defense

The tower defense genre started out with Desktop Tower Defense, a Flash game you could play in your Web browser, but once the iTunes App Store opened, developers quickly realized this type of game was a perfect fit for iOS devices. Soon, tower defense games that are now iOS classics emerged, including GeoDefense, Fieldrunners, and the hugely popular Plants vs. Zombies. The touch-screen interface made iOS devices a natural platform for tower defense gaming, allowing you to place units easily with only a few taps of your finger, and the result was the perfect time-waster requiring both quick thinking and a solid strategy.

Those early games are still fun even now, but the modern entries in the Tower Defense genre add even more to the action with 3D graphics, new types of gameplay, and new ways to take advantage of today's more powerful iOS devices. Whether you're a serious tower defense aficionado or new to the genre, you'll like the direction developers have taken with the tower defense games that are now available.

This week's collection of iOS apps are all tower defense games. The first is the latest sequel to a popular franchise in which you take the fight to the alien homeworld for the final showdown. The second offers up crisp 3D graphics as you defend a flock of sheep from an onslaught of enemies. The last is a new game that takes a different angle, challenging you to become the invader against well-defended maps, using units and abilities to keep your assault force alive.… Read more

Talk about a flashback to the early 2000s. Tower defense (TD) games are still kicking strong, and just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Symphonic Tower Defense rolls around.

Symphonic Tower Defense is a rhythmic tower defense game by FrozenFire and JonSandness and is currently featured on Newgrounds as one of the top most played games on the site. In true Plants vs. Zombies style, Symphonic takes a linear, multilane, music-driven approach to the tower defense genre.

The title draws its inspiration from the once-popular Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) series. Those who recall the golden … Read more

With the introduction of the touch screen on smartphones, game developers had to come up with new control schemes that would work intuitively on the iPhone. And as iOS games evolved over time, new genres of games started to crop up that were perfect for touch screens and on-screen buttons.

One of those game genres is the castle defense strategy game. Even though you could play desktop and browser-based versions of these games, the touch screen on the iPhone worked so well that they were incredibly easy to pick up and play.

This week's collection of iOS apps is all about castle defense games. The first has a World War I feel as you battle your enemies across a series of dug-in trenches. The second lets you play as a character from the popular Evil Dead franchise as you fight off skeletons and other ghoulish enemies. The third is a new game in which you'll choose from three races to fight your enemies in a humorous battle to create the ultimate barbecue sauce.… Read more

The Pentagon today elaborated on its plans to defend privately-owned Internet servers owned by banks, transportation and utility companies, and other key firms from electronic attacks, a proposal that has raised privacy concerns in the past.

"Our assessment is that cyberattacks will be a significant component of any future conflict, whether it involves major nations, rogue states, or terrorist groups," William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, said during a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

To illustrate the sophistication of such attacks, Lynn said a foreign government was behind a cyberattack in March … Read more

Army of Darkness Defense is a castle-defense game based on (and named after) the third movie in the cult-classic comic-horror series "Evil Dead." You play the chainsaw-armed hero Ash Williams, and audio samples of his highly quotable dialogue play a starring role in the app.

Unlike so many movie tie-in games, Army of Darkness Defense manages to be quite good: it's a mix of resource management and arcade action, in which you re-enact the frantic defense of the movie's finale. Waves of enemies--skeletal and/or demonic "Deadites"--advance from right to left inside the … Read more

After something of an uphill battle, Fieldrunners HD, the hugely popular Tower Defense game for iPhone, has finally made its way onto the Android platform. Originally tabbed for release last week, Fieldrunners ran into a few speed bumps with the Android Market. But fortunately all is well now, and for the first 24 hours (the clock is already ticking), Fieldrunners will be available in the Amazon Appstore for free or in the Android Market for a buck.

With high-def graphics, more than 400 levels, and four battle fields, this multiple award-winner is certainly worth checking out.

HexDefense by Gotow Creative Studios is an intense arcade-style tower defense game for Android that brings subtle but effective innovations to the genre. HexDefense differentiates itself from others like Retro Defense, Guns'n'Glory, and Robo Defense by using hexagonal tiles and status-inducing panels. This gives players strategic freedom to create more innovative paths of destruction when tackling enemy waves, but introduces new challenges as well.

Gameplay Build towers by sliding one of four tower icons to a tile, or tap an existing structure to upgrade its attributes. HexDefense's hexagonal grid provides strategic options and flexibility by adding diagonal … Read more

The U.S. is creating a virtual version of the Internet--this one designed as a testbed to help the nation hone its defenses against cyberattacks, according to Reuters and other sources.

Known as the National Cyber Range, the virtual testbed would be set up by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the same agency that kicked off the Internet itself more than 40 years ago. The new simulated mini-Internet would give Washington the opportunity to carry out virtual cyberwarfare games as a way of testing different scenarios and technologies in response to cyberattacks.

To work on the initial development … Read more

Americans who receive meter data on their home energy use reduce consumption on average by 1.8 percent after the first year.

That's according to a study of 750,000 households of varied demographics in six states conducted by energy-management software company Opower and sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The study followed homes enrolled in various utility programs that provided home usage data via Web portal, text, or paper reports mailed to consumers' homes.

The figure may not sound like much. But if every home in the U.S. reduced energy consumption by 1.8 percent, nationwide … Read more