Category: Video Games

The Blackwell Series

  01/05/2026       Act      Add Comment

It’s such a treat to see a writer improve. It’s what I love about teaching stupid freshman, and it’s one of the reasons I also go through developer catalogues chronologically; it just makes me warm and fuzzy.

The remainder of the Blackwell games are pretty good. I’d actually rec just skipping the first one (or reading a plot summary) and playing the rest. The puzzle design is golden, the characters are compelling, and it’s just a great supernatural mystery series. I didn’t love the final conclusion which marred it a bit for me, but there’s definitely a lot of good stuff here.

CW, both in games and below reviews, for depression/suicide.

Spoilers abound inside, though I’ve tried to black out the more severe ones. I care less as time goes on though, sorry!

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   Point-and-Click, Recommendations, Video Games      , , ,

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

  01/07/2026       St. Elmo's Fire      13 Comments

Expedition 33 presents a post-apocalyptic world where a monster known as the Paintress has painted a number on a huge monolith; every year the number goes down by 1, and everyone older that number dies instantly. Every year people send out expeditions to find and kill the Paintress, but none have succeeded or even come back. I was intrigued by this premise for its similarity to Final Fantasy X, the best Final Fantasy, as well as the promise of an older cast, as this sort of setup is usually an excuse to create a cast of sexy 20-year-olds (or teenagers).

It was a profound disappointment. I’m used to being disappointed these days, but this still impressed me with just how bad it was.

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   RPGs, Video Games     

Detective Games, Part 7

  01/25/2026       Act      1 Comment

+: Duck Detective: The Secret Salami + Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, Eye 4 Eye

-: The Final Print, Kona, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

The theme for the pans this time is “cultural appropriation.”

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   Adventure, Puzzle, Recommendations, Video Games, Walking Sims      , , , , , ,

MURDERED: SOUL SUSPECT (TM)

  03/01/2026       Act      2 Comments

(Airtight Games & Square Enix, 2014)

I haven’t done any AAA games yet. Honestly can’t even remember last time I played one that wasn’t Nintendo. Do they all title themselves so obnoxiously in Steam?

This is a bad game, and while for a while it was entertainingly bad, I ultimately DNFed it when it got boring under its own self-seriousness. It’s also textbook copaganda.

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   Adventure, Video Games     

QuickRecs: Shop Sim Edition

  04/04/2026       Act      3 Comments

I love shop sims. I do sometimes wonder what it says about me that I write about like, marxism for work and then go roleplay business for fun, but frankly I don’t have the time or energy to unpack that. Though if we could reconfigure things so that capitalism was only in video games I would call it a win for everyone.

Anyway, here’s some trading and shop games I enjoyed. Capitalism, ho!

(I waited too long to write these so some of them will be quite brief. Alas.)

Inside: Final Profit, Potion Permit, Winkeltje, Weapon Shop Fantasy, World End Diner, Potionomics, Amber Isle

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   Shop Sim, Sim, Video Games      , , , , , ,

Darkest Dungeon 2: Secrets of the Coven

  05/29/2026       St. Elmo's Fire      10 Comments

So I thought I was finished with Darkest Dungeon 2 after I reviewed it on release, but it turns out that while I wasn’t looking they released a whole new game mode that’s more like a strategy game. In general I think the new game mode works a lot better with the core gameplay, but that’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is one of the story modules that goes with it, which is “What if witches were actually inhuman monsters and it was okay to kill them to the last?”

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   Roguelike, RPGs, Video Games      ,

QuickRecs: Roguelikes

  06/20/2026       Act      12 Comments

I’ve been on a big roguelike kick lately (well, more than usual).

These are largely three subgenres — 2D bullet heavens, twin-stick dungeon crawlers, and roguelike deckbuilders. These are the three genders, actually.

These are gameplay-first, not narrative, largely because I’ve been very, very tired but also because sometimes you just want games to be fun.

Inside: Dogpile, Army of Ruin, Pesticide Not Required, Machick, DunHero, Juicy Realm

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   Roguelike, Video Games      , , , ,