Game 1 of 2025 - The Crush House

The Crush House

Developer: Nerial
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Platform: PC
Genre: Dating Sim/Mystery

Difficulty: Easy
Hours: 6

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 6/10

The Crush House is ok. 

You work as a producer on a Real World-esque reality show. You choose four contestants to live in the house for a season (which is only a week) and if you are able to satisfy certain audiences, you get to keep your job. As you play, you discover that the Crush House has a dark secret.

The positives: The game is often very funny, and some of the audiences you have to satisfy are just hilarious. In addition to your drama queens, teenagers, and wine moms, you've also got plumbers, conspiracy theorists, spiral enthusiasts (never figured this one out) and lighthouse fans.

The negatives: The dialog is pretty much the same from season to season. You have the same pool of characters to choose from, which kinda makes the mystery of the game obvious from the start. Despite having unique personalities, they all kind of act the same. Also they're all crazy and their behavior from one scene to the next is completely inconsistent.

This is tough to recommend, but if you find it on sale, maybe give it a shot.

Hypnospace Outlaw - Game 20 of 2023

Hypnospace Outlaw

Developer: Tendershoot, Michael Lasch, ThatWhichIs Media
Publisher: No More Robots
Platform: PC
Genre: ...I'm not really sure. Puzzle? Adventure?

Difficulty: Some hard-ass puzzles
Hours: ~5

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9.7/10

I'm not sure how to describe Hypnospace Outlaw other than FuCkInG aWeSoMe!!!!!

I choose T4b1l3sp00n as my handle, which was funny to listen to the AI pronounce

Dive back into the 90s internet as a HypnOS Enforcer. Your job is to moderate Hypnospace, a network that users log into while they sleep. Users access Hypnospace via a special headband that they wear while sleeping, allowing their subconscious to socialize and browse while their body rests.

As a volunteer Enforcer, you'll be tracking down cases of harassment, copyright infringement, illegal file sharing, and malware. You're not paid in real money but in Hypnocoin, which you can use to buy  things like music, desktop wallpapers, and virtual pets.

The hypnopages just scream 90s internet, complete with cringy boomers, conspiracy theories, edgy spinning graphics, and embedded music. There's even a collectible sticker game (SquisherZ) which has a theme song and it slaps! It's these details that really help make Hypnospace Outlaw something great.

Even Hypnospace isn't immune to bullshit moral panics.

Hypnospace Outlaw also gets fairly difficult later in the game. The first few cases you get can be solved by just browsing some webpages, but eventually you need to peace together clues yourself, using snippets of information you get from webpages along with the search function to find the information you need. A few of these puzzles are tricky, but so rewarding once you find the solution. 

The game also has a great, tense, story that's told through webpages, email threads, and cases, which kept me playing late at night. It's not a horror game, but there are moments that are truly unsettling.

Hypnospace Outlaw is absolutely worth your time. I feel guilty grabbing it for cheap during a Steam sale, as I would have gladly paid full price for this one.