Welcome to the Nerds at Large Blog

Trying something new.

Jacob’s Top Ten Games of 2022

I can’t say I played very many video games in 2022. Shockingly, grad school takes up a lot of time and energy, and I was also broke most of the year. So it goes! The games I did play, however, were truly an exceptional bunch, especially in terms of narrative ambitions. It was shocking the...

Jacob’s Top Ten Games of 2021

As I sit here in January trying to figure out how I want to start this article, I am struck with wondering why am I doing this? Why do I want to write this article? What compels me to write a game of the year list in a year when playing video games was not...

Backlog Beatdown #2: Drakengard 3

Welcome to Backlog Beatdown where I play and write about the 70+ games in my backlog! It’s a pretty simple concept. After finishing Nier: Replicant ver. 1.22, I wanted more Yoko Taro in my life. Rather than replay Nier: Automata, I decided it was time to clear off something that has been sitting in my backlog for quite a...

Backlog Beatdown #1: An Introduction

Hi everyone. I know this blog has been mostly dead these past six months. There are reasons for that, I assure you — mainly applying to graduate school, revising and publishing my first essay, and work resuming normal operations as the pandemic calms down. All of this has left me with little creative energy to devote...

Little Nightmares II Review

Tarsier Studio’s follow-up to their 2017 horror puzzle-platformer stays true to what made the original game notable, for better and for worse. Despite my enjoyment of Little Nightmares II (2021), I came away from it with the same conclusion I had with Little Nightmares (2017): that at the end of the day, it’s something I might enjoy more as...

Jacob’s Top Ten Games of 2020

Video games in 2020 often felt like trivialities. Even though I probably had more time this past year to play games than in 2019, I found it harder to do so. I simply wasn’t getting the same level of enjoyment out of games that I normally did. Part of the reason was because of current...

There Is No Escape: How Hades Connects Game Genre and Greek Myth

Warning! This article contains story spoilers for Hades. “Ugh, witches,” the protagonist groans. Weaving around a barrage of projectiles in a room filled with deadly magma, I am inevitably caught by one stray projectile too many. “There Is No Escape.” This all-too-familiar message flashes across the screen as I watch the hero fade into a pool of...

Monthly Music Roundup: September 2020

Ultra Mono is Idles at their most thunderous, abrasive, and blood-pumping.

Monthly Music Roundup: August 2020

Charley Crockett uses his rich and buttery voice to fill his songs with life and an air of authenticity.

Carrion Review

If you’ve kept up with my blog posts, first of all, thank you. Secondly, you might have noticed that my reviews and analyses for games this year are longer, more critical, and more academically informed. This is deliberate, of course. I’m more interested in writing about games through a cultural lens nowadays than evaluating it...