Can you believe that Death’s Door somehow never made it to an Indie-licious stream this year? It’s one of my regrets because holy heck is this game good. More than good, it’s downright spectacular. Acid Nerve not only crafted an isometric adventure, but they gave it the most charming of life through an art style, music, and premise that make it an absolute joy to experience every time we open it up on our platform of choice. That’s why it’s sitting here at the top - the crème de la crème - indie supreme of 2021. So here’s the nitty gritty. Death’s Door casts you in the role of a little crow working as a reaper in a society that goes out to cull souls and use their energy to power the doors they use to go out into the world and cull souls. Sounds a bit circular, but the game’s character recognize that as well. It’s part of the cheeky charm. In any case, you are assigned a soul to cull, but before you can do finish the job, a nasty old bird bonks your crow and takes off with the soul, which he feeds into a mysterious door with no effect. According to the old crow, this door contains a soul that he himself failed to capture and it’s going to require some big souls from various regions to get the door open. He’s too old to do it though, the jerk. That leads into Death’s Door’s gameplay, which is an isometric action affair. You wander about stylized…

If you were hanging out on the internet back in the good old days of the early 2000s, you may have come across a budding social media site known as Facebook. It was initially created at Harvard University by student Mark Zuckerberg and limited by invite to those enrolled at certain institutions of higher learning. While it seemed rather harmless at first, history tells us that the company rapidly grew in size, becoming one of the most valuable operations on Earth. Its leader Zuckerberg also managed to become a supervillain that wouldn’t be out of place in a 1960’s James Bond film. As Facebook grew its membership and became the de facto method of online interaction for hundreds of millions of people, the company was faced with a moral dilemma. It promised to put user safety at the forefront of its company policies, even though doing so was at direct odds with making the most amount of money possible. The social network has come under fire repeatedly over the years, with leadership always promising to do better for its end users and society as a whole. Thanks to whistleblower Frances Haugen, we know that upper management at Facebook didn’t actually place much value in user safety and was fully aware of the damage being caused. Haugen first made headlines by filing complaints with the SEC in October and received another major rush of news coverage when a cache of internal company documents was released to the press that gave insights into the inner workings and decisions within the company. Haugen…

It has been a massive year for the expansion of Shacknews beyond the confines of the core website. Don’t get us wrong, the website itself has continued to improve throughout the year as well. However, with the implementation of Cortex, the Shacknews gamification engine, and then finally the late-year launch of Shackpets on mobile devices, we’re truly spreading the wings of what Shacknews can be. And a major force behind the curtain of all of the things you see coming out of Shacknews? None other than the fine folks at the Log Cabin Dev Studio. Log Cabin has been integral to the growth and maintenance of Shacknews and all extensions of it, and it’s even stepped up to the plate to help us deliver on so much more this year. When something breaks, these folks have been there to help put it back in order. When a new bug wreaks havoc in an unexpected way, Log Cabin has been there to help us patch it back up. Your day-to-day experience at Shacknews might not run as smooth without the hard work Log Cabin Dev Studio continually puts in. Then there’s the work that went into Shacknews Cortex and Shackpets. The Log Cabin Devs were, and continue to be, an outstanding technical force behind this. Not only did they help us implement Shacknews Cortex to help gamify the Shacknews system and create a new, fun, and useful corner of the site, but they also lent a major hand in the development and fine-tuning of Shackpets up to and even after we…

You never would have guessed it based on the early trailers and troubling news coming out of the development of Halo Infinite, but the project finally landed on the ground this holiday season and it would appear that Halo is back in a big way. Positioned as both a showcase for Microsoft’s Xbox Series S|X consoles, the company’s push into PC gaming, and a motivator to drive subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass, Halo Infinite was a big gamble for all involved that looks to pay off handsomely in the near future. In a year where the biggest publishers seemed to be tripping over each other to release buggy, unfinished games, Microsoft and 343 Industries managed to get Halo Infinite out the door with a level of polish that most wouldn’t have expected. The publisher’s confidence was apparent when Microsoft offered up the entire multiplayer portion of Halo Infinite up to players for free a couple of weeks ahead of the game’s scheduled December launch date. Those who opted to join the fight online were treated to a new game that meshed classic Halo gameplay with some fresh additions and an impressive overall level of polish. From its easily-readable menus and UI to its smooth gunplay, Halo Infinite Multiplayer managed to be unique amongst many 2021 releases by actually living up to the hype. When the campaign arrived later in December, the fun kept on coming. Mixing an open-world design that is new to the series, a nifty grappling hook (even better than we saw in Doom Eternal), and solid performance,…

Video games are the perfect medium for storytelling, as evident by the cinematic-level experiences that are delivered year after year by the industry’s best studios. Our pick for this year’s award may not seem like a story-heavy game on the surface, but it’s one that’s packed with heart, sharp characters, and meaningful themes. The Best Narrative of 2021 goes to Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2. Psychonauts 2 brings fans of the original game the sequel that they’ve been dreaming of for years. The game is a pure joy to play, but what puts Psychonauts 2 in special standing is its narrative. The game is much more story-driven than your typical platformer, and it works greatly to the game’s benefits. Tasked with discovering the traitor within the Psychonauts, players once again jump back into the role of Raz. The looming mystery informs so much of the actions and interactions throughout Psychonauts 2, and the game does an excellent job at keeping players guessing until the very end. The dialogue is well-written, and each character has their own unique flair. One of the most impressive aspects of the narrative in Psychonauts 2 is the fact it also serves to put a spotlight on mental illness. A large chunk of the game sees players diving into characters’ minds via brain levels and making their way through the wonders (and horrors) inside. We meet characters with a variety of mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, and addiction. It’s a representation of mental illness that we rarely see in gaming, and for that we tip our hats…

There’s something to be said for a very focused narrative in RPGs. Those are valuable, especially when the story and gameplay are good, but in 2021, Owlcat Games took a good story and made it one of the most versatile and player-choice-driven experiences of the entire year. In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the land’s turmoil is just one element of the story. Much more of it is up to the character you are, what they believe in, and how they respond to the journey playing out before them. In Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, you are an adventurer who has made your way to an area known as the Worldwound. It’s a thin and cracking barrier that stands between the earthly plane and that of the Abyss, and demons continue to seep through. When the grandest demonic lords of the Abyss hatch a scheme to open the Worldwound further, it falls to your character to take action. Your decisions could close the Worldwound and bring salvation to the land. You could also lead it to damnation or further consequences in between. What works to set Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous apart from a lot of RPGs is the sheer depth of character design. You don’t just choose a race and a class (of which there are a lot of both already). You also choose their alignment, what they believe it, and even further things associated with them. Are they brash, adventurous, prone to accidents…? Do they believe in a deity? Do they believe in nothing? Are they inherently evil,…

The Halo franchise has a not-so secret history of troubled launches on PC. Look no further than the nearly unplayable launch of The Master Chief Collection as evidence of that. When we learned that Halo Infinite would be launching for PC simultaneously with Xbox systems, we were understandably cautious. With that in mind, it was quite the pleasant surprise that the game shipped in such a great state on PC, making it our pick for best PC game of 2021. Halo Infinite runs like a dream on PC. The game is gorgeous looking, whether it be the environments on Zeta Halo in the campaign, or on the different maps available in multiplayer. Halo Infinite also has a wide variety of video and system settings, far more than we would ever expect from a Halo game. This includes shadows, texture quality, render distance, FPS minimum and maximum, as well as many more. Players can fine-tune their Halo Infinite PC experience to what best suits them (and their system). Halo Infinite is also excellent when played on keyboard and mouse. 343 Industries also shows great handling of its mixed pool of players by offering separate competitive queues for players on controllers vs those on keyboard and mouse. Despite the franchise having strong console roots and being originally designed for controllers, the game is a quality PC experience through and through. Halo Infinite feels right at home on PC, and that’s about as big of a compliment as we could give a game so strongly intertwined with consoles for most of its 20-year…

There were some interesting horror-themed games in 2021. It was a year in which we got not one, but two Resident Evil games. However, both of them and many more horror-like games were far more action-oriented. On the other hand, there was a latecomer in 2021 that was genuinely unsettling and produced a true horror atmosphere in the guise of a card game. It was Daniel Mullens Games and Devolver Digital’s Inscryption. Trapped inside a cabin with a mysterious entity and forced to sit down and play a game of cards, it doesn’t take long for you to learn that this is a more than sinister game. The cards before you are seemingly alive and some must be sacrificed to make your plays. Sometimes the sacrifice doesn’t come from the cards, but from you yourself in the most cringeworthy of ways. Sometimes you must leave the card table and explore the cabin in which you are trapped to discover its secrets. Inscryption instills a sense of dread at all turns where you quickly realize that there’s danger behind every choice and play, and it’s wonderfully aided by purposefully janky, yet skillfully stylized graphics and an incredible sound design. It’s difficult to ever make out the full nature of the entity before you, and every win and lost adds more weight to a nearby scale that will determine the outcome of the game. What will happen if you lose? Do you really want to know? There were a lot of games that put on an air of horror this year. Games…

When it came down to selecting the best gaming accessory of 2021, we had to take a bit of time to figure out just what had come along this year during all the supply chain disruptions and other COVID-19 delays. We settled on the Fanatec CSL DD Wheelbase for several reasons. First off, direct-drive force feedback systems are the future of racing sim hardware and the CSL DD is the first product to bring this new technology to a pricepoint that the masses can reach. Previously in the $2000 and higher range, racing buffs can now grab one of these wheel podiums for less than $350. Fanatec is also producing a Gran Tourismo bundle for early 2022 that brings this tech to next-gen consoles. As more gamers flock towards the sim-focused offerings that have been growing in popularity in recent years, the availability of semi-affordable enthusiast hardware will be a boon for the future of racing games. When paired with a stable frame, seat, wheel, and shifting device, these Fanataec podium bases can offer levels of feedback and resistance that can make them virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. From offering haptic feedback delicate enough to transfer the feeling of driving over a small pebble on the tarmac to enough torque to jerk wheels from hands during high-intensity collisions, the CSL DD Wheelbase puts you as close to being in a car as possible in 2021. Watch the Shacknews Awards 2021 YouTube playlist or read our Year of the Games: 2021 article for all of the awards in one place. We…

Much can be said about how Guilty Gear Strive shifted the genre-wide direction of fighting game netcode design with its masterful implementation of rollback. However, that’s far from the only thing that makes Guilty Gear Strive impeccable. It also has some of the most delicious visuals in all of gaming right now thanks to the absolutely amazing work Arc System Works has poured into all of its art and animation. ArcSys was always top notch when it came to the design of their fighters, but in Guilty Gear Strive, they’ve taken it a step further. All of the characters have fantastic redesigns to them, looking like they’re ready to grab the mic at a rock show. The stages also look amazing in the game as well with transitions adding more to the typical Guilty Gear background than ever before. You’ll find yourself blasting from a vast mountainside cliff to a shadowed cavern as you fight it out with the opponent in one stage or battle between a castle’s steps and garden in another. Guilty Gear Strive’s lush use of color is already present in these previous conversations, making everything pop all the more, but it’s the reactive nature of shading and shadows in Guilty Gear Strive and their effects on the characters that make it truly jaw-dropping. That is to say, the stage background have actual effect on the lighting and shadows of the characters. We’ve seen plenty of 2.5D fighting games already where there’s light and dark staging, but it never reflected on the characters like this. It means…