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‘Blue Box’ X Betterment
In the season 2 premiere of Netflix’s Blue Box, one of the senior boys’ basketball players asks our protagonist Taiki,…
A Response to ‘Avatar: Seven Havens’, Itself a Response to ‘Avatar: The Legend of Korra’
It is almost impossible not to watch the first three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens (now streaming on Paramount+, at…
The Kings of Legal Procedurals are Attempting to Tackle Tech with ‘Cupertino’ (Pun Intended)
Robert King and Michelle King know how to make good television. The husband and wife duo are the masterminds behind…
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On Discourse: ‘Marvel’s Wolverine’ Review
Hey, So, We Gotta Talk. I am, unapologetically and loudly, what certain contingents of the internet would call “woke”. I…
Hide-and-Seek: A ‘Silent Hill: Townfall’ Review (Spoiler Free)
Skinfolk? In Silent Hill? I went into Silent Hill: Townfall apprehensive for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with…
Blizzard Has Plans, Apparently We Just Have to Wait Until 2030 – BlizzCon 2026
After three years without an in-person BlizzCon, Blizzard returned to Anaheim with an ambitious Opening Ceremony. So buckle up as…
The Stories that Make ‘Blood of the Dawnwalker’ an Unforgettable Journey
I don’t have a straightforward review for you regarding Blood of the Dawnwalker. There are so many reviews, guides, first…
‘GTA’ Might Be the Closest I Get to Affordable Homeownership
In GTA, I have felonies and disposable income. And respectfully, I am about to commit so many felonies. Image via…
What Do You Get the ‘Star Wars’ Fan that Has Everything? ‘Zero Company’
What I’m writing doesn’t start by telling a story of Star Wars. It starts with a story about XCOM 2….
Dungeons & Dragons’ ‘Warlock’ Trailer Got Me Ready to Slang This Magic
A while back I wrote a piece about playing Dungeons & Dragons as a magic user, so I’m sure you…
I’ve Been Chasing the ‘Witcher 3’ High for Over a Decade, and They Won’t Let Me Quit Them
What is even the word or phrase when you update one of the literal best games of all time? Gamescom…
Did ‘Palworld’ Just Get Palworld’d? – Looking at the ‘Aniimo’ Gamescon Trailer
It’s been just about 24 hours since the official release date trailer for Aniimo dropped. This game was apparently announced…
Power Up! ‘Mega Man: Dual Override’ Trailer Reaction
If someone asked me if Mega Man was a living franchise or a dead one, I’d stare at them blankly….
The Fight of Your Life! ‘Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls’ Review
I often tell people that there are video games, and there are fighting games. While, yes, fighting games are a…
You Can (Not) Always Go Home – One Guardian’s Eulogy to ‘Destiny 2’
I keep thinking surely this will be the last time I write about Destiny 2. I have told this story…
‘Gears of War: E-Day’ Already Has Me Preparing for (Emotional) Damage
There are fictional worlds you visit, and then there are fictional worlds that somehow take up permanent residence in your…
‘Gears of War: E-Day’ Already Has Me Preparing for (Emotional) Damage
‘Gears of War: E-Day’ Already Has Me Preparing for (Emotional) Damage There are fictional worlds you visit, and then there…
‘007: First Light’ Review: From Amazon, With Love
‘007: First Light’ Review: From Amazon, With Love Plot It’s all on the table for this one. Opens with a…
‘LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight’ is a Light in the Gloom
From the moment I saw the trailer for the newest title from Traveler’s Tales (LEGO Star Wars, Spyro the Dragon)…
‘Mixtape’ Review: Indie, But Not
Topic of Conversation There is a mild firestorm circulating parts of the game-o-sphere. A conversation about whether the game Mixtape…
Roguelikes and Roguelites Never Needed Narrative (But I Am Glad They Have Them Now) – An Oral History Inspired by the ‘Slay the Spire 2’ Timeline
The original Rogue was published in 1980. A procedurally generated dungeon crawler, the game’s story was as barebones as they…
‘Ghost of Yōtei’: “It’s Not Revenge She’s After, It’s a Reckoning”
If you’re lucky, you get to witness a piece of media that either entertains, redefines, or consumes you. For me,…
‘South of Midnight:’ Southern Gothic, Black Storytelling, and a Game That Feels Like Coming Home
A Soulful Journey Through Loss, Hope, and the Beauty of Black Southern Life The South has always been haunted. By…
‘Split Fiction’ is What Happens When Puzzle Night Meets Fandom Deep Cuts
Puzzle Games? Love ‘Em. Co-op Stress? Not So Much. I’m a puzzle girl. Always have been. Crosswords, escape rooms (especially…
A World on Fire, A City Beneath the Sea: Revisiting ‘Bioshock’ and Its Enduring Storytelling
How Bioshock’s Storytelling Still Resonates in Chaotic Times The world is on fire, but I needed to find some water….
‘Luck Be a Landlord’ – There Really is a Roguelike for Everything Including Slot Machines and Rent
I’m usually fairly up to date on the various comings and goings of the roguelike genre. I can tell you…
For Azeroth and For Me: How ‘World of Warcraft’ Helped Me Find Myself Over 20 Years
World of Warcraft (WoW) turned 20 this year, and while its expansions have seen peaks and valleys, it has been…
BNP Staff Favorites for 2024: Video Games
So…2024 was a hell of a year. Both eventful and in some respects…hellish. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some…
Between Lore and Outrage: The Divided Fate of ‘The Veilguard’
Well, That Wasn’t Shocking, But It Still Stings After last night’s Game Awards ceremony, where The Veilguard snagged just one…
30 Years of PlayStation Being in My Family
I turned on the PS5 to give people the business get my shit rocked in Marvel Rivals and a logo…
‘Beastieball’ is ‘Pokémon’ Meets ‘Haikyu’ and a Prime Example of Why I Love Indie Games
I was browsing my BlueSky timeline when I saw my friend, Josh Boykin over at Intelligame (go check him out)…
Point and Clicking Like It’s 2007/2008 – ‘Sonny Legacy Collection’ Review
I gave my eulogy to flash games years ago. In the ever-evolving landscape of shifting digital architecture, the flash format…
Ghost of Yōtei: Sword In Hand, Gender Be Damned
“Boy, girl, you are a sword, that is all.”- Syrio Forel We’ve been manifesting a new Ghost of Tsushima game…
One Month After the Final Shape: A Decade-ish of ‘Destiny’ in Retrospect
It is not hyperbole to say that Destiny irrevocably changed my life for the better. When I first pre-ordered the…
The Other Kind of Environmental Storytelling
When we talk about environmental storytelling, it’s typically within the context of video game design. It’s the collection of details…
A Pastel Colored Time Capsule: Returning to the ‘New Horizons’ Archipelago
After the workday wrapped up, I collected all of my things in my bag. Fishing rod, net, ax, shovel, slingshot,…
A Para-causal Ludonarrative Dissonance
Ludonarrative dissonance – When the non-interactive elements and the narrative told through the game mechanics are at odds with each…
An Embarrassment of Riches: The Year of Gaming 2023
This is not a tale of two cities, although it does start in an oddly parallel way. The year of…
The Unfathomable Horror of the Unknowable
As the spookiest season passes us and Remedy has seen fit to bless (or perhaps curse) the world with the…
The Roguelike Enthusiast Facetanks Their First Soulslike to Completion
I never beat Elden Ring. After defeating the first major skill check of a boss, scuttling about the seemingly endless…
D.U.C.T.: More Applied Schema Theory in ‘Destiny 2’
A while back, I wrote about how Destiny 2’s Duality dungeon utilized schema theory to help guide guardians through the…
My Create Custom Character Always Goin’ Be a Black Woman
Aight, so boom. I’ve been a reoccurring guest repping Black Nerd Problems on the New Blerd Order podcast talking about…
A Masterclass in Sequels – ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of…
It’s Time to Abandon Morality Systems…in Games
I am a little behind on the times, but I have spent the last month working my way through Marvel’s…
She Deserved Better – A ‘Forspoken’ Introspective
*Mild Spoilers for Forspoken* When Forspoken was first announced and the main character of Frey was shown, I was super…
My Greatest Regrets in Video Game Romances, Part 2
A couple years ago, I lamented over the fact that a younger version of me had dedicated to romancing Ashley…
The 2023 Video Games Forecast Report
So despite being the in-house resource for video games, I actually play staggeringly few games as I tend to take…
A Quick Loop Back and Forward Through the Modern Heyday of Roguelikes
Welcome back to the start of another essay about roguelikes. Are you honestly surprised that we have somehow managed to…
An Ode to ‘Deep Stone Crypt’
It was November 2020. After an excruciating long season with Arrivals that had been constantly foreshadowing the coming Darkness and…
A Tier List for Talking Tutorials
Over my eight years and counting tenure as a technical writer, I’ve gained an appreciation for the teaching tools that…
Please Just Point Me in a Direction: An Opine of the Opening of Open Worlds
You can stop me if you have heard this one before, but did you see the game with the trailer…
Highlighting Courtney Lee, Social Media Manager for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
We here at Black Nerd Problems had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Courtney Lee, the social media manager…
The Roguelike Enthusiast Describes Their First Soulsbourne Experience
One of the first games I ever reviewed for this site was Subset Game’s Into the Breach, the follow up…
Finally, I Get to Give My First Impressions on the Steam Deck
I, like many other children of the early 90’s, became a gamer thanks to Nintendo’s GameBoy. Mine in particular was…
A Retrospec-dle: Looking at Variants and Variant Timelines of Wordle
So before I talk about Worlde, I actually have to talk about crosswords. You see, near the start of the…
Dissecting the Design of Destiny 2’s Duality Dungeon
Back in high school English classes, there was this trend amongst my peers and I that after we learned about…
First Impression of ‘Oaken’: A New Tactical Roguelike
As someone incredibly well versed in the iterative process of slowly getting better, accumulating knowledge and resources in an endless…
D&D and Borderlands Make a Great Couple! – ‘Tiny Tina’s Wonderland’ Review
Sorry y’all, I know I’m a bit tardy to the party. But better late than never! If you’re a fan…
You Will NEVER Escape! – ‘Kingdom Hearts 4’ Announced
Square Enix just celebrated the 20th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts (20 years!? Wow I feel old) and fans were foaming…
Do Not Resuscitate: ‘Dying Light 2’ Review
The original Dying Light was one of my favorite games when it came out. The zombie parkour open world adventure…
Coming with the Bigger and Better Model: ‘Horizon: Forbidden West’ Review
Forbidden West Side is the Best Side You know what it is! Your girl Aloy is back on the block…
‘PopSlinger’ Shakes Up Side-Scrolling
Shake It Up Beat’em-ups are undergoing a revival in recent years. Side-scrolling action games may never again reach the heights…
‘Inscryption’ is a D-D-Duel to the Death
In the Cards Looking from a video game developer’s perspective, one can see the appeal of cards. Taking a game…
