In the last 10 years that pattern is increasingly, for me, built around competitive or cooperative multiplayer. Yet, despite the amount of time that this trend has sustained itself, the experiences that exist all fall into well tread and familiar genres. Overwhelmingly we get shooters. After a year of playing cooperative games with my family, we have all begun to notice that what we’re looking for, somehow, doesn’t exist.

The last few months have been...rough. That’s putting it mildly. It’s been a full year now since I quit my job at GameStop, a full year of pandemic lockdowns started, and four months since the birth of my son. A heaping spoonful of good added to a stew of less than ideal.

PlayStation exclusives refined themselves this generation. They are heightened storytelling experiences with a tremendous amount of good writing, jaw dropping visuals, and reimagined mechanics. Have they been a consistent wellspring of innovation? No. But then neither has prestige television. It’s a familiar system, twisted and turned, made to look fresh. And it’s perfect, and learning.

I have always dabbled in driving games. I have fond memories of winning a few races in Gran Tourismo well before I was old enough to understand the ins and outs of tuning an automobile for the track. I have fond memories of specific moments of car games, but very few of those same games have kept my attention for very long. Then three things happened: Forza Horizon 4 came out. I learned that my control scheme wasn’t conducive to what I was wanting to do. 2020 happened.

Strategy video games are near and dear to my heart. My childhood was full of long nights playing Age of Empires II, Empire Earth, and Civilization III. Later, when my friend’s older brother decided we were mature enough to appreciate one of the greatest in the RTS genre, we were introduced to Starcraft.

The goal of any game, table top, digital, or otherwise, is to catch your eye. Walking the floor of Pixel Pop 2017 there was one game in particular that shouted "Come look at this!" Anthromancer is the creation of the multitalented folks at Dancakes. Yes, that is correct. Pancake artists by day, the people at Dancakes are also hard at work on a board game that is damn beautiful.

NerdyBits EIC Caleb Sawyer got a chance to talk with some of the devs responsible for Coffee Talk. Join them as they talk about their inspirations, motivations, and of course their favorite drinks to order at a coffee shop.

As we all get ready to wrap up 2019 I wanted to share my thoughts on this year in cinema. This has been one of the greatest years for movies that I can remember, and we’ll be setting the bar very high in my first annual year in review. At the time of this writing I have been to the theater 37 times for 34 different movies.

Playing Outer Wilds prompted a mental reaction I have never had before. Somewhere in the space between planets, as I sought out the clues to solve this rapidly decaying universe, I found the answer to a question I never asked. All the time I spent with this game was fraught with tension and trepidation until I knew what I was meant to do; A lesson with surprising connections to one’s journey through life.

When I was a kid, in fact, when most of us were kids, our options for games to play were limited. I still remember planning out what game or two I would have for summer break. There is so much out there to play, so many things to discover, you should never feel like you have to like something. Someone out there is making your favorite game. Maybe it’s already out!

2018 was a stellar year for games. From God of War kicking the door down in March, to Fortnite redefining persistent online experiences, to Red Dead Redemption 2 causing games to flee its wake, to Celeste, Owlboy, and Gorogoa taking hearts and thumbs by storm. It is impossible to tell people what they should go out and play because the list is humanly impossible to complete. That is, unless you are superhuman. So, rather than trying to page through every single Black Friday ad, we thought it would be more fitting to give you a list of games that you have to play.

If PlayStation’s offering came across a bit meager for variety, the Nintendo Switch is going to look a downright barren. Nintendo has been known to stick to their guns when it comes to pricing both their systems and their accessories, making Black Friday a small event for them, rather than the doorbusting sale you will see for everyone else. You can expect to find the Switch at its normal price of $300 across the board. If you are looking for accessories there are a few dynamite deals at each big store worth looking into. GameStop is selling the Mario Odyssey and Zelda Breath of the Wild accessory bundles for $34.99, down from their usual $70. They also give you a $50 gift card for the purchase of a new switch, which would make grabbing a few games a bit easier.

PlayStation struts into Black Friday boasting the most systems sold in this console generation. Yet, (perhaps therefore) their offering for Black Friday is a bit shallow. Good deals are still out there but you will find them in far fewer varieties than Xbox. To start things off, literally every big box and electronics store is going to have the Marvel’s Spider-Man Slim 1TB PS4 for $199.99. GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target all have the bundle and it is easily Sony’s best offering this year.

Xbox is coming to Black Friday with some solid offerings. With systems lower then last year, you can look to find the Xbox One S in nearly any store (Walmart, Best Buy, Target, GameStop, and the Microsoft Store) for a cool $200, while Target and GameStop will reward you with a gift card for you console pick up ($20 and $50 respectively). Similarly, if you need to grab an extra controller, controllers are dropping $20 across the board, with the Microsoft Store also dropping their Design Lab prices by $10. If you are looking to bring home the beefy Xbox One X, Walmart and The Microsoft Store have both knocked $100 out of the MSRP, while Best Buy and Gamestop have the X for sale for 429.

It’s not without a significant amount of dread that I finally sat down to write this. It has been nearly four full months since my grandfather’s passing and in that time every pursuit of outlet through writing has been stymied by a stifling sort of existential dread and survivor’s syndrome. Though upon typing that I feel it is more accurately summed up by simply saying, for the last three months I have felt like a failure.

I played for extremely bad teams throughout high school. Summer ball was a bit different, but my freshman and sophomore Varsity team won ten games all together. It didn’t phase me at all. Get back out there tomorrow. It was an invaluable philosophical experience for teenage me. Baseball taught me that I was going to lose, a lot, but that the most important part of those losses would be picking myself up the next day, the next at-bat, the next inning, and trying again. Learning from failure. Embracing shortcomings as lessons.

There are a lot of lists out there about all the exotic guns you need to have in Destiny 2, but you can only equip a single exotic at a time. It is just as important to be able to put together a solid loadout, with or without exotics. There are so many ways to do this I can't possibly cover them all. What I can do, is tell you all about the most utilitarian weapons I have found, and how they compliment each other, in both PvP and PvE. You'll find a mix of exotics and lengendaries here, and the list may expand with expansions.

I remember where I was the first time I listened. I was working a closing shift at Starbucks. I had been put on dishes and I had discovered that, if you do it right, you can tuck your headphones down your shirt, into your pocket, and listen to podcasts while you washed dishes. I remember standing with my left earbud in, washing pitchers and tongs, hating where I was in life. But here, three sons and their father embarked on a goofy, stupid quest. And for a moment, I forgot about where I was.

Zap Blastum is fun. That is the first thing I thought as I tapped away at the screen, strategically placing myself against cover to take potshots at less guarded foes. An isometric perspective cover-based shooter, the game uses touch controls, a feature that will make the game a blast on mobile devices and tablets. It is easy enough to pick up. Touch the spot you want to run, touch the enemy you want to shoot. The complexity comes in the form of enemy types and cover angles.

With the current political climate as it is, it only makes sense that it impacts as many levels of media as possible. Benjamin Poynter's (@BenjaminPoynter) Marshall's Theory, puts players in control of the President of the United States during one of his nightmares. A strange mix of hilarity and morbidity, "Marshall's Theory [is] a game with a central theme of paranoia."