[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's daily link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

A sad day for EGM, then, and our commiserations to everyone at Ziff Davis affected. So we shall have to continue with a few GameSetLinks, headed up with Noel Llopis discussing the state of the independent developer in 2009, which does seem pleasant, if still a work in progress.

Also in here - some randomness about those Furry Animals, the MST-related Darkstar craziness, a little whining about Examiner.com, and some leftover Games Of The Year fun and hilarity.

Yah yah nah:

Games From Within: 2009: The Year of The Indie Developer?
Noel Llopis on indie hopes - to which I say that I think the indie is winning, but at much lower personal income levels than most regular game industry folks are used to. Doesn't stop the scene being awesome, though.

Music 4 Games -- 'In The Studio With Hitoshi Sakimoto'
Vagrant Story composer Sakimoto (who is speaking at GDC, btw): 'I would love to compose for a First Person Shooter game. It’s actually my favorite game genre. But unfortunately FPS games are rarely created in Japan, so I haven’t had a chance to fulfill this wish yet.' Now that would be neat...

Super Furry Animals@Everything2.com
Just completely randomly, cos I've been loving the Super Furry Animals 'Best Of' DVD, and was Googling around about them: 'The video for the single Play it Cool featured the band playing as themselves in the Wales football team in the Playstation game, Actua Soccer. There was also a cheat embedded in the Actua Soccer game itself to allow you to play as the Super Furry Animals..'

Satellite News - The official Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan site » “Darkstar” Update
The infamous MST3K-related sci-fi adventure CD-ROM game, in development for seemingly ever, will be done... soon now?

Idle Thumbs - Gamse of the Year.cx
My colleague Chris Remo and his Idle Thumbs friends continue to monopolize weird URLs for good game writing - this time with their podcast creators and readers picking the best titles of last year.

games08
I have no idea whose top list of 2008 this is, but Mister Raroo recommended it on Twitter, and it's got some fun discussion of Japanese Xbox 360 shooters, soooo.... [UPDATE: Raroo tells me it's Joel "substance j" Hamilton, the guy who co-founded Sector: Neo Geo Pocket.]

source:examiner_com gamesetwatch - Google News
Hey, Examiner.com, you cheeky so-and-so-s, stop reprinting chunks of GameSetWatch for page view 'borrowing' reasons. (It's 'legitimate' in the sense that they're not reprinting everything, but honestly, they're doing it for sites like RPS, too.) [UPDATE: I didn't explain the sucky bit too well, either - Examiner.com is indexed on Google News, but GSW and RPS aren't. Rassin' frassin'....]