As we’re eagerly awaiting Dead Island to hit the stores in a few weeks time, we’ve been very much wetting our appetites with past co-op titles – which brings us to this list. We here at GamerEuphoria are suckers for a good co-op title, not to mention zombie aficionado’s – together, co-op and zombies make an explosive mix.

While the future of gaming looks set to contain more co-op than ever the following list is a show case of some of the best co-op experiences already on store shelves (and download services). Grab a buddy and grab a pad and prepare for the best co-op experiences money can be in video games.

Top 10 Co-op Games To Play With Friends

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Gears of War 2:

Epic’s sci-fi gore fest has always been a blast to play through. Sure the story isn’t great but the action more than makes up for it. The full campaign co-op has always been a vital ingredient to the success of Gears of War so it didn’t come as any surprise when Gears of War 2 landed with an enhanced cooperative experience. The campaign made more use of the co-op with branching paths and more sections requiring team work and tactics. The campaign was action packed as ever and had  plenty of moments in which both players would be saying ‘sweet’ over the microphone however the true fun was found in the Horde mode. Gears of War 2’s Horde mode was a simple idea of four players taking on wave after wave of enemies. Horde mode was both intense and frantic but always fun with desperate last stands against the bigger enemies the game had to offer.  There’s nothing more fun that holding out in a corner with your buddies armed with shot guns waiting for the incoming wall of death.

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Borderlands:

If Diablo and Mad Max had a good night together and invited back a First Person Shooter along with them the offspring would be Gearbox’s Borderlands. The cell shaded shoot and loot em up deployed Diablo like role playing game elements and stat balancing into a broad and humorous world. Borderlands sets players out in groups of four and tasks them to complete quests and shoot stuff with big guns. The game is extremely simple at its core and playing solo is quite repetitive however in co-op is where the game shines. Adventuring through the world and taking on interesting enemies and mini bosses with buddies is highly enjoyable. The rush of looting a weapon that is far bigger and far better than your current one is an experience worth investing into.  With great downloadable content Borderlands is a great example of simple yet brilliant co-op on modern day consoles.

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Left 4 Dead 2:

At some point in our life we all ask ‘what would it be like to be in a zombie apocalypse with our mates? And Left 4 Dead provides an answer to that question. Running through the zombie infested levels with 3 of your closest buddies is an insanely fun experience. The gameplay is fast and furious and the game adapts to each play through being as fun as the last. Hearing a friend scream in horror as a Hunter leaps onto him/her is a memorable experience as is the first time a friend experiences a Jockey humping for the first time. Grab a microphone and blast through the highly enjoyable fast paced action that Left 4 Dead has to offer. Keep a cheeky eye out for the film references to obtain a extra sense of enjoyment.

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Halo Reach:

The Halo franchise has always offered a fantastic full story co-op experience however it was wasn’t truly defined until Halo: Reach. With a fantastic campaign to play through that mixed things up in terms of gameplay from time to time you’d think that would be enough to earn a place on this list. The return of Fire fight and the full co-op campaign are what place Halo: Reach on this list above all other Halo titles. The co-op action was blended seamlessly with the campaign and felt natural. The hours of fun on offer are undeniable as too is the various opportunities to mess around with mates, there’s nothing better than throwing a sticky grenade at your mates face.

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Operation Flash Point Red River / Dragon Rising:

While both games suffer from various bugs and glitches it’s undeniable that both titles offer an intense and slow burning co-op experience. Let’s get this straight both games are best experienced with three other buddies with the difficulty setting on Hardcore. With constant communication and tactics being required for Hardcore the games enters a whole new level of emersion and intensity. While the games are unforgiving on the Hardcore you do get a sense of satisfaction after competing each intense mission with all your buddies alive and kicking.

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Little Big Planet 2:

Creating things is fun and offers endless hours of enjoyment but there’s only one thing better than creating and that’s sharing your creations. Playing through your (or a buddies creation) is a unique experience that is not often offered on consoles. The level of fun is unparalleled and due to the accessibility of the game anyone can play it regardless of age or experience.

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Rainbow Six Vegas 2:

While the multiplayer earned a lot of attention it should be remembered the game also had a fantastic co-op experience. Although the franchise had become more of an action tactics game through the years it resulted in an enjoyable experience. Coordinating weapons and equipment with your partner was a minor yet appealing option to the game. The best part of the co-op was approaching missions using team work, examples of this was a co-op partner using a riot shield while another player took position behind them firing onto the enemy. While it didn’t do anything new Rainbow Six Vegas 2 did do everything well and was highly enjoyable with a buddy. Hunting Terrorists while discussing the awful weather, a pure delight!

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Saints Row 2:

Unfairly cast under the shadow of the inferior Grand Theft Auto 4 Saints Row 2’s co-op delights have went under the radar. Full world and full story co-op is a true feat for such a large and detailed world. Nothing is off limits nor is anything limited within the co-op. Countless hours of fun were on offer in the shape of the story, side missions and all the quirky mini games. A true underrated game and co-op experience which remains to this day as one of the best.

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Crackdown:

Playing as a super cop with a massive city as your playground sounds fun on its own however when you add a buddy into the mix the fun doubles.  Crackdown is the definition of crazy co-op antics with players being placed in the boots of almost super hero like characters in a broad and living world filled with opportunities for over the top action. While the game had a story to complete you would often find yourself sitting back and killing time by messing around within the game world. Climbing to the highest point in the game world only to push your friend off had a unique sense of comedy. Your friend’s cries of help and the odd curse word were always blocked out by the constant laughs Crackdown’s co-op created.

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Diablo 2:

Diablo 2 will always have a place in the heart of many gamers. The epic story telling that Blizzard does so well was a big feature of Diablo 2 however the online full story co-op was the key ingredient to its success. There was nothing better than joining a fresh game and interacting with a number of players and embarking on the various quests Diablo 2 had to offer. The co-op experience was further enhanced with gaining a balance within each party in which players would use buffs to compliment each other’s strong and weak points. Running through the world in a group was a satisfying experience that wouldn’t be successfully replicated until the release of Blizzards World of Warcraft. Oh and who didn’t love the secret cow level?

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Honourable Mention – Dead Island:

The combination of co-op and zombies has already been crafted into a thing of beauty but that hasn’t stopped Dead Island from making ripples in the gaming community. Boasting a large world filled with flesh hungry zombies (the sprinting variety) Dead Island is forging its own path to success. The game offers the sense of brutality and finesse which has became a hallmark of modern day zombie media.The twist Dead Island puts on the situation is the location isn’t your Dawn of the Dead style mall nor is it your 28 Day’s style suburban landscape instead Dead Island offers a holiday resort steeped in beauty…and blood.

While Zombies increasingly become more main stream Dead Island  is stepping up to the plate with its combination of RPG elements and brutal first person survival and co-op to provide what could be one of the most satisfying experiences for gamers and gore hound alike.

They announced the news via their weekly update by saying,”We are not building map packs for Halo: Reach and we’re not working on any engine modifications, with code pressed tightly to metal. We’re still here supporting Halo: Reach until Microsoft takes the reins. As phases of the transition (which is already under way) unfold we’ll continue to work with Microsoft and 343 Industries to ensure the hand-off requires as little brainpower from you as possible, and as we nail down significant dates we’ll hammer home your expectations in kind. Rest assured all sides are working diligently to make sure the transition experience is as awesome as possible.”

Bungie did however say they will continue to support the game via playlist updates before they hand over the reins to Microsoft.

‘’You can also expect us to continue infusing Halo: Reach’s online game with plentiful playlist additions and upgrades, the best community-crafted maps we can get our hands on, and some outstanding community contests and events that we’ll start talking more about in the weeks and months ahead… If you’ve been riding the Bungie ride for a good number of years, you already know the drill. The days and months ahead hold a ton of surprises, so stick around – we don’t plan on going out with a whimper.”

The Defiant map pack will release on March 15^th.

The map pack will cost 800MSP and will launch in March along with 150 gamer points worth of new achievements. An official description of the new pack has been released with a trailer.

Condemned: Condemned takes place aboard Orbital Station Gamma, a massive space station high in orbit above the planet Reach. Prior to the Covenant’s overwhelming invasion, Orbital Station Gamma provided long range communications for UNSC fleets and a vital lifeline between Reach and Earth. During the Battle of Reach, the station suffered terrible punishment at the hands of the Covenant but a few fortified sections remain intact, fully pressurized, and ready for combat. Condemned supports 6 – 12 players in a variety of action-packed game types, including Team Slayer, Team Objective and Free for All.

Highlands: Highlands takes place on the top-secret Military Wilderness Training Preserve on Reach. The Preserve is a large, wooded area where Spartan super-soldiers trained long before the war with the Covenant began. During the Battle of Reach, the Preserve was the site of key battles between the alien invaders and a group of Spartans who used their familiarity with these UNSC training grounds to significant tactical advantage…but not everyone who enters these woods makes it out alive. Highlands expands the fight with massive-scale engagements for 8 – 16 players in Big Team Battle, Team Slayer and Team Objective.

Unearthed: Unearthed takes the battle for Reach to a large Titanium mine and refinery located in the Viery civilian sector of the planet. This particular mine was built to take advantage of the exposed titanium inside a massive meteor crater. The titanium produced here is used in much of the UNSC hardware, from the chassis of the Warthog to the meters-thick armour plating of capital ships like the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. While this facility was quickly abandoned when the Covenant arrived on Reach, it still has significant tactical (and economic) value and it won’t be long before both humans and Covenant return to battle for control. Unearthed allows up to 4 players to launch a counterassault against the Covenant in Firefight and Firefight modes such as Generator Defence.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was very hard to pick a top 10 this year. There have been some great games throughout 2010. I have managed to narrow down the list into those that I have most enjoyed.

10 – Black Ops

9 – Dead Rising 2

8 – BioShock 2

7 – Amnesia: The Dark Descent

6 -Super Mario Galaxy 2

5 – Kinect Sports

4 – Alan Wake

3 – Halo Reach

2 – Heavy Rain

1 – Starcraft II

The Map pack named ‘Noble Map Pack’ will contain the following:

Tempest: An abandoned shoreline facility with two symmetrical bases. Best suited for 8-16 players

Breakpoint: A series of frozen archaeological labs best suited for 8-16 players.

Anchor 9: A UNSC controlled orbital dry-dock offering close combat, best suited for 2-8 players.

The map pack will cost 800MSP and will have 250 more achievement points to obtain. Bungie will also be running their “Forgetacular Map Design Contest” for full details head over to this link.

If you look at the Achievements section on the image Bungie released, it appears that there is a  gamerscore count of 1250 and 59 Achievements to be obtained, compared to the standard 1000 and 49 released in the box.

The image below was first displayed as part of a latest Bungie.net update informing users how to install the game to hard disk, while at the same time, giving away a bit more information that they anticipated. Or was this deliberate – in order to boost potential DLC hype? Or was it simply an editors oversight?

Despite no immediate clarification of this – it’s looking possible that more achievements in some shape or form, are inbound. We’ll do our best to keep you informed as soon as more information surfaces.

Halo Reach is a grand, final gesture from Bungie. Here, we find all the gems of the series’ past whilst the fundamentals are pushed even further than previously thought possible. There are indeed moments where the formula seems somewhat worn, but the high level of polish keeps things fresh and interesting, which is astounding, given Halo’s near ten year reign.

One of the first things you’ll be prompted to complete upon booting up the disc is the Spartan creator tool, as Halo Reach follows the path of your custom Spartan. With this, you will be able to fully customize your Spartan, and any changes will then follow you throughout your Halo Reach experience. Not only will those shoulder pads or colour design be displayed in flawlessly rendered campaign cut scenes, but also throughout any other gametype.

Halo Reach is a full-bodied grand gesture from Bungie – the collaborative ode that brings together the gems of the series' past while pushing the fundamentals even further than previously thought possible.

Previous Halo campaigns have always received praise for their captivating stories and their design. Reach rounds off the journey beautifully in such a way that ticks all of the right boxes for both veteran and casual players. Whether your journey is made alone or cooperatively with up to four players, your final hours within the Bungie-created universe will not be unsatisfying.

As a member of Noble Team, you have been called in to investigate a distress signal in a rural mountainous area. You’ve been informed that it is nothing more than rebel activity, but it’s no surprise when the source of the distress turns out to be those pesky Covenant folk. It begins on a relatively small scale, but before long those small skirmishes turn to all-out war as humanity tries to repel the invading Covenant. If you are at all familiar with the Halo universe, you know how it inevitably ends, but it’s a please to accompany Noble-Team through the emotional and action-packed chaos.

Bungie boasts that Reach will be the most challenging Halo yet but, depending on whether or not Legendary is too much for you, Reach’s campaign will probably land somewhere between 7 and 12 hours before the credits roll. To aid you through these increasingly difficult times, the Spartans have now been equipped with new armour abilities – sprint, jet packs, cloaking devices, shield-lock, duplicators – these abilities can be slotted and swapped out depending on your situation. However, don’t rely on these too much as they can be overworked, resulting in a slight cool down period.

Once the story of planet Reach has been told, what else is there of worth to keep the disc spinning? Well, after a very successful debut in Halo 3: ODST, Firefight mode is back and better than ever. If you thought you had fun before, this new layer of polish will keep your smile outstretched. This is largely due to the intimidatingly huge revamp of customizable variables at your fingertips – every last spawn and script is in your control, from Spartan overshield to when and where each foe will emerge. The very same addictivebexperience you’ve come to love applies itself here, though escalated onto a much higher pedestal. Also – matchmaking!

The new addition of armour abilities and load-outs lend the worn format fresh life.

Multiplayer is almost becoming an obligatory component in recent years, but it’s rare to come across a game so special that it pulls off both the singleplayer and multiplayer features almost effortlessly. Bungie know that, by now, they are truly exceptional at forming a great online FPS that will keep gamers coming back for years to come , and Reach is no exception to the rule. Some may argue that it has become larger than life – over hyped, if you will – and to some extent, I agree with these claims. For a game to even reach such a pinnacle as to be hyped past its own capabilities, credit must be given somewhere.

The new addition of armour abilities and load-outs lend the worn format fresh life – without it, Reach would be no different than its predecessors. The addition of these armour abilities help you vary up your tactics, repelling you away from the ‘run in, die, and repeat’ style that comes with the package. The pre-set load-outs help you mix up your play much easier, meaning counters for other players become crucial on the path to victory. There is also the new Invasion mode to sink your teeth into. An objective based game where the attacking team progresses, those little altercations quickly escalate into much larger battles between the attacking team and the defending team, a scenario that perfectly mirrors the feel of desperation and war portrayed through the campaign.

Playing exceptionally well in online multiplayer not only helps promote your rank, but as you play online, campaign, co-operative play or most other game-modes, you will be earning credits as you accomplish tasks or get kills online. These credits can then be used to customize your Spartan further with expensive armour pieces and visual upgrades. Despite these alterations being strictly cosmetic only, it’s nice to get a sense of building your own individual Spartan and evolving him further. Another way to earn quick credits is through daily/weekly challenges issued by Bungie themselves. You are given new challenge criteria as they become available, which can range from killing a certain amount of grunts that day, to playing 50 multiplayer matches that week. Completing these challenges give you a heap of credits which, of course, help you increase rank and buy new gear.

At this point in the review you may be feeling as though you’ve read through all this before. ‘So what are the new additions to Reach?’, I hear you ask. ‘What warrants leaving a past Halo game?’ Well, with the addition of Forge World, your only limitations are your ingenuity, patience and your imagination. Bungie have taken the old formula for Forge and taken it to the next level, with a map-editor that could give professional software a run for its money. As you will quickly find out this is a lot bigger than what you may be used to from the original Forge. You don’t have to be a ‘smart’ (whatever that means!) person to use it to use it, either. Sleek controls, user friendly interface and hundreds of spawn objects are all you need to create either a complicated map with a unique game-mode assigned to it, or a simple 100ft high explosive pyramid. The Forge community has also generated a lot of clever, exciting, and intuitive content already, mere days after release. I’m excited to see what will come of it as time passes, as downloading other creations is a reason to keep coming back time after time.

Halo: Reach can be best described as a bitter-sweet reality.

It is hard to pick faults with Halo: Reach. Not because I think it’s perfect. Not because I’m a die-hard fan of the franchise , but because with a game polished to such a radiance as Reach, it simply doesn’t present any opinion altering faults. Occasional slow responsive AI during campaign or unlikely checkpoint positioning are the worst you will find during your time spent playing. But, when considering the quality of the suite offered, these hardly present a blip on the radar.

Halo: Reach can be best described as a bitter-sweet reality. A reality in which we have been given the perfect Halo package, which contains all the auspicious gems of the series’ past, which grace us with such awe-inspiring visuals, that ever so chilling soundboard, topped with all the right finishes. Though it may not sway the opinion of the audience who’ve already made their opinions of the Halo universe, to existing fans, this best way to wave farewell to the Bungie and Halo coupling. Every time we spun the disc, heard the music, or joined a game, we will be forever in debt to Bungie, not only for Reach, but for the two-generation-long journey they’ve taken us through. For this, we will most certainly ‘Remember Reach.’

Bungie announced that the scheduling for the Halo Reach’s stats reset at launch was to combat the pirates who have been playing the game over the last few weeks, unfairly earning credits and unlocking Armoury items weeks in advance of release date. I hope you weren’t one of those people.

However, Microsoft has since confirmed that the server reset actually took place on the evening of Thursday, September 9th “to ensure even and fair gameplay from Day 1″.

The full list is as follows:

7 September – Day 7: “Halo: Reach Premium Theme”
8 September – Day 6: “Campaign Preview”
9 September – Day 5: “50% off Avatar Warthog Prop Offer”
10 September – Day 4: “Firefight Preview”
11 September – Day 3: “Deliver Hope – Director’s Cut”
12 September – Day 2: “Multiplayer Preview”
13 September – Day 1: “Halo: Reach Collection Update (Avatar)”

Don’t get too attached to any fancy new gear you might have already acquired. Consider any expenditures or investments you’ve made in the Armoury the cost of doing business early. It’s nothing personal; we just want to make sure the playing field is kept nice and level upon launch. It’s only fair,” said Bungie’s Eric Osbourne

So for any early birds with copies of Reach prepare to lose all your credits.