Author: Andrea Blythe

Games I Played in June 2025

Games, Review
Entry hall in Blue Prince. | screenshot by me

Blue Prince (Dogubomb) is probably the best game I’ve ever played that ultimately is not for me. The game is wonderful in so many ways. It opens with an interesting story premise — a young man inherits a mansion, which will only become his if he can find the mysterious 46th room — and features beautiful illustrative-style art with muted undertones.

The gameplay is also quite fun, allowing the player to figure out how to play through the process of playing. As you enter the mansion, you are given a brief note and then open a door and are presented with a card draw of three rooms to build, and from that room (as long as it’s not a dead end), you build more and more rooms, constructing a path deeper into the home. You are able to continue building, exploring, and collecting supplies and zeroes until you run out of steps and are forced to take a rest, resetting the entire house to zero — creating a roguelike feel.

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This is Not a Game: The Kid A Mnesia Exhibition

Games, Review
“Echo Chamber” in Kid A Mnesia Exhibition

Radiohead’s “Creep” is one of those classic ’90s grunge songs that fed my teenage years, allowing me to reflect on my own feelings of being a creep and weirdo. Over the subsequent years (and now decades), Radiohead has remained on my peripheral radar, drawing me in with their experimental soundscapes blending electronica and grungy undertones, with a mix of melancholy or moody vibes.

Recently, I’ve discovered a renewed interest in the band through the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition, a digital museum in which each room creates a unique audiovisual experience paired with specific songs from the band’s Kid A and Amnesiac albums. I find myself now immersing myself all over again in their work and even delving even more deeply into their albums, following this interactive experience.

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Games I Played in May 2025

Games

Due to travel and other distractions, it was a slow gaming month, and I didn’t have a chance to get back to finishing the last few The Last of Us 2, which I’m excited to do. There were a couple of other smaller games that I finished, however.

An algorithmically crafted poem in Wayfinder. | screenshot by me

Wayfinder is a lovely little game created by Matt DesLauriers to evoke respect for the beauty of nature. The player takes the form of a red-robed figure wandering through pastel landscapes in different seasons, with the sounds of wind, soft soft rustling leaves, and chirping birds providing an relaxing soundscape. Exploring allows the player to discover tokens that unlock words that come together to unfold small haiku-like poetry. It’s a short (five minutes or so), but soul-soothing experience — and since the visuals and poetry are procedurally assembled, the game is able to create a unique experience for each player.

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Games I Played in April 2025

Games
screen capture from a video game, showing a woman drawing a bow on a man charging with an ax in a dark, apocalyptic setting
The Last of Us Part II | Source: Naughty Dog

The Last of Us is one of my all-time favorite games. I’ve played it through several times and have loved it all over again each time. So…, when the The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog) was released in 2020, I was incredibly excited. But when I actually started up the game, I struggled to get into the flow of it. I loved the characters and the dialog and the gameplay was smooth and fun, but something didn’t click for me.

Over the next couple of years, I returned to the game several times, trying to get through it, then eventually fell off entirely — always with the intention of coming back to finish. Since the TV series is current coming out with its second season, it seemed the right time to return the game.

Now that I’m back into the game, I honestly have no idea why I had so much trouble connecting with it the first time around. Maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe I was thrown off by the tonal shift in switching to the sequel immediately after re-playing The Last of Us Part I. Or maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace for something so dark.

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Games I Played in March 2025

Games
A baker in her kitchen in Birth | screenshot by me

Birth is a lovely point-and-click puzzle game created by Madison Karrh. Facing loneliness in the city, the main character decides to collect bones and organs to craft a companion to provide comfort. The player is then presented with the task of finding the bones and organs required to construct this companion. Moving through different spaces — stranger’s rooms, a market, a library, etc. — the player completes puzzles to find, uncover, and unlock the pieces.

Each puzzle is wonderfully crafted with intuitive solutions. None of them are particularly difficult, but they have a nice variety of puzzle types and layers of tasks that makes the gameplay feel satisfying. The only room in which I faced pure confusion was the art studio, which I returned to several times, thinking I missed something — but it was really just a chance to sketch and free play with the art supplies.

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