defense-grid-the-awakening
Latest
Xbox's Games with Gold first freebie is Defense Grid: The Awakening
The first game in Microsoft's Games with Gold promotion is Defense Grid: The Awakening. Hidden Path's 2009 XBLA tower defense game is normally priced at 800 MSP, but will be free for Gold subscribers starting today and until July 15. Games for Gold, unveiled at E3, sees Microsoft make two Xbox 360 games free each month; one on the 1st of the month, and the other on the 16th. The promotion runs through until the end of the year. Xbox's Major Nelson clarified through Twitter that the two games already announced for the program, namely Assassin's Creed 2 and Halo 3, aren't this month's pair of offerings.
Defense Grid: Containment set for Jan. 23 launch
Defense Grid: Containment, originally expected in December, now has a solid release date of January 23. Containment is an expansion to the tower defense game Defense Grid: The Awakening. It includes 8 levels that bridge the gap between The Awakening and its upcoming sequel, and features voice work from Ming-Na Wen of ER (and Mulan) fame, as well as Alan Tudyk of being Alan Tudyk fame. Furthermore, Containment includes four user-created maps chosen from the Defense Grid community. Last year, Containment began as a Kickstarter project to help fund Defense Grid 2. While the project did surpass its $250,000 goal, it never hit the cool $1 million that developer Hidden Path sought to fully fund a sequel. Project backers will still receive Defense Grid 2 whenever it is completed. Containment will be available on Steam for $5 individually, or as part of a bundle with Defense Grid and all of its DLC for $20. %Gallery-176535%
The Potato Sack Reunion Tour kicks off on Steam today
Last April, Valve launched a guerrilla marketing effort for Portal 2 and promotion on select indie titles. This week Valve remembers its ARG campaign with the Potato Sack Reunion sale, which knocks half off the price of 13 individual indie titles.Games include Super Meat Boy, The Ball, Cogs, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and many more. You can either buy each individually for half-off, or grab the whole bundle for $20.
Indie Royale bundle offers bonus Explodemon prototype
The Indie Royale "April Fool's" bundle includes Defense Grid: The Awakening, Hack, Slash, Loot, Alien Zombie Megadeath, Astro Tripper, and Explodemon. It also includes, as a bonus, exclusive access to the past.A new surprise unlocked for the bundle yesterday is a 2005 prototype for Explodemon, used in level development of the final, polygonal version. This historical document is playable in Windows.If you exceed the average pay-what-you-want price, you also get Sexy-Synthesizer's chiptune album Rock - Deluxe Edition. If you're considering the bundle, be sure to get this.
Solve the Defense Grid DLC puzzle: It's for science, she's a monster
Defense Grid's first story-expansion add-on drops for science on Dec. 7. Titled "You Monster," the DLC features Zoey from Left 4 Dead, who has to navigate various traps and -- just kidding. It features Portal's GLaDOS, and if you really want to play this piece of DLC, you'd better learn to not fall for transparent ruses like that one. GLaDOS will laugh at you. And call you fat. And probably kill you. "You Monster" will cost $4.99 on Steam or 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360, and contains eight new levels and 35 challenge missions, adding more than 15 hours of content where players will fight off Defense Grid aliens and complete GLaDOS' tests. Or, at least you'll try.
Final day of Steam Holiday Sale wraps up the best-sellers
Okay, this is it: The penultimate batch of offers in the long-running Steam Holiday Sale. For the final day of the long-running promotion, Valve has elected to re-encheapen some of the games that sold like hotcakes in the sale's earlier one-day discounts. Until 9 a.m. PST tomorrow, the following games will be available for the following prices: BioShock - $4.99 Grand Theft Auto IV - $7.49 Torchlight - $4.99 Left 4 Dead 2 - $33.49 Killing Floor - $4.99 Defense Grid: The Awakening - $2.49 S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - $2.00 (Yes, two American dollars.)
Best of the Rest: Kevin's Picks of 2009
Halo Wars Yeah, that's right, Halo Wars. I've already caught enough flak for putting this on my best-of list for 2009 (it's hard to even remember that it came out way back in February), but it deserves to be recognized ... so pay attention once your laughter has died down. Ensemble Studios (RIP) proved that you could bring a real-time strategy game to a console, and still make it enjoyable. Sure, you'll never have 1:1 parity mapping everything a full-sized keyboard offers onto a controller, but this game came close. It's a pity Ensemble closed, since we'll never see any expansion packs or a sequel. The good news is that, since it wasn't received with blaring trumpets and the sounds of cash registers ringing, you can pick this up for under 20 bucks for some good fun.
This Wednesday: Defense Grid awakens Yo-Ho KaBlammo on XBLA
This week's XBLA offerings are a pair of 800 ($10) titles, reports Major Nelson: Defense Grid: The Awakening and Yo-Ho KaBlammo. Each title is a bit heavy on the combat, with Defense Grid offering plenty of tower defense action, and Yo-Ho KaBlammo taking to the seas for some free-for-all naval combat. That sounds all well and good, but whatever happened to killing 'em with kindness? What would Gandhi say?
Defense Grid protects XBLA on Sept. 2
Developer Hidden Path has shown the way to Defense Grid: The Awakening's release: it hits XBLA on September 2. The tower defense title was well received in its PC incarnation and will cost 800 ($10) on the console.The Xbox version of the game includes the Borderlands (not be confused with the other Borderlands) mission pack, along with a few new challenge modes. The game already comes with a full campaign and what appears to be a significant amount of content for the price.%Gallery-30801%[Via Eurogamer]
Defense Grid: The Awakening coming to XBLA this summer
The personal com-pu-ter's Defense Grid: The Awakening will make its way to Xbox Live Arcade in late summer. Developer Hidden Path's tower defense game was well received after release and even made our "best of the rest" list last year. There's currently no price for the game, but hopefully it won't follow the path of the 1200 ($15) trend.If you're not looking forward on waiting -- or simply can't be bothered with "patience" -- for Defense Grid or South Park for your tower defense kick, there's always Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders.%Gallery-68723%
