Just as its sister site ModDB picks the top PC gaming mods of the year, IndieDB rounds out the year with a countdown of the top independently developed games of the year. Think of it as a shopping list to help establish your indie gaming cred. How many of the top ten have you played?

Me? I've only gotten around to experiencing half of the ten games voted by IndieDB community members as the best independent games of the year. I've spent a great many hours exploring the world of Bastion, as everyone should. Stephen got me into SpaceChem after raving about the iPhone version of the game. Trine 2 from Frozenbyte was a no-brainer, considering my great love of the original, and Minecraft-meets-FPS Ace of Spades was personally responsible for several near-oversleep situations over the past few months.

As for the number one game, the 2D building, exploring, and surviving action of Terraria...I'm ashamed to say I hadn't played it at all, at least until this morning, when I plunked down five dollars for a copy on Steam. I'm enjoying it so much right now that this post was nearly incredibly late.

Hit up the list to see not only the top ten, but the top 100 indie games of 2011 and beyond, and start building your shopping list.

IOTY Players Choice - Indie of the Year [IndieDB]

Bastion snuck up on me—I had heard a lot of friends and fellow critics hyping it after seeing it at PAX East and GDC, but I didn't actually play it until it was released. For the first hour or so, I wasn't sold, but as the story snowballed and the levels stretched out, I fell increasingly under its spell.

It was a remarkably holistic game, especially in its presentation. Everything was of a piece: Jen Zee's breathtaking painterly artwork, Greg Kasavin's mysterious, ever-unfolding story, Logan Cunningham's throaty, Tom Waits-y narration. And tying it all together, Darren Korb's wonderfully trippy, six-string-fueled musical score. Bastion had one of my very favorite video game soundtracks of the year.

Here are five of my favorite tracks from the soundtrack, along with some backstory and technical details from Korb himself.

"Bynn the Breaker"

Bastion is a slow burn, a gradually building game that begins with a mystery and layers information and narration until it reverse-engineers a remarkable narrative tapestry. Each level is possessed of a steady, heavy momentum—the game marches forward, an inexorable drive towards an unknowable future.

This track is one of the first (maybe the actual first?) to play in-game, and it matches that sense of inexorable drive. The descending string line is probably my favorite part, recalling nothing so much as the hook from The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." (No, seriously! Listen and tell me I'm wrong.)

Here's Korb on crafting this recording, which, like all of the tracks from the soundtrack, he did largely using sampled music within Logic Pro:

This is one of the more sample/MIDI heavy tracks on the soundtrack with almost no live instruments (that aren't samples). I use some Harp, some Oud, and some Electric guitar for the melodic instruments. This was one of the earlier tunes I wrote for the game while I was still experimenting with getting the right mix of live instruments, samples, and MIDI. I think this piece was helpful in defining the boundaries of what kind of music I wanted to make for the game.

"Slinger's Song"

I dig "Slinger's Song," because it captures the gut-blues open-string thing that much of Korb's music does so well. It calls to mind other soundtracks like Firefly and Deadwood by conjuring a sound that captures the iconic nature of the west without necessarily kowtowing to the time period's instrumental traditions. I was joking with Korb that I wanted to guess the primary instrument, but that I was going to guess "Dobro," which was my default guess when I hear a non-guitar guitar. I'm usually wrong. But this time, it actually was a dobro!

He elaborates:

I played some bluesy electric stuff [on Dobro] over the top of this one, along with some heavily reverbed harmonica samples. I was looking to make something more frontiersy for this piece, as it occurs in our "wilds" portion of the game. Oddly enough, I hadn't really watched any Firefly or Deadwood when I was working on Bastion, but a lot of people have mentioned the similarities. My main influence for the more bluesy stuff in Bastion was mostly Led Zeppelin, actually! In each song I tried to include something that made it feel a little "nasty," whether it's contrasting rhythmic parts, or 3 over 4 bass, or distorted ukulele!

"Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)"

Awww, yeah. This song was the moment the game won me over; it was a bit of a "Far Away" moment a la Red Dead Redemptin. One minute you're playing, the next minute, someone is singing! And yet, it was far more organic than in Rockstar's game, mainly because in Bastion, you were rescuing Zia, the singer who performs the song. (The actual singer is Korb's friend Ashley Barrett.)

This was very much Bastion's "Get on board or GTFO" moment, and I personally got right the hell on board. I also loved the bit later on when narrator Logan Cunningham gives a rough, half-remembered a cappella rendition of the same tune.

Here's Korb on the story of the song, and how it tied in with the world of the game:

We had planned to include some sort of vocal piece in the moment when you meet Zia for a while, so I knew basically how the piece would be used while I was writing it. I wanted to make it mournful and lonely to reinforce the tone of that moment. The singer is my friend Ashley Barrett and we recorded it like I recorded all the sounds, music and narration for Bastion: in my closet. For this piece in particular I looked at a lot of old Southern spirituals and proto-blues stuff. Generally, Jeff Buckley and Radiohead are big influences on my songwriting as well. The lyrics of the song are all based on the deep backstory provided by the game's writer, Greg Kasavin. It's written as a wartime song from the point of view of the Ura. For the level with Logan humming it, we wanted to have a place in the game where he didn't have anything to say, and we thought that players would get a kick out of the narrator humming this. So for the melody on that, I wanted him to do it sort of like Tom Waits, who approximates most melodies. We figured that's how Rucks would sing.

"Mother, I'm Here (Zulf's Theme)"

Not too much to say about this one, really, particularly since I'd rather not spoil the bit it plays during for those who haven't played the game. But here's where we get to hear Korb do some singing, a soft, mournful tune that stands in sharp contrast to the segment it accompanies. The second fully voiced song on the soundtrack, it is as effective as "Build That Wall" if not more so, and provides a degree of emotional catharsis that almost outdoes the entire narrative setup leading up to it.

My approach for this one was to write a song that might be sung at funerals in the world of the game. Again, the goal here was just to reinforce the emotion of the in-game moment. This is the only version (aside from the mash-up version in Setting Sail, Coming Home).

"In Case of Trouble"

Perhaps the most iconic of Korb's pieces for the game. That's partly because it plays during the opening menu and while in the Bastion itself, but also because it contains all of the various aspects that make this game's soundtrack so good. The dramatic western tinge of open-tuned guitars, pulsing electronic beats, all set off by dramatic, melodic strings. It's funny that Korb mentions Jeff Buckley as one of his influences, since the harmonic minor string line he uses here very much reminds me of the incredible string arrangements (that final melodic line!) on Buckley's "Grace."

Here's Korb talking about his guitar tunings and general process writing this song (guitarists, I recommend that "Dad-Gad" tuning, it's way fun):

I played all the live instruments on this track (and all the tracks in the game). For this song I used a DADGAD tuning (but for most of the rest of the game I dropped it down another step to CGCFGC). This is a very early piece (probably the 2nd one I wrote for Bastion), and the piece that eventually lead me to the term "Acoustic Frontier Trip-hop," which I used to thematically connect all the music in the game. Rather than having musical themes that I returned to over and over, I decided to make it like an album, where all the pieces are connected by genre and arrangement.

Bastion's soundtrack kicks all kinds of ass; you can download it at bandcamp for $10, and get the CD for $15 at the Supergiant Games Store. Thanks, Darren, for taking the time to chat with me.

We'll be back tomorrow with the final post in this series. It's been a lot of fun! If you haven't, be sure to submit your own nominations for our Readers' Choice collection, which will run on Friday.

It was independent games development's darling of 2010, and all who dared cross it risked the righteous anger of its creators and fans. But badass platformer Super Meat Boy still is not available on mobile gaming's No. 1 platform. And I don't think it's because one of its creators got into a pissing contest with Apple.

It's probably because this kind of game really isn't fun with multitouch screen control, a conclusion reached after spending some time with CheeseMan, the best port of Super Meat Boy you can put finger quotes around. Frankly, I'm not sure it wasn't published by proxy for Team Meat. Either way, it's available now for 99 cents on the iTunes App Store.

CheeseMan is, evidently, doing its thing with the blessing of Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, the creators of Super Meat Boy. Dr. Fetus, their game's antagonist, is right there staring CheeseMan in the face on the first level, after all. Other Meat Boy characters will appear later. And the same gameplay style is there throughout—you're an anthropomorphized cheese cube instead of a meat wad, zipping through a platform level, avoiding spikes, sawblades and other gruesome instant-death traps, clinging to and double jumping from walls and trying to reach the goal in as little time as possible.

Your strategy evolves as it did in the original Super Meat Boy, too. Basically, you go haul ass into some uncharted part of the screen, die, remember there's a hazard there, and try not to hit it in your next life. Controls are carried out on a virtual game pad of left and right and a jump button.

These are not ideal controls for this kind of game. So much of Super Meat Boy involved technical, perfectly timed jumps that you really need fixed, physical controls that you can feel with your digits through a long gaming session, rather than virtual squares that feel no different when you reposition your hands after picking your nose.

My parkour jumps between walls never went smoothly, even without hazards forcing me to act quickly. Too many times I simply wall-humped my way to the top rather than try to switch my left thumb while hammering the virtual jump button at the same time. This is on an iPhone, whose playing surface dimensions reasonably approximate a gamepad controller. On an iPad, I'm not sure what it's like.

CheeseMan is allegedly published by AlphaNoize, a German shop founded in November of this year. It, like Team Meat, is a two-man outfit made up of Hicham Alloui and Arne Worheide. I have no idea if these are pseudonyms, aliases, alter egos or secret identities. They don't appear to be anagrams. Alloui's bio lists work for Ubisoft in his credits.

Maybe CheeseMan is totally original; maybe it exists with a license from Super Meat Boy. Maybe it is the game that allows Team Meat to reach the iOS without compromising the intellectual stance Refenes took way back in March 2010, when he declared iOS devices to be the "Tiger handheld game of this generation."

None of the intrigue changes the fact that you are still playing an extremely demanding platformer with virtual controls, whether meat, cheese, or something else is involved. Good luck.

CheeseMan [iTunes]

We've done a lot of big-budget games so far in our Best Video Game Music of 2011 series, but there were some great indie soundtracks released, as well. One of the very best of those was Danny Baranowsky's dangerous, dark, synthy work on the Zelda-esque roguelike The Binding of Isaac.

Described by our own Stephen Totilo as "A wonderfully warped Old Testament Take on The Legend of Zelda," The Binding of Isaac was a rigidly difficult game that centered around punishing exploration and experimentation as players made their way through a series of randomly generated basement levels in an attempt to help the titular hero escape from his mother's zealotous captivity.

It was a wonderfully challenging, creepy game, but what put it over the top for me was Baranowsky's sinister soundtrack. A dark combination of synths and electronic beats, it took a bit of Danny Elfman, a touch of Muse, a hint of old-school Final Fantasy boss music, and brought 'em all together into something dark and unique.

For this entry in our series, I thought it would be fun to chat with Baranowsky about the process behind writing three of my favorite tracks.

"Sacrificial"

This is one of the first tracks to play in the game, and one of the most evocative. It's got this winding, ever shifting 6/8-ish thing going on, and the melody twists and turns and never quite resolves the way you expect it to. The chord progression almost reminds me of a creepy (or, creepier) version of "The Carol of the Bells," which feels appropriate, given the sinister biblical allegory of the game. Here's Baranowsky:

"Welcome to the basement" was kind of the idea [with "Sacrificial."]. Something brooding, a little "music-box"-y, and inspired by classical choral music (to fit in with the biblical allusion). But at this point the way I write is very based on state of mind, I try to consume the aesthetics of the game and the situation of the track at hand, and just be absorbed in it and just.....go.

That it ended up being in 9/8 with other parts in 6/8 just kind of happened, I felt like the asymmetry of it would help to make people not get comfortable in any kind of familiar rhythm, while at the same time having sections that were something to ground the track and give people a feeling of progression.

"Respite"

This piece is gorgeous. Nothing says "a moment of calm in the storm" like some wide, wandering ambient chords. I love the natural sixth that turns up in here—most minor tonalities have a flat sixth, but here, we've got an "A" landing while in C minor (kind of sounds like it's over a Bb chord, actually). It's that brightness that gives things a pensive air, as opposed to the driving dread of most of the other tracks on the soundtrack. Which is fitting, since it plays inside of the "safe" secret rooms in the game.

Late in development, most of the music was done, and I had some time to polish/add extra shit, and so I started doing like the "Shop Theme (Greed)" and "Ambush Room Theme (Burning Ambush)", and I felt that the secret rooms (you find them by bombing walls) was a great opportunity to introduce music unlike most of the rest of the game, kind of a contrast to the madness/insanity/evil of the rest of the game.

Indeed it was.

The funny thing about "Respite" is that the idea for the arrangement came to me instantly, and the whole track was sone in about 15 minutes. Not terribly impressive, it's very short, but the funny thing is Omnisphere (the VST used to make it) had some some dumb ass bug that made it POP every time it looped. I spent hours screaming at my buddy Jimmy Hinson (Big Giant Circles, worked on Mass Effect 2 soundtrack) who is kind of an Omnisphere guru and he calmed me down and helped me fix it. and then, to top it all off, because of the way the game was coded (flash) all the tracks have gaps when they repeat anyway, so it didn't even matter....

"Divine Combat"

This track is shit-hot. In my opinion. What starts out as the sort of typical boss-battle-ish driving thing quickly morphs into something more notey and more compelling. Right around 0:33 shit gets real, as the beat double-times with this cool-as-heck ascending sixteenth-note line in E minor, pulling up, up, up and back around to the driving, building main theme. A terrific example of boss-style music done right.

I don't know why but boss music has always been my favorite music from probably anything ever. I can't begin to try and guess how many hours of my life I've listened to the boss themes from FF4, FF6, FF7 and FF8 on loop. I like to think my boss themes are very Uematsuean (i just coined that), which feels like blasphemy to say, but he is by far the greatest influence on my with regards to music in general, and certainly boss themes.

As influences go, you could certainly do a lot worse than Final Fantasy maestro Nobuo Uematsu, a.k.a. the guy who wrote J.E.N.O.V.A.

You can download the The Binding of Isaac soundtrack for ridiculously cheap from Baranowsky's BandCamp page, and he has also just released a very cool album of piano renditions of tunes from his killer Super Meat Boy soundtrack. Check 'em both out.

We'll be back tomorrow with another of 2011's best video game soundtracks.

This week on the PlayStation store, we've got a bunch of new stuff—the gut-check approved Trine 2 is available as a download, as is the venerable Sonic CD and a digital version of the popular party game Apples to Apples. L.A. Noire joins a hefty list of full-game downloads, along with a ton of updates and bundles for just about every game ever.

Rock Band gets some more Hendrix, which is always a Good Thing, as well as some Alien Ant Farm, which while not as universally accepted as a Good Thing are still a fun band. Plenty of bonuses for PlayStation Plus subscribers as well.

Read the full list below:

Games & Demos for PlayStation 3

Apples To Apples ($9.99)
Trine 2 ($14.99)
Sonic CD ($4.99)
NCAA Football 12 ($59.99)
L.A. Noire ($31.99)
Just Cause 2 ($24.99)
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway ($29.99)
Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands ($19.99)

Game Demos

Trine 2 Demo
Scene It? Movie Night Demo
Sonic CD Game Demo
Apples To Apples Demo

Add-ons & Expansions

Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition DLC Pack (Bundle) ($6.99)
LittleBigPlanet 2 Add Ons (x6) ($1.99 – $5.99)
SingStar Bundle Packs (x7) ($6.99 each)
Gran Turismo 5 Course Pack Family Upgrade (free)
Gran Turismo 5 Racing Car Pack Family Upgrade (free)
Gran Turismo 5 Car Pack 2 ($3.99)
MotorStorm Apocalypse Holiday Livery (free)
WHITE KNIGHT CHRONICLES 2: White Knight Chronicles II – LANTERN (10 – 30) ($1.99 each)
Goldeneye 007: Reloaded – Emilio Largo (free)
Need For Speed: The Run – Signature Edition Booster Pack ($2.99)
Ace Combat Assault Horizon Add Ons (x14) (free – $14.99 each)
Renegade Ops Coldstrike Campaign ($4.99)
Renegade Ops: Vehicle Pack ($2.99)
Elevator Action HD – Additional Character 3 – Original (free)
Champion Jockey – Special Pack ($2.99)
Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends Add Ons (x3) ($0.99 – $2.99 each)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Add Ons (x5) ($2.99 – $9.99 each)
Dungeon Defenders: The Quest For The Lost Eternia Shards: Part 1 ($3.99)
Rocksmith – Free Holiday 2011 Song Pack (free)
Batman Arkham City Add Ons (x3) (free – $14.99 each)
Magic 2012 Foil Add Ons (x8) ($0.99 each)
Magic The Gathering: Duels Of The Planeswalkers 2012 Deck (Pack 1 – 2) ($2.99 each)

Rock Band 3 tracks

• "All Along the Watchtower" – The Jimi Hendrix Experience ($1.99)
• "Gypsy Eyes" – The Jimi Hendrix Experience ($1.99)
• "Long Hot Summer Night" – The Jimi Hendrix Experience ($1.99)
• "Angel" – Jimi Hendrix ($1.99)
• "Dolly Dagger" – Jimi Hendrix ($1.99)
• "Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (Live)" – Jimi Hendrix ($1.99)
• "Freedom" – Jimi Hendrix ($1.99)
• "Courage" – Alien Ant Farm ($1.99)
• "Cry of an Eagle" – Free Spirit ($1.99)
• "Echo" – Dance for the Dying ($0.99)
• "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" – Between the Buried and Me ($1.99)
• "Show Me What You've Got" – Powerman 5000 ($1.99)
• Experience Jimi Hendrix Pack 01 ($10.99) – Build your Rock Band library by purchasing this song game album: Experience Jimi Hendrix Pack 01. This pack includes 4 songs by Jimi Hendrix and 3 songs by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Game Videos

Need For Speed The Run Signature Edition Booster Pack (Trailer)
Yakuza: Dead Souls – How To Kill A Zombie Trailer
Pulse 12/20 Edition
Starhawk From Warhawk to Starhawk
GT Academy USA Episode 1-5
Dew Tour 2011 – Las Vegas (1-5)
Dew Tour 2011 – Salt Lake City (1-4)

Themes, Wallpapers & Avatars

Crazy Taxi Static Theme (free)
Sega Bass Fishing Static Theme (free)
Sonic Adventure Static Theme (free)
Space Channel 5 Part 2 Static Theme (free)
Dynasty Warriors 7 – Custom Theme Wang Yuan Ji (free)
Dynasty Warriors 7 – Lu Xun Theme (free)
Dynasty Warriors 7 – Xiahou Dun Theme (free)
Destinations: Madagascar Paradise Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Utherworlds: Aadyasha Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Utherworlds: Reckoning Day Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Utherworlds: Language Of Fear Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Utherworlds: Christmas Town Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Utherworlds: Cohabitations Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Honey Badger Static Theme ($1.99)
Dynamic New Years Theme ($2.99)
Earth View Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
A World Of Moving Shapes Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Burgerbrained Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Charlie's Awfully Big Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Cosmic Pencil Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Fantasy Mountains Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Eyelevator Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Flicker Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
If You Go Down To The Woods Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Lake Of Sorrows Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Play Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Spawn Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Superfeierbend Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Armageddon Riders Merry Xmas Wallpaper

PlayStation Store for PSP

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (Digital) ($19.99)
Cars 2: The Video Game PSP Demo
Patapon 3 Mission Pack 3 (free)
Orbit – Minis ($3.49)
P.O.W. – Prisoners Of War ($2.99)
Prehistoric Isle ($2.99)

PSP Bundles

101-In-1 Megamix+Fading Shadows Bundle ($13.99)
Arcade Essentials + Arcade Essentials Evolution Bundle ($6.99)
Jewel Keepers + Urbanimix Bundle ($5.99)

PS one Classics

Centipede ($5.99)

Sales, Price Drops & Bundles

Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition Complete Pack ($19.99)
Dragon's Lair Trilogy Bundle ($19.99)
L.A. Noire Complete Edition Bundle ($34.99)
Just Cause 2 Ultimate Edition ($29.99)
Section 8: Prejudice – Holiday Bundle ($10.49)
Sonic Adventure Bundle ($11.99)
Resident Evil 5: Untold Stories Bundle (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $12.49)
Alpha Protocol Gear Pack (Sale) (now $5.99, original price $14.99)
Section 8: Prejudice Blitz Pack (Sale) (now $2.09, original price $ 2.99)
Section 8: Prejudice Overdrive Map Pack (Sale) (now $2.79, original price $3.99)
Section 8: Prejudice: Frontier Colonies Map Pack (Sale) (now $2.79, original price $3.99)
1942: Joint Strike (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Age Of Booty (Sale) (now $2.99, original price $4.99)
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $14.99)
Bionic Commando: Rearmed (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Final Fight/Double Impact (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Flock (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition (Digital) (Sale) (now $19.99, original price $29.99)
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Wolf Of The Battlefield: Commando 3 (Sale) (now $2.99, original price $4.99)
Grandia (Sale) (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Blokus (Sale) (now $1.99, original price $4.99)
Earthworm Jim HD (Sale) (now $2.99, original price $9.99)
Modern Combat: Domination (Sale) (now $2.99, original price $7.99)
Bomberman Ultra (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Trine (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
L.A. Noire (PS3) (Sale) (now $31.99, original price $39.99)
L.A. Noire Complete Edition Bundle (Sale) (now $34.99, original price $49.99)
Red Dead Redemption Digital And Undead Nightmare Collection Bundle (Sale) (now $34.99, original price $49.99)
Daytona USA (Sale) (now $6.99, original price $9.99)
Renegade Ops (Sale) (now $11.99, original price $14.99)
Sega Bass Fishing (Sale) (now $6.99, original price $9.99)
Sega Rally Online Arcade (Sale) (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode I (Sale) (now $6.99, original price $9.99)
Space Channel 5 Part 2 (Sale) (now $6.99, original price $9.99)
Armageddon Riders (Sale) (now $6.99, original price $9.99)
Homefront (Sale) (now $19.99, original price $29.99)
Cuboid (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Interpol: The Trail Of Dr. Chaos (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Magic Orbz (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $6.99)
Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Wakeboarding HD (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Hamsterball (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Ricochet HD (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Far Cry 2 – Digital (Price Change) (now $19.99, original price $29.99)
Activision Hits Remixed (Sale) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Bakugan: Defenders Of The Core (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Cabela's African Safari (Sale) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts Ultimate Challenge (Sale) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Cabela's North American Adventures (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $29.99)
Crash Of The Titans (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Crash Tag Team Racing (Sale) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Gun: Showdown (Sale) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Monster Jam: Path Of Destruction (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Rapala Pro Bass Fishing (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Rapala Trophies (Sale) (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Swat: Target Liberty (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Doodle Pool (Price Change) (now $0.99, original price $4.99)
Retro Cave Flyer (Price Change) (now $0.99, original price $4.99)
Zombie Racers (Price Change) (now $0.99, original price $6.99)
Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed Umd Legacy (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Capcom Puzzle World Umd Legacy (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Darkstalkers: Chaos Towers Umd Legacy (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Fate Unlimited Codes (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Mega Man Maverick Hunter X Umd Legacy (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Digital (Sale) (now $9.99, original price $19.99)
Power Stone Collection Legacy (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max Legacy (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $5.99)
Ultimate Ghosts N Goblins Umd Legacy (Sale) (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
5-In-1 Arcade Hits (Sale) (now $0.99, original price $3.99)
Blimp: The Flying Adventures (Sale) (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
Minisquadron (Sale) (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
One Epic Game (Sale) (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
The Impossible Game (Sale) (now $0.99, original price $2.99)

Qore

Qore Episode 43: December, 2011

PlayStation Plus

Did that headline get your attention? Good, because you should go and read this super-cool piece by Kill Screen's Lana Polansky about mechanics, practice, saxophone, jazz, and Street Fighter. (It also features the amazing illustration above, drawn by Daniel Purvis.)

"Hey," you may be thinking. "Doesn't Kirk write about that sort of thing too, sometimes even for Kotaku?" Why yes, curious reader, he does!

Wait, why the heck am I referring to myself in the third person? Ugh. Anyhow, Polansky's piece is tackling an angle near and dear to my heart, looking at how Street Fighter requires a strict, musical mastery of its systems before play is possible:

I can't imagine a more perfect example than Street Fighter for how a game system can treat practice and play. It not only demands a fairly profound understanding of how its mechanics work, but allows players to combine those mechanics in intriguing and unusual ways once they understand them. Once mastery is achieved, the feeling of play emerges.

From there it goes to a lot of super brainy places, like… the work of Hungarian psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Bit.Trip Beat and Super Monkey Ball.

It's a cool piece, and worth a read. Everyone we can get to start talking about music and games in this way is a win, as far as I'm concerned. The two have so much in common, we gotta get those crazy kids together more often.

Please Try Again [Kill Screen]

Co-op platformer Trine was one of my favourite games of 2009. Judging by the cult following it's developed since then, I'm not alone in my fondness.

Two years later, the game is back for a sequel, one that, on the surface at least, promises to add very little to the formula already laid down by the first game. Who can say whether this makes it worth your time and money? Our guts can, that's who.

Luke Plunkett, who loves Trine 2 more than Trine 1: Oops. Kinda giving the game away there with that opener. Ah well, who needs suspense in an informal appraisal when your heart is so full of love and admiration for the little platformer series that could?

While other games have been technically more impressive in the visuals department in 2011, none for me can match how beautiful Trine 2 looks. It's an over-saturated wonderland that is often the game's fourth character, stopping you dead in your tracks to admire a bleeding sunset or a swinging lantern or the swirling mists of a shimmering, emerald jungle.

Not much has changed, granted, aside from the welcome jump to three-player online co-op. You're still controlling the same three characters who have largely the same toolset at their disposal. You play as one of them (or co-operatively you can team up), and have to juggle who is best for which particular situation or challenge. But the core concept of Trine was never its problem. It was a solid foundation, one that allowed for both freedom and organic puzzle-solving and that helped the game stand out.

Trine's only problem was that first time around it felt a little cheap in places. Not so second time around. There's a level of polish and professionalism to Trine 2 that gives its gameplay the accompaniment it deserves, your globe-trotting tale much better-told, the characters much more elegantly fleshed-out.

Trine 2 has come out at a time of year when it's in danger of being over-looked while people sink hours into Skyrim, Battlefield or Modern Warfare. Which is a shame. Because if you appreciate a little thinking with your platforming and some of the best-looking visuals around, you should be sinking some hours into Trine 2 as well. It's a definite Yes.

We've seen our share of Humble Indie Bundles over the past year or two—independent developers who gather under the "Humble" brand and release a bunch of their games priced at whatever people want to pay.

The latest one, Humble Bundle #4, might be the best one yet—for any price you want, you can get Super Meat Boy, Bit. Trip Runner, Jamestown, Shank and Nightsky. Pay more than the average price (currently tracking at $4.61 on the Humble Bundle site), you get Cave Story + and Gratuitous Space Battles as well.

There's no shortage of gaming to be done this December, but these are all great games, for a great price. And not only will you be supporting indie devs, you'll have the option to give money to either the American Red Cross or Child's Play.

Check out their (endearingly cheesy and reference-laden) trailer above. It's funny, I was quoting that bit from The Rock all last weekend for some reason.

Humble Indie Bundle #4 [Humblebundle.com]

It's been a day of surprises for fans of Bastion. First, they announce that you can play the gravel-voiced adventure in the Chrome browser. And now comes word that they'll be releasing DLC for the game next week. (This comes after saying that they'd never make any.)

The Stranger's Dream add-on hits on 12/14 for $1 and, as the title suggests, expands the backstory of the mysterious narrator. It also opens up two new modes. The customizable Score Attack lets you mix and match from the unlocked Spirits and Idols modifiers to rack up as many points as you can while the cakewalk No Sweat provides minimal challenge for those who just want to experience the story. This DLC will be available for Bastion for Chrome, too, in the next few weeks. The XBLA version will cost $1 and the Steam version comes as a free title update. More details can be found at Supergiant's website.

Announcing the Stranger's Dream DLC for Bastion! [Supergiant Games]

First, Supergiant Games' acclaimed action RPG came out for the Xbox 360 as one of the games in Microsoft's annual Summer of Arcade promotion. Then, shortly after that, the narrator-centric release landed on Steam, which let PC owners tour the game's shattered world of Caelondia. Now the hit indie's been made to play in Google's very own browser software— at full resolution and everything—where even more people can experience one of 2011''s best games.

In a blog post in their official site, Supergiant details the specs you'll need to play the Chrome version of Bastion:

The Chrome version of Bastion requires:
- Processor: 1.7 GHz Dual Core or Greater
- Memory: 2 GB
- Hard Disk Space: 1.0 GB
- Video Card: 512 MB graphics card (shader model 2)
(Note: Gamepad controllers are not supported in this initial release.)

Hopefully, that gamepad support will find its way into this web version before too long. I gave the free trial of browser Bastion a spin on my iMac this morning and it looked as beautiful as it did on the Xbox 360. There's a significant chunk of initial load time as the game boots up but it ran smoothly for the 10 minutes or so I fiddled around with it. The game saves your progress to the cloud, which makes me think you can stop and start on different machines. However, you'll need a Google account log-in to do this. If you're curious, definitely try it out. Bastion's live on the Chrome web store now and, after the free trial, the full game's available for purchase at $14.99.

Bastion [Chrome Web Store]