It sounds like your video card isn't up to playing these games. The Amnesia game site says "Integrated graphics will likely not work. Low cost video cards may perform worse, or not work at all, even if they are much newer than older medium to high range cards." The Dear Esther requirements seem to be higher:
"Graphics: DirectX 9 compliant video card with Shader model 3.0 support. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better (Pre-Sandybridge Intel graphics chipsets not yet supported)"
What video card do you have?
If you don't know, run the DirectX diagnostic Tool to check:
Click the Start button in the lower left of your desktop screen. Type
dxdiag
in the Start Search and OK it. Type in your password if it prompts you to.
Select the Display tab.
We need the Name: of the card and the Chipset: