>
tower defense

tower defense

Anomaly Defenders announced, reverses "tower offense" gameplay

Emanuel Maiberg at

Anomaly: Warzone Earth launched in 2011 with a simple, novel idea. We were being flooded with tower defense games at the time so 11 Bit Studios made a “tower offense” game, where, rather than set up defenses, you played as the moving units trying to break through. It worked, and it was successful enough to warrant a sequel, Anomaly 2. Today, 11 Bit Studios announced the third and final installment in the series, Anomaly Defenders, which flips the script again.


Read and comment >

Sanctum 2's first DLC pack is here, with a shady new playable character

Katie Williams at

The Road to Elysion is the first release of Sanctum 2's planned string of DLC, and it brings some seriously dark stuff to the otherwise colorful tower-defense world—so, naturally, Coffee Stain Studios thought it best to encapsulate the DLC's offerings in this demented, '90s-style live action trailer, replete with backwards-facing baseball caps and crappy plastic action figures.


Read and comment >

Stone Wardens announced, new tower defense RPG hits Kickstarter

Cory Banks at

Indie developer Burst Online Entertainment has launched a Kickstarter project for Stone Wardens, its upcoming tower defense/RPG hybrid. Stone Wardens mixes tower defense mechanics with cooperative 4-player action and light role playing mechanics. Players choose one of at least four wardens, guardians from the game’s bright, Pixar-influenced world, and use a combination of active skills, pet-like familiars and statues of ancient, ancestral guardians to defend against the game’s Invader enemies.


Read and comment >

Plants vs. Zombies 2 release date announced, PopCap hints at PC release

Perry Vandell at

It’s been a long four years since the original Plants vs. Zombies defended our lawns from the undead horde, but PopCap’s sequel to the beloved tower-defense franchise finally has a release date—for iOS devices. We already knew PvZ 2 would come out in July, but the iOS exclusivity comes as a bit of a shock. We asked PopCap if and when it would release the undead-slaying, botany simulator for the PC.


Read and comment >

Sanctum 2 shows up on Steam

Katie Williams at

Sanctum 2 is here! This fully rebuilt sequel to the impressive smooshing-together of the tower defense and FPS genres has been on our radars for awhile, and today is its debut on Steam. Haven't you just been dying to find out why those adorable alien-dogs are so intent on munching on your Cores?


Read and comment >

Plants vs Zombies 2: It's About Time will be released sometime in July

Katie Williams at

"Hell, it's about time," I imagine a spacesuited sunflower grunting, a cigar dangling between its happy-mouthed lips. Is that the image Plants vs Zombies 2 intended to invoke with its new tagline? Will zergling-zombies make a surprise appearance in the sequel? It's hard to say with this new teaser trailer, but if there's one thing it can teach us, it's that despite the far-ranging diversity of PvZ's audience, all of these hilarious stereotypes are united in their desire for more garden-themed tower defensing—and that they'll finally have a reason to stop complaining come July.


Read and comment >

Sanctum 2 teaser trailer shows towers for the Tower Defence

Phil Savage at

As a website, we don't have any presses. But if we did, I'd now be smacking the giant red stop button to insert the breaking, shock news that FPS Tower Defence sequel Sanctum 2 will have towers. That's about the only information that can be gleaned from this all-too-brief teaser for the game.

Okay, one more thing: assuming the video is representative of the in-game art, it seems the environments will be a whole lot more vibrant than the previous instalment. Sanctum's graphics were hardly its most notably feature - often forgotten in the frantic rush to secure cores and shoot the approaching hordes - but some extra visual sparkle is still welcome.


Read and comment >

Defense Grid: Containment out on January 23, adds eight levels and community maps

Omri Petitte at

Hidden Path's Kickstarter campaign for Defense Grid 2 edged past its minimum goal of $250,000/£156,400 back in August, providing funds for Defense Grid: Containment, an expansion for the alien-annihilating tower defense original releasing January 23 for $5/£3.


Read and comment >

Release party: Offensive Combat, I Am Weapon, Carrier Command, and more

Omri Petitte at

I'm still recovering from last weekend's one-two punch of deadpan delivery and violence-tinged humor that was Dredd 3D, so I'm relieving my cratered sense of logic (seriously, how can Eomer see out of that helmet?) with a slew of indie and not-so-indie releases restoring normalcy with banana suits, majestic space cruisers, and "infuriating clowns." Read more after the break.


Read and comment >

Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves pits manly lumberjacks against slavering wolfpacks

Omri Petitte at

Forget Old Spice. Disregard Dos Equis. Give up on Gorton's. Indie gaming's got the biggest boost to your manliness, and it's called Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves. In development by Artifice Studio, Sang-Froid combines action, strategy, fear, Satan, and the biggest plaid attack since a Brawny clearance sale.


Read and comment >

Direct control and extra visual effects added to Gratuitous Space Battles

Omri Petitte at

Fledgling space admirals can never have too many Flash Gordon effects and science-fiction noises. To that end, Positech Games has released a free update to its set-and-go tactical sim Gratuitous Space Battles adding direct unit control, shield shimmers, and shockwave ripples from explosions.


Read and comment >

The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot to offer user-made dungeon crawls

Omri Petitte at

In development by Ubisoft Montreal, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot both mocks and embraces the fanatical devotion to materialism brought about by top-down crawlers such as Diablo and Torchlight. In the upcoming free-to-play game, players will design and furnish custom castles with traps, monsters, labyrinthine layouts, and the inevitable pile of sparklies at the end. Other players will then attempt the gauntlet for the promised prizes, sort of like American Gladiator, except instead of Nitro shooting tennis balls out of a cannon, it's an Cyclops planting an oversized fist up your nostrils.


Read and comment >

Trendy offering $1000 prize in Dungeon Defenders map contest

Tyler Wilde at

Trendy Entertainment, creator of action tower defense game Dungeon Defenders, is offering a cash prize of $1000 (about £620) for the winner of its first map contest, as well as inclusion of the map in the game's ranked and open modes. The contest will also award $500 (£310) to the second place winner, $250 (£155) for third, and a "DunDef prize pack" for all winners. The official rules have been posted to Trendy's forums, and the Dungeon Defenders Development Kit can be downloaded as free DLC on Steam.


Read and comment >

Orcs must die! demo hits Steam!

Tom Senior at

The Orcs have invaded Steam! Slay them with the demo of Orcs Must Die! Spotted on RPS! The full game is out next Wednesday October 12, which gives us days and days to practice planting traps and crossbow-blasting streams of green fools. There's 995 MB worth of Orcs to kill, and a pleasing variety of traps with which to do it. See a few of them in action in the interactive Orcs Must Die! trailer. You can pre-order the full version on Steam now at a discount and some shiny pre-order armour, which comes with a great big hammer. For killing Orcs, you understand.


Read and comment >

Orcs Must Die! trailer shows steam traps and airborne Orcs

Tom Senior at

If you have a friend, relative or pet who is an Orc, avert your eyes from the video above. Steam traps are latest death contraption to be revealed for Orc-slaughter sim, Orcs must die. Warm gusts of steam waft the trap's victim upwards into a secondary trap, or a hard ceiling-shaped object.

Orcs Must Die is a tower defense game in which you must stop armies of Orcs from leaving the tower or fortress they're spawning in. To do this you must make use of a variety of traps, towers and personal weapons like fire bracers and electric crossbows to hold back the green tide and protect the clueless villagers outside. The game's due out this summer. Find out more on the Orcs Must Die site.


Read and comment >

E3 2011: Defenders of Arcania video has fire-breathing castles

Tom Senior at

[bcvideo id="983428834001"]

Defenders of Ardania is a new tower defense game from Paradox. As well as organising and upgrading a series of keeps to make a mazy city of death, you'll be training and controlling troops to try and push back the enemy hordes. It's not all about defending, mind. Multiplayer modes will let you attack your friend's fortresses, or you can gang up to take on AI opponents.

With three different races and a brace of elf-squashing spells to hand, it looks as though Defenders of Arcania could bring a bit of extra depth to the oh-so-addictive tower defense formula. Check out the Defenders of Ardania Facebook page for more.


Read and comment >

Exclusive: Let your Wall Blades make green mincemeat in Orcs Must Die!

Lucas Sullivan at

It's a feeling every Bond villain's experienced at one time or another: the glee of watching someone inch closer and closer to your carefully-laid trap, with your victim unknowingly taking his final steps towards oblivion. Now, you can experience that feeling without the megalomania or evil plots in Orcs Must Die!, an action-strategy hybrid from Robot Entertainment.

OMD looks to be something of a cross between your typical tower defense game, Dungeon Keeper, and the enemy ridicule and playful murdering of Bulletstorm. And I want to play it right this second.


Read and comment >