The perfect anti-zombie fortifications are only a few tweets away in Tweet Defense. Created by leading social media and community marketing agency Promethium Marketing Group, the game connects with Twitter, grabs your number of friends, followers and tweets, and uses them to enhance the power of your defence units.

For instance, my friends have earned me a 5% rate of fire increase, my followers add 20% to my range, and my number of tweets grants me 10% extra damage. Considering I’ve only tweeted 98 times in the history of Twitter, your stats might be much, much better.

Tweet Defense’s executive producer, Nelson Rodriguez, explains the genesis of this nifty little application.

“We wondered what it would be like to take your social network and your activities there and turn it into a game. We ended up with a full on tower defence game that uses your friend list and your tweeting activity to impact how powerful your towers are.”

Tweet Defense is now available on the iTunes App Store for $1.19.

According to a news release from Englewood, Colo. based DISH, Tetris is being delivered through a partnership with Oberon Media and The Tetris Company, licensor of all things Tetris. Oberon has plans to take the service worldwide.

DISH players will be able to play a 15-level “Marathon” configuration of the game, plus a race to clear 40 lines as fast as possible. Scores and times will be uploaded to a leaderboard comprised of other DISH Network Tetris players, and the technology allows for tournaments and prizes in future releases. The service may be purchased through DISH Home and interactive banner ads, the release said.

Forget for a minute paying $US36 a year to play a game that can be found in the wild, dirt-cheap to free, on nearly every platform known to mankind. I am serious about the unsuitability of a TV remote to do anything responsively, and that includes such complex tasks as changing channels and turning down the goddamn volume. Every time I visit my parents I want to throw their DISH remote in the fireplace. I can’t imagine playing any video game with its spongy, did-that-register? controls.

[Official News Release]

Among advice dished out to Playfish’s competitors and predictions of a “rapid maturing” in the casual scene over the next year or two, Segerstrale revealed that his company is currently working on a social game based on a “well-known EA brand”, and that it will be out later this year.

Interesting. It’s not Lord of Ultima, somebody else is doing that. What it may be is Command & Conquer, especially when you back and re-read EA boss John Riccitiello’s comments to Kotaku last year.

Why Playfish Sold Itself to EA [WSJ]

Miller, quoted in the “first printed issue of Gamesauce,” says “the next few years should see a strong resurgence in Duke.” Shacknews, which spotted the article, says Miller remains sanguine about the prospects of a franchise with one published title since the Clinton administration.

There are numerous other Duke games in various stages of development, several due out this year. We are definitely looking to bring Duke into casual gaming spaces, plus there are other major Duke games in production.

Miller says “almost all” of those projects are unannounced, but, Shacknews points out they likely include:

• Two Duke iPhone games Miller previously announced.

• A Duke Nukem Trilogy for DS and PSP, from Frontline Studios.

• The Xbox Live Arcade port of Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project.

• A scrapped project called Duke Begins, alluded to in Take-Two’s lawsuit against Miller and Broussard.

And, of course, Miller repeated the obligatory tease that Duke Nukem forever is not dead. “We’ve never said that Duke Nukem Forever has ceased development. … Yes, we released the internal team, but that doesn’t correlate to the demise of the project.”

Sorry, but at this point, games or GTFO.

3D Realms Teases ‘Numerous’ Duke Nukem Games, ‘Looking to Bring Duke into Casual Gaming’ [Shacknews]

Harlequin Enterprises, one of the world’s leading publishers of women’s fiction, and Big Fish Games partnered up in January with plans to create games based on the Harlequin Romance series and novels based on Big Fish’s Mystery Case Files games. The first fruit of the endeavour is now available for purchase, cleverly titled Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire. It’s a hidden object game, only with desire. Inspired by Harlequin mini-series The Royal House of Karedes, the game follows reporter Allie as she covers the 30th birthday of the prince of Aristo and uncovers a mystery. Oooooo.

The game is available for purchase for $US6.99 at Big Fish Games’ website, with an hour-long free trial for those looking to try before they buy. It can’t possibly be as entertaining as the dramatic Harlequin Romance novel readings my sister and I used to put on at family gatherings, but it should do in a pinch.

As the Game Over message flashed on the screen they fell back, the glow from the monitor casting a soft blue light on their glistening bodies. She delicately traced the curve of the fireman’s bicep with her fingertips, causing him to mumble incoherently and roll over. Soon his violent snoring filled the room. With a disgusted sigh she returned to the computer and started playing again.

SweetRobot is Funcom’s newly established subsidiary, focused on the casual and social MMO business, which is a far cry from the sort of games Funcom is used to developing. Age of Conan is a pretty hardcore MMO, and Anarchy Online is so hardcore it requires advanced maths to put your equipment on. I’m not kidding.

That having been said, simply slapping the Funcom name on some casual titles would have, quite frankly, confused the hell out of Funcom fans. Instead, the company has launched SweetRobot, which while desperately needing a little Japanese robot mascot still ranks right up there with my favourite studio names of all time.

“SweetRobot will be focusing on publishing games outside the traditional high-end MMO-segment which Funcom has been focusing on the last years,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “This will allow us to explore new market opportunities that differ from what we have been doing before while still retaining Funcom’s familiar profile. This definitely marks a new and exciting direction for us.”

And Funcom isn’t the sort of company to found a new subsidiary and then make us wait years before they produce anything. A team of 15 people have been working on a kid-friendly MMO called Pets vs. Monsters for the past two years, developing a flexible game engine that can be used across multiple projects. Pets vs. Monsters will hit public beta later this month. We’ll have more on that later. For now, check out a screen of the game below to get a basic idea of the demographic SweetRobot is aiming for.

With more than 60 million active player across all of its Facebook, MySpace, Google, and iPhone games every month, social network game developer Playfish was ripe for the picking. Now they’ve been picked. EA has acquired the company for $US275 million in cash and $US25 million in equity retention agreements, with up to an additional $US100 million in variable cash consideration, pending the achievement of certain performance milestones through December 31st of 2011.

Playfish will now operate as a part of EA Interactive, a division of the company dedicated to web and wireless games. More than 150 million Playfish titles are installed and played around the world, with titles like Pet Society, of which I am a big fan, generating more than 1 billion play sessions a month.

“Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space,” said Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive. “EAi has been successfully leading the charge for EA, and with the addition of proven expertise from Playfish, their broad consumer base and strong game brands, we’re moving ahead aggressively in our plans to lead in the category of cross-platform social entertainment.”

If there was any doubt that EA was completely serious about the social networking games space, this should get rid of it. This is an aggressive move into the growing industry segment that could only be topped by the acquisition of Mafia Wars creators Zynga, which I am fully expecting some major game company to announce any day now.

Mafia Wars is an addictive little Facebook game that involves building up a Mafia, pulling jobs, shaking down rackets, and taking down rival mobsters in order to achieve fame, fortune and far less free time than you had when you first started out. Last month the first two episodes of Mafia Wars: Moscow went live, giving players level 70 and above some new people to kill, business to rob, and equipment to acquire, and now episodes 3 and 4 are just around the corner.

According to Games.com, Episode 3 has players taking on the Moscow Financial System as they make their way towards a confrontation with bank president Gregor Belikov. New items in episode 3 include a Taiga Combat Shotgun and an Ex-KGB Bodyguard. Episode 4 pits you against the Russian military led by corrupt General Osipov, with the Orel Armed Helicopter and Razoritel Grenade Launcher at your disposal.

I arrived a bit late to the Mafia Wars game, but I have now tasted power and will not stop until I devour everything you ever loved. See you on Facebook!

Mafia Wars Moscow: Exclusive Sneak Peek at Episodes 3 & 4 [Games.com Blog]

“It was certainly bad judgment for me to play a computer game even for just a few minutes during the final House session on the budget,” Rep. Jack Hennessey, of Bridgeport, wrote. “I am embarrassed, and I apologise to each and every person in the North End and to people across the state.”

The Associated Press photo, taken Aug. 31, caused a category three foofaraw because, naturally, few things convey such disrespect as to play goddamn Solitaire when the opposition’s talking about the budget. Hennessey could have at least played Bejeweled or Peggle or something. Not only that, he’s playing the unwinnable Canfield. His colleague to the left, Rep. Barbara Lambert, was absorbed in either Freecell, Forty Thieves or Montana. Hard to tell. Guy back and to the right is reading about Andy Pettite on ESPN.com. What in the hell is the matter with you people!

Rep. Larry Cafero, the dissed House Minority Leader in question, faced off with the state House Speaker on a local public affairs program. “This has made international news because it captures the frustration of the public. While Rome is burning, they’re playing solitaire.”

Yes. How dare someone fool around with games, the Internet, whatever, during a super important speech.

Rep. Jack Hennessy Apologizes For Playing Solitaire at State Capitol During Late-Night Budget Debate [Hartford Courant via GamePolitics]

In the game, you’re given a series of recent status updates and asked to identify, by multiple choice, who wrote them. Fast answering is key, otherwise a “bomb” goes off. At the end of the game, you get to send “bombs” to others – basically invitations to play – from the stockpile you earn by guessing correctly. “Lifelines” extend the time you have to answer, in case you just have no idea whose status update reads: “Just christened the commode in my new apartment.”

Laurent Detoc, the president of Ubisoft North America, said TickTock will be “the first of many applications that we’re building for our UbiFriends portal.”

It’s not on the cliché level of pirates, ninjas, zombies, vampires or throwing sheep at one another. Yet. But its spread still depends on the “so-and-so did something, don’t you want to do it, too?” model, and for many, the answer will still be “no.”

Ubi to Launch New Games on Facebook [Eurogamer]