So, if you’ve been visiting CounterAgent for any time, or listening to our podcast, you probably know that we love co-op gaming. Can’t get enough of it. Well, it seems we’re not alone out here. Welcome, Co-Optimus, your prime source for co-op gaming. If you haven’t noticed yet, to the far right side of this site is a brand new news feed delivered direct from the guys over at Co-Optimus. That little box will keep you up to date on all the latest in co-op gaming. They’ve got a great index of co-op games as well to keep you up to date on any platform, any genre. Anything happening in the co-op universe, Co-Optimus will have it.

Don’t just take my word for it, well, take my word, but go visit Co-Optimus and see for yourself. I mean, everybody loves to co-operate, right? Right. And aren’t those robots just adorable?

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Wouldn’t life without DRM be grand? The folks at Warner Music and Amazon.com are going to start offering DRM free tracks. It took a while but finally Warner was convinced to start offering their music DRM free on Amazon. Looks like iTunes might have a bit of competition.

While there is still no word on Sony BMG going DRM free with anybody, this is a pretty big force that they will have to reckon with. If Sony gets on board with the DRM free craze it could be curtains for the CD. I personally am a fan of Cd’s. I like have the jewel cases and the booklets. That said I haven’t listened to a CD in years. It gets ripped onto my PC and then put on my iPod right away for the first listen. Granted the end of Cd’s is far off, this might be a sign of the times.

Michael Scott said it best; Wikipedia has the best possible information. Do some beg to differ? Will there be a banning of Wikipedia at school? I can understand why. The information on the editable online encyclopedia is unverified and may times be inaccurate. Teachers are encouraging students to steer clear of Wikipedia. But it’s so easy to use. I just can’t help myself. It’s my Vice. Wikipedia turns nice girls naughty. But it has EVERYTHING!

Okay, so Denise Gonzalez-Walker, wrote on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s education blog, “It’s a shame that the teachers and librarians quoted in the article didn’t take advantage of the situation—finding inaccurate information on Wikipedia—by having their students revise the Wikipedia site with their own research, or engage in broader discussions about how authority and truth will be staked out in new media.”

Personally, I’ve never edited anything on Wikipedia. What would I add? That’s where I get my facts. Moral of the story? Only Wikipedia knows.

Street Fighter 4 (or IV for all the Romans out there) is being hyped like crazy. The folks over at 1up.com have managed to get some exclusive playtime with the upcoming fighter. The information is very limited and stretched out to 3 pages of not much more than “the game looks very good” and “we can’t wait” or “they couldn’t tell us more than that”. They do tell us a little about a new “saving system” (not save as in save your game’s progress, but save as in block/parry), a “revenge gauge”, and new “ultra combos”. Read the full article over at 1up.com for the details.

All of the new screens they’ve just posted are the same ones the entire internet had their hands on last week, including us. In case you missed it, here they are.

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I love Legos. Portal is a great game. Put the 2 together and you get one big helping of awesome. Sure its just like the paper-craft that was posted earlier but this is Lego so its just as great. To me it looks a bit photo-shopped, just the lighting looks like it is glowing a bit much. Either way its cool.

The world of Papercraft is growing. Everyone seems to love the cute, light weight renditions of their favorite characters and games. I’ve compiled just a few samplings of what’s been happening lately in the ever expanding phenomenon called Papercraft. Whatever happened to origami? Nothing really, Papercraft is Origami. Origami is Papercraft. It’s just what the cool kids are calling it. Get hip to it Grandpa.

Portal Papercraft

First there was Portal. A game many, including myself, esteem as one of the best, most innovative games of the year. TubbyPaws must have agreed.

More…

Crysis players have been waiting for a much needed patch that would fix a few bugs, improved SLI support and we can only hope for quad core support. Well the patch won’t be hitting until next year sometime and there won’t be any quad core support. Check out what Crytek had to say on their forum about the upcoming patch.

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That’s right it says “weak”, as in not strong. Below are some news stories from the past week or so that just didn’t seem super enough for their own headline post. However, they still hold a special place in my heart. So, without further ado, here it is. Weak sauce.

New Flash Player gets HD Video Playback

The future is HD and everyone on YouTube can look forward to a high-definition experience sooner now. The scientists over at the Adobe labs have brought the newest version of the Flash Player into HD. The latest version includes HD video support using the highly popular H.264 codec (Apple’s baby). As well as that is improves overall load on your CPU by using hardware acceleration instead of relying on software decoding and rendering. H.264 isn’t the only Apple friendly addition. The update also includes AAC (default encoding in iTunes) sound support. Oh, and Linux is also finally getting the update it’s been desperately needing.

EA’s Convinced C&C Renegade Wasn’t Enough

Enter Tiberium. The newest entry to the C&C universe. Wait, didn’t they already do this back when it was called Renegade? Or, the way they describe it, it sounds more like one of the updated Battlezone games.

EA describes Tiberium’s gameplay as a “blend of first-person shooting and tactical squad combat,” allowing players to control multiple ground and air units in addition to the game’s central character, Forward Battle Commander Ricardo Vega.

Source [Joystiq]

Amazon Takes Preorders for Gears of War 2, Then Stops

Guess they realized no one knows when the game will come out or anything else about the game for that matter. So, we all pretty much know they’ll be making a sequel, you don’t stop when there’s so much money on the table. But, I guess the good folks over at Amazon wanted to get in on some of that money first. The pre-orders where up and down within two days. I wonder if people that preordered will get a refund?

Sorry, No Dreamcast 2. Just Business Stuff

Recently Sega fanboys were peeing their collective pants as Sega updated it’s Dreamcast trademark. Sorry everybody, according to GameDaily, Sega of America PR Director Charlie Scibetta said, “SEGA has no plans to get back into the hardware business, but we also want to protect our past and current brands. The trademark application was filed to protect our current and potential future use of the word DREAMCAST and to prevent other parties from using it in a way that could be confused or linked with SEGA.”

I still have my Dreamcast, and was always a Sega gamer, so I was actually excited about the potential for Sega to get back into the hardware business. Sigh.

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I remember analysts originally saying how the PS3 would dominate the next-gen console wars. Well, it’s been over a year now, and, not so much. Analysts and industry “experts” still claim a comeback. Some say as early as 2008 the PS3 could bring Sony back into the next-gen war.

Media analyst firm Screen Digest is feeling confident in the media capabilities of the PS3. They think it’s going to make a strong increase in 2008. Senior games analyst, Piers Harding-Rolls, says “Now that these multi-media services – online video, IPTV, digital terrestrial TV and PVR functionality – are now available or poised to come on line in different markets, this ‘hub’ strategy is emerging as a key console battleground for Microsoft and Sony.” [Computer And Video Games]

Other sources have said it may take as long as 2011 before the Playstation 3 catches up with the runaway success of Nintendo’s Wii. Me, well, I think it’s gonna remain in third place as long as the price remains higher than competitors and the console’s library consists of more than a few decent Blu-Ray movies and one or two good games each year.

What are your thoughts? We love to hear what everybody thinks. Comment below and let us know.

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Before I send you off to another site to see the list they’ve made of the best free games of 2007 I’m gonna tell you the games I picked. While my picks aren’t exactly freeware in the traditional sense, I’d like to share them. First of all the Portal Flash game is the best alternative to the real thing. It’s great fun and you don’t even have to download anything. Second, the newly available Fury MMO. It was originally planned to be sold for money, you may have even paid for it, bummer. Thanks to the company’s financial problems you get a free game. While it may not be the best of MMO’s it’s not bad for free. Finally, it may not have come out this year, but F.E.A.R. Combat (the multiplayer version of F.E.A.R.) is totally free and pretty freakin sweet as well.

Okay I’m done, here’s the link to GameSetWatch’s top freeware games of 2007.

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