They found it in the gloom of a forgotten loft, pressed into the dirty blanket of foam glass insulation. In his final years, the old man had scribbled down every strange idea, every vivid dream, desperate to save these treasures of the mind. Twenty years after his passing, they uncovered the Crashbook.
A new page turns, revealing twenty-two more games I have not played.
598/ The Darkest Files
Germany, 1956. The war is over, but justice is not served. Former Nazis walk free, while their victims lie in unmarked graves. As a prosecutor, you’ll unearth long-buried evidence, confront witnesses and hunt down perpetrators. Will you have the courage to bring these “ordinary men” to court?
Crash notes: I was convinced I’d added this before, but no. This won the Best Serious Game and Best German Game in the Deutscher Computersprielpreis in April.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Released Mar 2025
599/ Snap & Grab
Do crimes using only your camera and your crew! In Snap & Grab, any photo you take could be the key to cool crime success. Travel to exotic sandbox locations, photograph treasures and reveal threats, then combine your photos in unique ways to create a rad heist plan.
Crash notes: Not entirely sure I got how this works from the trailers, but perhaps a good marriage of the heist and photography genres?
Windows | Steam Link | Released Apr 2026
600/ Saros
SAROS is an action game with the haunting story of a lost off-world colony on Carcosa under an ominous eclipse. You play as Arjun Devraj, a powerful Soltari Enforcer who will stop at nothing to find who he is looking for. Our goal is to create an emotional and powerful character study that explores the cost it takes to create a new future.
Crash notes: New Housemarque title, everyone. Sounds like they’re not bringing it to PC.
PS5 | Steam Link | Released Apr 2026
601/ Plentiful
Plentiful is a nature sandbox. You shape the land and everything responds—water, plants, animals, and your people. Learn how this world works. Your tribe’s survival depends on it.
Crash notes: I like the ingredients here but cannot tell if the concept has legs. Moving individual hex blocks looks fun – but is it wearying if you have to move a lot around?
Windows | Steam Link | EA
602/ Backtrace: Mechanisms for Forgetting
Backtrace is a yuri mystery and puzzle game set inside a retro computer. Log on night after night to uncover a story of internet exploits, unexpected friendships, and a chaotic crew of 80s hackers. Solve 2D grid-based puzzles to piece together the mystery.
Crash notes: So I had not heard of “yuri” which is, according to Wikipedia, a genre of Japanese media focusing on intimate relationships between female characters. Anyway, this looks great although I haven’t looked closely at the puzzling which I might need convincing on.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Unreleased
603/ Inkblood
You’re an Inquisitor following a trail of death. A cult is at work, your predecessor has vanished, and the region teeters on the edge of chaos. Find the truth. Uphold the Inquisition. Do not fail.
Crash notes: Oh, such fantastic animations on show here, although note not entirely wholesome with hands being stabbed, crows picking at dead bodies…
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
604/ Dungeons of Freeport
A Daily Extraction Roguelike Dungeon-Crawler. Play the same dungeons as everyone else, once a day. Select your gear and delve into dungeons, attempting to escape with the loot you obtain. Inspired by classical roguelikes of decades past, but with a modern interface and metagame.
Crash notes: Completely missed the release of this on itch, but fortunately I caught the notice about the Steam page going up…
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Just released
605/ MOTORSLICE
Parkour through the ruins of a megastructure, climb massive bosses, and hunt down every construction equipment in this slice of life action-adventure with immaculate vibes.
Crash notes: Normally, megastructure is a byword for grey brutalist buildings. Sure, Motorslice has a lot of grey – but the trailers reveal a world accented with yellow and blue.
Windows | Steam Link | Just released
606/ Automaton Heart
Automaton Heart is an RPG with platforming elements where you visit obscure and interesting places while upgrading your organs and strategizing about which items to bring along.
Crash notes: On Crashbook as this looks quirky and weird.
Windows, Linux | Steam Link | Just released
607/ Mixtape
On their last night together, three friends embark on one final adventure. Play through a mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation.
Crash notes: Plenty of folks saying this is great and it’s got the coveted Overwhelmingly Positive review status on Steam. Initially the critical outlook was positive but that was followed by a backlash, calling it out as fake nostalgia. It was the videogame drama for a week. Anyway, here it be.
Windows | Steam Link | Just released
608/ Phonopolis
Phonopolis is a story-driven puzzle adventure set in a hand-painted 3D world made of cardboard. Solve a wide variety of playful puzzles and help Felix end the Leader’s oppressive influence in a resonant dystopian city inspired by avant-garde art.
Crash notes: It’s Amanita time again. Their last release was Happy Game in 2021.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Just released
609/ Elmin
Elmin is a serene first person platformer where you bring winds back to a forgotten archipelago of islands. Fly between islands in a vibrant open world on the back of a mysterious giant bird, unlock wind routes and do parkour across the interconnected remains of an ancient civilization.
Crash notes: Immediately thought of Samurai Punk’s Feather when I saw this.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
610/ Wall Street Raider
Wall Street Raider offers the deepest stock market simulations in gaming history. Control publicly traded corporations, futures, options, and even crypto. Whether you want to make billions in equities, short-sell overvalued stocks, or hedge risk using derivatives, the market is yours to conquer!
Crash notes: Picked this one up from fellow traveller CampfireBurning on BlueSky. Wall Street Raider is “the deepest stock market simulation in gaming history you’ve never heard of” and has been “in active development since 1986”. The game’s website has testimonials of those the game inspired to get into finance. Hmm, is that a good thing? (Says the person who works in finance…)
Windows | Steam Link | EA
611/ The Talos Principle 3
The Talos Principle 3 is the last chapter of the thought-provoking first-person puzzle series, taking you on a cosmic journey across more than a dozen worlds and testing your mind with all-new challenges.
Crash notes: Yeah, I think I’d better finish that DLC. Of course there’s an omega in the logo, now. Of course.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
612/ They Took the Sun
They Took the Sun is a short action flight game. Speed through vast forsaken environments in search of gigantic mechanical monstrosities. Find their weak points and shoot them down.
Crash notes: From the developer of Elmin. This has a top vibe and people are making comparisons to Shadow of the Colossus.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
613/ she danced in the wind like a holographic dream before the world died
“The very last flower grew in concrete. She danced in the wind like a holographic dream before the world died.” A short interactive poetry experience, and science fiction, about the end. Explore brutalist ruins to collect memories of a dead world.
Crash notes: Nathalie Lawhead. She also recently released a short called Meanderware.
Windows | Steam Link | Released Mar 2026
614/ Luna Abyss
Luna Abyss is a single player story driven action-adventure with fluid platforming and bullet hell combat. Follow the journey of Fawkes, a prisoner of Luna caught between a cryptic prophecy and their prison sentence.
Crash notes: Visually this is stunning. The dialogue in the trailers I am less excited about.
Windows | Steam Link | Just released
615/ Algolemeth
“Connect the nodes and hack the Dungeon!” Algolemeth is an RPG where you control golem behavior through visual programming and let them conquer dungeons fully automatically. Refine your logic and, through trial and error, aim to master the dungeon!
Crash notes: A wild twist on the algorithm puzzle game has entered the chat. Heard about this on Bluesky – summarised as ‘insanely cool’ by Aura.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
616/ Éclaircies
Lost in a bewildering forest, discover a new way to run and walk through a vast and intricate environment. Create new trails, map the forest, leave your mark and use the stars to chart your way out as you make the most of your journey.
Crash notes: I can’t help getting some Proteus vibes from this. It’s a walking simulator, of course.
Windows | Steam Link | Just released
617/ Deck & Conn
Take command of a nuclear-powered space corvette in a Cold War-flavored sci-fi campaign. Balance tactics, crew, and limited resources in a dynamic forever-war. Retro pixel art meets deep strategy fifteen minutes into the future of 1989.
Crash notes: Another repeat developer in this episode! From the same developer as Dungeons of Freeport.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Steam Link | Unreleased
618/ Entropy
Entropy is a tactical turn-based RPG inspired by classic JRPGs. Assemble your party of mercenaries and forge your own path towards an expedition into hell to stop the demonic incursion. Choices you make along the way will determine the fate of your world.
Crash notes: I’ve never played Morrowind except for the character generation bit – but this reminds me of Morrowind. Yes, Morrowind that I’ve never played. Ah! It’s from the same crew who made Dread Delusion. I haven’t played that either.
Windows | Steam Link | EA
619/ DITTORI
Deep beneath the world, an ancient god stirs. Master the forbidden power of DITTORI, discover its secrets, and use it to bend reality to your will. Herald the end of all things.
Crash notes: Draknek & Friends are publishing this. I’ve heard very good things about DITTORI.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
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Having played a good bit of Luna Abyss, I can say it’s certainly scratching some kind of itch.
The movement and platforming really stand out in a way that I haven’t felt since I quit destiny 2.
Very cool spaces they’ve designed, although the iconography is very dramatic when compared to the story itself.
The UK litter bins in their classic black and gold are scattered all around the place, and were a bit of a jump scare amongst all the otherwise very industrial, glowing red, hellish style
Glad to hear Luna Abyss has got some crunchy game feel! Can you reach into the UK litter bins and get money and food, a la Bioshock Infinite?
Like their real-world counterparts, they are just for decoration, and appear not to be used
i thought Talos Principal 3 came out and i didn’t know LOL, i gotta get around to playing 2. Snap and Grab looks cool, i may snag it…
Dread Delusion is good! I’ve only played about three hours of it, mind.
I think I don’t understand the idea of the Crashbook. Is it just your backlog? Do you get to them eventually? Are these games you tried and crashed out of? Or are they games you’re never gonna play?
“I have a list of games.
It is a list of games that I have not played. There is no guarantee that I will ever play these games. There is no guarantee these games are any good. But maybe someone else will play them. Maybe someone else will discover whether they are good.
This is Crashbook.”
– Crashbook 1
John – yeah, William has it about covered. I see lots of games which look like they might be interesting and I used to have an enormous backlog of titles that “maybe I should check out”. You can’t buy everything, either.
So I just started putting them down as a series. They were originally stapled to the end of the newsletter but a list of game titles with no other information to speak of was pointless. And Crashbook was born.
Some of these games aren’t for me at all – there are many titles that I think I would dislike but included for other reasons. I’ll never try out all these games. I’ll never try to try out all these games.
But Crashbook ended up more popular than I expected so I keep it going.
Inspired by classical roguelikes of decades past 🙂
but with a modern interface 😀
and metagame. ;-/
Wow Elmin looks good. Somehow I scrolled past it and was a little confused when the They Took The Sun capsule mentioned it and then Elmin wasn’t out yet, and I thought “Hey this looks a bit like Feather!” We all love that Feather was a complete sandbox but… since that already exists maybe it’s nice that there’s some structure. I feel like “serene explorer” is a good place for me right now and with MOTORSLICE I was like, parkour looks cool, not sure about the giant boss fights. Anyway guess what system it doesn’t run on.
The art for Phonopolis made me say “Looks Amanita-like.” Then I read the text. Seems like it is one of their “You control the environment not the character” games which I’m very glad exists because it lets me make philosophical points about some people who say that the player always occupies a place in the story of a video game. (Xenosphere is especially good for this.)
Anyway I have been playing 868-BACK a lot. It is so good!
dangit the thingummy picturized my carefully crafted : – ) and : – D emoticons
I’ve been dabbling with traditional roguelikes lately and I love the look and sound of Dungeons of Freeport so much I picked it up last night. Daily dungeons? Cosy ASCII? A friendly-looking traditional roguelike with some personality and charm? Saw some reviews mention nice dungeon generation (instead of just square rooms and hallways) and great controller support so it was an easy buy at £7! (It was the map screenshot that swung it though). Wishlisted Deck & Conn too.
Returnal is one of my all-time favourites so I was gutted to hear Saros wasn’t coming to PC! I was glad to see Luna Abyss show up in its wake, with its Housemarque-esque bullet hell and fantasy sci-fi whimsy and weirdness. It’s one I want to check out in the future.
Inkblood, cor! Speaking of which, obviously I bought Phonopolis.
Algolemeth looks fascinating. A dungeon blobber that you watch! I love the idea of deliberating over all that logic then …just watching them go.
I wishlisted Éclaircies just from the screenshots but then unwishlisted it because of the walking motion in the trailer. I imagine it’s hell for folk who suffer from motion sickness (which a reviewer points out) but it also just looks a bit daft to me!
Wow, that Entropy screenshot reminds me so much of Final Fantasy VII’s overworld!
Hello Matt.
It’s okay on the emoji because when the comment arrived in my inbox it was left intact and uncorrupted.
Metagames! I really should write about Sol Cesto and Titanium Court but I’m full steam ahead on the game :/
I really should get on 868-BACK because I 868-BACKed it and already have a copy. I never played the original enough (my streaks were very short) and I always meant to go back. I guess it doesn’t stop me from getting into the new one.
And Gregg
Algolemeth sounded fascinating to me but I’m not sure I’m in the headspace for a game like that right now.
Now that you mention it, I do recall the head bobbing in the Éclaircies trailer. Surely that must be patched at some point with a toggle at least.
I’ve already started acquiring titles for the next Crashbook. Happened within a day of publishing!
It did strike me that the buffer wouldn’t remain empty for long with Geoff-fest imminent.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like the first year that they’ve actually captured that ‘E3 feeling’ of a torrent of interesting announcements across the spectrum, from big games to small. Though as the crashbook shows, it’s never been for lack of interesting games in itself..
I guess it poses the question of whether it’s better to be allotted your fifteen seconds of fame during a designated annual hype window, or have to hardscrabble whatever attention you can outside of it.
I see that Nightdive are doing a remake of Thief. I can’t think of a safer pair of hands, although I came to PC gaming just a year or so late to experience the legendary original. I still have a borrowed nostalgia for it courtesy of, I think, Kieron Gillen.
Much like System Shock, I find myself caught between seeing these remakes as the perfect opportunity to redress the deficit, and the hipster-purist insistence of experiencing the original (though without era-accurate hardware, how original would that experience even be?). And so of course I do neither! Sigh.
There’s a couple of Moomin games on the horizon, one a follow-up from the studio who did the very well-received Snufkin game, and another called Midsummer Madness from Crossbridge Studios, who I’m not familiar with. I mention this only because, in a small way, I’m convinced that Moomin is a culturally vital property, like Calvin and Hobbes.
Looking forward to Entropy! I loved Dread Delusion. One of those “world more interesting than plot” RPGs – kinda also like Morrowind, actually – but the world is actually interesting.
Also, yeah, 868-BACK is going to be very hard to top this year. I’m following the Secret Lives of Games (formerly Eggplant) podcast retrospective on Michael Brough and it’s been a great occasion to replay some of Michael’s games before diving into BACK.