If you’ve never used the Impulse service before, it’s very similar to Steam. You can browse and purchase games as well as download demos either from their website or from within the Impulse client. Games you own show up within the client and can be downloaded there. One key difference from Steam is that the Impulse client does not need to be running in order to play your games; there isn’t even a background process for authentication. Pricing, game selection and community features leave a bit to be desired when compared to Steam, but it’s still a fine place to purchase games when the price is right.

To make some sense out of the second half of the title, I also wanted to bring up a relevant item from Edmund McMillen, creator of Gish. This is a Cry for Help is a CD collection of ten years worth of Edmund’s work as an independent artist. The CD includes 17 games (including Gish), 15 comics and a ton of extras including artwork and animations. While some games – such as Cunt – are flash games which can be played for free through a browser, I felt the collection was worth purchasing not only for the sake of convenience, but to support the creator as well. If you’re thinking of buying Gish anyway, I suggest getting this CD instead as Gish is included and it will only cost you $10 plus shipping.

The game is called Gish. Like De Blob, it has you rolling, jumping, sticking, swinging, squeezing and stomping around as an amorphous pile of goo. I think that it can fittingly be described as a physics-based puzzle game.

Gish, being the amorphous pile of goo that he is, has many forms that he can take on. In his normal form, he is a perfectly malleable pile of goo that can get around just fine on flat surfaces and minor inclines, and can also roll over most small obstacles. It’s when the more unique obstacles get in his way that he needs to do a little morphing. Want to make a steep ascent? Go into prickly sticky mode, get some momentum and you can crawl up walls, swing from ropes, even walk on the ceiling. If you need to fit into a tight spot or float to the top of some water, you can become super-liquified and, in turn, less dense, to accomplish these feats. You can also increase your density to increase your movement speed, topple down obstacles like breakable walls, sink to the bottom of a pool or even destroy some enemies.

You can read more about Gish as well as get ahold of a free demo at the developer’s website. It is only $10 if you purchase it through Steam.