10 co-op games you can play this weekend

Beer and chips sold separately.

Tarryn van der BylJuly 20, 2012

It’s Friday, and this weekend, you could do anything. You could become an astronaut, or cure cancer, or save the lives of orphans trapped in a burning building. Or you could stay in and drink beer and eat chips and play games on the couch with your friends.

Note that LAN play applies only to console editions of the games, and may not be supported on PC.

Gears of War 3

Local: 1-2
LAN: 2-5
Online: 2-5

The world of Sera is at war, and if the humans of the Coalition of Ordered Governments don’t win, the planet will be entirely overrun by the Locust horde. Who were technically there first, and maybe this whole thing is just an outrageous indictment of human xenophobia and hubris… but shotguns!

Just Dance: Gears of War edition

Dead Island

LAN: 2-4
Online: 2-4

For anybody who’s ever dreamed of duct-taping wires to a machete and lobbing it at a zombie. Electrocution just got sexy.

“Speedos only at this resort!”

Spelunky

Local: 2-4

It’s dangerous to go alone! Take your buddies. That way, if you don’t have a spare rock, you can pick a friend up and throw them in front of the arrow trap instead. Remember, there’s no “I” in “team”, so the point is to use everybody else to your advantage.

“Throw me the idol. No time to argue! Throw me idol, I’ll throw you the whip!”

Halo: Reach

Local: 2-4
LAN: 2-4
Online: 2-4

It’s just you and your friends against a full-scale, planet-wide alien invasion. You also get to customise your character’s appearance, and neon pink body armour makes everything 10x better. It’s science!

Scientologist recruitment drives are getting high tech

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Survival mode

Local: 2
LAN: 2
Online: 2

How far can you get before it’s all over with that one grenade you just didn’t manage to scramble away from in time? My current record is 27 waves on Mission. Put a sentry gun in that room with the window overlooking the strip, and watch those insurgents turn to red paste. Until a chopper destroys it, anyway.

Try out MW3′s new “Lampost Holocaust” mode.

Left 4 Dead 2

Local: 2
LAN: 2-4
Online: 2-4

There’s really no such thing as beating a zombie apocalypse, it’s more like managing one. The best laid plans of mice, men, and the whole gang in the safehouse often go aswry, and there’s usually a Tank involved.

Walmart sales bring out the absolute worst in people.

Trine 2

Local: 2-3
Online: 2-3

The trick is to play as the Wizard, and make loads of planks. You can even ride your own planks if you put one on top of another one, and manipulate the one on the bottom. Some people would call that cheating, but I think it shows ingenuity, resourcefulness, and initiative. And it makes everything much easier.

And one day, I’ll kill them all.

Borderlands

Local: 2
LAN: 2-4
Online: 2-4

1. Visit sunny Pandora.
2. Kill everything.
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!

“The longer we pose, the cooler we look.”

Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition

Local: 2-4
Online: 2-8

If there’s one thing better than digging holes, it’s digging holes with friends. That way, you can push them into the holes when you’re done, then drop sand and stone blocks on their heads while they scramble to dig themselves back out to safety.

This is where I buried the bodies, Officer.

Unreal Tournament 3

Local: 2
LAN: 2-4
Online: 2-4

The Unreal Tournament series is mostly known for its guns ‘n’ gibs deathmatch, but the co-op campaign in this game is criminally underrated. It’s also good practice for the guns ‘n’ gibs deathmatch, although I’ll confess that after playing every game since the original, I still can’t wall bounce.