Spider-Man is easily one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the last 50-plus years, appearing in countless iterations across comics, movies, cartoons, video games and other media I am surely forgetting. Fans will argue about the best iteration -- but for my money, the Spider-universe Insomniac Games introduced in 2018 on the PS4 with Marvel's Spider-Man is an all-time great. It spent no time rehashing Peter Parker's origins, throwing the player into a vibrant and massive rendering of Manhattan. The city felt alive, with tons to do investigate and a horde of Spider-Man's most famous villains to contend with. It also skillfully introduced a world in which Parker would eventually fight side-by-side with a second Spider-Man, Miles Morales.

Spider-Man is easily one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the last 50-plus years, appearing in countless iterations across comics, movies, cartoons, video games and other media I am surely forgetting. Fans will argue about the best iteration -- but for my money, the Spider-universe Insomniac Games introduced in 2018 on the PS4 with Marvel's Spider-Man is an all-time great. It spent no time rehashing Peter Parker's origins, throwing the player into a vibrant and massive rendering of Manhattan. The city felt alive, with tons to do investigate and a horde of Spider-Man's most famous villains to contend with. It also skillfully introduced a world in which Parker would eventually fight side-by-side with a second Spider-Man, Miles Morales.

Cognitive science is a term that covers quite the broad range of disciplines. It ranges from philosophy to linguistics to neuroscience. It also--and perhaps most pertinently--includes artificial intelligence and psychology. AI, obviously, is needed in most video games to make them compelling, otherwise enemies would just stand there or walk in straight lines into walls and down wells. AI is what powers everything in a video game that doesn't involve predetermined equations (read: physics) or your direct input.