New game levels released to celebrate Angry Birds second “birdday”

By Andy Boxall December 12, 2011

Angry Birds celebrated its second birthday on December 11, and marked the occasion with an update to version 2.0 of the game. Rovio, the creator of the incredibly popular casual gaming phenomenon, has got plenty to celebrate too, boasting 500 million game downloads, the sale of 10 million toys and a company value of more than $1 billion.

Angry Birds 2.0 is available through the iTunes App Store as a free update right now, and it contains 15 special birthday-themed new levels plus all 300 existing levels have been unlocked, allowing any players stuck on a particularly cunning stage to advance unimpeded.

As it has become so much more than just another mobile game, it’s fitting that “birdday” should be commemorated elsewhere too, and sure enough several retailers will be putting on special events and promotions this week. In the USA, Toys ‘R’ Us will be offering 25 percent off their Angry Birds plush toys, while selected Barnes & Noble stores held scavenger hunts on Sunday and will offer a Red Bird cookie in their coffee shops. In the UK, Forbidden Planet will be carrying Angry Birds products previously unavailable in the country.

To round out “Birdday” here, how about some statistics? Rovio says that 266 billion levels have been played around the globe for a combined 1.825 billion hours per month, 400 billion birds have been launched from the catapult, and 44 billion stars have been earned.

Rovio isn’t slowing down either, as CEO Peter Vesterbacka told The Moscow Times, he’s now focused on making Angry Birds the first entertainment brand to have a billion fans. Measured by the company’s active Facebook users, he expects this to take another two or three years to achieve. He also confirmed there would be several new Angry Birds games in 2012.

Editors' Recommendations

The best RPGs for iPhone and iPad in 2023: our 16 favorite games

Topics

Senior Mobile Writer

Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

Gaming

Is Manor Lords multiplayer or co-op?

A medieval market in Manor Lords.

You can easily lose hours designing your village and appeasing your citizens in Manor Lords all by yourself. There are so many different avenues to achieve victory, but the only competition or help you can normally find is in the form of NPCs. Other factions around the map can be helpful or harmful depending on how you play, but what if you wanted to team up with a friend to combine resources, or perhaps compete to see who can crush the other first? Many strategy and city builders thrive on multiplayer components, but does Manor Lords offer those same modes? Make sure you know the answer before making your purchase if that's your intention.
Is there multiplayer or co-op in Manor Lords?
To cut to the chase, the answer is no. Manor Lords is a purely single-player experience through and through. There are no cooperative or competitive modes in the game at all, so there's no way to interact with anyone else either on PC or console. This game was just released out of early access, and there is plenty of content on the way, however, we regret to inform you that multiplayer is not in the plans for the time being.

One developer took to the Steam forums to release an FAQ on the game. One question specifically asked if there is any multiplayer or cooperative gameplay in the game. The response said that "he focus is on a refined single-player experience, with no multiplayer or cooperative modes planned at the moment."

Gaming

All console commands and cheats for Fallout: New Vegas

The courier holding a gun with a welcome sign in the background in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

From the moment you begin your adventure in Fallout: New Vegas, you've already cheated death. Your first playthrough of the game should be done as the developers intended, though maybe with a couple of mods to make the experience a little smoother, but nothing that breaks the game. That said, it's been over a decade since the game came out, so odds are you've already played through the intended way at least once. This is when you can have some fun tinkering with the game and play using console commands and cheats if you're on the PC version of the game. There are a ton of commands you can input to manipulate your character, the world, objects, and more. Here's a full rundown of all the cheats there are and how to activate them.
How to enter console commands
Opening up the command console to type in your cheats is just a single keystroke away. While in the game (not paused), hit the ~ key located below your escape key. This will remove your HUD and bring up the prompt to type in any of the below cheats.
All Fallout: New Vegas console commands and cheats

Because there are so many console commands, we're going to break them down into general categories to make it easier for you to find what you're looking for based on what you want to do.
Faction and reputation cheats
addreputation <form id> <variable> <amount> -- Increases your reputation with a faction.

Gaming

How to get a gun in Another Crab’s Treasure

Kril has a gun

Another Crab's Treasure no doubt looks like a kid-friendly game, but hiding beneath its charming and cute exterior is a challenging soulslike experience that can test the mettle of genre veterans. Those who either can't or don't want to engage with such intense difficulty throughout this underwater adventure can make great use of a variety of assists. Among these is a rather shocking, but hilarious option that can completely negate nearly all of the game's challenge while providing some laughs along the way. Here's how to get a gun in Another Crab's Treasure.
How to get a gun
To give yourself a gun in Another Crab's Treasure, head over to the Settings menu. Navigate to Assist Mode at the bottom of the menu, then scroll to the bottom once more to a setting called Give Kril a Gun. Toggle this on, then back out and resume your game to find that Kril now has a massive pistol on his back in place of a shell.

This new gun on your back provides you with more than just a funny visual, though -- it actually allows you to shoot and kill any enemy in a single hit, nearly eliminating all of the challenge from the game. Additionally, if you're after trophies or achievements, the first time you shoot a crab with the gun will also unlock "This Kills the Crab."