Co-op gaming has become one of the main traits of this generation of games and consoles, whether online of offline, playing through the single-player campaign with one (or several) of your friends is a far superior way to experience the campaign. We’ve put together a top 10 list of cop-op games you must play with your friends.

10: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Nintendo’s classic Super Mario tale comes to the Wii with a wonderful 2.5D visuals and for the first time on the Wii, a real multilayer Mario game, with the ability for several players to go through the camping together.

9: Halo 3 / Halo ODST

Halo 3′s (and Halo ODST’s) wonderful competitive multiplayer (deathmatch, team deathmatch etc.) overshadows the excellent co-op mode, where up to four players can play together as a squad throughout the campaign. The upcoming Halo Reach is set to expand on the co-op features as well.

8: Little Big Planet

One of the most original and inspiring PS3 games to be released, Little Big Planet is like a much better looking Super Marion Bros. Wii, with some intricate puzzles and levels, and simple, intuitive gameplay where seasoned gamers can play with newcomers. It’s a must-own game for any PS3 owner.

7: Left 4 Dead / Left 4 Dead 2

Valve’s survival horror shooter is a game where co-op is the main feature — and where teamwork is an absolute must. You rely on your buddies to survive hordes of zombies and enemies. Both the original Left 4 Dead and the sequel offer tense, high-paced action for up to four buddies to team up, either offline or online.

6: Army of Two / Army of Two The 40th Day

The quintessential buddy-co-op shooter, where you team up with a friend and take on missions, and it’s where teamwork has an even bigger importance, as some parts of the missions cannot be solved by yourself — you have to rely on your buddy, or if you’re alone, sadly, the AI.

5: Rock Band / Guitar Hero

The games that revolutionized music-based games — or rather, invented them — offer several players to participate in a band, each with an instrument. However, the high cost of the accessories, which can amount to hundreds of dollars for a complete set, is a turnoff for most gamers.

4: Crackdown / Crackdown 2

A futuristic Grand Theft Auto — by the creator of GTA — Crackdown was a sleeper hit in 2007, and one of its main attractions was a wonderful co-op feature where players could together, in the huge city, fight through the missions. Even better, players could just pop in and out and join a mission while you were playing single-player (if you allowed them, of course), and help you out. Or just make things more fun.

3: Borderlands

Gearbox’ stylistic shooter, which combines FPS and RPG, offers up to four gamers to play together through the campaign, take down enemies with tons of guns and share the loot as well.

2: Gears Of War / Gears Of War 2

One of the pivotal games on the Xbox 360, Gears Of War was the first real co-op third person shooter on the console, or at least, the best one. With a strong storyline and awesome set-pieces, Gears Of War and its sequel are the best co-op games you can find on the Xbox 360. Expect Gears Of War 3 to continue the co-op feature that the previous games established.

1: World of Warcraft

Without a doubt, the game that took the MMORPG world by storm. Currently there are over 12 million active WoW players, and hundreds of thousands of guilds, where players group and take on the quests together. Granted, this is true to a vast majority of MMORPGs, but because of World of Warcraft’s massive success, it’s the best co-op game you can play with your friends — and you probably already have.

The Wii Vitality Sensor has been written off as a gimmick by Nintendo for a while, but that doesn’t discourage Nintendo from working on the new accessory. Nintendo didn’t showcase the sensor at E3 not because it was canceled, but because they had too much else to show (like the 3DS). Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway has said that they might showcase the Vitality Sensor later this year, possibly at Tokyo Game Show.

According to Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida, Gran Turismo 5 still has some tricks up its sleeve we haven’t heard before. Like a dynamic weather system, a track editor, and go-cart racing. That’s right, go-cart racing. Yeah, it doesn’t sound quite plausible, and as Kotaku notes, perhaps Mr. Yoshida mixed up GT5 with Sony’s upcoming ModNation Racers.

It has been revealed that the graphics chip that powers the Nintendo 3DS is the PICA200, made by DPA. The chip runs at 200MHz, and can show 15.3 million polygons a second, supports alpha blending and full-scene anti-aliasing, among other things. While not as powerful as the Wii (which the 3DS was rumored to be), it is far more powerful than the graphics chip in the DS. Nintendo has yet to unveil what kind of CPU the 3DS runs on.

The Settlers franchise has seen 6 games in its long history, and it’s easily one of the most recognizable RTS franchises around, and since Age of Empires and Caesar have faded away, only Settlers and Civilization remain as the ones standing. With Settler’s 7, does the title add new depth to the franchise? In short, yes. But it comes with more baggage than it should (read: problems).

Settlers 7 will make any Settlers fan feel right at home, and the first thing you realize, is just how gorgeous the game is. It’s easily the best looking RTS on the PC at the moment. Settlers is and has always been about building your town, trading and micromanaging everything. Settlers 7 is no different, and while it appears more streamlined, it’s still a complex game with plenty to do.

However, that’s where the main problem also lies with the game. There’s too much to do, too many strings to pull for a simple thing to accomplish. Say you want to build a house. First you need to get wood, then process the wood, then you need other building materials, then you need the builders etc. — and all of these things you have to micromanage, just to build a house. It’ll easily take you half an hour to do. If you have the patience, you’ll probably welcome this kind of depth, but honestly, it’s really pushing our patience. Oh, and don’t forget that you need to maintain that house once you built it, with food etc. Another disappointing aspect is that map sizes are quite limited, meaning that you kingdom will be limited as well. This is no good news to the hard-core players who like to build up huge economies. There’s simply not enough space to be immersed like in the good old days with Caesar 3.

Luckily, the game does support multiplayer, and it’s surprisingly well made and balanced. Unfortunately, the game features a crippling DRM system where you constantly have to be online in order to play. On more than one occasion, we experience issues with connecting to the server, and were left out and simply could not play the game. This is unacceptable. Overall, the great visuals and depth of the gameplay will certainly satisfy fans of the franchise, however, sometimes things seem a bit too complicated when they could be simple and streamlined.

The Good:
Great visuals.
Deep gameplay.

The Bad:
Cluttered interface at times.
Too complicated for its own sake.
DRM is crippling.

Overall score: 6/10

Sony’s third entry in the popular Motorstorm racing franchise is Motorstorm Apocalypse, formally unveiled days ago at E3.

Peripheral maker Mad Catz has teamed up with Activision to create a series of Call of Duty branded controllers. Called “Black Ops PrecisionAIM controllers”, they don’t look much different from their PS3 and Xbox 360 counterparts, but at least they cost the same — $50. The new controllers will launch in November.

Metroid Other M is one of Nintendo’s more serious games to be shown at E3, now that the new Zelda features somewhat a cartoonish look (at least compared to Twilight Princess).

Game/PC peripheral maker Razer has announced a line of StarCraft 2 peripherals, which include a mouse, headset and keyboard. The keyboard and headset each cost $120 each, while the mouse will retail for $80.

Developer Frozenbyte has announced that Trine 2 will be finding its way to all three major platforms, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and will feature online co-op as well.