Cyberpunk 2077 – Keanu Reeves

That joke will never get old. But in all seriousness, that’s really one of the largest reasons. I also really like the idea of a game that is in a Cyberpunk setting. Right now I’m enjoying Horizon: Zero Dawn, which isn’t cyberpunk, but has some interesting cyber elements to it, and I am curious to see a game take on something a bit more focused into the genre. I really hope that it is a well crafted game with a good story.

Ghost of Tsushima – A game that is set in Japan where you are playing as a Samurai sounds interesting to me. I also like games that have fighting, but don’t require me to poorly shoot things, since that is not my strong suit. I hope that this game has a bit of a slower feel to it, so that you get what seems more like a Samurai aesthetic as compared to a hack and slash game. Don’t know a ton about it, but definitely is one that’s caught my eye.

Diablo IV – This is a game that I might get in 2021, why is it on this list, because it’s coming out in 2020. Why would I wait, because Diablo III was unplayable at the launch. Things were changing almost every day, and one character build would go from poor, to overpowered to unplayable, to poor in the span of two weeks. Now, hopefully that won’t be the case with this one, but I’m going to take a wait and see approach before I get this loot heavy game.

NIOH 2 – Apparently I like the Japanese aesthetic, because it’s the second one on the list. This one is based off of Dark Souls in terms of play style, so I’m assuming it’s going to be punishing. Maybe they’ll put in a mode for the level of video gamer that I am. I’m more curious to hear about this one when it comes out and how the game actually plays before jumping at it.

Marvel’s Avengers – I’m curious about this one, but I’m not that confident that it’s going to be amazing. The footage thus far is just off, mainly because they decided to keep the characters looking close to the MCU versions of the characters without it being exact so they don’t have to pay for image rights. If the game play is good, that’ll make up for the odd looks but it’s a very much wait and see for me.

Iron Man VR – This is probably my most anticipated game, maybe after Cyberpunk 2077, but one that I’m not that likely to play because it’s VR and I get motion sick at times, but also because it’s VR and I don’t have a Playstation VR set-up. If it gets good reviews, I might get a Playstation VR set-up because there’s also Boardlands 2 in VR, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m just really curious for the technology and what it’ll mean for video games and is it there to do it well.

I came up with more games than I thought I might. Like I said, I tend not to buy games right away because I already have too many to play. For the video gamers in the audience, what is the standout game for you? I know I skipped over some big titles.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

I’m kicking it off with video games, now, these don’t have to be games that I played in 2019 or are from the year 2019, but just games that I really enjoy.

5 – Diablo III
Now, I played this when it came out, and it was basically unplayable. Things were horribly out of balance and they were changing it up seemingly every couple of days to try and balance things out, so you could play one session and things would be nerfed, and then the next session your character would feel OP, if you weren’t playing every day. They have fixed that and now everything is more stable, and I’ve had a lot of fun in this hack and slash or magic loot based game. It’s a pretty fast game once you get into it as you can just run around and destroy, especially when not playing on a high level.

4 – Tales from the Borderlands
The first of two Borderlands titles, this is not the classic looter shooter style of the other ones, but a story based choose your own adventure type of game. The plot is fun and funny as it matches up with the humor from the looter shooters. The choices that you have to make are interesting, and I’ve played through it twice, which isn’t that common for a video game. The whole game plays fast, though, and for that reason I was able to get it back to the Xbox. And, even with that, I feel like there are branches of the story that I haven’t really explored yet, which makes me interested in going back to it.

3 – Myst
This game I haven’t played in a long time. Maybe I’ll stream a playthrough of it on the Malts and Meeples Twitch channel as I have it for Steam. But I really loved it growing up, and I have fond memories playing it with my siblings and cousins as kids trying to figure out all of the puzzles. I don’t remember a ton of the story of the game or anything about the puzzles, but I remember how interesting the world was and how difficult some of the puzzles could be. It’s a classic game that sticks out in my mind and probably helps me love of puzzles in general.

2 – Borderlands 2
The best Borderlands thus far, I haven’t played through all of 3 yet, Borderlands 2 is just a fun and silly looter shooter. Every time they release a new Borderlands game, it’s always about what insane guns you have and can use. And there is a plot as well, which is generally quite good, which it definitely is in Borderlands 2. I also like the level of character customization in this game with the skill trees. A fairly open world game, but it does a solid job of keeping you on track.

1 – Dragon Age: Origins
This game has been high on my list for a while and one of the few games that I’ve completed multiple times. It’s open enough to give me interesting choices, but focused enough to keep me from feeling like there is too much to do. I like the story and while it is pretty straight forward, it always feels like there is a lot to do in the game. I also really like the dialogue and humor in the game.

I almost did a top ten, but since it’s been the top 5 for a couple of years now, I kept it that way, that, of course, means that we’re going to get some honorable mentions:

Dragon Age 2
Borderlands Pre-Sequel
Heroes of Might and Magic
Mario Kart (Switch/Wii)
Alpha Centauri
Need for Speed

What are some of your favorite video games of all time? Any crossover with me, or do you prefer a different genre of video game than some of my preferred?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

Core Books
I say you don’t have to get just books, but definitely consider getting just books. If you know someone who has been playing D&D for a while, as a player who doesn’t have the monster manual and they’ve been talking about getting into DM’ing, get them a monster manual or the Dungeon Masters Guide. Same can be said for someone in any of the game systems. If they don’t have one of the core books, consider getting it for them. Or if you have someone who is playing Star Wars: Force and Destiny consider getting them the Edge of the Empire core book.

Extra Content Books
Hey, more books, but we’re just getting the different types of books out of the way, one more to go after this one. When I say extra content books, also known as splatbooks, I’m talking about things like Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Xanathers Guide to Everything. These provide extra content for your game and might be world or class specific in games, but they aren’t going to give you a specific game that you have to play. Most game systems the longer they are around get more of them, so consider buying your DM extra content, or find the books that have player classes and get those for players in the game.

Campaign Books
Final type of book, these are the pre-generated campaigns that DM’s can run. These I would say be most careful when getting. If the DM you are getting it for runs games in their own world or in an existing world but their own stories, they might be pretty improv heavy or like to come up with their own stories in a very specific way. So a campaign book might not be as useful for them. However, maybe that’s what your group runs, if that’s the case, go ahead and find one that your DM doesn’t have, or go onto something like DM’s Guild and there are lots of things out there for campaigns (as well as other things).

Dice
Maybe your DM or player already has all of this that they want. I have yet to meet an RPG player who wouldn’t gladly take more dice. Depending on what system you use, the dice might be different, but if they are playing Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, you are going to be using the standard set of dice, so look for something that has a twenty, twelve, two ten, eight, six, and four sided dice. Or if they are playing the Dragon Age RPG, some six sided dice, or for the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG, the specific dice for that. Dice sets are generally not that expensive, so they make nice stocking stuffers. But it could be that you want to give a nice set of dice, consider Easy Roller Dice which can be made out of metal, so it’s a really nice set. I will say, I really like my metal dice from there, and because they are heavy, they roll very with a satisfying thud.

Dice Accessories
What are dice accessories? They are things like dice trays, dice towers and dice bags. These things just add a little bit of fun accessory wise for your game. A dice tray is nice, especially if you have metal dice because those can ding up a table or are just loud on a table. The dice tower means that your dice will roll a bit more randomly as it’s just something aesthetic to drop your dice into and have them bounce down through it. And a dice bag is really nice as it helps you move around your sets of dice more easily. For the dice bag, you could also just give them a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey as that can come with a bag that a lot of people use as a dice bag.

Spell Cards
Spell cards seem extra to the hobby, you can always just look up your spells in the players handbook or whatever supplement you have spells from. But Spell Cards allow you to track what you have available a whole lot easier and what spells you might have used or not have access to anymore. They aren’t that expensive when they are in print from Wizards of the Coast, so they can make a solid stocking stuffer.

RPG Video Game
Now, this one is completely different because it isn’t part of the table, it’s something that they can do separate from their regular gaming. While there aren’t a ton of amazing RPG video games out there, in my opinion, there are some really good ones. Consider grabbing one of them or grabbing a trilogy of them like the Dragon Age games. I’m sure there are a lot of other good ones out there, Diablo III comes to mind as well, so find one that you think would match what the person likes and get it for them on the system that they have. This can be trickier though, because they might not be a big video game fan, so if they aren’t, don’t force this one, there are plenty of other good things, or there are always dice.

I’m sure there are a whole lot more things out there for RPG players. If they are doing a podcast or video stream, that opens up a whole other realm of possibilities. Just spend some time figuring out what game they play as that might change up what they want, and I’m already thinking of other things that I could have put down, so use your imaginations for that RPG gamer in your life.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.