Video games are growing up. Well, they’re trying to anyway. We used to be content with traipsing through the carefully groomed grounds of the Mushroom Kingdom, guiding pixelated sprites toward a jaggy princess. Maybe this blind escapism is enough: as Super Mario Galaxy showed, sometimes it’s fun to play with gravity and not have to worry about economic turmoil or national security concerns. Sometimes, though, we want games to be something more, to illuminate a previously unknown aspect of the human condition the way a great movie or book does. In the last few years, games like Fable and BioShock have featured morality as a core mechanic, while Grand Theft Auto has actively flouted it and many others have avoided the issue altogether. But the real question here is: can games be moral?

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I had a chance to check out the Indiecade exhibit today at E for All. Maybe you’re hip to the indie scene: you’ve mastered Mr. Robot and been through the bullet hell of Jets ‘n’ Guns. If you’re like most gamers, though, you’re only passingly familiar with independent gaming. Well, it’s alive and well, and if you are looking for more experimental gameplay experiences or just need something to pass the time before “First-Person Space Shooter #644: Now with More Bullets and Also You Turn Into a Werewolf for No Raisin,” I’ve got some recommendations from the show floor.

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So you’ve never built your own computer before. It’s fine, I’m not here to judge. Unfortunately, I am here to belittle and deride. Your rig sucks, your frame rate sucks, and you haven’t modded your case to look like Constantin Brancusi’s “Bird in Space.” Because I’m feeling especially charitable today – due to parole requirements set forth by the state of California – I’ve deigned to acknowledge the existence of sub-optimal machines. Building your own rig is no small task, but it’s not nearly as hard as it looks. I’ll go through the basics with you and spoon feed you some recommendations, lest you starve to death in a pile of your own ignorance.

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Ranking Valve games is a lot like ranking your own children. When people ask, you spout, “I love them all” or something equally inane. Deep down, though, you prefer little Randy and hope Sally is the mailman’s demon spawn so you can divorce your overbearing shrew of a wife. Note to current and prospective parents: Child Services frowns upon ranking children with a branding iron, especially when rankings are subject to change.

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I know you’re hard at work on your new Sarah Kerrigan femslash novel (tentatively titled Sexcraft 2: Protoss Pool Party), but take a break to check out the latest Starcraft 2 trailer. In it, we get an early look at some large scale conflicts between the familiar Terran, Zerg, and Protoss races. The bad news: no elusive fourth race. The good news: the game is far enough along that the internal test team is playing multiplayer games at a near-professional level. The trailer doesn’t hint at a release date, but here’s hoping we find it stuffed in our stockings this Christmas.