Prologue: Go Wayback – Joined the Playtest

“Because clearly I don’t already have enough survival games trying to freeze, starve, or otherwise humiliate me.”

I’ve just joined the Prologue: Go Wayback playtest on Steam. It drops you into a massive, freshly generated wilderness with nothing but your wits, a map, and the eternal hope you can light a fire before hypothermia claims you.

I’ll be playing this on my Steam Deck, so when the first impressions post goes live I’ll not only talk survival mechanics, but also how it runs in handheld mode. Portable chaos, as always.

Want In?

I’ve got three extra invites to hand out. If you’re a friend of mine on Steam (Survivor Incognito) and want to try Go Wayback for yourself, give me a shout. First come, first served.

More Info Coming Soon

Once I’ve had a proper session in the woods, I’ll be back with a full write-up — controls, survival systems, Steam Deck performance, and whether the fire-making is as fiddly (and satisfying) as advertised. Keep an eye on the blog if you want to see how gloriously wrong it goes.

Useful Links

8th Sep 2025 0

Calm in Life, Chaos in Games

Describe your ideal week.

A balance of real calm and digital chaos. In real life: quiet mornings, good coffee, and no surprise blizzards. In games: just enough wolves, zombies, and survival disasters to keep the stories interesting. My ideal week is one where I can relax, play, and then laugh about how badly things went in the write-up.

(Plenty more ideal weeks ruined by wolves at Survivor Incognito.)

8th Sep 2025 0

Endurance in Real Life vs Survival Games

Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.

Endurance athletes. Marathon runners, ultra-cyclists, mountain climbers — the ones who push themselves to the limit and keep going. In survival games, I’m exhausted after jogging across a frozen lake with a backpack full of sticks, so I have huge respect for people who do the real thing without a pause menu.

(For digital endurance tests — usually ending worse — Survivor Incognito has the stories.)

7th Sep 2025 0

Survival Games Are My Spa Day

How do you relax?

By doing the exact opposite of relaxing: playing survival games. For some reason, dodging wolves, zombies, and blizzards calms me down more than meditation apps ever could. If I can unwind while starving in The Long Dark, real life feels positively restful.

(Plenty more questionable relaxation methods at Survivor Incognito.)

6th Sep 2025 0

Snowrunner Survival: The Permagear Diaries – Driver Log Eight: Flips, Fuel, and a Double Rescue Mission

Red goes rogue in Smithville Dam, flipping twice while chasing a Watchtower. Frank clears a blocked road, performs a double rescue, secures an engine upgrade, then hauls fuel back to Black River to set up tomorrow’s delivery for “The Essentials.”

📜 Series Hub: SnowRunner Survival: The Permagear Diaries Main Hub

🛠 Rules: SnowRunner Permagear Rules

💡 Why Permagear Works: Read the reasoning behind the challenge

Missed Day Seven? Find it here.

🛣️ Crossing the Dam (and the Line)

With most of Black River mapped and missions cleared, I decide it’s time to see what Smithville Dam has to offer. Red’s fired up and we set “The Essentials” as the main task — one item in Smithville, the rest in Black River. Easy on paper. Reality had other plans.

🚧 First Roadblock: Literal Roadblock

After finding the Smithville garage, I immediately hit a blocked road needing Service Parts. Luckily, there’s a depot basically around the corner. I pencil that in for after I grab the nearby Watchtower.

🔄 Red Goes Rogue (Twice)

I point Red up the Watchtower track and—whoops—he flips onto his side. Full turtle. There’s only one truck for this kind of drama: Frank.

I transport Frank into Smithville, pick up the Service Parts, clear the roadblock, and roll out to rescue Red. Frank rights him like the dependable legend he is… and Red immediately repays the kindness by rolling over again. Cue rescue mission #2. Frank handles it without breaking a sweat.

🔍 Watchtower Found, Upgrade Secured

With Red back on his wheels (twice), we nab the Watchtower and ping a nearby upgrade: an engine that fits both Red and Scout. Whether it’s actually better is a question for the next garage visit — I’ll compare stats when we’re back under a roof.

⛽ Frank Hauls, Like a Pro

While Red takes a breather, Frank gets back to business. He grabs Fuel for “The Essentials,” hauls it over to Black River, and calls it a night — textbook veteran move.

📅 Tomorrow’s Mission

Fuel staged, Frank is ready to finish “The Essentials” delivery tomorrow. Red? He’s on probation until he proves he can stay upright for more than ten minutes.

Want more SnowRunner? Day 9 link coming soon.

5th Sep 2025 0

The Survivors’ Book of Grudges

Are you holding a grudge? About?

Yes — against every wolf, cougar, and zombie that’s ever ended one of my permadeath runs. Do I forgive? Eventually. Do I forget? Absolutely not. Those pixelated ambushes live rent-free in my head, and probably always will.

(Plenty more grudges, respawns, and survival stories at Survivor Incognito.)

4th Sep 2025 0

Surviving the Milky Way: An Elite Dangerous Survival Diary – Day 2: The Rustbucket Rises

Day 2 – The Rustbucket Rises

“These are the voyages of one unprepared Commander. Their mission: to break in a second-hand Adder, deliver mail faster than expected, and discover that cargo pickups can crash more than just your ship.”

From Scraprunner to Rustbucket

The ISS Scraprunner got me this far, but when I spotted an Adder for sale, I couldn’t resist. A few credits later and some questionable tinkering produced the ISS Rustbucket, registry RBT-01. Upgrades included a new Frame Shift Drive, thrusters, fuel scoop, more cargo racks, and an extra weapon. The one thing I didn’t touch? Shields. Whether that’s wisdom or hubris, time will tell.

Courier Life

The mission board offered one contract labelled high threat. I decided exploding wasn’t on today’s agenda and picked safer jobs instead:

A data delivery to Marius Relay in the Col 285 Sector AM-R b19-4 system.
An agricultural supply run—which bizarrely meant transporting six units of personal weapons—to Wesker’s Pride in the Col 285 Sector BV-E a41-1 system.

On the way to Marius Relay, I got a message offering a bonus for quick delivery. Challenge accepted. The new fuel scoop kicked in automatically, topping up my tank as I skimmed stars. Docking complete, data handed over, and I even ranked up to Peddler. Not glamorous, but it’s better than “galactic stowaway.”

The Cargo That Wasn’t

Then it hit me—I hadn’t actually collected the weapons before leaving. Back to the station I went, already dreading the 20+ jump route ahead. It would at least be a good test for the Rustbucket’s scoop, or so I told myself.

Ten minutes of fiddling with menus later, I finally thought I’d sorted the cargo pickup. That’s when the game crashed. Server connection lost, mission abandoned. The Rustbucket sat waiting, but my courier career ended in digital silence.

Rustbucket Status Report

Ship: ISS Rustbucket (Adder)
Upgrades: FSD, thrusters, fuel scoop, cargo racks, weapons
Untouched: Shields (future-me will regret this)
Rank: Peddler
Mood: Triumphant → Confused → Disconnected

Next Time

With the Rustbucket ready and the galaxy waiting, I’ll try again. Hopefully the servers stay awake long enough for me to actually deliver cargo. Otherwise, I’ll just become the Milky Way’s most overqualified data courier.

Continue the Journey

← Day 1 | Day 2 (You Are Here) | Day 3 →

Surviving the Milky Way: Series Hub

The Rules of the Stars

3rd Sep 2025 2

A Safehouse Without the Wolves

What does your ideal home look like?

Honestly? Somewhere between a safehouse in The Long Dark and a base in Subnautica. Warm, stocked with supplies, maybe a decent view — but without the constant threat of wolves, blizzards, or flooding. Basically, four walls, a roof, and the comforting knowledge that I don’t need to boil my drinking water.

(Plenty more questionable housing choices at Survivor Incognito.)

2nd Sep 2025 0

Survivor’s Dread: Exit 8 – Lost in the Corridor

“The corridor doesn’t need to chase you. It just waits for you to blink.”

The Setup

Exit 8 is a short horror game where survival means noticing anomalies in a looping subway corridor. Miss one and you reset. I played it on the Steam Deck under my Loop = Life rule: every reset is a death, only one survivor escapes.

The Diary

First survivor: I spotted the red water in corridor two. I caught the wall-man in corridor four. Each time I turned back, rewarded by the corridor’s shift. By corridor six, I thought I was safe. Then—blink—reset. No attack, no warning. Something small slipped past me, and that survivor was gone.

What I missed: Door 3 handle placement (corridor six) — misaligned compared to earlier loops.

Second survivor: Paranoia sharpened my vision. Lights flickered and died. A man with a briefcase walked far too fast. A poster grew eyes that tracked me. A face stared from the ceiling. I turned back every time, trusted my instincts, and finally—finally—the real exit appeared. One survivor made it out. The corridor kept the rest.

The Video

Here’s the full successful run, captured raw on Steam Deck:

Survivor’s Thoughts

Exit 8 isn’t about combat. It’s about attention and paranoia. You can catch the obvious anomalies and still fail to a blink. That’s the horror here: survival through vigilance, failure through doubt.

Continue the Journey

More eerie one-shot diaries live in the Survivor’s Dread Hub. Next stop: Platform 8 — the train that never ends.

1st Sep 2025 1

Turning Disasters Into Stories

Why do you blog?

Because survival games are too good not to laugh at. I blog to turn my in-game disasters into stories — freezing, starving, or getting mauled by wolves feels a lot better once it’s written down with humour. It’s part therapy, part chaos log, and part proof that thriving is possible (even if my characters keep proving otherwise).

(Plenty more survival chaos turned comedy at Survivor Incognito.)

31st Aug 2025 0