Sometimes, you see a game that makes you smile and nod knowingly, not for anything amusing, mind you, but because it’s a solid case where a developer gets things down perfectly and the project is coming together like a dream. Dear Esther is one of those games and with its February 14, 2012 release date coming up, here’s a quick look at two work in-progress trailers that show off quietly spectacular detailed visuals powered by  Valve’s “ancient” Source Engine (which goes to show it’s not the years, it’s the mileage a great developer gets out of it). It’s hard to believe that this game started life as a Half-Life 2 mod back in 2008 before a major reworking, but that’s the wonder of inspiration for you, folks…

As to what the game is about, I’ll let you go read this link, as it does a better job that I’d do of mangling such exquisite text.  Of course, the truly sad thing here is this won’t in in a proper DVD case as a retail release so more can experience it. It’s set for a Steam launch next year and while this is great news for those millions that use the service, those that don’t or can’t are out of luck. I’d gladly pay for a budget-priced disc version that featured the original mod, a developer commentary, art gallery and a behind the scenes “making of” video to pad things out.Yeah, yeah, that would cost about a million dollars to produce a proper retail version, I know… but there’s got to be a better way to preserve a great game (and ART) project like this other than as a download, grrrr….