Klei Entertainment, makers of recent gems Don't Starve and Mark of the Ninja, have announced their new game. It's a procedurally generated, turn-based tactical espionage game called Incognita. What? Dude. Yes.

Minecraft Xbox 360 Editionis pouring on the fan service with this week's release of Skin Pack 4 -- providing delightfully low-res interpretations of Claptrap from Borderlands, Klei's Mark of the Ninja and The Behemoth's Castle Crashers, plus a whole lot more.

Last year was supposed to be the year I got a beast of a PC set up in my tiny apartment. It didn't end up being that year. 2013 will be, though, PC gods willing.

You don't realise just how good a gaming year it's been until you look back at all of the games you actually played. From physics puzzlers to ninja simulators, 2012's library was full of interesting, creative, unique experiences.

2012 was a banner year for stealth games. From January up through December, we got to play a healthy variety of games involving dozens of different types of sneaking, skulking, lurking and sklurking. (It's a thing.)

Video games are more than lasers and explosions, rules and design, music and graphics. They require input, and so they require controls. But human interface can be a dicy thing -- so tough to get right, so easy to screw up.

It's not everyday I drop a post saying 'oh, look everyone, this random game is now available for you to purchase', but for Mark of the Ninja, I'll gladly make an exception. As someone who is currently about two thirds of the way through the game on Xbox LIVE Arcade, as someone who thinks this is a genuine game of the year contender, you have to play this game!

You might wonder why Microsoft decided to publish Mark of the Ninja, an independently-developed 2D stealth game that looks and plays like very few other games out there.

Good news for PC-owning stealth-fans -- Klei Entertainment's Mark of the Ninja is coming to Steam in a couple of weeks. The game, which Patricia liked and Jason and I can't shut up about will be on Steam on October 16 for $US14.99.

There's just something special about games that make you sneak. The push, the pull, the contemplative pause... and the rush of action. We've been spending the last week playing one of the most enjoyable stealth games in recent memory, and so we thought we'd take a closer look at the genre. What makes sneaking so much fun? What do we look for in a game about stealth? Is Metal Gear Solid about the sneaking, or is it about everything else? Short version: Why do we love stealth games so much?

Most people might take their stealth tips from Solid Snake or Sam Fisher. Me, I'm more in tune with, uh, the Kool-Aid man. Seriously. Just burst into the room in the most reckless way possible and "problem solve" by shooting people up close in the face -- that's how I do things. Patience, finesse and furtiveness aren't my thing.

If you've played a video game, you've probably heard a bark. And not just in Nintendogs -- I'm talking about an "enemy bark," which is the term given for the adaptive lines of chatter that enemy characters utter throughout the game.

Mark of the Ninja doesn't look like your average stealth game. You won't be hiding in cardboard boxes or waiting 10 minutes for soldiers to turn around. And it's all two-dimensional.