Cooperative game play over Xbox Live is absolutely cool.

On Sunday night I was playing Crackdown on my Xbox 360 and I was attempting to take out the Volk mob boss and I got an invite to let some other player join in my game.

Now this was sort of like an equivalent of playing an arcade game in an actual arcade and then having someone else walk up and put their quarter (or 50 cents) into the machine and join in. Now rather than trying to kill one another we were united in a task of taking out this mob boss and all his flunkies. Now I am in Bremerton and the guy who wanted to join me is a high school sophomore who lives in Renton. I've never met him before but we are united in our love of the game Crackdown and our willingness to take out this virtual mob boss scum.

We chatted a bit while taking out the flunky henchman minions and we gave each other advice about how best to climb up the side of the abandon oil rig that was taken over by the Volk mob. We covered each other by taking out the bad guys shooting at us from the other platform and then finally made it to the top where the boss was waiting. He didn't stand a chance with our combined firepower and that portion of my virtual city in Crackdown is now safe from the influence of that guy's mob.

I realized that it was getting late and I had work tomorrow. He said he had school and before I signed off I sent him a "Friend Request "and a voice message that I had fun at Crackdown. Now should he accept my request I'll get a notice when he logs on to Xbox Live and I'll be able to directly request a joint game with him again.

Now on Friday I had a real life coworker get this game and we joined in and took out some virtual mobsters together. He was new to the game and I was able to show him around and we found that driving around in the cars are a lot more fun when one of you can literally ride shotgun on top of the car or in the back of a truck.

I've played Coopertive games in Gears of War, TMNT 1989 Arcade, and Gauntlet.

Now this is better than split screen cooperative game play because we don't have to be in the same physical room but can communicate over the voice chat microphone headsets. Since we have our own screens we can split up and literally take a different path. playing with someone else over Xbox Live helps make the experience of playing video games a less solitary activity and it really adds a lot of fun to the immersive nature of the game. Playing against other people is cool but working together toward a common goal in a game is just as fun.

My girlfriend and cats still think it is a bit strange to hear me have one sided conversations with other players over the Xbox headset that they can't hear. Cooperative game play and shared game play experience are something that I really enjoy and I am much more likely to buy games that have it.