I spent last night playing Ubisoft’s new game, From Dust.

It was pretty poor timing on my part. It was getting late and I’d yet to dream up anything for Game Console’s Friday news item. As part of my procrastination process, I’d also decided to relocate this website to its new home on www.stateofplay.co.nz (hence the reason for all the recent “test” posts).

A quick browse though my recently received press releases alerted me that the god-sim, From Dust, had just been released a game that had already piqued my interest during my coverage of E3. I was a big fan of Populous on the Amiga and also enjoyed Black and White a fair amount. The idea of a game that harked back to the god-games of old as well as provided me with a physics based simulation sand box to play in was too much to resist.

Whilst I migrated this website, my Xbox 360 was hard at it downloading From Dust. Thankfully the migration didn’t take the few days that I thought it would. It was up and running about the same time as the game finished downloading.

A bit of reasearch, courtesy of the game’s website, and on it went. Xbox Live Arcade’s annual Summer of Arcade is renown for giving us little gems and From Dust is another of those little gems. Sure it is simplistic, but it’s also a lot of fun. The fully fledged physics engine is so engrossing that I often forgot that I was supposed to be helping the tribesmen, and instead I was happy just playing in the sand, picking up water and building rock walls with lava.

It was so much fun that I almost forgot the write the article for Game Console. Needless to say, I did return to the game afterwards, getting to bed to the sound of the dawn chorus.

From Dust is worth a punt, especially if you are old enough to have owned an Amiga. It’s available now for 1200 MS Points from the Xbox Live Marketplace. PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait, whilst PC gamers will be able to pick the game up from the usual download outlets on 17th August.