Are you and your partner tired of the Valentine’s frivolities? Already drunk off the champagne? Have you been pricked by too many rose thorns this year? Sick from the boxes of chocolates? Fear not! You can settle down with your loved one and play with each other for a while… No, not like that!
Get yourselves settled on the couch, relax, and get ready to blow brains out, solve puzzles, and perform surgery, together.
Portal 2: A great addition to every list of co-operative games, this Valve title with a hilarious single player campaign has a wonderfully quirky two player campaign that goes along with it. Necessitating great communication between the two of you as you solve puzzles together and- most importantly- help the other to not die, this will be a great game that you’ll easily be able to see the end of, together, within the day.
Borderlands 2: Another sequel (though, admittedly, not requiring you to have played its predecessor), Borderlands 2 will have you working together to wrestle Pandora from the evil- though devilishly charming- Handsome Jack. One of the best first person shooters of recent years, you’ll level up your characters with both role playing elements and aesthetic customization, all in search of bigger and better loot. Why not have your lovely lady as the Siren class, focused on healing, and the handyman in your life playing as the tinkering Commando, along with his powerful turret to really do some damage? Going on a rampage with a shotgun that fires rockets into a crowd of axe-wielding midgets only gets more fun with company, after all.
Gears of War Franchise: Every game, from the first to ‘Judgement’, here: play along with your partner through the entirety of every campaign, and see the story from beginning to end… to beginning again? The preuqel game, Gears of War: Judgement, saw players play as one of the supporting characters of the original series. When playing the originals, what’s a better symbol of bromance than chainsawing the Locust into chunks with your best chum? Action packed and gloriously violent, this one will help you both get out a little stress from that terrible dinner date you had.
Splosion Man: Getting out of the shooter genre here, this golden oldie from the early days of the Xbox 360 is an action platformer that can be played by anyone. Using only the analogue stick and a single jump button, it’s easy to learn and difficult to master. But no worries, you can go through the trials with a partner, as you ‘splode your way into the co operative campaign! You’ll be bouncing off each other in mid-air as you make your way through the game, turning unfortunate scientists into meat and destroying ungodly numbers of barrels along the way. Much like Portal 2, you’ll have to communicate well to get through this tricky debacle together.
Surgeon Simulator: Yes, this is a single player game for the PC, but here’s an idea for you: one of you has the mouse, and the other uses the keyboard. This bizarre game, available on Steam, sees you control the disembodied hand of quite possibly the least coordinated surgeon who ever lived. The game has you control control both individual fingers of the hand, and the movement of the whole arm. Working together on this game may end up being the funniest thing that you do today- except reading that hilarious card, of course. A very odd game, but unbelievably silly fun to share with a friend and partner. You never know, maybe you’ll make something romantic out of the fact that you’re dropping a heart to the floor after one of you jerks the hand open too fast?