava shower in order to get with the program, there you go. Water bombs and the like also feature heavily into the game's fluid dynamics.

Final Thoughts
After playing through some of PixelJunk Shooter cooperatively, I'm not sure I could play the single player game without placing an additional controller next to me on the couch, turning to look at it every now and again, a single tear running down my cheek. One day there will be a PixelJunk game for everyone, and this one just might be mine.

Trine is an action platformer that allows the player to switch between three different roles - thief, wizard, and warrior - creating objects or destroying them in order to traverse beautiful fantasy environments. I was already impressed with the title from the initial announcement video, so this co-op vid is just icing on the cake. The game allows a second player to join in the game at any point, allowing for a combination of powers you just won't see playing the game on your own.

Trine from Frozenbyte and Nobilis is due out in June on the PlayStation Network and PC.

According to forum posters, Bioshock 2 takes place seven years after the original game, with protagonist Jack Abbott chasing the Big Sister who kidnapped his daughter all the way to Rapture. I say the Big Sister, as there is reportedly only one in the game, who acts as the mastermind behind the plot of the game. Rapture has been flooded, opening new areas while changing the dynamics of previous levels, with a fully explorable zoo and underwater exploration levels. They also make a big deal about a fight with a giant squid boss, though if my memory serves me correctly, every game ever created has a giant squid boss.

Of course the biggest two rumors are the inclusion of 2-player co-operative play, and the removal of the first game's iconic enemy, the Big Daddy. I suppose it makes sense that they'd be gone now...I just have my doubts that spliced up dogs, Cold War era soviets, and bipedal robots can make up for his absence.

More new is popping up in the forums as we speak, though of course until we have the actual April issue of Game Informer in our hands, these new details remain firmly in the realm of rumor.

Update: Official response have surfaced from both 2K and Game Informer, warning people not to believe everything they read on the internet. First, from 2K Elizabeth in the 2K forums:

Hi guys,

Please do not believe everything you read on the internet.

This rumor circulating is not true.

Grab the Game Informer magazine. It's shipped out and should be to subscribers and on store shelves really soon.

And then we have Game Informer magazine's response:

The Bioshock 2 news that is running around the web is quite...interesting.
While we can¹t confirm or deny anything that is being said, let us give you a quick piece of advice: don't believe everything you read from some dude on the Internet.

If people had actually read the Bioshock 2 cover story from this month's issue...well, you will see how it matches up with the real deal when it arrives this weekend, as the rumors floating around are so amazingly wrong on a very "big" point. Watch for the magazine in stores and in mailboxes this weekend, so you will have your information soon enough.

So Game Informer says not to believe everything, and 2K says the rumor isn't true, in response to multiple rumors. This leads us to believe there could be some truth to the information circulating, and some untruths.

We'll know for sure once the next issue of Game Informer arrives this weekend.

GI News [2K Forum]

The designs by artists Augustine Kofie, Jeff Soto, and Coop can be seen within the game and on some limited edition apparel, prints and other items.

Rockstar sent along three shirts to Kotaku featuring art from the three artists and I have to say I was mildly disappointed in Coop's shirt. My favorite among the three is Soto's. Kofie's is OK as well, but I'm not a fan of his Cubist, Abtract art.

Who knows when Haze will actually be making its way to stores (last we heard was sometime between April 2008 and March 2009). This latest clip shows off some of the game's split-screen co-op play, something that seems to be a growing trend among shooters. Which is a good thing, I think.

"We truly believe that if you and a friend spend two minutes playing Schizoid, you are going to ignore food, drink, your job and your family and play until they load you up on a gurney and head to the hospital. Schizoid is that rare game that comes along once every few years and we are very proud to make it our first release for Xbox LIVE Arcade."

So it's World of Warcraft? Well not quite.

The mechanic is deceptively simple. One player is red, the other is blue. Enemies matching your color can be destroyed by you hitting them, yet enemies of other colors can kill you. Teamwork is the key to survival in Schizoid, taking co-op to a whole new level. Both players have to be on the ball to survive. It should be an excellent opportunity to call your friends 'fuckwads," which is important to any friendship.

PREPARE TO GO SCHIZOID™! TORPEX GAMES DEBUTS SCHIZOID™ FOR Xbox LIVE® Arcade AT MICROSOFT'S GAMEFEST 2007

Schizoid is First Xbox LIVE Arcade Title Built Using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express

BELLEVUE, Wash. - August 13, 2007 - The next game genre is here! Torpex
Games, a developer and publisher of addictive console games, announced
today the upcoming release of Schizoid™ for Xbox LIVE® Arcade and will
showcase the game during Microsoft's GameFest 2007. Possibly the
ultimate co-op game, Schizoid is an action game where teamwork equals
survival and players must team up to protect each other from a seemingly
endless stream of glowing enemies. Schizoid will be the first-ever Xbox
LIVE Arcade title built using Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express, and
is anticipated to be released before the end of 2007.

"Every few years a game will come out that is so simple, yet so
addictive that it becomes a phenomenon unto itself," says Bill Dugan,
Torpex Games' President. "We truly believe that if you and a friend
spend two minutes playing Schizoid, you are going to ignore food, drink,
your job and your family and play until they load you up on a gurney and
head to the hospital. Schizoid is that rare game that comes along once
every few years and we are very proud to make it our first release for
Xbox LIVE Arcade."

Featuring addictively simple gameplay, in Schizoid one person plays
'red' and the other plays 'blue'. Each player moves his ship around the
level as a seemingly endless stream of enemies attack. Each player can
burst enemies of their own color merely through contact, but each player
can be bursted by enemies of the other color. Both players have to
"step up" on every level to handle the enemies of their own color, so
their partner is not destroyed.

"There are literally thousands of games released every year and yet very
few of them have the originality of Schizoid. It's amazing to me that
this game hasn't been invented before now," says Dave Mitchell,
Microsoft's Director of Marketing for XNA. "Schizoid demonstrates that
developers can really unleash an ingenious game with XNA Game Studio
Express."

Bryan Trussel, Microsoft's Director of Platform Game Services, added,
"Schizoid combines a very fun and innovative game mechanic with really
creative level design. Thanks to its cooperative game-play experience
and variety of scenarios, Schizoid is a great game to play with friends,
either on the couch or over Xbox Live. We're delighted to exclusively
add this creative and unique game to our incredible Xbox LIVE Arcade
library."

He may not respond to my annoying little IMs about Halo 3 Co-Op, but former Kotakuite Luke Smith did one better and posted all of the game's Co-Op details on Bungie... I suppose that's OK, it is his job now.

Here's the details, the game will support four-player co-op via both Live and System Link with up to two player per a television on split-screen. To access the game you go into the lobby and set the mode as Campaign and then invite your friends. Unfortunately, you won't be able to drop into an active co-op game.

The lead gamer plays as the EmCee, while player two gets to control the Arbiter and players three and four control "two brand new Elite characters." Hit the jump for their descriptions.

PLAYER 3 (Sangheili)

Name: N'tho 'Sraom
Affiliation: Fleet of Retribution/Special Warfare Group/Special Operations
History: N'tho 'Sraom is the youngest member of his Special Operations unit and is one of a growing number of human sympathizers amongst the Sangheili youth. He is a fairly typical young male adult Sangheili—he began compulsory military service at the end of adolescence, and remains unmarried with no close, non-familial relationships outside of his martial order. N'tho Sraom refused to stand idly by while the Prophets replaced Sangheili units with Jiralhanae packs, and now bears deep resentment toward those Sangheili politicians who landed his kind in their current predicament.

Although N'tho 'Sraom's romanticized nationalism is emblematic of all Sangheili, he has developed a healthy respect for humanity—not for their physical abilities or martial prowess, but for their audacity and resolve.

PLAYER 4 (Sangheili)

Name: Usze 'Taham
Affiliation: Fleet of Retribution/Special Warfare Group/Fleet Security
History: Although Usze 'Taham was born into a respected merchant family he was fathered by Toha 'Sumai—one of the preeminent swordfighters of this age. Usze graduated with honors from the top War College in the Iruiru region of Yermo, Sanghelios (a distinction he shares with Rtas 'Vadum). Shortly after receiving his first post within the Covenant Navy he was offered a place on the Prophets' Honor Guard but he declined citing "lack of practical experience". In truth, he had no desire to be part of a largely ceremonial unit, and at the end of his third combat tour, Usze 'Taham again refused the post—even though his superiors warned him such behavior could be misinterpreted as apostasy.

Since that time Usze has evaded countless punitive actions, at least two assassination attempts, and served with distinction for two additional tours before the Schism. Following the dissolution of the Covenant, he was approached by the Ascetics to become one of their liaisons within the Navy.

The Tru7h About Co-Op in Halo 3 [Bungie]

I'm suddenly looking forward to Halo 3 a lot more...though finding three people to play through the title may be a bit tough. Now to commence my work on self-cloning. I knew there was a purpose to my bountiful blessing of body hair.

Xbox Life [in dutch] Thanks Stefan!

Since we've had the whole weekend to soak up Starcraft news, let's turn our attention back to the Halo Beta. Rumors from the modding sector have unearthed a list of on-screen text for Halo 3's multi-player and single player campaign:

The game cannot start because all players are set to observer. Too many players for splitscreen. Only 2 players may play splitscreen coop on the same Xbox 360 console. The party size is too large to start the game. Up to 4 players may play coop on Xbox Live or System Link. Loading information from Xbox Live...

Provided this isn't just a rumor, this could mean that people who got banned from Xbox Live are going to be pissed. Microsoft hasn't confirmed any of this yet, but if they want Bungie to be the online belle of the ball, they will. Kim Phu

Massive Halo 3 Feature Leaked? [CVG]

Blah. More counter-terrorism? But this sounds neat: the Unreal Engine 3-powered game will have four-player Live co-op and 24 player deathmatch battles online. But this is the cool part:

Bethesda and Zombie are touting a multiplayer tiling system, which allows players to build multiplayer maps from sections of other maps. According to the magazine, each level is made up from three sections - you choose one, the other team picks another, the then centre section is plucked out of the list at random by the Xbox 360 (from over 200 combinations).

Opposing teams won't know what the other team has picked until they're in the game. The main aim of this feature is to stop players getting bored of playing on the same maps, according to the makers.

That could be fun: a nice compromise between having professionally designed maps and yet not playing whatever Rogue Warrior's equivalent of de_dust is ad infinitim. Florian Eckhardt

Bethesda creates new first-person shooter [CVG]

So here's a question for all you Kotaku Scouts: which 360 games have multiplayer co-op?

I know of a few, but if my plans for 360 acquiring go through this weekend, I'll want a bigger list to draw from. There are always little under-the-radar games that just don't get heard about, so I'm hoping there are a few I've missed.

This is where you come in, dear readers. I want submissions via comment or e-mail of all the 360 games you know of that support cooperative play. Ditto for websites that already list this information, and I'd even like to know about compatible Xbox games that have co-op.

Additionally, let me know a little about the games, how fun they are, what sort of experience I can expect, that sort of thing. I'll be compiling and posting the results in a few days. Eliza Gauger

You know, I'm really glad to see that companies are starting to get co-op again. How weary I was when every game developer shrugged off the feature, as if no one wanted it: that gamer's only multiplayer instinct was to crush their enemies. For people like me, an even stronger urge is to shoot our friends in the back, or to throw a sticky grenade at them, then watch them run around in a circle screaming "Argh! You asshole! Argh!" before exploding. Florian Eckhardt

Gears Of War Xbox Live Full Co-Op Play Confirmed [Rewiredmind.com]