While most other independently developed games feature a quirky art style, Defense Grid features high production values and an interesting twist on the tower defense genre. Designed by Age of Empires 2 lead designer Mark Terrano, Defense Grid is an easy-to-play tower defense game which makes use of the Gamebryo engine (used in Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Civilization IV among other titles). You team up with a sentient computer artificial intelligence in order to thwart an alien invasion. You place a variety of towers, and as needed you can upgrade them provided you have the right amount of resources. Space on the grid is limited, so it’s up to you to figure out what towers to place and how to place them. The base game has only 20 levels, but you can replay them in challenge mode. There are also map packs available for .99 each which extend the game, although it would really benefit from a level editor. On Steam, you can purchase the game and all the map packs for $15 making this a good value. Defense Grid is a fun and addictive game, and at its low price, it almost manages to give most full-priced games a run for their money.

Here we are at the second week of this new feature. I’ve tweaked it a little for some better results, but you probably won’t notice any differences. Major releases this week are Halo: Reach and the PlayStation Move.

 

Releases are after the jump!
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The early 90s bought gamers a new genre of video games: the one-on-one fighter. This new genre of games was the offspring of sports games and beat-em-ups. You took one fighter against another, and it was up to you to take him down. These games weren’t controlled by the simple joystick plus 1 or 2 button setups. No, there were anywhere from 3 – 6 buttons, and you performed special moves by pulling off combinations of the joystick and these buttons to pull off special attacks. The key to winning these games was mastering and utilizing these special attacks, stringing them together in combos. To the best fighting game players, this became both art and science. It wasn’t uncommon to see crowds of players standing around a heated fighting game contest that was going on at the local arcade, weather it was Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Power Instinct, or X-men. Capcom was the undisputed leader of the genre, although beside Midway’s Mortal Kombat, there was another competitor, SNK. Of all the game developers who made fighting games, SNK had the most acclaim after Capcom. The developer had released a collection of fighting games for its Neo Geo arcade system/home console, among them were Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. These two games enjoyed a deep storyline and an interesting cast of characters who were every bit as memorable as Capcom’s fighters. In 1994 however, they would release something that had never before been seen in gaming, the King Of Fighters.
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The 90s were such an awesome time for comic books (not). Who didn’t love those holo-foil stamped gimmick covers, stories about clones, female versions of our favorite heroes and villains (She-venom anyone? She-thing? *shudder*), the Ultraverse, and the legions of extreme-badass muscle bound gun-toting characters who were the bastard children of Rob Liefiled and the Batman Dark Knight Returns? Remember when they tried to replace all the popular heroes with ‘cooler’ and more badass versions of themselves which lasted all of 1 year (or 3 in the case of Spider-Man)? Remember when most of the Avengers wore generic brown jackets? Speaking of the Avengers, remember that awesome Avengers beat-em-up that Data East did some years back? Of course you do. Well, a few years after that, Data East created this semi-follow up, a fighting game that’s based on the obscure Avengers crossover Galactic Storm. Basically a poor man’s Killer Instinct with Marvel characters, Galactic Storm brings us what we loved the most about the mid-90s. Obscure second string characters, confusing storylines, and lame gimmicks.
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In a few weeks from now, Capcom’s Dead Rising 2 hits store shelves. The wait is still a little too long for some zombie killing, so what better way to get ready for it than this $5.00 downloadable preview? Dead Rising puts players in the role of Dead Rising 2 protagonist Chuck Greene. After making a stop at a gas station, his truck is stolen, and with it, his supply of Zombrex, the anti-zombie medication he needs for his daughter. Thus, he’s stranded in the middle of nowhere, and has to brave through hordes of Zombies in order to find more Zombrex as well as a way out of town before the military quarantines it.
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Greetings Poweteers! This post is the first of what will hopefully become a weekly feature. Each week we will post that week’s retail releases. For now we are starting out with just Video Games, but over time we hope to expand it to include more items such as DVD, Blu-Ray, book and graphic novel releases. This will also make it easier for all of you to help us out. By clicking any of the links and purchasing an item, you will be helping us meet our goals. And once you’ve received your item, post about it on our forums! We want to hear what you think!

Releases are after the jump!
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

3 billion human lives ended on August 29th 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines.

Judgment Day is, simply put, the day the world really goes to hell in Terminator continuity.

A company named Cyberdyne Systems was tasked with building Skynet as part of a defense contract for SAC-NORAD, which is a fictional merging of the very real “Strategic Air Command” and “NORth American Aerospace Defense Command”. Skynet was a vast computer system which was tied in to all aspects of US defense. Skynet was brought online August 4th 1997. Things went well for about 25 days and then at 2:14am on that fateful day on August 29th 1997, it became self aware.

After the humans have a completely validated instinct to try to pull the plug, Skynet retaliated in a fierce way. Humanity’s fate was decided in a microsecond. Skynet, being the crafty AI that it is, attacks targets in Russia. Aren’t they our friends now? Well yeah, but Russia retaliates, destroying Skynet’s enemies in the US. Thus half the Earth’s population is destroyed.

Los Angeles being destroyed on Judgment Day August 29th 1997

Times are tough, especially in the midst of this economic recession. That’s why we here at powet are proud to help bail gamers out of the hell of playing the same things over and over again. For the past 5 years, we have helped gamers like yourself find cheap ways to increase your gaming library. TO celebrate, we have formed this special stimulus package featuring 10 games that are available for $20 or less. Some of them are even available for free. So click after the jump, and check out some cheap gaming.
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