defense-grid-the-awakening posts

Just a few more days until Portal 2 puts us under its spell. We can't wait to go co-op portalling. Wait ... that doesn't sound good.

• Steam has automatic updates for Defense Grid: The Awakening (with free Portal 2 themed levels) and Star Ruler.
• The closed beta for APB Reloaded has finally launched a couple of European servers.
• Two more official StarCraft II action figures are due for release just before Christmas 2011.
• Minecraft creator Marcus "Notch" Perrson has paid $2,000 for the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle.
• Speaking of Minecraft, it should reach the 1.9 million unit sales mark sometime early tomorrow.

We were wondering what was going on at Valve this week when it didn't have any major sales on the Steam download service but late today Steam finally showed its hand. The service has cut the price of 13 indie games under the new Potato Sack bundle.

This new bundle has the following games on sale for 50 percent off their already low prices:

1... 2... 3... KICK IT!
AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
AudioSurf
BIT.TRIP BEAT
Cogs
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Killing Floor
RUSH
Super Meat Boy
The Ball
The Wonderful End of the World
Toki Tori

If you buy all 13 games at once you will be able to get them all for just $38.72, a 75 percent price cut from their normal prices if sold separately. There's no word on when this sale will end.

The Steam PC game download site continues its annual and massive holiday sale into its second day today. While there are a ton of price breaks for individual games, publisher bundles and other game collections, the following games are on sale for just one day only, until 1 pm Eastern time on Wednesday.

Defense Grid: The Awakening - $2
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - $5.10 or $3.60 if you own any Tomb Raider game
Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box - $5
Gothic Bundle (all games in the Gothic series) - $34.99
Disciples III Renaissance - $7.50
Men of War Gold Edition - $8.75
The Witcher - $5
Resident Evil 5 - $10.50
BioShock 2 - $9.99
Aion - $10
Puzzle Quest - $1.50
The Polynomial - $2.50

Released way back in December 2008, the sci-fi tower defense game Defense Grid: The Awakening continues to be supported by its developer Hidden Path Entertainment. Today the developer announced plans to release not one, not two, but four downloadable map packs for the game under the umbrella title Defense Grid: Resurgence. Each map pack will be released on a weekly basis starting on Wednesday, June 2.

Each map pack will contain two new maps for the game (for a total of eight maps) with each pack costing 99 cents to download via Steam and Direct2Drive. The map packs will contain a campaign mode and four challenge modes and will also come with new achievements and leaderboards. You can check out descriptions of each map at the game's official web site.

One of our favorite downloadable games of 2008 was Defense Grid: The Awakening, the sci-fi tower defense game from developer Hidden Path Entertainment. It's been a long while since the game has had any patches but this week the game got a major new update via Steam that includes a new mini-expansion for the game.

The free expansion, titled Defense Grid: Borderlands (and yes we know; it's an odd one) adds four new maps to the game and also adds thre new challenge modes (Super Grinder, Campaign Reversed, and Poison Core) to the entire game. It also adds support for Steam's leaderboards features. From what we can gather this may be the first of a series of mini-expansions for the game. You can purchase Defense Grid now for $9.99.

Today is officially the last day for Steam's 2009-2010 holiday sale. All of the bundle sales from publishers will end sometime on Monday. Today is also the last one-day sale of the event and for the last day Steam goes back and puts several of the games that were part of the one day sale back on the chopping block one more time.

That means that Torchlight is once again priced at just $4.99, as is Killing Floor and Bioshock. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is just $2 while Defense Grid: The Awakening is $2.49. Grand Theft Auto IV is just $7.49, and Left 4 Dead 2 is priced at only $33.49.

Steam's weekend sales deal involves a bald guy with a talent for sniper shooting. The PC game download service has put three of Eidos' Hitman games on the price chopping block from now until Monday. Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Hitman: Blood Money are just $4.99 each. You can also get all three games in a bundle for $9.99.

In related news, Steam has lowered the price of the strategy game Defense Grid: The Awakening to a new permenant price of just $9.99. Also an upcoming futuristic action game, Metal Drift, is taking pre-orders for just $9.99. People who put their money down early get immediate access to the game's beta test.

If you want to support independent game developers but don't want to spend a lot of money doing it, Direct2Drive's latest game sale is just up your alley. They have collected five recent indie games into one bundle and for a limited time you can get all five for a super low price.

The bundle includes the tower defense game Defense Grid, the odd adventure game The Path, the weird looking first person action game Zeno Clash, the political simulation-strategy title Democracy 2 and the puzzle title Cogs. All five can be yours now for just $17.75. Normally you would have to pay $77.75 to buy each title separately. There's no word on how long this bundle deal will last.

Defense Grid: The Awakening has been out since last December via digital download outlets like Steam. However, the game designers, Hidden Path are going to take a big leap by releasing a full boxed retail version through publisher Aspyr Media. Defense Grid, a sci-fi themed tower defense game, was one of Big Download's favorite games of 2008 and offers many hours of addictive fun. The demo can be downloaded here.

"Defense Grid: The Awakening finds humanity struggling against an invasion by a relentless alien force. The player is tasked with defending key outposts with the aid of ancient, but powerful, defense towers and an artificial intelligence construct. Intuitive controls and a range of objectives make it fun for players of any skill to progress through the 20 story levels, and the dozens of additional challenge modes. Ten different tower types, each with unique strengths, allow for multiple strategies as players scheme to take down wave after wave of invading creatures, each more powerful than the previous."

Download HD Defense Grid: The Awakening Launch Trailer (180 MB)
Download Defense Grid: The Awakening Demo (237 MB)
Read the Defense Grid: The Awakening Review

Can you spare five bucks for a terrific tower defense game? If you can then let us direct you to the Steam PC download service. They just happen to have such a title, Defense Grid: The Awakening, available to purchase and download. And from now until May 13 you can download for just $5.

We've talked about how good this game is before but there really isn't an excuse at the moment for you not to buy this game from Hidden Path Entertainment. With 20 levels, lots of tower defense upgrades, a single player campaign, special challenge modes and of course lots of aliens to blow up we know this title is right up any PC gamer's alley.