Have you guys given Dungeon Defenders a spin yet? It's the latest title to steal my limited free time, and it definitely deserves a look. I've only had a few hours to burn so far, but I can't wait to waste a weekend playing this one.
Dungeon Defenders is a first/third person Tower Defense/RPG title. Most of you have played Sanctum, so imagine Sanctum set in a cartoony fantasy world and tack on some great RPG elements. Like Sanctum, you get to spend points (Mana in this case) either building towers or buffing your character. Unlike Sanctum, the points you spend on your character are permanent. You can level your character up and put points into skills that directly impact your character such as health, damage, attack speed, etc. Alternatively, you can spend points on abilities that impact those same stats on your towers. I've split my points roughly 50/50 between character buffs and tower buffs, so I can make decent towers and deal some damage with my spells.
You've also got a myriad of characters to choose from. I'm playing an Apprentice (think wizard), who deals moderate ranged damage and has a good selection of towers to choose from. Other classes excel at tower building, melee damage, setting traps, etc. In addition to buffing your character by leveling, you can also wear a variety of armor, use a class-specific weapon, and bring along a pet. Each of these items can have a number of stat buffs or unique abilities, and they can be leveled by spending mana. Each time you level your weapon/armor/pet, you can choose which stat to boost. It makes for an incredibly open-ended game.
You have a tavern in the game that you can retreat to between battles to sell loot, upgrade items, and show off your trophy and item collection.
Here is the tavern of a ridiculously high-level guy, displaying his collection of lightsabers.
The artwork (and GUI) are incredibly reminiscent of Torchlight. The game looks good, and it can run on darn near any modern PC.
Dungeon Defenders mixes up the traditional tower defense genre with boss battles and other special events.
The game can get quite hectic at times. By the time you get to the last wave, you'll get absolutely inundated in enemies. It's crazy fun!
-b0b
(...is currently up to level 32 out of 74 possible.)