Co-op-recap My Computer Abandoned Me Edition

It's the end of the month again, time to pay the bills, and to balance all that check writing - recap all the good times with Co-optimus.com. That's right, they haven't fired me yet, despite having no computer for almost a week this month. Anyway, shall we?

To begin with, I delivered some interesting news about an awesome video capture feature in Tom Clancy's HAWX. The PS3 version of the game has a great feature that allowed gamers to record awesome video directly on their PS3, and upload it directly to Youtube to show off. Hey, I was impressed.

One important thing I got to do this month was review the co-op feature in House of the Dead: Overkill. I sat on my couch with a good friend where we unloaded on some mutants to pick apart the game for a Co-optimus review. Somewhat connected, I took another look at Mushroom Men for a feature called Beyond Co-op.

I shared and signed up for a Contest for the game Sacred 2 – so far, I haven't won anything, for the record. On the contest front, I also found a bit of info on some xbox live points from coke.

Resident Evil 5 was visited several times for me. The first time, I covered a Mercenaries Mode, set to be released as a patch after the games release. The second look at Resident Evil was my skepticism about co-op, Co-op versus Solo gameplay.

One of my favorite things to do is editorials. This month, last second, I was asked to share a co-op experience in a feature called "This Week In Co-op". I covered an experience in Halo Wars this time, with our Editor and a friend of mine! Who knows what I'll cover next month, co-op with me and you may be featured on the site!

Ghostbusters has still been hot on my list. After the co-op was revealed in all versions of the game, I took a look at both: Wii, and Xbox versions of the game. The Wii version had previously revealed co-op gameplay, but has a very different style in that version of the game. Being completely different than the Xbox 360/PS3 versions, both versions might be worth taking a look at!

The other ghostbusters story I covered was from a developers perspective. Tony Laborie of Threewave Software wrote to IGN explaining how the decision to include co-op came about for the Xbox 360/PS3 version of Ghostbusters.

I was a huge fan of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, so to be presented some interesting info on it's sequel, I jumped on the article. Marvel went in to a lot of detail on how they give the heroin Songbird her wings.

Earlier this month, there was a rumor about Bioshock having some form of co-op. Unfortunately for some, Co-op was debunked by the developers. I'm still torn on Co-op in my “horror” games, so this was a tricky topic to cover.

Developers have been left out of the 'profit' loop with used game sales. Therefore, I was actually excited to share the information on Switchgames.com sharing some of the profits from used sales. This was apparently a tender subject, but I've had great experiences from game developers, so I feel they deserve some of the profits from their games.

One of the games I've been looking forward to on the PS3 is Little Big Planet. LBP hit a major milestone in their user created content. Gamers can create their own video game levels, which can then be played online by other players. This particular game hit over 600,000 user created levels, that's...impressive to say the least!

A few months ago it was rumored that Aliens: Colonial Marines – a first person shooter that has been compared to Left 4 Dead, with movie-franchise-Aliens, was canceled. Fortunately there was a supposed leak in a UK Magazine called Powerstation about the game.

Terminator: Salvation looks like an interesting movie, and the game of the same name has come to our attention. That usually means it features co-op, however we got our hands on a preview of the game, with a few disappointments for us.

And there you have it, my poorly written recap of the month. As mentioned, my laptop has been out of commission, so I'm working on a lot of backlog at the moment. Next month, I'll have a plan for this!

How to make a delicious Tuna Sandwich the Katrina way

Recipe Time:

Because I decided to share my Tuna Sandwich discovery, where I managed to make a very low fat, cheap, and ultra delicious Tuna Sandwich, I decided to share my recipe with whoever would like to try it. Best used for those budgeting, but would like something other than Ramen soup or crackers.

First, the stuff:

- Light Tuna or Albacore in water (approximately 80cents)

- Fat Free Ranch or Blue Cheese salad dressing (approximately $1.60)

- Relish of your choice (Unsure the approximate cost, as I "borrowed" it from my mother)

- BBQ sauce (I...also don't know what was spent on this, I found it in the fridge and thought "Meh, why not?")

- Wheat Bread (Approximately 80cents)

Notice that the substitute for Mayonnaise is light salad dressing, that's part of the difference in delicious taste, and fatty content.

Now, it's so simple, a Katrina can do it:

Open the tuna can, and drain the water. If you have a cat, it'll probably appear to lick the residual tuna water out of the sink. Put the Tuna, and a spoon full of relish in a bowl; I used the bowl with a lid so I can store my leftovers - less clean up for now.

Then add 3 spoonfuls of Light ranch dressing, and mix it all together. Restraining mechanisms may be required for cats. Or, you could just lock them in the bathroom.

Finally, spoon as much of the Tuna mush onto a piece of bread as you'd like with BBQ sauce on top, and nomnom until it's all gone.

Nutritious, delicious, and I should probably never write one of these again.

Also, I found Corn Flakes in a cabinet - and my milk went bad, so I got creative:



It's like a Rice Krispies Treat. Only, instead of Rice Krispies, I used Corn Flakes, and instead of a treat, it's more of a tasty glob.

Asus Hackery

The last 24 hours has been different for me. I've decided that my Asus brand Eeepc needed to be customized; and regardless of claims of simplicity, the desktop images were unchangable by traditional means. Let the record show; I am generally very easily frustrated by computers, so this was very out of my league.

That is to say, the images were pre-set BORING images with the Asus logo, like this:

Available in blue, silver, green, and "sunset" orange. These images messed with the feng shui of my computer, and somehow prevented me from enjoying my time with it.

Now, in order to change these images, a separate one for each "tab" at the top, I had to replace the original images that are pre-installed. The big issue? The folder these images belong in is locked, tamper resistant, and good old copy-paste was foiled. So, I got out some online guides, and figured out how to use the Unix (which behaves like DOS on a PC) on there to force the files into the correct folder. I feel much better with Vault Boy, Spider-Man, Big Daddy & Lil sister, Companion Cube, and Pyramid head each on a separate background. Like this:

That's right, computer illiterate little old me followed directions (and asked for help from hacker-ey friends) reprogrammed the desktop images. I also managed to reset some of the default settings, such as the font, and internet preferences - which were less of a pain, but still there. I'm proud of myself, even if you don't care.

Flower

Using the expression: Stop and smell the roses, I will attempt to explain my experience with the game called "Flower". This is my personal opinion, and doesn't reflect any of the people or websites I'm associated with.



Flower, to me, is the anti-standard video game. Where most games seem to use the tactic of sucking you in through a stressful situation; either surviving an apocalypse, racing to win, solving puzzles on which someones life depends, shooting the other guy first, or completing missions in a timely manner, so your boss doesn't fire you (oh, wait, that's called 'life' not 'game'.) Flower seems to want to take a moment to give us a break in the stress department, and just let us flow.

Stop and smell the roses, the tulips, and the pink, blue, orange, or yellow thingies – okay, I don't know much about real flowers, that's not the point. Take a moment to relax, step back from the shooting, and just enjoy. Flower is my Zen between games. It's my self prescribed therapy when things get too crazy. Flower is just...Flower.

Now imagine me, only planting seeds and growing kitty snacks.