Since the genre began, tower defense games have always been downloadable titles with very few ever making it to full retail release. This has been an advantage for the genre as it has given more opportunity for innovation. For example, with Toy Soldiers and it’s sequel Toy Soldiers: Cold War, players were allowed to both roam the battlefield in various vehicles as well as take on the role of the towers themselves.

Now, Robot Entertainment, the makers of Age of Empires Online, releases their second title to the world with Orcs Must Die!.

Orcs Must Die! is another new take on the traditional tower defense formula. Instead of setting up towers throughout the enemies path, Orcs Must Die! focuses on the use of traps along with third person action mechanics such as shooting, melee and magic spells. The result is an incredibly addictive experience.

Gameplay:

Each level starts with a player in one of the many keeps of the Order where he must stop a horde of the Mob from reaching rift points. Players see the start locations of the Mob and the paths they will take in order to reach the rift points. Once enough of the Mob has reached the rift, the player loses. Players need to use a combination of an ever expanding assortment of traps along with their own combat skills to hold off the horde.

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Anthologies can often be either one of the best ways to explore a concept if executed properly. The idea explored here is Halo and the mythology surrounding it. For the first time, one work tries to take from all other source material like the Halo games, novels and comics in an effort to fully explain the world of Halo. In the process, it also helps actually add new substantial concepts to this much applauded franchise that show that the fight isn’t really over for Master Chief and the Spartans.

As seen before with Batman: Gotham Knight and The Animatrix, Halo Legends is an anthology of seven distinct and separate stories about the characters and ideas of Halo as seen through the eyes of various anime heavyweights. With writers and directors who had worked on everything from Cowboy Bebop to Bubblegum Crisis and MASK to Dragon Ball Z, the spectrum of top talent in this field was pieced together to put together Halo Legends.

The first story, “Origins”, comes in two pieces and may easily be the most important of the seven parts to the greater Halo universe. For the first time in full detail, the audience is given a look at exactly what happened to the Forerunners that caused them to disappear with the creation of the Halo rings. Most interesting about this feature comes from the revelation of what the Forerunners looked like and how they became revered as the gods of the Covenant.

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With all the info we got from X10, we can’t forget the new screenshots for Ruffian Games’ sci-fi sandbox shooter Crackdown 2. Without even looking at the added hype Crackdown received due to the inclusion of the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, the game was a critical and commercial success.

Now, taking lessons learned from the first game and kicking up the superhero-esque themes to the next level, Crackdown 2 looks ready to emerge as one of the top XBox 360 exclusives of 2010. Now featuring zombie freaks as opposed to the relatively “normal” enemies of the last game, the Agency needed to turn up the juice with some new weapons, armor and vehicles.

Dune buggies with added turrets, overcharged gauntlets for hand to hand combat and even a fully armed helicopter now help protect the streets of Crackdown 2. Take a look at some of the screens just released from X10 and of course stay tuned right here for more coverage of Crackdown 2.

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Now set for a May 2010 release for the XBox 360 and PC, many thought Alan Wake may never come out. For the longest time, no one knew exactly what the game was about until it was revealed at E3 2009.

Now, just a few months before Alan Wake comes out, Microsoft has released a new trailer which looks to give some more insight in to the game’s story. We get introduced to Alan’s wife and see some of the horrific moments he may be encountering when the game hits shelves.

With a town named Bright Falls, it looks like only dark times lie ahead for writer Alan Wake. For now, take a peek below at the game that looks like light is your only weapon.

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