Review

Games I Played in March 2026

Games, Review
A screenshot from The Séance of Blake Manor showing three panels of images. The first is a view of the bustly streets of Victorian Dublin, Ireland. The second shows a man approaching another man who is reading a newspaper, and the third shows a letter being passed from one to the other.
The Séance of Blake Manor | screenshot by me

I started playing The Séance of Blake Manor (Spooky Doorway), a first person puzzle adventure and detective game. Declan Ward is hired to find Evelyn Deane, a woman who seems to have disappeared at Blake Manor. The Manor (a high-end hotel) is hosting a séance, attracting a dozen or so strange individuals who believe in the supernatural and strange. The player’s job is to explore the Manor, sneak into guest rooms, and interrogate guests and staff to find evidence of what happened to Evelyn — all of which is displayed on an elaborate mind map that allows the player to make connections to find the truth in the limited time before the seance takes place. Each investigative action costs the player a minute of time, building a sense of tension and the need to rush.

Continue reading →

Games I Played in February 2026

Games, Review
Screenshot from a video game, showing a computer terminal. Little PostIt notes stick to the sides with gameplay instructions. On screen is a postcard with text scratched out.
Transcribing a postcard in Dead Letter Dept. | screenshot by me

Dead Letter Dept., developed by Mike Monroe and Belief Engine, is a fantastic horror game with an interesting premise. After moving to the city, the player is taking part in a data entry job in an empty, dank warehouse in the middle of nowhere, filling in addresses that a mail-scanning system finds illegible. Each day, you wake, wander down the dreary corridors of your apartment hallway, hearing the muffled voices of your neighbors in their own apartments, and take the train to work.

The job — and gameplay — involves hand-typing in addresses and, in some cases, increasingly bizarre passages of text. Little narratives unfold in the strange letters and postcards sent through, each building a sense of dread. While typing, the electricity sometimes flickers and pops (multiple times causing me to jump) and also hear strange sounds of things shifting around the room.

Continue reading →

Games I Played in January 2026

Games, Review
Michelle is a stylish survivor in Sorry We’re Closed | screenshot by me

Sorry We’re Closed (á la mode games) is a survival horror game with immense amounts of style. The art (which is one of the first things that attracted me to it) is stunning, both the nostalgic computer graphics and the character portraits. The music hits the perfect vibes and the gameplay adds to the survival horror experience.

Michelle is a young woman working in a corner shot in a small neighborhood in London. Though on another continent, the community feels very much like some of the counter-culture neighborhoods I’ve seen in San Francisco, being full of charming punks, oddballs, and weirdos. Everyone seems a bit on edge, considering the number of disappearances in the area.

Continue reading →

‘Stray’ Is a Cute Cat Game… Full of Horrors

Review

In Stray , developed by BlueTwelve Studio, the player gets to experience what it’s like to be an ginger tabby cat exploring the ruins of the human world. At the start, the cat is living with a group of fellow strays, who wander along giant pipes and culverts, likely looking for food — when one of the pipes suddenly gives way causing the kitty to fall into a deep crevasse, with their cat family helpless to do anything but watch him disappear into the dark.

Alone in an underground structure full of garbage, the kitty must find their way back outside (hopefully to return to their family). Fortunately, he’s not alone in this journey. Neon signs and lighted arrows guide the cat through dark tunnels, helping him to avoid danger, and ultimately leading him to a small, empty apartment with a secret room full of computers and technology. After solving a simple puzzle, the cat encounters a new friend in the form of a small, floating robot.

B-12, as this robot is named, would also like to reach the Outside, because that’s what it’s long-dead creator wanted. So, it straps a battery pack to the kitty’s back and together, they head off to escape to the world above.

Continue reading on Once Upon the Weird…

Games I Played in October & Novemeber 2025

Games, Review

Looks like I forgot to share October’s games, so here are both months at once. Whoops!

October

Page for selecting video clips, showing he clips arranged in rows. One clips is highlighted for selection.
Selecting video clips in Immortality. | screenshot by me

I finished Immortality (Sam Barlow / Half Mermaid Productions), and it’s phenomenal. To learn how to play the game, the player really just has to dive in and discover how to play the game. The mechanics of pulling up videos, scrubbing them (playing, fast-forwarding, and rewinding), and then zooming in on objects or people in scenes allows for an impressive amount of discovery and exploration of this multi-layered and powerful narrative.

Marissa Marcel was an up-and-coming actor, who starred in three films — none of which ever aired. The game presents itself as a retrospective, allowing the the player to delve into clips from these films along with behind the scenes footage to discover her story. In the end, it’s so much deeper than the surface story, revealing a fascinating perspectives on how artists strive for a kind of immortality through their craft.

Continue reading →