A Bit of Admiration: How I Came to Terms with being Nerdy

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and we didn't necessarily celebrate it in the way that we usually do. Typically, my father, stepmother, husband and I celebrate this wonderful, gluttonous holiday on our own in my parents' house in Connecticut. This year, given the unfortunate stroke of a close friend, we decided to go and spend Thanksgiving with him and his family instead. Having never met his family, and given my propensity towards awkward social situations, I was nervous. The first few uncomfortable handshakes had confirmed what I felt positive about: this was going to be awkward, I was going to be the weird one that no one would talk to, etc.

Luckily for me, I was wrong.

A Bit of Psychosis: Loaded

HOW MANY BITS, MERCER? 7/8 BITS.

Loaded, if you had a Playstation and were into bloody, gory, shoot 'em ups without much of an intense plot line, was perfect—and still is perfect, really, for what it is. Re-Loaded, its sequel that was released a year later, was ALSO good—keeping the same gameplay with some new characters to play and updated graphics. Both were designed by MobyGames and are outstanding, though I couldn't find an online venue for those of you not familiar to give it a try. Find a friend with a Playstation, and get on that sweet, sweet Loaded action. Below the jump there is some video of gameplay, if you are left wanting more of a taste, but have no way to get your hands on a dusty old console.

A Bit of Raptors: Primal Rage

HOW MANY BITS, MERCER? 5/8 BITS!

The other evening while my husband, Jerry, and I were watching The X Files, we came upon the episode about the kid who got struck by lighting and was then endowed with the ability to call down lightning whenever he wants. It had Jack Black in it. It was awesome. That doesn't have much to do with it, but in the background of the Arcade that Jack Black works in, I saw it. I saw Primal Rage, and dreamt about it that night—specifically beating one of my coworkers over and over again.

A Bit of Evolution: Pokemon X

HOW MANY BITS, MERCER? 8/8 BITS

Admittedly having not even delved that deeply into the post-game fun of Pokemon X (or Y), I can definitely say that it is one of my favorite games that I've played recently. Whether this be solely due to nostalgia or is a true testament to the Pokemon franchise's staying power, I can't say, but here are the 5 things that I liked most about Pokemon X. As a note, I will be purchasing Y soon, just to have another version of this awesome game to play.

Gaming FOMO

I was recently introduced to the notion of FOMO by my wonderful coworkers at Wistia. FOMO, if you are not familiar and need to be told (like I was) means Fear of Missing Out. It's something that most people are familiar with, but is a phrase bandied about at Wistia more often than probably anywhere else (mind you, I'm biased because I first heard it there and have only heard it there since). Given that it was a new acronym that I could relate to, I swiftly adopted it and made it my own—hence I have begun thinking about and defining my gaming "FOMO."

A Bit of a List: 5 Reasons Why I Love League of Legends

HOW MANY BITS, MERCER? 8/8 BITS.

League of Legends is awesome. You probably knew I was gonna say that just from the title of this post, but seriously. It is. There are many reasons why I love this game, even though when it was first recommended to me I thought I would hate here. Here are a few of those reasons:

A Bit of Garbage: Borderlands 2's Console Controls

HOW MANY BITS, MERCER? 0/8 BITS

This post has been a long time coming and, until I finish Pokemon X (which should be sometime in the next day or so), I do not have anything else really to write about that isn't old news (GTA V, Last of Us), so instead I'm going to write about just how much I hate the Xbox controls of Borderlands 2.