Army of Two

Army of Two (EA Montreal)
Third-person co-operative shooter
Rated M for Mature

PRO:
As the name suggests, it cannot be played alone and requires improved teamwork and communication skills, as it prevents you from completing missions if your buddy is dead (unlike Halo, one person can't just carry you through). It also involves and/or requires actions like flanking, covering, drawing fire away from your buddy so that they can take someone out or because they're injured or re-loading, moving objects or scaling walls that can't be done without help, and dragging your wounded buddy to cover so that you can patch them up before they bleed to death and you get an automatic game over. If you don't have a live buddy handy, the game provides you with a very decent virtual one.

CON:
The split-screen can be tough viewing at some points, unless you have a really big TV. The enemies are pretty small.

PRO:
You don't have to keep checking the split-screen to know what your buddy's up to if he's out of your line of sight, thanks to an inset camera on your half of the screen that follows him.

CON:
Not for the politically correct, as the game centers around the military-vs.PMC (private military contractors) debate, and places you in real-life hot spots like Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. There is one particular mission in which your biggest danger is suicide bombers, and one of the game's Xbox achievements is setting off 25 suicide bombers before they can set themselves off.

PRO:
A fun arsenal of unlockable, buyable weapons that includes an interesting assortment of assault rifles, sidearms, sniper rifles, RPGs, and machine guns. Most of them have available upgrades for the barrel, stock, cartridge, suppressor, and/or frountmount, as well as on-the-barrel shields.

CON:
You can only swap out your weapons at set points in the game, and as far as I can tell, can't decide what your virtual buddy is packing.

PRO:
This results in interesting decisions, if you've already played the game, or interesting strategies if you haven't played the game and find yourself in a scenario in which your equipped weapons are not really the right tools for the job. However, you can swap your primary, secondary, or special weapon with your partner at any time.

CON:
I always forget that you can swap weapons with your partner.

PRO:
One of the character's lines when in "Overkill" mode is "Game over, man! Game over!".

CON:
People tend to swear a lot when they're getting shot at. This can be a put-off to some gamers.

PRO:
One of the achievements involves making like Dirty Harry.

CON:
Viewing the achievements leads to plot spoilers, such as purpose of the achievement that involves making like Dirty Harry.

PRO:
You probably saw that plot point coming from a mile away, anyways.

CONSENSUS:
Silly but fun.