Recommendation: Minecraft (Game)

For those of you who haven't been in on the big 'indie darling' craze that is Minecraft, allow me to point you in the right direction. Right now you can play it free in your browser, so it's a great time to give it a try. While I myself have yet to play the game (I will soon enough), so many rabid fans can't be wrong; the word "crack" is often used to describe it.

And hey, it's only like 9 bucks.

Recommendation: Demon's Souls (Game)

I love this game. I love it so much that from the day that I bought it I racked up 60 hours of game time in only 6 days. Yep, 10 hours a day. The combat is weighted and visceral, the atmosphere is dark, and the entire experience is as unforgiving as a 'current gen' title comes. If you own a PS3, and aren't a total pansy, you owe it to yourself to check this game out.

Recommendation: Indie Games

Those of you with an online Xbox 360 will have undoubtedly checked out the "Indie Game" section already. Cheap they may be in price, but even cheaper they certainly are in quality. But believe it or not, there's a few gems floating in that sea of crap, and I'm here to shine some light upon them.

Soulcaster is an oldschool-styled, 16-bit dungeon crawler where you play a summoner who, well, summons stuff. Units, to be exact. You can upgrade said units, and where you deploy them adds a level of strategy to the game. Think tower defense/dungeon crawler hybrid. Very intense, and a decent challenge. 240 Microsoft Points

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Protect Me Knight, another oldschool throwback, is similar in its strategic elements but with a much stronger emphasis on the actual characters. This game has full 4-player local co-op, with 4 different characters for people to play and upgrade. Highly fun and addictive if you have people to play with. 240 Microsoft Points

Recommendation: Monday Night Combat (Game)

Monday Night Combat on XBLA is, quite frankly, awesome. Sure, it could use some tweaking, some re-balancing in various areas (Support's Airstrike is a little absurdly good [I should know, Support is what I play]), but all in all it's a very solid game, with great, fluid gameplay, and an appealing aesthetic. Some might note that said aesthetic is "Team Fortress-like," but you would be mistaken if you were to call this a TF2-clone. It plays very differently from TF2, at the very least gameplay-wise... and that's all that matters in the end: gameplay, which is MNC's strong point.