I’ve played a pile more games, including some with my favourite themes. I’ve indulged in a lot of new scifi games, but kept the balance above 50% of games beaten, and unplayed is at 17% As usual I’ve bolded my favourites.

Because someone queried this before: when I mention AI, I’m just talking about fictional characters who are digital beings, and not ‘generative AI’. Basically I like scifi stories about computers who are people/people who are computers. I keep a list of games with similar themes on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/curator/29740488-Science-Fiction-Games/list/129797/ and I’m always interested in finding more (probably broken right now due to the steam sale.)

The Secret Order 4: Beyond Time - hidden object that didn’t stick in my mind
The Red Lantern - more of a choose your own adventure than I was expecting, but short and easy to finish.
The Stillness of the Wind - short and sad game that drained me of all hope as I played. Loved it.
Broken Reality - Odd and memorable game about a virtual space that never existed. The sudden transition to 3D platforming nearly wrecked this for me, but I still got a lot out of the game. Would have been a favourite if not for the platforming.
Streets of Kamurocho - nostalgia-laden sidescrolling beat-em-up that took me back to my arcade kid days.
Still Wakes The Deep - Beautifully voiced and paced horror game that did a great job connecting me to the characters and setting.
NeuroNet: Mendax Proxy - interesting visual novel about a newborn AI created to control a city
Signalis - Beautiful scifi horror/yearning/grief/angst game. One of my top plays of the year.
Return to Grace - short but enjoyable game about a someone seeking out the fate of a lost great AI.
OpenSorcery - text-based game about a fire elemental bound to an AI. My sort of thing. Short but good.
Fallen Hero - choose your own adventure with a villain protagonist. Decent stuff.
OilStrike 75 - retro-style game that reveals teasers for Still Wakes The Deep.
The Turing Test - a portal-esque game about an AI, and I kept feeling I should have liked it. Unfortunately it bored me, and I never really connected with the characters.
Vessels - short but fun possession-based scifi game. You start off locked in an airlock. Nice.
Starship Murder - I think this was an old Flash game. Nice idea about being an AI spaceship trying to solve a murder aboard, but game mechanics are minimal.
Minds Beneath Us - very interesting game in a setting where human brains are used as hardware for computing and AI systems.
Buddy Simulator 1984 - this one really got me. You wake up a digital ‘friend’ left on an old machine full of software and memories. 100% up my street. The game starts off with an interactive fiction style text parser, and then continues in other forms.
Ultreïa - short point-and-click about a little robot seeking revenge. Gets a bit surreal. Brief but I liked its oddness.
Shardlight - very visually beautiful pixel art point-and-click that didn’t quite hit the mark for me.
Silicon Dreams - a branching game about an AI made to interrogate other AIs. Interesting but didn’t draw me in.
Cloudpunk - I really enjoyed the voxel art style, but this felt a bit lacking somehow. Nice idea though.
Immortality - this is a cool game explained really badly. My gaming and sound setup meant I missed the critical cues for certain things until very late on. I still enjoyed it, but lets say sub-optimally.
A Highland Song - very nice Inkle exploration game. Frustrating at times, but there are options to ease some of the mechanics if you aren’t enjoying them.
Mouthwashing - I had this on my wishlist after playing How Fish Is Made, but I got so much more than I was expecting. Still having feelings about this game.
Stranded - basically a short pixel art showcase with a slight story.
Murder - same, but with a little more story
Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble - What a title. Board game about 1920s teens getting into hijinks and righting wrongs in their town.
Fort Solis - my disappointment of the year, as I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately the clunky movement, pace and extended animation made what could have been a nice 2hr walking sim into a bit of a 4hr slog. The visuals and voice acting are good, and I liked the characters, but the game kept getting in its own way. I kept comparing it to Still Wakes The Deep which managed to build character connection and pace while developing a really creepy theme and making me feel immersed.
The Invincible - this was the other walking sim on my ‘must play’ list. Also with control and performance issues, but not so troublesome as in Fort Solis IMO. Very glad I played this one, and for all its flaws I found it beautiful. It made me feel emotional about mechanical things, grief, and being lost, and that’s kind of everything I want in a game. I do sense that things ran out of steam (or time/money) towards the end.
Rituals - brief game that felt a bit like a tech demo, but had some atmosphere. I destroyed the earth.

Despite ‘accidentally’ acquiring a lot of new games coughs … I reached 50% of games beaten!
So, what do we have since the last update?

Deus Ex Machina 2 - weird musical glimpse into gaming history.
Later Alligator - didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected, but it’s cute.
Shelter - I was a terrible badger parent.
Corps(e) of Discovery - this one I really liked. A bit janky, but loved the whole idea of it.
i feel very lonely and i don’t remember myself - free, short, good
Light of Alariya -student game, and a bit wobbly in parts but a very interesting start.
If on a winter’s night four travellers - interesting gloomy point and click.
Syntherapy - interesting AI themed visual novel.
Luck be a Landlord - a rabbithole of a game that’s more deckbuilder than fruit machine. Loved it.
Hi-Fi Rush - Loved this one. Very sad to hear about the studio.
Always Down - got this because I loved Producer 2021. It’s a different sort of thing but brief and entertaining.
A Long Journey to an Uncertain End - though I’d get more into this but the mechanics didn’t quite work for me. Loved the setting, concept, and design.
The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow - really enjoyed this, apart from the actual barrow part ironically. Fairly easy but very moody and beautiful pixel art point-and-click.
Framed Collection - liked this at first but lost patience with the ones that required re-ordering. Still think this is a nice idea.
Disco Elysium - well I finally made time to play it. It’s as good as everyone says. What more can I say?
Falcon Age - Made me feel sick in VR, but the VR mechanics let it down when played flatscreen. Really interesting idea and fantastic bird, even if the gameplay didn’t really grab me.
2064: Read Only Memories - fantastic AI-centric storyline and lovely pixel art.
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (3 games) - funny old FMV, I think based on a paper game? Short and sort of adorably corny with terrible accents.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent - oodles of atmosphere. I know this got bad reviews for basically being a walking sim, but I love a walking sim with a creepy story.
Long Live the Queen - had this for ages, and sucked at it. Finally looked up hints online to complete it, and see more of the story.
Burly Men At Sea - play out outlandish stories. There are some more undiscovered stories in this, but I felt I’d had my fill. Might go back to complete them all later.
How Fish Is Made - really not sure what I experienced, but l liked it.
Asphyxia - had this one for ages without completing it. Didn’t really get into the story, but can appreciate the idea.
Reveal the Deep - good idea that got really annoying towards the end. Spooky underwater action is my thing, but this one’s frustrating.
Distraint 2 - liked this as much as the first. I love the art style in this series.
A Song of Farca - a big let down for me. Enjoyed the hacking, but wasn’t drawn in by the characters or world details.
Venba - absolutely one of the most beautiful and emotionally touching games I’ve played, and you can make dosa.
Labyrinthine Dreams - another one very long on the backlog. Found this frustrating, but it wasn’t too long.
Another Perspective - short game I’ve been sitting on for ages after getting stuck. Had a fresh attempt and a few hints. Weird but good.
Machinika Museum - free vaguely The Room-esque game. Not bad.
Energy Cycle - didn’t really enjoy but it’s done now.
Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus - annoying but well-made FMV game. The deduction side was a let down for me, as I found it hard to really guide the ‘investigation’. Liked the family drama.
Adventures of Bertram Fiddle: A Bleaker Predicklement - buggy but arty comedy point-and-click.
Roombo: First Blood - weird and yet just my thing. Be a roomba.
Control - This would be one of my top games if not for the slightly awkward way all the lore and text is presented within the game. Great setting and spooky SCP-flavour story.
Justice Sucks - in theory the sequel to Roombo: First Blood, but to say this game manages to be unexpected is an understatement. I was not expecting it to go so hard, or to involve booty shorts.
thomas was alone - finally played this gem of a game to the end. Beautiful little AI story for a beautiful little puzzle platformer. [eta: to clarify, TWA is a story ABOUT an AI, not in any way a story generated by AI.]

I think my next goal should be to play more of the unplayed games, and see if any of them inspire me to see them through to the end. Steam Summer Sale is coming, so danger lurks, but I’ll try to restrain myself to games I intend to play soon.

New year, new push to reduce the backlog. Once again, I had a mix of new and old games since my last update:

Before Your Eyes - short, unusual, good. Some incredible sequences about pain.
A Mortician’s Tale - Caitlin Doughty Simulator? I got this on a whim, and it gave me exactly what I expected from it.
The Big Con - odd little game that captured a certain 1990s feel really well.
Chants of Sennaar - I absolutely loved all the language puzzles, and would have liked a no-auto-translations mode (which I later realised someone has made as a mod.) Not so much the stealth (I hate stealth!) and the main point-and-click segments in between, but the language elements were great.
Producer 2021 - Wow, I loved this unusual little game. It had the feel of weird video games from my Spectrum days, mixed with darkly humorous and characterful writing.
The Room 2 - didn’t enjoy it, as I found the game too dark on my system no matter how I adjusted it. Also ran into a few bugs that were only solved by raising and lowering the graphics. I felt like the puzzles would have worked better as real life escape rooms, where you have multiple people moving freely around the room, so maybe what I actually want is The Room: multiplayer mode.
The Norwood Suite - another game I really enjoyed. The graphics look like something out of Second Life, and it’s unashamedly a bit janky, but the whole exploration of this weird hotel and the various characters was immense fun. Never really got into a dead end, just enjoyed the whole weird unravelling of the story.
CARRION - yet another really excellent short game about being a deadly tentacled monster. The controls are really satisfying, and I felt like a graceful, beautiful mass of murder tentacles as I grappled my way around the base munching on scientists. A good start to 2024!
De-Void - oh man… good voice acting and interesting story idea/worldbuilding, spoiled by painfully slow traversal of huge areas combined by a character who walks as though she’s shuffling in slippers. Slow walking and difficult vision conditions drag the game out, and I gave up for months after a crash mid-section lost a huge amount of progress. Finished today with mixed feelings, as there was much to like there.

I really want to get half my games to beaten or completed status. We shall see!

OK, an update!

It’s a loooong time since I’ve posted a text update, but I’ve been updating my BLAEO account through the past year. As usual, I’ve fallen into bundle-gathering ways, and indulged in some new games, but that unplayed percentage is (slowly) getting smaller. I’ve left it so long that most of these will be a quick list, but I’ll highlight some of my favourites.

Sorcery! - Nostalgia for a childhood spent re-reading an old Lone Wolf book. Nicely recreated.
Say NO! More - Weird little game that I loved (especially the crocodile.)
Whispers of a Machine - Beautiful design and art; story didn’t grab me as much as I’d hoped.
New Tales from the Borderlands - New entry in a game universe I’m obsessed with. Mixed feelings about it.
Opus: Rocket of Whispers - Picked this up long ago (probably in a bundle?) and went in with few expectations. Surprised by a story full of thwarted hopes that went right to my heart. More to play in this series now.
Press Any Button - got emotional about a computer.
Mind Scanners - Enjoyed the style and storytelling in this curious scifi game.
Unpacking - The way this game uses its mechanics to tell a story and immerse the player in a sense of places and things and belonging… I loved it.
Deep Sky Derelicts - I got so much enjoyment from this little Mignola-looking scifi deckbuilder. Simple in some ways, but the idea of the hulking ships and risky jaunts really hooked me.
Stray - Nice scifi short, but wish I hadn’t let myself get so hyped for it. Made me really, really motion sick every second I played it!
Return of the Obra Dinn - Absolutely hooked me from beginning to end. No time pressure, just a giant spooky logic problem that had me making notes on people’s socks. Creepy story. Great audio. Beautiful.
Sally Face - Short horror that I meant to play for ages and finally checked out the story.
Alex Hunter: Lord of the Mind - I have so many hidden object type games in my backlog from bundle-hoarding. This wasn’t a particular favourite, but decent enough.
Inscryption - Totally hooked me during the time I was playing it. Much more than I was expecting.
Psycho Train - More hidden object that I’d abandoned previously after running into problems. Got through it this time, and enjoyed the replay.
Queen’s Quest 2 - Hidden object again. Not really one that interested me, but passed some time finishing off the story I’d started.
NORCO - beautiful, and some top notch storytelling and scifi. Wasn’t sure how I felt about it by the end. Revived my hunger for point and click storytelling.
Outer Wilds - I saw a video that told me to stop watching and go and play Outer Wilds spoiler free. Did so. Had one of my most amazing gaming experiences. Spent weeks afterwards watching other people have that experience on stream to re-live the emotional journey.
Citizen Sleeper - The themes of this game are so up my street I can’t even say, and I’m rubbing my hands in anticipation for the next game.
The Pale Beyond - I bought this thinking it looked like The Terror Simulator, and it sort of is, but I wasn’t expecting to get so invested.
Monster Camp - Got in a bundle and not really my thing, but I enjoyed the artwork.
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante - Caused a variety of sufferings to Sir Brante.
Eternal Threads - OK, this game had some pretty impossible competition given some of the games I played this year, but I enjoyed it all the same.
Cave Crawler - Short VHS-tape-like experience about being a little robot in a creepy cave.
Still There - I love games about figuring out how to make things work. This one reminded me a bit of Tartarus, but more point and click.
Iron Lung - Simple game with shedloads of atmosphere. Loved every horrifying minute.
Mutazione - Quirky and characterful.
Knights of Pen and Paper II - old bundle title that was enjoyable enough.
Hypnospace Outlaw - this game about an alternate-history sleep-based internet recreates the feel of the Geocities-era web more than anything I’ve ever seen. In theory a little bit like Orwell, but so much more immersive and absolutely full of character. I really loved this one.
In Other Waters - fiddly interface, but lovely and delicate little scifi story.
Orwell: Ignorance is Strength - Hypnospace Outlaw ruined this sequel for me - it couldn’t live up to how much I enjoyed that game!
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine - clunky controls at times, but really lovely and unusual game about people telling stories.
Detroit: Become Human - I’d heard this game dealt clumsily with real-life themes, but wasn’t ready for how much so. In theory full of themes I love, but turned out not to be for me.
Assemble With Care - Nice enough, but I felt like I was meant to be playing on a tablet.
The Little Acre - odd little point-and-click. Loved all the animation, despite the story not quick sticking for me.
Love Thyself - super short game spinning off… Endless Space? Can be a dating sim, though I just played it as a weird little story. Free. Good. Amusing.
The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog - carrying on the theme of free weird spin-off visual novel things. No idea why it exists, but it was fun.
Death Stranding - got it in a bundle, and went in just to give it a try. Absolutely loved the experience. It reminded me of playing Fallen Earth back in the day, but with a whole other layer of weirdness, solitary box-lugging, and pizza. Got completely attached to all the characters, silly stuff, and messed-up world, and now waiting like Oliver Twist for another helping.
Suzerain - Turns out I would not be good at uniting a political party, or staying alive while trying to do so. Enjoyed this a lot.
If Found - Beautiful short story about coming out, family, and some scifi twists I was’t expecting.
Sable - long part of my off-steam backlog, but I ended up getting it on steam too and using the momentum to start a new playthrough. I wanted more from the lore and background, but it’s a beautiful and atmospheric game.
Beecarbonize - free game about fighting climate change. Good.
We Know the Devil - unusual visual novel where the mechanic is choosing to include or exclude. Hard to say too much without spoiling, but really liked this one.
Divination - very short but intriguing scifi game about predicting the future. Warning for themes of suicide throughout this one. Fascinating mini-story.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker - got totally immersed in this to the point where it was quite therapeutic! Loved the gameplay, loved the little family of shipbreakers on the comms (albeit the protagonist is a silent one), and was fascinated by all the hints of AI in this setting. Would love to see more in this universe.
Rocket of Whispers: Prologue - played because I loved Rocket of Whispers, but this was incredibly buggy.
Boyfriend Dungeon - This was a bit ‘social pressure simulator pro’ to me, but I befriended a cat and hit a lot of things with swords.
Machine Heart - free, short, occasionally janky but also moving scifi short.
Batman: The Enemy Within - played a silent Batman who alienated everyone around him equally.
Transistor - Some haunting voice stuff in this. I’m glad when a game with a really interesting story makes it so terrible gamers like me can still play and fully enjoy it.
Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture - This captures the feel of a certain kind of small British place so well. Only thing that threw off my immersion was the odd bit of music, but the rest of the game really drew me in.
The Almost Gone - This game has a lot of sadness and bitterness in the story, and I found it hard to play on at times, but it was interesting.
The First Tree - on my backlog for ages, I never really found the things in this game that others seemed to find appealing. Not for me, but glad I persisted.

Phew, that’s a lot, but I’ve played some absolutely gorgeous games this year - some that will probably stick around in my favourite games of all time. Now back to the backlog.

More Progress

Well, I’m making progress with the backlog again, as well as making some decisions about what to keep in my library. I’ve removed a handful (I think about 6?) more titles from my ‘won’t play’ list that were either unplayable or just not something I can actually enjoy. I also made a category for games that are currently not playable on my machine, but which interest me - something to give another try with different settings when I have time. I’ve been avoiding adding lots of new games, but I still pass on the good deals to friends. I do still have a lot of old classics that I may have played on other devices long ago, and part of me wants to just mark them as complete, but I’m also interested in checking some of them about anew. We’ll see.

Two Point Hospital

Finished off all the base game levels to three stars. I was an avid player of Theme Hospital back in the day, and enjoyed this update.

Lyne

Finished off the main levels (may go back to 100% the daily cheevos) in this relaxing puzzler. There’s something really pleasant about solving these, and it’s a good game to pick up and put down. I ran into a save game bug, but fortunately there’s a way to restore progress from cheevos.

Access Denied

Had this one on the go for a while. Some of the levels are enjoyable, others frustrating - I decided to just look up hints for levels I found boring.

Rusty Lake Hotel

Short, morbid, and enjoyable. I’d like to check out more of these at a later date, but no rush to add more titles to my backlog just yet.

Planet of the Eyes

Sweet little Limbo-esque robot story. I found this one much more engaging than Limbo, though I wasn’t thrilled at the time-padding rotating jump puzzles near the end. I found the game’s story touching.

Devolverland Expo

Forgot to check this out when I first got it. It’s really an interactive Devolver trailer (and not even a new one) but it was a fun outing - imagine if games expos were like theme park rides, and also full of robots.

Batman: The Telltale Series

Decent Telltale stuff. Tales from the Borderlands is my favourite Telltale title, but this was a good enough adventure. Mostly limited for me by my frustrations with the source material, as I find it hard to get really invested in the protagonist. I have the following title and look forward to checking it out.

With all that, my unplayed percentage is down below 25% again. That’s … still a lot of games, but we’re getting there.

Finished Hazardous Space - at least as far as the game has been completed. I don’t expect to see any more as the game has vanished from the Steam store. It’s an entertaining enough side-scrolly turn-based combat/energy management sort of rogue-lite thing. I feel like I missed most of the plot as it appears in a small text box in the corner of the screen while you play.

Finished off The Artifact - a point and click scifi game that reminded me of old titles such as RAMA but much shorter. I had some save issues with this game on the first couple of attempts and got fed up with it, but managed to whiz through it today.

Also finished up Layers of Fear 2. This was a real slog for me, to my disappointment. I really enjoyed Layers of Fear, and I’m pretty into shipwrecks, disaster, and horror… but this just didn’t do anything for me. I found the writing cliched and sort of wooly, and neither the characters nor the horror really grabbed me. I guess it just wasn’t the game for me, maybe because I thought SOMA handled that flavour of creepy much better. The visual design was very beautiful in places though.

Finished The Hex - very good, and got me emotionally in unexpected ways. I enjoy a lot of games-about-games but that’s a particularly good one.

Finished off The Darkside Detective - really enjoyable as a fan of oldskool adventure games. Packed with media references and gaming tropes, and it’s short, pixelly fun.

I’ve been doing some VR gaming recently, and also completed Void Bastards on another platform (good!)

Forgot to log a first playthrough of Beckett the other day (didn’t love it, didn’t hate it), and have also been putting a lot of time into The Blackout Club - a multiplayer quest-based stealth/horror game that surprised me with its depth and replayability. I’ve maxed out my levels and completed most of the quests, so marking it as beaten, but still going back to pick up some of the challenges/items.