How board games sum up the meaning of life through colorful cards and painted pieces
In a continuing series, Todd VanDerWerff tries the nerd obsessions he missed as a kid, and finds deeper meaning in all of them.
Revisiting Magic: The Gathering as a grown-up nerd
A former lonely, awkward game addict revisits the obsessive hobby he abandoned more than a decade ago.
#1: Dungeons & Dragons
A new column launches, as a writer long denied the nerdier things in life explores the experiences that create hard-core fanatics.
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Nerd Curious
How board games sum up the meaning of life through colorful cards and painted pieces -
Memory Wipe
Revisiting Magic: The Gathering as a grown-up nerd -
Review
Ninja Gaiden 3 -
Nerd Curious
#1: Dungeons & Dragons
Recent Games Reviews
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Ninja Gaiden 3
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A once-imaginative series succumbs to fatigue.
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Ridge Racer
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The damage isn’t limited to the onscreen action in this troubled racing game.
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Journey
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A beautiful game doubles as a spiritual pilgrimage.
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Silent Hill: Downpour
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A return trip to Silent Hill finds the town hasn’t kept up with the times.
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Mass Effect 3
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To the stars: The second Mass Effect sequel puts would-be blockbuster movies to shame.
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SSX
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A classic snowboarding game gets a worthy, if not always better, update.
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Binary Domain
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See robot? Kill robot.
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Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
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Remember part one? Get ready for déjà vu.
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Uncharted: Golden Abyss
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Nathan Drake: The Early Years.
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Asura’s Wrath
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Some experiments don’t turn out that well.
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PlayStation Vita
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Sony supplies a solid, though familiar, platform for handheld fun.
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PlayStation Vita Launch Games
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The Vita's launch lineup is nothing if not predictable.
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Twisted Metal
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The latest version of the car combat staples offers more than just mindless destruction, though there’s plenty of that too.
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The Darkness II
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Light-averse tentacle creatures need love too.
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Resident Evil: Revelations
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Survival horror for 3D fans on the go.
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Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning
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You might have played this sort of game before but this is a good excuse to play it again.
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SoulCalibur V
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A fighting franchise smooths out the action and ramps up the excitement.
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Final Fantasy XIII-2
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The lastest Final Fantasy chapter is dopey, beautiful, and impossible to resist.
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Scarygirl
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A graphic-novel-derived game gets the look right, but not the gameplay.
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Amy
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A survival horror game tests players’ patience.
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NFL Blitz
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A skewed take on football takes the sport to silly x-tremes.
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Mighty Switch Force
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A puzzle platformer lets players shift reality.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic
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Star Wars gets an MMO to call its own.
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The Adventures Of Tintin
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A game fails to do right by a venerable hero
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Trine 2
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Physics and spellcasting go side by side in this sequel.
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Where Is My Heart?
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A strange game asks players to take its title literally.
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Mario Kart 7
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Mario Kart hasn’t changed much, but that’s okay.
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Fortune Street
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Don’t call it Monopoly.
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King Of Fighters XIII
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Things don’t change much the 13th time around for a venerable fighting franchise.
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Corpse Party
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The title’s scary. The game’s even scarier (for a while).
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Rayman Origins
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How to out-Mario Mario.
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Need For Speed: The Run
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A coast-to-coast racing game takes too many shortcuts.
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The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword
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The latest Zelda installment combines excitement and heart.
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Saints Row: The Third
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An open-world crime game steps out of the GTA shadow.
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Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
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A franchise lurches forward.
Games newswire
- Disney shuts down LucasArts, ending its video game production
- Atari has filed for bankruptcy
- Movies and video games are to blame for enabling gun violence, says man whose sole purpose is to enable gun violence
- Gameological turned the last 12 months into a bunch of goofy browser games
- Angry Birds movie hires visionary who had the idea to reimagine Alvin And The Chipmunks
- Call Of Duty: Black Ops II makes $1 billion in 15 days
- Ruben Fleischer the latest to attempt Spy Hunter movie, mine narrative possibilities of cars shooting things into other cars
- It's game over for Nintendo Power
- Michael Fassbender to star in the Assassin's Creed movie that you finally don't have to do anything to make happen
- Yes, Reasonable Discussions is coming back
- Facebook just bought Instagram for $1 billion
- Introducing The Gameological Society, an A.V. Club partner site dedicated to games
- SXSW debuts exciting new future for homeless people as wi-fi hotspots
- You can ask game designer Tim Schafer anything this Sunday
- HBO hoping there might be a Game Of Thrones fan out there who also enjoys playing video games
- The A.V. Club is looking for interns who like videogames in New York
- A Twisted Metal movie is in the works from the Ghost Rider team
- Today in music videos: Bruce Springsteen invites you to sing along with "We Take Care Of Our Own"
- Double Fine Productions raises $1 million for new graphic adventure game in under 24 hours
- Grand Theft Auto V is officially happening, in case you were wondering
- Assassin's Creed video game to become a movie you can finally just sit there and watch
- UPDATE: New album from The Roots coming Dec. 6; stream the new single "Make My"
- R.I.P. Steve Jobs
- Yes, there will be another Mortal Kombat movie
- Lionsgate pretty sure it can turn that Dead Island video game trailer into a whole movie franchise
Games Features
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The Gameological Society
Author Adam Wilson on the “strategy” of NBA Jam and Streets Of RageTell us your weekend gaming plans in the comments.
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The Gameological Society
Caught you red-handed: 9 games with creative copy protectionIf you’re going to use DRM, you might as well have a sense of humor about it.
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The Gameological Society
A brief history of hilariously unrealistic sports gamesFrom Punch-Out!! to NFL Blitz, these are the sports games that made sports more fun.
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The Gameological Society
The Dungeons & Dragons arcade games betray their namesake, and that’s okayA lousy D&D adaptation can still be a great game.
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The Gameological Society
Disney decided who gets to make Star Wars games, and the Internet’s not going to like it—plus more game news in Gameological’s BulletinPlus: They're remaking <i>Wolfenstein</i> again.
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The Gameological Society
How games like The Walking Dead make players more caring peoplePundits claim games destroy empathy, but often they do the opposite
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The Gameological Society
For Mother’s Day, the Gameological moms talk about the games of their youthA Gameological tradition continues.
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The Gameological Society
Gameological Q&A: What’s the best Mega Man level?As Mega Man 2 Day kicks off, staffers make a case for the high points of the series.
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The Gameological Society
Turning your life into a game isn’t as awesome as it soundsSteve Heisler tried to improve his productivity by turning work into a game. The results were less than ideal.
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Great Job, Internet!
Read This: Shadow Of The Colossus' many hidden treasures, and the insanely dedicated players who find themMan searches for meaning at the edges of gameplay.
