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While Army of Two's focus has always been cooperative gameplay, EA Montreal's Eric Chartrand is responsible for designing the competitive multiplayer aspects of The 40th Day. In an interview with with That VideoGame Blog, Chartrand notes that one of the big changes for the AoT sequel is to adapt the multiplayer aspect, and make it play differently from the campaign mode. Whereas the story can feature designed bottlenecks (such as doors that require both players to open), multiplayer cannot, simply because humans play differently than AI. "The toolset we use in single-player has to be different from the one we use in multiplayer," Chartrand explains.

Interestingly, Chartrand notes two games as his main inspiration for The 40th Day's multiplayer offerings: the decade old Counter-Strike and the recently-released Killzone 2. "What works in Counter-Strike is that you don't get progression," a stark contrast to the level-up gimmick common in most online shooters. "So why it works is because the gameplay in it. The second-to-second, the movement of the character, the shooting, the intensity of the combat is still fresh, even ten years after. So that's why we wanted to craft an experience that is as close to this as possible."

Chartrand has even more praise for Guerrilla's FPS. "Killzone 2 has great maps, probably the best maps out there," he admits. However, what inspired Chartrand the most appear to be the game's community features, particularly its stats-laden website. "This link between stats, profile, friends, leaderboard ... all the community aspects, I think the Killzone guys did a very good job and we strive to imitate them."

A recent PlayStation.Blog post contained great news for your ragtag group of trained virtual killers: an Uncharted 2 title update which goes live later today will add Clan Tag functionality to the game's multiplayer component, allowing you to proudly display your team's four-letter moniker before your PSN ID. Sure, this isn't exactly the full clan support that your clan might have hoped for, but it still lets you represent. Isn't that what really matters?

The update's other features, which include quick rematches for online games and hastened load times, can be found in a list after the jump.

Well, Demomen, you put up a good fight, but the rocket-armed Soldiers proved too strong a combatant to topple. Team Fortress 2's helmet-wearing class won the "War" update challenge, netting an additional item (boots which reduce rocket-jumping damage) to go with the update's other additions. You can check up on all the new items, maps, achievements and totally out-of-place crafting mechanics on the update's hub page.

Or, you can simply log on to the game right now, and get the update yourself. If you don't possess the game, Valve will let you download and play it for free this weekend. If you really enjoy it, you can pick up Team Fortress 2 at half-price for just $9.99.

[Via Big Download]

If you're a PS3 owner with an inkling of an interest in first-person shooters, you've probably tried the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta, featuring a revamped Rush game mode. Everyone else, well, you're missing out on some great fun -- but March and the release of the retail game isn't that far off.

I've wanted to play more of the game's multiplayer component ever since getting into the beta, and I recently got that chance at EA's Redwood Shores, California headquarters. The occasion: the unveiling of a new game mode, squad deathmatch. Four squads of four members each (4-vs-4-vs-4-vs-4) square off to see which team can reach the kill limit first, which sounds straightforward enough until you consider the dense foliage of the new jungle map on which we played.

The chatter surrounding the multiplayer aspect of Splinter Cell: Conviction began late last month, culminating in yesterday's release of the co-op teaser trailer on Xbox Live. Well, I can one-up the trailer. I've actually played the mode.

Everything you may have heard is true: The main co-op mode (either online or local / split-screen play, with a human partner or A.I.) is a prequel to the events of the game and doesn't star series staple Sam Fisher. Instead, the estimated 5- to 6-hour campaign focuses on two wetworks operatives -- one American, one Russian -- who must work together to recover stolen nuclear warheads before they're sold on the black market.

The game will also feature co-op play in what are being called "deniable ops" -- more conventional intrusion missions and the like -- as well as a player-vs-player-vs-CPU "duel" mode. What I played was part of the the prequel campaign: an admittedly brief but eye-opening mission set in Moscow's fortified metro system. You can watch a walkthrough video of the section I played above. Read on after the break for my thoughts.

Valve has decided to inject some "healthy competition" into the next patch for its long-lasting, cartoonish multiplayer shooter, Team Fortress 2. The update will award three new weapons to both the Soldier and Demoman classes -- weapons which will be revealed piecemeal over the course of the next week. However, the two classes will be fighting during the week to unlock a secret fourth weapon for their profession. Whichever class can kill the other the most will be victorious, and can claim the additional armament.

You can stay on top of the current kill count on Valve's hub page for the update, which is appropriately titled "The War." Our money's on the Demoman, but that might just be because we love his Shrek-inspired accent.

Terrifying video game news site Rely On Horror claims to have recently gotten its hands on the next issue of Game Informer, which contains a pretty comprehensive breakdown of the new methods of Necromorph murder featured in Dead Space 2. According to the site, the Informer article reveals that the game's designers are trying to make the game spookier, placing hero Isaac Clarke (who learned the ability to speak between games, it seems) in more death-defying situations, and likely a few impossible-to-defy-death situations as well.

According to the report, the game's action has moved off of the Ishimura, instead placing Clarke on the similarly monster-infested interstellar city Sprawl, which dwarfs the original game's setting in size. Finally, the article supposedly ends with the developer dropping the following tease regarding multiplayer: "All I can say is it's really fun, and you'll get to strategically dismember your friends." Oh, man -- Bushido Laser-Saw confirmed! Or, rather, it might be confirmed. There's no way to tell for sure until we get our hands on the Clarke-covered magazine.

[Via VG247]

If amazingly fast and explosive men have been the bane of your existence in Modern Warfare 2 as of late, then know that Activision's go-to guy, Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling, has got the hot scoops on a patch in the works to address the despised Javelin glitch. Version 1.06 of the game will not only do away with that awful bit of frustration, but will also address two other notable exploits in the multiplayer experience:

• Fixes the Javelin glitch (thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster!)
• Fixes unlimited care packages glitch
• Fixes areas where players could exploit geography (e.g. hide inside rocks in Afghan)

Bowling says the patch is currently in the hands of Microsoft for certification on Xbox 360 and presumably in Sony's for PS3 certification. We've contacted Bowling for more info and will update the post when we hear back.

Source - 1.06 in Microsoft cert
Source - 1.06 patch notes

For the last few years, Crystal Dynamics has been pumping out nothing but Tomb Raider games. Normally we wouldn't lead a job listing post with such information, but when Crystal Dynamics says it's looking for developers who are "able to effectively create and lead the multiplayer vision and design effort," it gets us thinking that we could be tomb raiding with (against?) other actual human beings!

Considering this year's layoffs, we're not convinced that the developer could be working on another "AAA title" in addition to the Tomb Raider franchise. Given the leaked images of a "reboot" and assurance from Eidos "Life President" Ian Livingstone that Lara's next installment will "reinvigorate the franchise," we're pretty confident that Crystal Dynamics is hard at work on whatever the next game in the TR series will be. For now though, we have a job listing and plenty of educated guesses.

[Via CinemaBlend]

In an attempt to keep that fresh, new game smell on Uncharted 2, developer Naughty Dog will be implementing some "experimental" changes to the game's online multiplayer modes this weekend. First, a new playlist comprised solely of Plunder matches will be introduced into the mix -- a filter that the community has been requesting since the game first launched. Second, for this weekend only, all players' health will be reduced to 65 percent. It's a side effect from the game's "Crushing" difficulty setting, which the developer thinks could ramp up the speed and intensity of multiplayer firefights.

Naughty Dog is asking for feedback on these temporary changes, so if you're not a fan (or, alternatively, if you're a superfan) of the new playlist or diminished health capacity, drop a comment on the studio's blog.

It could happen this week, it could happen next week, but sometime in the month of December, Ubisoft will decide to liberate Avatar from the shackles of game development. And when that happens, we're prepared to go directly online and start popping 10-foot blue things with our big human weapons. This is about survival, ya dig?

It appears that in addition to simply plugging bullets into the creatures, Ubisoft will also be allowing for some form of capture the flag (wait, isn't this about survival?). Other than that one crucial detail, the only info we gleaned from the multiplayer trailer above is that there'll be a ton of explosions, even more mid-air flip-kicks, and explosion/flip-kick-laden jungle combat when the game does finally come out. For now, unfortunately, you'll have to sate yourselves with something totally boring like Modern Warfare 2. Humans against humans? Pssshhht, that's so mid-November.

According to a recent post on CVG, the publishing partner of PC Zone magazine, the next issue of the latter will drop some knowledge on us regarding Splinter Cell: Conviction's multiplayer modes. CVG reports that the last issue of PC Zone teases an article on Conviction, claiming the piece will feature "hands-on, co-op reveal and a brand new mode."

If the game truly does have co-operative play, then we're kinda bummed about the aesthetic changes the title has undergone over the past year. Can you imagine: Secret two-man hobo operations to blow up a whole park's worth of hot dog stands? Party game of the year.

Are you one of these folks who don't even realize there's a "multiplayer button" in your first-person shooters? After spending hours with the single-player campaign, you shelve the game and press onward, eschewing time with multiplayer for other, more solitary experiences? Splash Damage head Paul Wedgwood wants to change your attitude, telling Eurogamer in an interview that his studio's upcoming FPS Brink will do just that.

"It's our goal from the outset to incidentally teach people to be good at multiplayer shooters while they're playing our single-player shooter," he says. Apparently, Brink will offer in-game rewards (double XP, for instance) to players willing to take their game online. "At a certain point in the game we say to them, 'Why don't you just try co-op and see how you go? For this next mission we're going to give you twice the number of experience points if you play co-operatively with somebody else.'" Thankfully though, he assures the internet-less among us (how are you reading this?!) that there's plenty of game in Brink without having to go online. "Your experience through it, imagining you have no internet connection should, for us to have achieved our goal, be as compelling as any other triple-A shooter." We'll find out if his plan works when Brink arrives sometime next year.

Something's always struck us as kind of ... off about the title Aliens vs. Predator. For one, there are "colonial marines" up in there, mixing it up. More confusing, though, is the fact that both "Aliens" and "Predators" are, in fact, aliens. [And aren't all of them predators? - Ed.] At least Sega is keeping our minds diverted from these recondite questions with the latest multiplayer footage (found after the break).

Aside from trotting out a handful of European game writers who all tell the same "This game is SO awesome" story, we're treated to a smattering of gameplay snippets from all three sides of the equation. We're only left wondering one thing after watching them – if you can play as a predator against eight colonial marines, who would ever choose the marines side?

[Thanks, Ikarop]

PS3 owners will want to stay home on Black Friday. Why? Naughty Dog is releasing the first downloadable content for Uncharted 2's multiplayer mode this Friday, November 27. A title update will add "The Fort," a brand new multiplayer map supposedly based on the "Fortress" chapter of Drake's Fortune. According to the press release, "The Fort is a long rectangular map with wide open spaces and excellent flank routes." There's a shotgun in the center of the map and an RPG in the crypt (the inevitable resting place of people on the wrong end of that weapon). Best of all, this update will be free.

Once the patch goes live at 1PM ET, Naughty Dog will also initiate a Double Cash weekend. Teams will have special skins in competitive matches: Doughnut Drake for the Heroes (pictured above), and Doughnut Lazarevic for the Villains.

See a video after the break.