Co-Op Video Games

[Matt Larkin (author)]

[note]I'm looking for some good games that allow offline co-op, that me and my wife could play together. When looking at my list of to-be-played games, I realized that some are single player only. Such games (including ones that are supposed to be good like Mass Effect) probably won't into my schedule often anymore.
[/note]

Edited List of Offline Co-Op Games (PS3 / XBOX 360)

• Army of Two
• Borderlands
• Gears of War 1-3
• Left 4 Dead 1 & 2
• Halo: Reach
• Portal 2
• Resident Evil 5
• Sacred 2
• Splinter Cell
• Syndicate
• Uncharted 3

[Magnus Pym]

I heard Gears of War was a cool one, never tried it though.

There's Left 4 Dead 2 if you guys enjoy brutalizing zombies.

[sparkletwist]

Gears of War and Resident Evil 5 are two of my favorite co-op shooter type games.
L4D and L4D2 are also good choices.

I'd also recommend Army of Two; it is a definite tier below in terms of gameplay quality, but it is still solid co-op action and you can get it very cheap nowadays.

[Superfluous Crow]

They are releasing this game called Syndicate which will be released in a week's time or so which is supposedly designed with 4-player co-op in mind, so it might be that you can also play two together. Honestly don't know for sure. Just thought I would mention it since it is one of the only coop-centric games I have heard of in a while.

Also, a lot of the older games you can download off xbox live have co-op modes. Some of my favorite childhood co-op moments were while playing the original Perfect Dark on the N64 (and they rereleased it on the 360).

I can vouch for Gears of War being a good co-op game though!

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Updated the first post with a compiled list. Keep the ideas coming :)

[Kindling]

me and one of my friends are almost constantly engaged in the same search you are. we had a lot of fun playing the Gears of War games a while back, and more recently played a lot of Borderlands together. We started to play FEAR 3 the other day and it's got a pretty interesting dynamic...

[Matt Larkin (author)]

me and one of my friends are almost constantly engaged in the same search you are. we had a lot of fun playing the Gears of War games a while back, and more recently played a lot of Borderlands together. We started to play FEAR 3 the other day and it's got a pretty interesting dynamic...

Borderlands has offline co-op? Like split-screen, or what? I heard that was a pretty good game, but never checked it out.

[LD]

Such games (including ones that are supposed to be good like Mass Effect) probably won't into my schedule often anymore.

Well you could sell Mass Effect as a movie :) and ask for feedback on vocal options (interactive movie!).

[Ninja D!]

Yes, Borderlands. A thousand times that and the first Left 4 Dead and Army of Two. Most of the Fable games sort of. I play World of Warcraft with my girlfriend all the time. Co-op on Halo games is a good option.

[Xathan]

Borderlands.

This. Just this.

[Hibou]

I know some of the Splinter Cell series has fun offline co-op options, so if you like the sneaking around stuff I'd look into the installments with co-op. You might also look at the Arcade section which includes some classic games like Streets of Rage and the Golden Axe series.

[Kindling]

Yes, Borderlands has offline splitscreen co-op. It's basically identical to online play except there can't be more than two players.
I did also very much enjoy both Army of Two and Army of Two: The 40th Day at the time, but revisiting them recently they seem to have aged very quickly, and the controls were very clunky. That may just be me, though, like I said they were very fun the first time round.

[Ninja D!]

Borderlands.

This. Just this.

You know, forget most of what I said before. Xathan got it right.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Updated with the new games. I played all the Fables, but I thought the multiplayer was online only.

[Xathan]

Borderlands.

This. Just this.

You know, forget most of what I said before. Xathan got it right.

I do want to add one caveat - it can be kind of tough to play co-op if you don't have an HDTV. But the only problem there is just that on a non HD tv the quest text can be hard to read, and the story is not what you play Borderlands for - you play it for the acidic machine guns, the revolvers with exploding rounds, and shotguns you can snipe with. :P

If you do get Borderlands, get the game of the year version - comes with 4 fun DLCs (One of which is a co-op arena).

EDIT: The reason I recommend Borderlands is for the same reason I'd recommend Diablo 2 for multiplayer - the variety of items and flexibility of class skills gives it a huge amount of re-playability but is still easy to pick up and learn.