A total of five new titles appeared in the Zune Marketplace recently, each taking advantage of the HD version of Microsoft's handheld's increased 3D capability, touch screen controls, and accelerometer functions. Let's take them for a spin, shall we?

Audiosurf Tilt
The Zune HD version of the exceptional Steam PC game, Audiosurf transforms the music on your Zune into a rollercoaster obstacle course, challenging you to gather points on the track by tilting your Zune back and forth, avoiding obstacles. It's a rather simplified version of the original game, with no special modes. Just collect dots, and spend them on new track decorations. It does, however, come with a song visualizer that should be a bit hit with folks who hook their HD to the television set.

Checkers
Checkers is Chess for those who'd rather not think too much, and the game fares as well as you'd expect it to on the Zune HD. Multiple difficulty settings for playing against the AI should provide a challenge for anyone with a Zune HD who wants to play a board game. Touch screen controls handle nicely. I can't really complain.

Lucky Lanes Bowling
A simple little bowling game with a lot of personality. Crazy characters bowl down even crazier lanes, tracing the path of the ball with your finger and then letting fly. You can unlock new characters and lanes as you play, or challenge friends in Wi-Fi mode. It's small, cute, and free. Works for me.

Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition
It's no PGR4, but it gets the job done. The Zune HD version of Project Gotham Racing showcases the Ferrari, with 12 different models to choose from and 33 events to play through in career mode. The game runs quickly and smoothly, with the tilt function of the Zune HD used to steer and on-screen buttons for breaking and accelerating. Like PRG, the player earns Kudos for how well they drive, using them to unlock new cars along the way. Certainly a capable little racer, and the price (free) is hard to beat. If you've friends who own Zune HDs, you can even play multiplayer. Check out a bad video of it in action below.

Vans SK8: Pool Service
Tilt to move and touch to trick, Vans SK8: Pool Service is pretty much the same thing as the iPhone version. If skating around a pool is your idea of a good time, then this is for you. Otherwise, it's a nice example of how the Zune HD can do just about anything the iPhone can do, only slightly smaller.

All in all this is a fine crop of titles that show, if anything, that the Zune HD has the ability to take on the iPhone from a gaming standpoint. What it doesn't have is the popularity. Will it ever achieve the level of love the iPhone has received? Doubtful, but Microsoft is putting on a good show.

Indie devs 2D Boy, Dylan Fitterer, Amanita Design and small but not indie dev Telltale Games all lent their voices to the "Valve's not so bad/Steam is awesome" tune when Ars asked if anybody was feeling exploited.

For some developers, Steam is actually quite the opposite of exploitation:

Ron Carmel, 2D Boy
"...Valve offers the most developer-friendly terms for digital distribution in the industry. Do you know the saying 'there's nothing better than a good king and nothing worse than a bad one'? I think it applies here, and Steam has clearly been a good king so far."

So, really, Pitchford — what's got you on edge? Is your Borderlands promotional slot not high enough on Steam's marquee queue?

Game devs speak out on Valve, Steam and conflict of interest [Ars Technica]

If you're having difficult answering the question "What are you playing this weekend?" here's a list of what you could be playing for mere pennies on the dime. Steam's "Weekend Deal" features no less than ten of the top indie games from the past year, including Audiosurf, Blueberry Garden, Braid, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Darwinia, Everyday Shooter, Gish, Mr. Robot, The Path and World of Goo all for just $29.99 USD. Insane! I paid fifteen bucks for Braid alone!

If that's simply too much game for too much value for you to handle, Direct2Drive is similarly blowing out indie games, with the Best of Indie bundle. That features Zeno Clash, Defense Grid: The Awakening, Democracy 2, The Path and Cogs for just $17.75 USD. Bonkers, really.

Don't less these offers pass you by. Web servers are standing by to take your credit card information then send you data packets bursting with fun. Act now!

Best of Indie Bundle [D2D]
Indie Sale [Steam]

The upcoming 3.0 OS update will open up iPod music to independent application developers, so it's not inconceivable that would-be iPhone game makers will tap these resources in the near future. But iPhone gaming enthusiasts The APPera shot an email to Audiosurf creator Dylan Fitterer, asking about the possibility of the music-driven indie game sensation making the jump.

His response:

"WooHoo!
I'm on it."

I'll believe it when I see it – and believe me, I'd love to see it. It'd be a great way to get more mileage out of those audio books I bought on iTunes.

Audiosurf uses music tracks to generate colorful multi-lane highways that you navigate a spaceship–looking thing down, collecting blocks to score points. Each "track" has three different difficulty levels which also apply to the game's 14 playable characters.

Audiosurf For iPhone Possible, Perhaps Even Probable? [Giant Bomb via The Escapist via NeoGaf via The APPera]

The new international update for Audiosurf is now available on Steam. Simply open up the Steam client, and watch it make patching magic. A slew of new features have been added to the game, with full Unicode support, a minimal detail setting for netbook play, and Russian localization, just to name a few. The Freeride feature in the game has also received two new modes - Autopilot, which is rather self-explanatory, and Visualizer, which adds pretty graphics to the mix.

Along with the new features come several bug fixes, which I won't tell you about, falling back on that old standard of posting all of the details below. Too busy playing Audiosurf to worry about it.

Audiosurf International Update Changelist:

New Features
Unicode support throughout
Visualizer mode added to freeride
Autopilot mode added to freeride
Added Minimal detail setting (for netbooks)
Now shows the position and username of other players riding the same song
Added Russian localization
Old radio files are now automatically deleted
[as-steep] tag added to shape slower songs into more exciting rides
Can now force fullscreen at startup in config.ini
Added "jump to letter" support in song browser
Eraser characters now erase instantly

Fixes
Resolved nvidia SLI crash
Resolved ati catalyst 9.1 crash
Fixed rare pop-in bug with blocks
Fixed Wildstorm dropping into random column
Fixed missing text on some ati cards
Removed anti-aliasing options
Re-aligned medal revealer
Fixed bug in reading some m3u playlist files

Audiosurf FM Update Available Now!

May 5, 2008 - Dylan Fitterer has issued a massive new release of features for his runaway indie title,
Audiosurf. The release, simply called the FM Update, is now available free via Steam to owners of the
innovative and award-winning title that allows gamers to "ride their music."

The FM update introduces a host of new features and content including last.fm audioscrobbling, the
ability to run Audiosurf as a music visualizer, scoreboard comments, and much more. Many of these new features were produced as a direct result of community requests and feedback.

In addition, this update introduces a Mod interface for developers. The interface was made available
during its beta phase and several Audiosurf extensions are already available. These include Shuffle
Play, an MSN Messenger status writer, and a context menu that can launch Audiosurf directly into a song by right-clicking it in Windows Explorer. A full list of the Audiosurf extentions is available here: http://www.audio-surf.com/mods

In other Audiosurf news, Kyle Gabler (of 2D Boy and World of Goo) is making his musical debut on
Audiosurf Radio today. Techno music he produced years ago, before putting his efforts into incredible
indie games, is now available for the first time anywhere.

Owners of Audiosurf will automatically receive the free FM Update by connecting to Steam, where
Audiosurf is offered for just $9.99, including The Orange Box Soundtrack.

Audiosurf is a music-adapting puzzle racer where you use your own music to create your own experience. The shape, the speed, and the mood of each ride is determined by the song selected. Points are earned for clustering together blocks of the same color on the highway. The game also allows gamers to compete with others on the Internet for the highest score on any song they own.

The title was created by solo developer Dylan Fitterer, who came up with the design for Audiosurf after
six months of running BestGameEver.com, where Fitterer released a new game every Friday. Fitterer's
favorite design produced during this period was Tune Racer, which was iterated and evolved into
Audiosurf.

For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

If you snatch up Audiosurf, which comes in under ten bucks, you'll also get a copy of The Orange Box's official soundtrack, which is included in the game. Can your PC even handle this much value?!

Audiosurf [Steam]