battle

Countries square off with swords at Battle of the Nations

If you're a fan of "Game of Thrones," a grand competition called Battle of the Nations might be right up your alley. The tournament, held yearly in Europe, features a variety of full-contact medieval battle competitions involving around 500 people in teams from 22 countries.

The 2013 Battle of the Nations, which concludes on May 13, takes place in Aigues-Mortes, France, and offers battles such as 1 vs. 1, 5 vs. 5, 21 vs. 21, and a grand royale battle where everyone fights each other. Russia has won all three of the previous tournaments. … Read more

Block building, tower defense, and first-person mayhem in one game

Block Fortress is a great mix of tower defense and first-person shooter that lets you build a home base with turrets and other defenses, then play in first person while you help defend your blocky base. It's an incredibly deep game, but the way the developers named the game types is a bit confusing on first play.

The graphics in the game are almost exactly like those in the hit game Minecraft, with tons of different block types to unlock and use to defend your fortress. Fans of Minecraft will feel right at home during the building phase of … Read more

The 404 1,239: Where we swear we're not cops (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- In Jeff's words, April Fool's is a day for unfunny people to tell jokes. With that, I'm pretty sure this prank was posted two weeks early.

- The OPMOD/ThinkGeek Battle Mug: an elegant drink receptacle for a more civilized age.

- Boston police go undercover online to stop DIY punk shows.

- Latest Japanese schoolgirl trend: Fake Dragon Ball attacks.

- Walmart may get customers to deliver packages to online buyers.

- Sales of twin-size beds drop as Tweens demand bigger beds...for their tablets.… Read more

Team up for fun with Battle Bears Royale

Battle Bears Royale is a multiplayer shooter game that teams you up to take out other players while navigating through multilevel maps. Don't be fooled by the cute, cuddly characters in Battle Bears Royale; this multiplayer game has tough but enthralling gameplay.

Right after you download Battle Bears Royale, beware of the pop-up windows that try to get you to play other games in the so-called network. This didn't make for a good first impression on our end. Be sure to press "Skip" to proceed with the actual game.

Informational windows describe features contained in the … Read more

Kill other simians before they kill you with Battle Monkeys

Battle Monkeys is a free multiplayer game for the MacBook and iMac that tries to hook you with its gameplay into buying upgrades. The installation is quick as a download from the App Store. There are both single-player and multiplayer games available online.

When launched, the game displays some excellent graphics, offering a simple tutorial to explain the game mechanics. Essentially, monkeys sit on your various keyboard keys. Each turn you can jump to any of the two keys available in any direction. Your goal is to try and kill the monkeys before they kill you. Some keys have special … Read more

Defend your city

It started as an iOS app, and now it is available on the Mac OS X platform, too: Battle Nations is a free game that combines city-building -- including harvesting resources and creating goods -- with combat, as you are also in charge of training troops and defending territory. While the combination of too many elements results in simplified building mechanics and combat (maybe too simplified), the overall gaming experience is enjoyable.

Everyone has a story, even the virtual characters, and we liked the action-movie type introduction of the characters at first launch; we wondered if this aimed to replace … Read more

E-mail lists, encrypted passwords stolen in Battle.net hack

Game maker Blizzard Entertainment's internal network security has been breached, the company informed customers today.

While the company behind World of Warcraft and Diablo believes no sensitive financial information was compromised, it said e-mail addresses for non-China Battle.net players and scrambled passwords were stolen, Blizzard President Michael Morhaime said in a company blog post:

This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened. At this time, we'… Read more

Great Big War Game: Bigger and better

Rubicon has done it again with Great Big War Game, the sequel to the wildly successful Great Little War Game. In this newest installment of the turn-based strategy game, you are again the bird's-eye-view commander of a comical, yet brutal military.

If you aren't familiar with this particular style of game play, you get one turn to move your units and wage attacks before passing off to your opponent to do the same. The strategy comes in as you attempt to attack your enemy, while still maintaining a safe enough distance to avoid being attacked yourself. As you … Read more

Truly a Great Little War Game

If patience is not one of your strongest traits, then perhaps a turn-based strategy game is not for you. Otherwise, sit back, and get ready to be consumed for hours by the chesslike pace of this Great Little War Game.

In GLWG, you are the bird's-eye-view commander of a comical yet brutal military force. You get one turn to move your units and wage attacks, then it's your opponent's turn to do the same. The strategy comes in as you attempt to attack your enemy, while still maintaining a safe-enough distance that you avoid being attacked yourself. … Read more