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I own both "Strange Adventures In Infinite Space", by Cheapass Games, and "Moonbase Commander", by Humongous Entertainment/Infogrames.

SAIS is a great, addictive game with short play times- a regular game doesn't last more than ten minutes, but then you just fire up another one immediately. It looks like a little like Star Control 2, with about the same graphic level, but it's different in both implementation and intent. There's a free demo here that will give you a good idea of the game.

Moonbase Commander is an excellent and clever game, even more so in multiplayer over a LAN or the Internet. The website for it is here. Humongous Entertainment is part of Infogrames, so technically not indie, but the game is cheap and not at all like mainstream works.

A major advantage I see with indie games is that they're often fun, generally not overly complicated, and cheap- both of these games are $15, and well worth the prices. They're different than what is already on the market and are a refreshing alternative to, if not as graphically stunning as, mainstream fare.

Both GTA III and Vice City used the Renderware engine, as do many successful games.

The technology is not an end in and of itself, but a means to better gameplay. That's why I'm looking forward to Doom III; it's engine will allow unprecedented freedom of design to developers making the Next Big Thing.

And old technology does not mean bad games. Download the demo forMoonbase Commander, which came out last year and runs fine on a 486, and see for yourself.

Where do the new ideas go if we can't have games like...Shenmue...?

In the case of Shenmue, hopefully into the garbage. Someone at Sega seems to have confused "innovative" with "boring," "pointless," "repetative," "plot-free," and "wildly unrealistic."

Anyway... back on topic...

The editorial is off base. As any creative industry grows the core of the industry becomes conservative, unwilling to take the risks necessary to create truly innovative work. But just because the core does doesn't mean that everyone will. Some companies will realize that you don't need to sell millions of copies to be successful and will happily make modest profits with smaller markets making truly innovative games. The original Counterstrike was just such a case, it popularized the modern SWAT style game and refined into the basis of many multi-player games. Pop Cap Games has done phenominally well with their little games, most notably Bejeweled Something genuinely original? How about surprisingly addictive game about building bridges, Chronic Logic's Pontifex . How about a hard to explain that can only be inaccurately described as action puzzle play matched with turn based stategy, Moonbase Commander . Check out the Independent Games Festival for bunches more of genuinely new and interesting games.

Of course, certain genres are completely unreasonable for small publishers, like massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Or are they? How about a MMORPG without any combat? A Tale in the Desert . A puzzle based MMORPG? Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates .

Thanks to internet distribution, it's becoming more and more economical for a smaller company to reach out to a global audience.

So, there is lots of great new game ideas. Sometimes they even escape from big, conservative companies. So why don't we see them? Why aren't more people aware of them? The problem isn't that a lack of new ideas, the problem is the journalists themselves! By focusing on the big budget rehash games, spending time giving us pointless "preview" coverage over and over ("We still haven't actually played the game, but boy, it sure does look neat. We look forward to its release in forty-eight months") instead of seeking out and publicizing great stuff from small companies. It wouldn't take much to get the general public looking for these games, helping to encourage further innovation. Because the journalists hype them so, the game industry is still stuck in the idiot "Big budget, big payoff" gamble that the movie industry is. With a few small budge success stories we could see big companies realizing that quarter or half million dollar risks don't have huge rewards, but they also lack the possibility of becoming catastrophic failures.

If you're worried about the lack of innovative games, go looking for them, they exist. Point them out to your friends. And if you're a journalist, don't just bitch, tell your readers about what gems you do find!

What, precisely, makes Metroid Prime innovative, apart from the control scheme?

Don't take this as a critique of MP, as it's one of the most enjoyable games I've played in a long time (excepting Wind Waker, which currently has a stranglehold on my precious gaming hours), but I'd say MP is hardly the first adventure/expoloration game born out in full 3D (Thief and Deus Ex come to mind as prior art). I'll grant you that the platforming/morph ball elements are unique, but I don't think they qualify as innovative.

As for FPS innovation: Planetside. Want arcade-y action mixed with your FPS? The upcoming Tron 2.0 looks very interesting. Battlefield 1942 is a recent example of getting a team-based FPS truly, terribly almost right.

A Tale In the Desert is a current example of a game that defies current MMO conventions and instead prides itself on being a virtual community simulation.

Enigma: Rising Tide is wicked fun, as is Moonbase Commander.

How about Mafia? Sure, it's seen ports to the consoles too, but it started on the PC. Or Freelancer?

So speak not to me of "innovation". It abounds on the PC platform.

http://www.moonbasecommander.com/

Simple and fun to play, low system requirements. Only four players at once, though.

I'll second Moonbase Commander. I played and loved the demo, because it reminded me of Scorch and its ilk. I looked all over to find a copy to buy when it came out, but never located one. So, I forgot about it, until I saw it for $12.99 on the shelf in the Educational section of Best Buy this weekend. Now I just have to install it on my laptop (it has very low hardware requirements), so I can, ahem, keep busy during boring meetings and classes. :-)

On a side note, there's a Worms-clone (which is in turn a descendant of Scorch) for Pocket PC called Snails, which I picked up a couple of weeks ago. Great Scorch-like fun on my Pocket PC while I'm waiting somewhere, stuck in traffic, etc.

Jenova_Six

This would TOTALLY feed the impulse buyer, which is a Good Thing.

This past weekend I downloaded the demo of Moonbase Commander and called every computer store I could think of in the state, willing to drive 2 hours to pick up a copy, but no luck. It wasn't in stores yet.

I would have happily made my credit card payment and started downloading without a second thought.

BTW, if you like strategy games, check that one out. It's turn-based, VERY balanced and strategy really pays off.

Oh, and there is NO micromanagement. Imagine that.

It'll also run on machines as low as 233. I run it on a 300, with no issues whatsoever, and it's only $20. Amazone apparently has it for $16.