My preference for games has shifted over the decades.

As I get older, I have less time to play games, and my attention span has gotten shorter as well.

I still play a ton of games, but I probably play as much casual and indie games — like niche titles like Sequence and Runespell Overture — than triple-A PC titles.

However, I still keep an eye out for triple-A titles that I am interested in. 2012 is a bumper year for some highly anticipated titles for me, and below is a list of the top five PC games I’ll definitely try out this year.

5. Bioshock Infinite

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Imagine mashing up a RPG with a poker game.

This, in theory, shouldn’t work.

But with Runespell Oveture by Mystic Box, it does.

This oddball game melds Yahtzee-style poker (an interesting variant called Mystic Poker) with a good old fantasy RPG story set in the Nordic eras. As the story progresses, you “level-up” by unlocking collectible spells and allies, which help you in battle.

And how do you battle? By playing poker, of course.

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The Nintendo 3DS not the handheld gaming console of your choice?  Take heart, for Sony’s newest handheld PlayStation Vita will be heading over to our sunny shores on February 22, in less than 2 months’ time.

Retailing at S$399 for the WiFi-only version, the PS Vita will be accompanied by 27 launch titles, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss and FIFA Soccer.  However, the connectivity-junkie will have to wait longer for the 3G version, as there is no word on when that will be released.

The price is definitely quite surprising, given the challenges that the 3DS faced at a similar price point. But unlike the 3DS – which is too similar to its predecessors to generate a high-level of excitement – the PS Vita is a completely different beast that previous PlayStation Portables. …

It’s that time of the year again.

Christmas is a time of giving and receiving, and every year at Techgoondu we want world peace and justice. This year I want to add to the list a fairer society, better public transport, and affordable public housing.

And in case those big dreams fall a little short of our lofty naive ideals, well, there’s always geek toys and gizmos that we can console ourselves with. And still keep dreaming big dreams — they are worth fighting for, aren’t they?

In the meantime, here’s what the goondus would like this Christmas:

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Christmas is coming fast and if you are still looking to buy a last-minute gift for the favourite techie in your life, there’s little time left!

But fret not. Here’s a list of stuff that this Goondu will be elated to find under his metaphorical tree, and hopefully, it will inspire you to find that perfect gift for your special someone. …

If you’re a fan of Dell’s Alienware range of “bling-in-on” gaming desktops, you’d be happy to hear that the PCs now come with Intel’s top-end Core i7-3960X or Core i7 3930K six-core CPUs in Singapore.

On the new Alienware Aurora R4 desktop, the LGA2011-based CPUs are water-cooled, and factory-overclocked to between 3.9GHz and 4.1GHz as well, which seem alright, unless you’re the type who regularly pour liquid nitrogen into your PC for extreme speed.  …

There are some games that simply shouldn’t work.

For example, Sequence by Irridium Games, a crazy mash-up lovechild between a finger-pounding rhythm game with an old-school hard core RPG.

Surprisingly, it works well for the most part, and with a price tag of US$4.99 on Steam — I got mine for US$2.49 on Black Friday sales last month — it is a steal.

Sure, this indie game is not perfect and some kinks could be ironed-out, but for the price point and fun I had, I’m not complaining.

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I’ve been a long-time fan of turn-based strategy games in the fantasy genre.

I have played the original King’s Bounty, Heroes of Might and Magic (HOMM) 1 through 6, Disciples 1 to 3, and the new King’s Bounty series by Katauri Interactive.

Some clunkers in the series I barely bothered to play more than a few hours, like HOMM 4 and Disciples 3, but some were well beloved, like HOMM3 and 5 (which was basically a reboot of 3).

It is with this context as an old school gamer that I can say that HOMM 6 gets two thumbs up from me. It keeps to the flavour of the HOMM series whilst making enough big changes to the gameplay that the game feels like a fresh breath of air.

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I finally got around to writing my review of the beta about a month after the Diablo III beta was released.

If you’re a Blizzard fanboi, you know you will play this game. No matter how much you rail and complain about the cost or the extended wait, you will buy and play this game.

For example, I capitulated and ended up buying Starcraft 2 a month after it was released even after I screamed about the cost. Figures.

In any case, Diablo is a game that inspired a whole generation of clones in the action role-playing genre, and that alone makes it worthy to check out.

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This holiday season, get ready to flail your arms around in front of a TV, as Microsoft releases several new titles for its wildly popular console accessory Kinect.

Well, some of them are not exactly new.

Like game makers are wont to do, two of the new games are basically old games slapped with a new number behind it with some additional features. Not that we’re complaining, some of these additions are quite noteworthy. …