Valve has just announced that a new entry in the Counter-Strike Series will be coming out soon. Titled Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the expected release date is  in “early 2012″ for Steam (PC and Mac), Playstation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade.  Global Offensive will feature “all new maps, characters, and weapons” as well as updated content such as “de_dust” and other fan favorites.  Global Offensive will also add new gameplay modes, matchmaking systems, leaderboards, and more unannounced features.

CS: GO is being developed by both Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment, who also worked with Valve on more recent updates for Counter-Strike: Source. CS: GO will be playable at PAX Prime and Eurogamer Expo.

Rumors of the games development initially started circulating earlier this morning, and its possible that Valve announced the game prematurely to stem the flow of rumors. You can visit the games Steam Store page here, though it is very light on details at the moment

The Counter-Strike series has not seen a new entry since the 2004 release of Counter-Strike: Source, which despite being 7 years old, is still one of the most played PC games online.  CS:GO is another title being added to the ever growing list of Valve’s actively developed series. The studio, who is known for their  slow development cycles, is now actively working on the Portal, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike series’, as well as their upcoming DOTA game.

Next Gen Console, PC, and Mac Release Targeted for Early 2012

August 13, 2011 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO).

Targeted for release via Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Steam (for PC and Mac) in early 2012, CS: GO will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched exactly 12 years ago (CS beta 1, August 1999).

CS: GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc.). In addition, CS: GO will introduce new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leader boards, and more.

“Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of Marketing at Valve. “For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS’ award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac.”

CS: GO is being developed by Valve in cooperation with Seattle-based Hidden Path Entertainment. The title is targeted for release in early 2012 and will be playable at this year’s PAX Prime and Eurogamer Expo.

- The PlayPack is immediately available to OGS owners and will become available to all OnLive members starting January 15, 2011.
- OnLive will continue to offer its current free trials, 3 and 5 day rentals and Full PlayPass options for a la carte new release games.
- The $99 OnLive Game System is now shipping to customers who have placed pre-orders.

Today also marks the day that Onlive begins shipping the OnLive Game System MicroConsole to those that have pre-order the system.  Here are more of the games that will be included in the Play-Back plan.

· Prince of Persia®, Ubisoft
· NBA® 2K10, 2K Sports
· Tomb Raider™: Underworld, Square-Enix
· F.E.A.R. 2, Warner Bros
· Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.™, Ubisoft
· Unreal Tournament® 3, Epic
· Vin Diesel Wheelman™, Ubisoft
· LEGO® Batman™, Warner Bros
· Defense Grid® Gold, Hidden Path
· Saw, Konami
· World of Goo, 2D Boy

For those that have been lucky enough to get into the beta here is some information for you about the Play-Back plan.

The PlayPack option is available, in beta, starting today for owners of the OnLive Game System free of charge. The PlayPack game library will steadily expand up to and beyond the January 15, 2011 launch date. After this introductory beta period, the PlayPack flat-rate plan will be available as a $9.99/month option for all OnLive members, including those PlayPack beta members who choose to continue with the plan.

For more information about the PlayPack flat-rate plan, visit www.onlive.com/playpack. For additional details on the OnLive Game System, visit www.onlive.com/game-system.

Tower Defense games have advanced so much in the last couple of years. From being top down 2D games with acceptable graphics to huge titles with lots of awesome gameplay features. The Tower Defense genre has changed and molded into something that is very popular, because it is so acceptable and understandable to pretty much anyone as you don’t need to have much skill to just place towers and let them do the shooting themselves.

Well, Defense Grid not only brings the tower defense to a full retail game that has full high definition textures, 3D camera view with different zoom levels. But also it adds so many new things to the Tower Defense genre. With different tower and tower upgrades changing the gameplay as you unlock them while playing through the story.

To start with, the gameplay in this game is still tower defense, so don’t expect anything apart from tower defense all the time. When you begin any of the multitude of tower defense levels, you will be given about 30 seconds to get your towers down. At the start of the game you get a tutorial so don’t worry if you are new to the type of game. Also you don’t really have that much of a choice of towers when you begin the game. All you can choose is a normal gun tower, but then as you advance, the types of towers that you can add to the map changes very much into some brilliant  ideas. Whether it be the fact that you can shoot into the sky and take out all of the sky enemies that are coming towards you or the tower that means that you can place a meteor shooting gun at any point on the map and when you place this, it fires meteors through the sky and lands in the middle of a large group of enemies.

There definitely is some difficult strategy in the game, for the first few levels I found the game VERY easy. Because I could just buy lots and lots of towers and just build them at the choke point where all the enemies would be spending all of there time. But after a while the shape of the maps meant that I would have to use every single tower that I put town tactically so that the enemies wouldn’t get any closer to the goal of taking the nodes of my power core.

That’s how the enemies win the game, making their way to your power core, and taking one of your 15 or so nodes and then making their way back to where they came from, this means that they once again have to pass through your towers, so if you just take one of the  enemies health down to about 10% your towers can finish them off so that the node can float back to the base.

Story-wise the game doesn’t really have that much of a story, you do have a voice over guy that kind of sets some kind of story, such as saying that this time the enemies are bigger and here comes a boss. Things like that, but he really doesn’t have a direct effect of the map and it’s not as if there is a story there, but I really don’t mind because how would you do a story on a tower defense game anyway.

Final say: Defense Grid: The Awakening definitely brings some fresh ideas to the tower defense concept, and with the high definition gameplay and the 10 unique towers. This game should be a buy for you if you enjoy tower defense games.

Tower Defense games have been taken to the next stage with Defense Grid: The Awakening. It’s gives an awesome 3D crazy next gen experience to a tower defence game. This game is DRM-free AND with the game you can also get a free code to down this game on steam. Wow. 20 Story Levels, ten different towers and achievements make this one of the best tower defense games on the market!

Buy the game HERE!

AUSTIN, TEXAS – July 28, 2009 – Defense Grid: The Awakening, Hidden Path Entertainment’s critically acclaimed tower defense strategy game for PC, has shipped to retail stores in North America through a partnership with Aspyr Media. Gamers who purchase Defense Grid: The Awakening in stores will receive two products in one package. First, A DRM-free version of the full game on the included disc allows for local profiles to be created for saves, achievement tracking and score ranking. For players who want to take their Defense Grid: The Awakening experience online for Internet leader boards, online rankings and achievements, a code is included in the box that will allow them to download the full game from the Steam digital distribution platform for no additional cost.

Released through digital distribution in December 2008 to tremendous praise, Defense Grid: The Awakening takes the best features of the addictive tower defense genre and fuses them with the Gamebryo engine to deliver beautiful 3D environments, spectacular effects, a dynamic soundtrack and deep strategy gameplay. Ensuring AAA quality and impeccable game balance is a development team with a pedigree that includes franchises such as Age of Empires, Half-Life, Crimson Skies, Homeworld, MechWarrior, and Rise of Nations.

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.

Defense Grid: The Awakening is rated E10+ (for gamers 10 and older) by the ESRB. For more information on the game please visit www.hiddenpath.com.

Download Now (08/31/2008)

GamerEdie, Chiahippo (Platform Nation), Mrs. LeftyBrown (The Married Gamers), Z3ro9, InfectedPB503 (XBLRadio), BDazzler (Gamers Pub) and Platform Nation’s fearless leader, Steve519 record a live show for PlatformNation on the show floor @ PAX 2008.

We meet up with Todd Howard, creative director of Bethesda’s Fallout 3, reveals a bunch of details about the game and fearlessly answers a half-hour of constant questions from the panel and the live chat-room audience.

Shawn White of Ninjatown also gets peppered with tons of questions about the upcoming DS game and what it’s like to go from being a game journalist to a game developer.

Finally Jeff Pobst, CEO of Hidden Path, talks about their upcoming tower-defense game, Defense Grid: The Awakening. He also gets very candid about Microsoft’s certification process and offers up insight about the development industry from a CEO’s viewpoint.

See what’s going on @ pax, hang out with us, and listen in on some Developer interviews on the show with us. Follow the news @ SquadXP.com & PlatformNation.com.

Relationship Questions: girls@squadxp.com

Our hosts on today’s show include GamerEdie from Gamehounds.net, Kelly from TheMarriedGamers.com, X3R0 9 from XBLRadio.com and Chiahippo from PlatformNation.com.

Today’s guest are:
Todd Howard, Creative Director of Fallout 3 from Bethesda.
Shawn Smith, Creator of Ninjatown.
Jeff Pobst, CEO of Hidden Path.

Topics include:
Fallout 3
Ninjatown
LittleBigPlanet impressions
Tritton AX Pro
Defense Grid: The Awakening hands on
Wits and Wagers
Last day of PAX ’08 chat
Farcry 2
Velvet Assassin
Listener questions
and a whole lot more

Platform Nation was there at the final day of PAX 2008 to witness the final wind-down of this huge event.

GamerEdie Sellers was joined by a host of other Platform Nation hosts, including Chiahippo (Platform Nation), Mrs. LeftyBrown (The Married Gamers), Z3ro9 (Squad XP), InfectedPB503 (XBLRadio), BDazzler (Gamers Pub) and Platform Nation’s fearless leader, Steve519.

This panel discussion of the final day’s events also includes an impressive array of guests. Todd Howard, creative director of Bethesda’s Fallout 3, reveals a bunch of details about the game and fearlessly answers a half-hour of constant questions from the panel and the live chat-room audience.

Shawn Smith of Ninjatown also gets peppered with tons of questions about the upcoming DS game and what it’s like to go from being a game journalist to a game developer.

Finally Jeff Pobst, CEO of Hidden Path, talks about their upcoming tower-defense game, Defense Grid: The Awakening. He also gets very candid about Microsoft’s certification process and offers up insight about the development industry from a CEO’s viewpoint.

Hidden Path Unveils Defense Grid: The Awakening at PAX 2008

Addictive Tower Defense PC Strategy Game Challenges Players with Deep Gameplay

Bellevue, WA (August 28, 2008) – Hidden Path Entertainment, an independent developer based in Bellevue WA, will be unveiling their new PC game Defense Grid: The Awakening during this week’s Penny Arcade Expo.  Defense Grid: The Awakening, due to release in November 2008, is a unique spin on tower defense gameplay that will appeal to players of all skill levels.  This PC game, built on Emergent’s Gamebryo engine, features beautiful environments, spectacular effects, and a dynamic, engaging soundtrack.  The controls are intuitive and the gameplay is deep – the special attacks and properties of each tower work together to provide many ways to succeed.

“Defense Grid: The Awakening redefines tower-defense gameplay, introduces new concepts, and uniquely captures the full excitement and fun of this genre,” said Jeff Pobst, CEO and co-founder of Hidden Path Entertainment. “Defense Grid: The Awakening is as fun for the core gamer pushing their skills as it is for the novice just trying their hand at a strategy game.”

A horde of enemies is invading, and it’s up to the player to stop them by strategically building fortification towers around their base.  This highly replayable game features more than 8 hours of storyline gameplay and many hours of challenge modes that give players unique starting conditions and objectives.  There are many different ways to solve each level with increasing rewards for improved efficiency.

“We have spent a lot of time studying the emotional curve of the game and worked to ensure that the challenge of each enemy wave creates an enjoyable pace and progression throughout the campaign,” said Mark Terrano, Design Director and co-founder of Hidden Path Entertainment.  “We added a number of game mechanics in each level to create a large dynamic range of emotion and strategy so that we can engage both the hardcore gamer and the novice through one shared emotional experience.”

Defense Grid: The Awakening has 20 unique environments, each with a different placement of roads, tower build locations, and open areas to plan a strategy around.  Each level encourages a different strategy, such as trying to find an optimal path to redirect enemies, making the best use of limited space, and breaking up individual enemy waves to avoid being overwhelmed, all while planning ahead for future waves.

There are 10 different tower types with 3 levels of upgrade for each.  Each tower has unique tradeoffs that affect ideal placement, such as line-of-sight attack or ballistic trajectory fire; a large area of effect or damage over time; and minimum and maximum ranges.  Over the course of the game, players battle 15 different types of enemies, each with their own unique capabilities and strategies.