Defense Grid

[artw]

...is going for buttons on Steam right now, at least for the next 13 hours. TBH It's never that long between sales where it's on heavy discount, and I thoroughly recommend picking it up.

It's basically a fairly standard tower defense game, but with an insane amount of polish, some clever little twists (nothing grand - it doesn't turn it on it's head or anything) and as a bonus some really nice voice acting and writing if you follow the campaign mode - as with all videogame storytelling it's largely irrelevant to the actual playing of the game, but it's rather nice they tried.

Oh, and a Portal crossover level as a result of that whole Potato sack thing, with GLaDOS and your AI adviser verbally sparring - it's gotta be worth the 2.49 for that alone, right?

[armyofkittens]

We've had it since the potato sack, and while th'partner has played a bunch (GOLDEN POTATO) I actually haven't touched it at all. And I just bought all of Assassin's Creed for £18 or something. Too many games...

[cortex]

It is So Great. I love DG. It taught me that it was okay to love Tower Defense again.

[artw]

Heh. I remember when you posted some graph-paper DG plans on Twitter, and i was all "no, no, no, he's missing a prime opportunity to route the bad guys through another loop, with a tasty flamethrower BBQ where they corner.

[emmtee]

Also worth mentioning that if you own DG, a pack of all the DLC maps is in the prize booth for the tickets from summer achievements, priced (like everything) at three tickets.

I've not gone mad for the summer achievements like I did for the potatoes, probably because of the need to pick up some (discounted but) fairly awful games to participate. Which is like, yes, I own Wonderful End of the World, but that just came as part of a pack that netted me DG, Meat Boy, Amnesia etc etc. I'm not buying Gahsarp the Monster Slayer without serious incentive.

Having said that, to date I think I've bought about 20 games in the summer sale, most for under £4, and I am loving the hell out of Spacechem, Jamestown and Stalker (with the stunning Complete update) especially. I've finally got a couple of months to devote to Big Creative Project, and I'm filling them with Steam games. OH GOD BATMAN HAS INSTALLED BETTER PLAY THAT.

[artw]

Gah! Quake is $2.49 today. I payed like $6 for that a couple of months ago.

/should have waited.

[cortex]

I remember when you posted some graph-paper DG plans on Twitter

Ah yes, the graph paper.

On a swerve from DG, I've really enjoyed a couple of recent hybrid Tower Defense/shooter game -- "Trenched", on 360, a WWI-themed walking-tanks-and-turret-emplacement thing, and Sanctum, on Steam, which is basically a classic TD game which you play from an FPS perspective, like a tiny dangerous heavily armed person who got trapped inside a Defense Grid map.

Both do four-player co-op and both are inexpensive indie things, so if you enjoy some shooty shooty and want to defend with towers with friends, check 'em out.