Titles like Notch's wildly popular Minecraft and the astoundingly atmospheric first-person horror game

Titles like Notch's wildly popular Minecraft and the astoundingly atmospheric first-person horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent are on the mouths and minds of gamers everywhere, gaining the recognition they so richly deserve.”From scrappy single person start-ups to more robust indies, and from surprising debuts to surprise replica Panerai FER00015 Men's Watch successes, this year's finalist line-up is a perfect showcase of the breadth and diversity of what it means to be 'independent',” said IGF Chairman Brandon Boyer. “I'm excited to see all the developers represented gaining more recognition from a wider audience for what they've worked so hard to create, as the importance of the independent games community grows even further.

“Minecraft is up for three awards, including the grand prize, Technical Excellence, and Excellence in Design. Amnesia is competing with it for the grand prize and Technical Excellence, while receiving a nod for Excellence in Audio as well.Other big names a showing include the WiiWare version of Nicalis' Cave Story for Excellence in replica Panerai FER00005 Men's Watch Visual Art, and Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip series, which has two different titles up for awards: Bit.Trip Beat for Excellence in Audio and Bit.Trip Runner for Excellence in Visual Art.If you're new to the indie gaming scene, don't think of the following as a list of nominations. Think of it as a list of games you absolutely have to experience.

Then you'll know which to root for when the awards are held at the 25th annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco late next month.Seumas McNally Grand PrizeAmnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games)Desktop Dungeons (QCF Design)Minecraft (Mojang)Nidhogg (Messhof)SpyParty (Chris Hecker)Honorable mentions:Bit.Trip replica Panerai FER00013 Men's Watch Runner (Gaijin Games); Neptune's Pride (Iron Helmet Games); Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (Carpe Fulgur); Retro City Rampage (Vblank Entertainment); Super Crate Box (Vlambeer)Excellence In Visual ArtBastion (Supergiant Games)Bit.

I've been busier with work and home life

The Necessary PreambleMy tallies went up since 2009, though I had expected them to fall. I've been busier with work and home life. I may not have kids, but I am married. I figured all that would translate into fewer games played. Nope.As always, the list of games I started playing is imprecise. I try to only include games I've played for fun, which means I exclude games I only played at press events (finished ones like Gran Turismo 5 replica Panerai FER00014 Men's Watch and unfinished ones like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword). I do include any game I played at home, though some of them, to be clear, I only played because I had to for work (Fighters Uncaged, I'm talking about you!).

I include games I've played for only an hour (or as long as it takes to get one's fill of Extreme Baby Maker) and games I've played for weeks.The main point of the list is to look at what I've finished, since that list is more definite. These “finished” games are games in which I reached some sort of narrative end or final level in a linear sequence. I did not 100% complete these games. And, with games like Photo Dojo where completion is a replica Panerai FER00019 Men's Watch debatable status, I erred on the side of considering the game not finished.Two things to note: 1) As a games reporter, I get most of the games I play mailed to me, which makes trying this many games economically easy. 2)

I didn't play many of you for fun.)”The Independent Games Festival has released its list of finalists for its 2011 awards, with Mojang's world-building Minecraft and Frictional's Amnesia: The Dark Descent duking it out with three other replica Panerai FER00009 Men's Watch competitors for the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.It's a testament to the growing power and prestige of the independent development scene that this year's IGF finalist list is populated by games that are well-known by more than just the gaming press.

Just make sure to include speakup in your comment so we can find it

That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Just make sure to include speakup in your comment so we can find it. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best speakup posts we can find and highlight it here.”This stop-motion video starts off innocently enough, but soon the replica Panerai PAM00202 Men's Watch cute Street Fighter homage and sneaker-based racing give way to a version of id Software's classic Doom made entirely out of raw meat. Warning: Not safe for stomach.I just saved a whole lot of money on lunch by watching this video.

It's the creation of Gnamspot, the team behind the 2009 stop-motion work that chronicled the history of video gaming using sauerkraut. You wanted more gibs? Oh the gibs they give. They give until it hurts.”Bethesda beats any potential fan-made Fallout 3demakes to the punch by creating its own for the Japanese Fallout website. It's all in Japanese, replica Panerai FER00025 Men's Watch but old school role-playing is the universal language.Or not. I can't understand a thing that's going on over at the Japanese game site. I can make out a couple of yes or no questions, but what I am agreeing to or denying is completely beyond me. If you read Japanese, feel free to go check it out and report back what you find.

If you don't read Japanese, enjoy the pretty pictures and squiggly lines.Update: Bethesda originally listed this as a Fallout: New Vegas demake on its blog, but then switched it to Fallout 3 shortly thereafter. Sneaky developers. We've replica Panerai FER00010 Men's Watch updated the post accordingly.The Official Fallout Japanese RPG Demake [Bethesda Blog - Thanks Adinnieken!]”I finished more than 50 video games in 2010. I did not plan to. But here's the list.As I've done for each of the past four years, I've assembled the list of games I started playing for fun during the preceding year — some 195 of them — and then bolded the ones I finished.

illustrators were all capable of conveying a much stronger sense of wonder in their work

It just seems like writers, directors, and illustrators were all capable of conveying a much stronger sense of wonder in their work than I've seen in recent years. And I say this as a 24 year-old so it's not like I was there to experience these replica brand watches things when they were new and fresh. It just so happens that those images seem to resonate more with me than a lot of what comes out today. And when I hear things like J.J. Abrams looking to pay tribute to Spielberg and emulate his Close Encounters of the Third Kind with his new film Super 8, that fact seems to be hammered home even more.

More importantly, why hasn't some ambitious developer looked to make this move? Surely there are fans of films like Fantastic Planet games today? Or perhaps I'll have to get into the business and try and do it myself. :)If you consider the likes of Heavy Rain, L.A. Noire, and the more spectacular set pieces from the CoD games (among others), the replica watch gift push towards more cinematic games is evident. It's also clear that remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings are all the rage nowadays, but why not take a look at the more obscure (relatively speaking) Sci-fi classics as something to draw inspiration from? Something to play on our inquisitive minds and fascination (and sometimes fear) of the unknown.

Perhaps the question of whether or not video games really are art can be answered that way.This medium affords artists, developers, writers, etc., near limitless possibilities in terms of what sorts of stories they want to tell. What sort of replica Panerai PAM00088 Men's Watch world they want to construct.Let's go somewhere we've never been before.About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have that little box on the front page of Kotaku. You know, the one with “Got something to say?” written in it?

the Rob Machado replica IWC 5444-01 watch Surf Experience presented

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. We could wax poetic about riffing on ethnic stereotypes, EXTREME sports enthusiasts, and the magic of those tiny square burgers, but the real genius of this film can be explained in three words: Neil. Patrick. Harris.8. The Wizard. This obscure gem features our favorite Wonderboy, Fred Savage, as he and his little brother hitch across the country to compete in a video game championship.9. Transamerica. replica Gucci watches Bree, a preoperative maletofemale transual finds out she has a son and must travel to New York to bail him out of jail. She offers him a ride to L.A., without telling him that she is his father. A great new take on the road trip genre.10. Dumb and Dumber. We could have finished classy, but leaving this off the list would have been a bigger crime.

To raise money for the Rob Machado Foundation, a program Machado explained funds keeping music in schools as well as providing children with environmental education. Another fund raising event for his foundation is the Rob Machado replica IWC 5444-01 watch Surf Experience presented by Hurley (Sept. 29th, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA). Targeted towards ages 17 and under, the contest includes a Surf like Rob expression session where kids can take a stab at riding the pros big board while wearing an Machado-like afro wig. --Alicia Carr

I think my first bit of advice would be to take a deep breath. It’s true that contact with the Bisphenol-A—used in hard plastic bottles made with replica IWC 3714-02 watch polycarbonate—has been linked to cancer, and it also can mimic human estrogen and cause genetic problems. Do you have a question of your own? But the link between Bisphenol-A and the use of Nalgene bottles isn’t all that clear. In fact, earlier this year the European Food Safety Authority changed its guidelines to basically say that normal daily use of a plastic bottle made with polycarbonate doesn’t pose any additional risk. Nalgene stands behind the safety of its bottles, but of course it would. MORE