The 3D sandbox title Minecraft and the horror adventure game Amnesia: The Dark Descent were part of a diverse set of award-winners in the 13th annual Independent Games Festival in San Francisco. Minecraft took home the grand prize for Best Independent Game, as well as the community-voted Audience Award, while Amnesia took home awards for Technical Excellence and Excellence in Audio, as well as the Direct2Drive-sponsored Vision Award. Keep reading for the complete list of award-winners.

Game portal Direct2Drive has launched a "new and improved" casual games store with the ability to download free demos and try before you buy for up to 60 minutes each. Owned by core gaming outlet IGN Entertainment, Direct2Drive has traditionally catered to fans of MMOs, first-person shooters and other hardcore genres, but clearly now wants a piece of the $2 billion casual gaming pie too.

If you've ever experienced the hassle of having your Steam account hacked, you'll be happy to hear that Valve has announced Steam Guard. This new security feature allows users to link their Steam account with a specific PC. Any attempts to modify or change the account settings by another PC won't be possible without the user's approval.

Kalypso Media has unveiled the first trailer for Tropico 4, an upcoming city builder/strategy game currently in development for the PC and Xbox 360. The latest game in the Tropico series sees players resume their reign as El Presidente, the iron-fisted ruler of the small island of Tropico.

Gamezebo Rating:

Bubble Shooter has a lot what you’d be looking for in a puzzle game. Challenging, Bust-a-Move style gameplay, cute and colorful graphics, and a gradual difficulty curve that eases you into the experience. But it also does virtually nothing to accommodate the Facebook platform. There’s a dearth of social features and the game’s structure actually runs counter to what most players want out of a Facebook game.

With the upcoming Deep Realms, Playdom is looking to bring a traditional role playing game to Facebook, but with a social twist. It will feature elements like tile-based exploration and turn-based combat that are staples of the genre, but will also include both competitive and co-operative elements that let players interact with their friends and the story in different ways.

Just a few days ago we learned of the existence of Zombie Lane, a mysterious new zombie game from Millionaire City developer Digital Chocolate. And while we still don't have much to go on, Digital Chocolate has pulled the curtain back a tiny bit by releasing a piece of art.

Gamezebo Rating:

Anna is back in Ice Cream Craze: Natural Hero, the third entry in the Ice Cream Craze series following Ice Cream Craze and Ice Cream Craze: Tycoon Takeover. In Natural Hero, your town has fallen victim to the nefarious Dr. Bane. He has cornered the dessert market with his ice cream that is made completely of artificial chemicals. Armed with your own recipes for all natural ice cream, it’s up to you to stop Dr. Bane before it’s too late.

Gamezebo Rating:

The only serious aspect to Soul Journey is its name. Rather than being a dark, gloomy adventure, as the name might suggest, the game is full of bright environments, a wide array of short-lived characters, and a clever start to the story. However, for all of its differences in the genre, there are a number of technical issues here that keep the game from being a must-have.