When was the last time a video game told you about a whole other culture? Took you somewhere remote you'd only heard about in passing, and let the people who've lived there speak to you in a generations-old voice? Never Alone does that all-too-rare thing and does it very well.

Alaska is far. And cold. But, there are beautiful stories there. Like many remote places, it's home to a rich culture that many people might never learn about. How best to tell the world the tales that come from such a place? Make a video game.

They could have put their money into more traditional businesses, like a funeral home or a dry cleaner or real estate development. Instead, the Cook Inlet Tribal Council of Alaska chose to fund a video games company. They say it's the first one in the United States owned by indigenous people.

Imagine living in a town so remote, so isolated, and so dreary that the prospect of a Taco Bell opening nearby ignites a spark of hope in the populace so intense it has to be set to moving music.

The Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Wild. Majestic. Coffee-soaked. For too long these dark and mysterious areas of the United States have been bereft of a local GameFly distribution center, forced to suffer longer-than-normal shipping times for their game rentals. Today GameFly says no more.

More than 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound - the very same spot as the infamous Exxon Valdez disaster - because the captain of a tugboat was playing video games while the ship ran aground, says the Coast Guard.