I live a double life. In my free time I try to spend every moment bettering my business, while 40 hours a week I work inside a Target selling cell phones. Because I work at Target, and in the Electronics Department no less, I see my fair share of gamers coming in to buy the new Fallout 4 (and the last bottle of Nuka Cola, which we don't, sorry) Naturally, I felt the temptation to buy Fallout 4, and so I did, effectively (probably) ending my 3 month roll of Rocket League.

Like most people, I got Rocket League for free through the Playstation Network PS Plus account, which is awesome for the consumer, but not awesome (I presume) for the developer, Psyonix Inc. But, I'm just being greedy thinking that the developer could have squeezed every penny out of this cash cow. I'm certain Psyonix is either rolling in dough, or rolling in popularity, which is cool either way.

When the game came out I was a little skeptical. Sometimes I'm intimidated by skill games because I know some kid in Korea is going to kick my ass at it, and my ego couldn't have that. My brother had played the previous game, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, which I copied and pasted from Google because I really didn't remember the name (see title for details). Anyway, my brother had been a big fan of the game so when Rocket League was made free on PS Plus he rose to the occasion. I digress.

Like I said before, I was weary to try the game out. Perhaps I subconsciously knew it had a very addictive quality to it. So one day, I arrive at Brad's house where he and David were playing Rocket League. I was excited because they were trying a new game, but also a little bummed out because I knew this may be the end. There were shouts of anger and screams of joy as I watched my two cohorts battle it out in a vehicular gladiator arena. The blood thirsty audience was chanting and cheering at every boost and rocket thrust.

When their game ended, I instinctively shouted, "I got winner!" and David handed over the sticks. Before ever playing Rocket League or it's prequel, I was a natural. You could probably say that after watching my brother play it a couple times, I already had an understanding of the physics and the tactics. I've been playing Rocket League on a regular basis since then and I can genuinely say it's been a fantastic ride. With most skill games, I find myself getting bored in a relatively quick period of time. The mini-game feel drives me away after I've had my fill. But with Rocket League, each game is as exciting, if not more exciting than the last.

The best part about my Rocket League experience is that it has been entirely shared. David became just as addicted as me to the point where he would call me in the morning before he went to work to get in a quick game. We made quite the team, mostly because we were in the same room. Most people online were playing by themselves, paired with another player, so communication was always lacking. Despite our advantage, we would often times lose, but it didn't hinder our drive. We lived by the motto, "end on a high note!" meaning we couldn't put the controller down until we had that great, decisive win.

David and I had a great dynamic. David is a casual gamer, where most of his gaming time is spent on the classic Madden 13. I am more of a hardcore gamer, always have been, always will be. David and I quickly found out the hard way, that our personalities were going to clash. I've rarely played a game where you would be forced to rely so heavily on your teammate. In the 2v2 matches, one mistake could cost you a goal and in a lot of cases, the match. If David missed the ball or screwed up, he would hear about it. If I missed the ball or screwed up, I would deflect the blame and try to find an excuse to blame David. This is not a fair evaluation of course because I'm deflecting my mean spirited nature by blaming my "hardcore gaming" mentality. I think I'm just and A-hole and he's not.

Either way, it's been quite a journey. We've won some and lost some but come away closer than ever. It's like in Friday Night Lights when the white kids end up liking the black kids because they won the football championship together and have been through a lot (that's a terrible analogy, but I'm sticking with it, I mean come on, it was like the 1950's, that was a very important theme in the 50's). And maybe we got mad at each other because we would go on a 3 game losing streak, but before every new game we would look at each other and say, "we got this." Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't; it was about 50-50.

If there is one thing Rocket League was successful at, it was the revival of Couch Co-op. In this day in age, we can connect with our friends without them having to come over, which changed gaming in a big way. But, for some of us older folk, who remember a time when we could play Super Mario, or Smash Bros with our friends on the couch, this is a big deal. Playing video games online with strangers, no less, can be fun and it is definitely a cool concept. But playing with your buds on a big screen, and mopping up the floor with our enemies is all the sweeter. So thank you Rocket League! Thank you for bringing a fun and exciting game back to couch and giving me 3 solid months of cooperative mayhem.

Now, I have a settlement of survivors to tend to in Fallout 4.