From Dust

"From Dust" is a so-called god game from Ubisoft, in which player takes control of the prime elements to help a tribe survive and reach it's goals. Depending on where you direct your followers, player gains various abilities to manipulate the nature even further and can even call tsunamis and build mountains. It happens to be a very charming and technically impressive game. Yet the gameplay feels kind of shallow, as if there should be more to do in this game. You start a level, direct your tribe where they need to go, use some new abilities, build a few hills, next level, rinse, repeat... There isn't much challenge (except the last level which I haven't beaten yet, arrrgh!) and the whole experience feels a bit empty. Then again, the game only costs 15 euros at release and it's a download-only title, so it shouldn't be viewed as a full game.
Now to the really bad part...
The PC port for "From Dust" is just awful! A player controlled world-manipulating game with water physics and majestic world sounds exactly like something that PC-gamers want to test their new graphics cards on but alas, we can't. Not only that, there are no graphics options other than resolution, which is crazy. The game looks jagged and textures are muddy, there has been reports of locked FPS and screen tearing. And to top it all off, the game requires a constant internet connection despite Ubisoft officially claiming otherwise before launch. I'm pretty sure the reason behind all this was incompetence and not cruel intentions but this was enough for Steam (as online distributor) to offer refunds to people who bought the game.
I don't know what's wrong with Ubisoft. Their neglect to PC gamers and insisting always-online DRMs are getting constantly worse, as are their games. Think it through guys, consoles aren't getting any younger and the next next generation is far from sight! At the same time, new PC parts are getting better and cheaper. The PC crowd will rise again, and ignoring them is not a bright idea. I mean, have you seen what GTA 4 (also originally a very crappy port) looks like these days?

Rant over, I rest my case.

Saiko

Limbo

Danish 2D platformer "Limbo" was released last year for XBox Live Arcade and was very well received. It depicts a small boy waking up in limbo (a mythological place between heaven and hell) and tries to survive in this surreal and hostile environment. Now the 1-year exclusivity has been lifted and us PC gamers (also PS3 gamers) got a taste.
Damn...
There was some discussion awhile back (spawned from ignorant rantings of film critic Roger Ebert) whether computer games can be art or not. Well, the artistic value of "Limbo" can not be ignored. At first you may think it's just an artsy-fartsy black-n-white Super Mario remake or whatever but it's not the case at all. "Limbo" has a soul and a very unique eerie atmosphere, yet it makes absolutely no compromises when it comes to it's execution: perfect sound design, masterful use of light and shadows, intriguing puzzles, good animations... The main problems are the game's short length and a very abrupt ending.
The talent and dedication behind this game should not be ignored and I'm very much looking forward to Playdead Studio's next projects.

Saiko

The Witcher 2: Assasins of Kings

I used to play a lot of role playing games when I was younger - Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale, Plancescape: Torment etc. But there came a point after which I didn't like the new ones so much - Neverwinter Nights, KoToR, Mass Effect, Oblivion, Dragon Age... they're not bad but I just kinda don't get them anymore. For me they feel fake and formulaic and they don't give me the joy of exploration and character development that the old ones did.
Witcher 1 was a game that evoked those good old feelings in me. It's strange, as you have only one character and the character trees don't make that much of a difference so you might even say that it's not a RPG. Somehow though, it's more of an RPG experience than the games where you can choose the color of the wristband of your high elf mage. The Polish developers really managed to nail the good old feeling of an authentic middle-aged fantasy world in need of a hero.
So this year, we got a sequel and what a sequel it was. A wonderful mixture of stellar production values and original story made for a wonderfully realized gameworld full of monsters, action, intrigues, lore and characters. The game is far from  flawless (stony facial animations, mixed level of voice acting, balance issues, flimsy story structure, bugs) but over a long time it was a game I did not want to end. The world was so wonderfully designed and alive, story and characters so detailed, combat believable and tactically interesting that I really felt the need to get the most out of it. The ending was kind of a disappointment too, so you can say that it's more about the journey and not the destination I guess. Oh and it's PC exclusive (so far) so if you have a powerful new PC, then it's a must to try to run Witcher 2 on it - just beautiful!
My game of the year so far.

Saiko

Frozen Synapse

The first game I'm going to talk about is Frozen Synapse. It's a tactical turn-based indie game and a pretty good one at that. The interesting thing about it is that there are no dice-rolls or hitpoints. You send your soldiers against enemy soldiers in randomly generated maps and depending on their placements and cover they will either succeed or die.
How it works is this - during your turn you set waypoints to your troops (machinegunners, grenade launcers, etc.) and when you are satisfied with the plan, you prime it and see how it works out against your enemy's plan. Until then you can "simulate" the outcome but what your opponent decides (you can play against AI or other player) always remains a mystery. Usually the enemy's plans are not what you predicted and you might find yourself winning or losing very unexpectedly. No type of soldier is "better" than the other so the aim is to find the situation in which they are able to outgun the enemy, such as shotguns at close range and rockets against clusters of enemies in a chokepoint.
The game is unforgiving and I find it quite addicting. However, the whole neo-dystopian spiritual-electronical setting gets old pretty fast. I mean, we have a great tactical gunplay game here - why not try to fit it into some other kind of military kind of universe. Okay, we're all sick to death of Call of Duties and Battlefields and nobody wants to make a game that everybody sees as a top down Modern Warfare clone but bluish cyber mumbo-jumbo is still a pretty odd design choice. Also, the music (reminiscent of Mirror's Edge) doesn't really fit and while playing the game my flatmate actually came to ask if I was watching porn...
Should you be interested, you can find the game on Steam pretty cheap...

Saiko