I'm a little surprised that people are surprised PCWorld covered Aurora -- I've done reviews of Dwarf Fortress, ADOM, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and other smaller/indie games with dedicated communities and deep gameplay. Reading comments in this thread, I'm getting the impression it's assumed "mainstream" sites don't cover games like that (or try to compare them to this week's triple-A title that was advertised on the Superbowl, and whine that there's not enough 3D explosions). . .
It's interesting you mentioned PC World did a review on Dwarf Fortress. I discovered Aurora from a thread on the Dwarf Fortress forum discussing this game, comparing the depth and complexity as being rather similar to each other. (I discovered Dwarf Fortress from a YouTube video, but that's another story. . . )
Actually, I'm not at all surprised of a PC World review of Dwarf Fortress. It may be a niche indie game, as opposed to a commercial venture from a big publisher with lots of ad revenue and such, but it's
quite unique and
incredibly popular for a game of it's type. Indeed, in July of 2011 the New York Times did an article on this game.
You know your game has become popular when it becomes an Internet meme (like Dwarf Fortress). Indeed, it's tvtropes page is colorful, including how
World of Warcraft has two dwarves bickering in a quest plot to do a hilarious parody of a Dwarf Fortress issue.
Anyway, I do find it surprising that PC World covered Aurora. And not just because it's a non-commercial indie game. That too, but mostly because it doesn't seem to have "caught on" yet. It's not nearly as recognized or famous, unlike ADoM or Dwarf Fortress.
But, I would be just as surprised if you had reviewed any obscure indie, such as the GearHead RPG (either GH1 or GH2). It's a unique post-apocalyptic mecha-anime roguelike with (for a roguelike) passably decent graphics (even without any of the replacement graphics or mods). But despite the game's brilliance, it's a relative unknown to this day. I'm only aware of two short user-based reviews on it, one on Moby Games and another on RPGDX.