Just noticed that BAPenguin of Evil Avatar Fame has launched a new website focused on co-op gaming called Co-Optiumus. From the press release:
With virtually no other websites dedicated to co-op games, gamers are having a hard time finding the information they need for their co-op experience. Co-Optimus.com fills this void by providing an extensive database of games that feature a co-op mode across nine platforms including the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. The site also features user reviews, ratings, and matchmaking as well as discussion forums to help find a buddy for all your co-op needs.
I think it's a great idea, and encourage you all to visit! My hope is the site evolves over time and allows you to drill down into a library of co-op games by the way you like to play them. For example, sometimes I like partnering up with a friend and blazing through a rich, scripted, full-story single-player experience with full co-op support (Halo, Gears of War, and Eternal Sonata are good examples). Other times I might like to play something with less plot but still a fun co-op experience (a side-scrolling arcade shooter perhaps). And other times I might be looking for a "co-op light" or "date night" (to coin a few phrases) sort of game, where there's a primary player, and others can interact in a light-weight way (Zack and Wiki's secondary pointer support is one example, or even just playing a story-based MMO like Final Fantasy where your partner is enjoying the plot/visuals, making suggestions, but not having to pick up the controller herself).
One other thought might be to track the level co-op support is built into a game, and whether obvious integration opportunities are skipped/cut (and hence potentially frustrating to a gamer). Eternal Sonata jumps to mind here again - the game allows players to control other characters in combat (while a single player acts as primary driver through the overland). Unfortunately, that co-op support doesn't extend to online.
Been watching this with a great deal of interest, and wanted to pass along a good article in case you weren't aware of the ramifications of this auction. Simply put, one of the last wide-ranging/penetrating wireless spectrum chunks is coming up for auction. The plans of the eventual winner will have a huge impact on how (and whether) we can expect to see a useful nationwide broadband network anytime soon here in the US.
Why are all these companies so excited? Because the 60 MHz of spectrum that’s about to be auctioned is the last prime real estate for mobile communications that will be available in the U.S. for decades to come. And it lies in the 700-MHz band substantially below the 800- to 850-MHz and 1900-MHz frequencies already used for U.S. mobile phones. In this case lower is better since 700-MHz signals propagate better, spreading farther and penetrating buildings more easily than higher frequencies. This greater range means that each 700-MHz cellular antenna can service a larger footprint, which means fewer cells (those interlocking service areas that a “cellular” network is made up of) will be required overall. That should, theoretically, make it cheaper—$5 billion cheaper according to some estimates—to build a national wireless network.
Thought it was quite forward-thinking of EA to release source under the GPL for SimCity, one of Will Wright's classic games. I'm especially curious to see what new revisions (art assets, sound, gameplay mods, etc.) people might come up with. Check it out!
"The key thing here is to peek inside the mind of the original Maxis programmers when they built it. Remember, this was back in the day when games had to fit inside of 640k so some "creative" programming techniques were employed. SimCity has been long a model used for urban planning and while it's just a game, there are a lot of business rules, ecosystem modeling, social dependencies, and other cool stuff going on in this codebase. It may not be pretty code but it's content sure is interesting to see."