As you may/may not know, some of the GSW editors also help to run the Independent Games Festival, so we were delighted when GameSpy's Dave 'Fargo' Kosak put up a mammoth 11-page IGF preview, including hands-on impressions of pretty much all of the 2006 IGF finalists, and lots of winner predictions.

Kosak is particularly enamored of Innovation in Design nominee Strange Attractors, for which he notes: "Playing with gravity is nothing new in games (did you ever play the classic game SpaceWar with the sun in the center of the map?), but using gravity as the sole control mechanism -- and being able to turn it on and off at will -- leads to a whole new type of gameplay." However, time-manipulating platformer Braid is still the wildcard in this category, and will be playable (in widescreen!) at GDC next week.

The GameSpy article also digs on Tommy & The Magical Words, noting of the Visual Art-nominated casual title: "I downloaded Tommy the day it came out and have been playing it on and off ever since. This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" game designs that elegant and fun, with zero learning curve. Basically, you've got to get Thomas across the map by building bridges made up of words." Also, it's got cute cartoon wizards in it!