Distinctive, Surrealistic, Serene (and at $7, a bargain)

Some games, like Myst, feel like art because of the nature of their audio and visuals. Kalimée is of this type. The visuals are simple, but nicely textured 3D, and inspired by the surrealist painting of Salvador Dali; the music is excellent and peaceful ambient techno.

Nice, Straight-forward Rogue-like Game

Kamyran's Eye 2 is a Rogue-like game--that is, a computer RPG in which you control a single character in a fantasy world, and in which the world is at least partially randomly generated, so that no two games are like. It's a sequel to the original (now freeware) Kamyran's Eye, which was designed for Nokia Series 60 phones (and if you have an old N-Gage, might be worth downloading to play on it).

Unlike most Rogue-likes, Kamyran's Eye 2 has a graphical interface--attractive if retro 32x32 tiled pixels--and some nice features, including a system to allow you to make your own magic potions from items you find in the game world.

Polished Real-Time Fantasy Tactics

Chronic Logic, developers of Bridge Construction Set and Gish return with a very different game: a tense, nicely polished game of tactical fantasy combat.

Before a 'round' starts, you purchase units--initially, you can choose from swordsmen and archers, but many other units get unlocked in later rounds. You place them on the map, and enemy units emerge (in a number of "waves" of attack). Combat is real-time, but pausable--and you will, in fact, be pausing frequently to order your units to move, or to use special powers (such as "taunt" for swordsmen, useful in preventing enemies from moving past to attack your more vulnerable archers, or "heal" for clerics).

Game Tunnel's 2005 Independent RPG Game of the Year

You're an orphan girl, you've just turned 18, and the orphanage is turning you out to find your own destiny. Before you turn 21, you must find it--although there are many routes you can follow. You can learn magic, become a fighter, cultivate excellence in cooking or housework. You can find romance, or riches, or simply learn to make your own independent way in the world. There are, in fact, more than 50 possible endings, which means there's a lot of replay value here--you can always play again, and try for a different one.

Konung 2 is a big, sprawling RPG set in a Norse-themed world where the central problem is that the big butch bad guy (gotta have one, right?) is trying to extirpate all magic items (other the ones he owns). While much of the gameplay is standard RPG fare--lots of combat and levelling up--there are some unusual elements:

The Slacker Sim

You're 20, you have no particular skills, you're working as a waitron to pay the bills. Sure, Horatio Alger would urge you to work hard to get ahead, but a person's gotta have some fun. If you're too depressed and lonely to get out of bed, how are you going to do that?

This is a game that sucks you in. Perhaps like Cute Knight, but in a different way; both games put you in the role of a young person trying to make your way in an uncertain world, but Cute Knight is very much a fantasy, anime-influenced game, while in Kudos you get a real sense of being a 21st century slacker. But in both cases, you're likely to come to the end of the trial and think, damn... I want to keep on playing. Is it worth the 20 smackers?