Game graphics have come a long, long way in the last decade, but graphics alone don't make a beautiful game. Style, mood, and emotion can all be conveyed through a game's art direction, and can be seen in everything from its characters and environments to level design.. and even menus.
These are our picks for the best video game art of 2021:
The Artful Escape
The Artful Escape features an incredibly life-like yet simplistic, paper-feeling environment, fully punched up with remarkable color. It's the kind of art style that supports itself and the story perfectly, yet entirely unexpectedly. Quirkiness hidden in the ordinary is a common theme, and you instantly feel like you are part of a Wes Anderson-Tim Burton mash-up film from the...
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The best video game stories in 2021 took us far and wide, whether it was to a sleepy Colorado town, outer space, the past, or the inside of some truly messed-up minds.
These are our picks for the best video game story of 2021.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy manages to achieve something quite difficult - successfully reimagine an already beloved group of characters and arguably elevate them to new heights. Eidos Montreal took the humour synonymous with the ragtag team and injected a surprisingly healthy amount of heart into a story that delicately manages to balance a universe-ending event with the personal demons haunting each member. It’s a confidently told linear tale that feels like a playable...
Despite the ton of new games that debuted this year, there were plenty of already existing ones that just got better and better in 2021.
Here are our picks for the best ongoing game of 2021.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was justifiably criticized for its lack of support through most of 2021, sapping some of its momentum after a remarkable 2020. That changed with two massive content releases: the 2.0 release that introduced Brewster along with a huge amount of free content, and the new Happy Home Paradise DLC expansion, which is like a self-contained game in itself, allowing you to design a custom vacation island for your villagers while steadily acquiring new items and other unlockables. Taken together...
2021's slate of gaming shooters has offered blasts from the past and bold new takes on first-person gunplay. Not only did we finally get the return of Master Chief in Halo Infinite following a year-long delay, but we also got the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead in Back 4 Blood, the next entry in the beloved Far Cry series in Far Cry 6 - starring Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito nonetheless - and Arkane Studios' Deathloop.
To celebrate the genre's variety this year, we chose the ones that made gunplay a focus and provided players with a ton of fun tools to take on the impossible odds presented to them. To further explain why we choose these four outstanding games, read on below to hear why we think these are the best shooters of...
Whether based on an existing property or set in an all-new world, these games provided some of the most fresh, fun, and challenging gameplay experiences of the year.
These are our picks for the best action game of 2021.
Death's Door
Death's Door expertly blends classic dungeon puzzle solving with fast-paced combat encounters to create one heck of a memorable experience that cements itself as one of the top action games of 2021. It’s moody world packed full of secrets and mysteries would have made for a compelling adventure on its own, but the gauntlet of enemies you’ll have to reap souls from in the process is just as enticing. Its decisive combat will have you dodge-rolling between melee attackers, sniping exploding pot...
As the games industry becomes increasingly aware of and concerned with ensuring games are accessible to as many people as possible, we've seen a number of exciting new advancements as to what exactly that looks like. This year was no exception. We assembled a group of accessibility experts to weigh in on what 2021 games deserve to be celebrated in particular for the attention and care they devoted to all kinds of accessibility.
From controller remapping to visual options, from games that let you skip certain kinds of content to games with inputs simple enough to be played with one hand, here are our nominations for noteworthy advancement in accessibility for 2021:
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl
Pokémon Brilliant...
Action-adventure remains one of gaming’s most popular and celebrated genres, blending fine-tuned moment-to-moment gameplay with strong exploration, puzzle-solving, and narrative.
There were several worthy additions to the genre's vast library this year, yet five games stood above the rest. These are our picks for the best action-adventure games of 2021.
Hitman 3
In a lot of ways, Hitman 3 is more of the same, but considering the incredibly high bar set by the first two entries in IO interactive's World of Assasination trilogy, that's by no means a bad thing. Couple that with the fact that early 2021 absolutely sucked for travel of any kind, and getting to look over Agent 47's shoulder as he explored exotic new locales was...
Halo Infinite's multiplayer mode has some hidden modes on PC, which seem only to be accessible if you boot up the game in offline mode.
As spotted by Reddit user u/WickedSoldier991, Halo Infinite appears to include 14 additional multiplayer game modes as yet unavailable in the main online game, including unreleased Arena, Fiesta, Ranked and Tactical mode.
Players aren't typically able to access the hidden modes unless they launch the game in offline mode. However, as WickedSoldier991 points out that, once discovered, each of the modes can then be saved so that you can access them yourself when online at a later point.
As standard, Infinite's multiplayer mode currently has 17 different playable modes including the likes of Slayer...
December is shaping up to be another incredible month for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and is even still running on the steam from November's incredible lineup of Game Pass games like Forza Horizon 5, It Takes Two, and GTA San Andreas. But now, this is the big one. Halo Infinite will launch on December 8, and will be available day one of release on Xbox Game Pass for PC, consoles, and cloud users.
However, that's not all for this month, you can also expect Among Us coming to consoles on December 14, alongside Final Fantasy XIII-2, now available for console and PC users, alongside plenty of other games.
Halo Infinite Will Launch Day One on Xbox Game Pass
Halo Infinite's campaign is launching on December 8 for Xbox, PC, and cloud...
Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida has apologized to players regarding login problems that have featured in the game since the early access launch of Endwalker. As compensation, paying players will receive 7 days of free play time.
In a post published on the FF14 website, Yoshida delved further into the issues that have contributed to players' frustrations over the weekend.
"Currently, all Worlds across all regions have been hitting the login cap for extremely long periods of time, and the progression of login queues is being slowed dramatically," explained Yoshida in the post.
"Across the FFXIV service as a whole, the number of simultaneous logins has reached the hardware limit, and as a result, logging in has...
Halo Infinite’s single-player campaign, like a new generation of Master Chief’s MJOLNIR armor, powers up a 20-year-old series, by both returning to its roots and blazing new trails to build off of. By shifting to an open-world map while retaining the classic gameplay both on foot and in its iconic vehicles, it offers a level of freedom in combat not seen in any prior Halo game. There’s a lot to do in this expansive playground, and completing its never-dull-or-overwhelming list of activities earns more combat options and, ultimately, more fun. It doesn’t quite recapture the environmental variety or memorable story of the original trilogy, but it’s still a thrilling return to form for one of gaming’s most beloved series, and for Master...
The end of December is fast approaching and this means two things for many of us. Firstly, it's the season to buy discounted holiday gifts for folks. It's also time to load up the 'You Better Watch Out...' mission in Hitman: Blood Money, don a Santa suit, put every NPC on your naughty list and then get sleighing. No? Could just be a me tradition. Anyway, today's bargains await you below...
Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch
Purchase Cheaply for PC
Exciting Offers for XO/XS
Product Savings for PS4/PS5
Adam's an Aussie deals wrangler who is hanging for more Hitman 3 content. He's @Grizwords.
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Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.
Activision Blizzard has laid off "at least a dozen" quality assurance contractors from the Call of Duty studio Raven Software as part of a restructuring effort at the studio.
As reported by The Washington Post, current employees confirmed that even more contractors "will be informed over the next few days if they have been laid off too."
Raven Software worked with Infinity Ward on Call of Duty: Warzone and developed Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War alongside Treyarch. According to Raven employees, the studio will be meeting...
Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 8 has come to a close with “The End”, a finale Season 8 event that rocked the island to its core. The Cube Queen’s overwhelming forces dominated the players -all hope was lost. Thankfully, the island was seemingly saved by members of The Seven and The Foundation, who was revealed to be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Fortnite’s “The End” event started out calm enough. Players had fun bouncing around while a large timer counted down, our pending doom juxtaposed by dancing Narutos. All of that changed at the 9-minute mark as Cube Monsters started bleeding into our reality. Armed with legendary weapons and mounted turrets, we easily tore through the first wave of enemies.Then the clock struck zero and all...
Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.
Amidst all the allegations of discrimination and sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard, The Game Awards creator and host Geoff Keighley has confirmed that, beyond its nominations, the company behind such games as Call of Duty, Diablo, and World of Warcraft will not be part of this year's show.
Keighley shared the news on Twitter while also condemning harassment of any kind in the workplace or otherwise.
"#TheGameAwards is a time of celebration for the industry, the biggest form of entertainment in the world," Keighley...
Six long years after Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Infinite is ready to pick up the mantle of Xbox’s flagship franchise. This time, the man in green gets an open-world playground of his own, Zeta Halo. And with a new playground comes new tools to even the odds against the Banished.
What isn’t new is equipment that can be carried and deployed to change the momentum of any game. Equipment was first introduced in Halo 3, and is now a vital part of Halo’s ecosystem.
Why is equipment a big deal? Equipment disrupts Halo’s golden triangle of damage dealing: melee, grenades, and guns. The golden triangle lies at the heart of every Halo game, though the term grew in popularity after being mentioned in a Halo 3 documentary. And while Halo’s approach...
What do you get when you cross WarioWare with skeletons? Spookware, obviously.
But Spookware is more than just a WarioWare reskin. It’s a set of clever, film-themed micro games framed by a clever storytelling device of three skeleton bros who decide to leave their basement movie cave and go on an adventure in the world, solving problems and creating new ones as they go.
Developers Adam Pype, Viktor Kraus, and Tibau Van den Broeck didn’t start out trying to recreate themselves and their film-watching habits in the form of micro games. Instead, Spookware came from Pype’s participation in Game a Month, a challenge that (true to its name) asks developers to make one game per month over a set period. Pype and Kraus had worked together...
We don't know if the reported Chrono Cross Remake is real or not, but if it is, we sure hope it looks like the cinematic trailer for the Chrono Cross and Another Eden crossover event, Complex Dream.
Set to the nostalgic opening theme Time Scar, the trailer shows off Serge, Kit, Harle, and Lynx alongside various Another Eden characters in a tribute to Chrono Cross' original intro movie. It's full of references, including the iconic moment when the camera zooms in on Kid's eye (with Feinne from Another Eden standing in here) and Harle's shot against a full moon.
And dang, they all look good.
Chrono Cross' intro is the kind of video game opening that still impresses even in 2021, but these shiny, high-quality renditions of Serge and...
Following reports that beloved PlayStation RPG Chrono Cross might have a remaster in the works, another unrelated piece of official news is helping fuel the Chrono nostalgia even more. Chrono Cross is getting its first-ever crossover event by making an appearance in mobile JRPG Another Eden, beginning on December 9.
Of all the games in the world for Chrono Cross to show up in, Another Eden is probably the most appropriate choice. Officially titled Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, the free-to-play adventure is a collaboration between Masato Kato and Yasunori Mitsuda, both of whom worked on Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. If you’ve played Another Eden at all, you’ve likely noticed a number of parallels with the Chrono...
Aiko's Choice is a punchy, compact standalone expansion for 2016's exceptional tactical stealth adventure Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, and that's all I really needed it to be. Across three beefy, brilliant new levels and three smaller interludes, this side story returns us to Japan's Edo period to sneak, slash, and stalk our way through expertly crafted outposts and fortresses. And these missions pick up where the already difficult original game left off in ramping up the challenge, so expect a good fight.
All five of Blades of the Shogun's memorable party members are back, using their unique ability sets in tandem to chip away at devilishly clever clusters of diverse enemies. The basic routine hasn't really changed from the...
If you both play action games and have seen the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, it's a scientific fact that you’ve fantasized about playing a game where you systematically dispatch gaggles of enemies in stylish fashion. Then again, the game in your head probably didn’t look like Fights in Tight Spaces. Yet despite its deck-building and turn-based mechanics, you may have a hard time finding a better game that captures the moment-to-moment threat assessment and problem-solving aspects that make the best cinematic fight scenes so thrilling.
As Agent 11, top dirt-doer for a high stakes espionage firm, you're tasked with infiltrating and eliminating international gangs by any means necessary. You’ll do this by moving from one end of a...
343 Industries is planning to release more playlists and PvP modes for Halo Infinite by the end of this year. These modes include Fiesta, Tactical Slayer (SWAT), and Free-For-All. However, they won't arrive in time for Halo Infinite's official campaign launch date of December 8.
343 community director John Junyszek announced the developer's plans on Twitter. He also mentions that a Social Slayer playlist with multiple variations of the mode is being worked on as it was the most requested game type.
"Our goal for Events is to try new modes prior to adding to playlists," explains Junyszek. "We'll monitor playlist health after the 3 additions above and adjust our offering if needed, but we're excited to make these updates before the...
Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing backlog management, Christmas gaming memories, flipping through the December 2003 issue of Nintendo Power, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.
Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
Listen on:
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Find previous episodes here!
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Apex Legends director Chad Grenier is departing Respawn, the studio he helped form in 2010. He will be replaced by Steve Ferreira, who joined the Apex Legends team as a lead in 2019.
"It's an emotional day for me. After years of making great games with some of the best in the biz, I'm saying goodbye to a studio that I love and helped form 11 years ago," Grenier wrote.
In Grenier's note, he thanked Respawn founder Vince Zampella and the rest of the team, saying that he feels like a "kid leaving the nest."
Grenier has been Apex Legends' director since mid-2019, and was among the developers who departed Infinity Ward alongside Zampella when he and Jason West were fired in 2010. Grenier did not reveal his intentions for the future...
Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two Interactive has hit Hazelight Studio's game, It Takes Two, with a trademark claim. Records indicate that Hazelight has seemingly been forced to abandon ownership of the game's name.
In a statement to Eurogamer, a Hazelight spokesperson told the outlet that the studio cannot comment on ongoing disputes, but hopes that the situation will be resolved. Take-Two has also been filing trademark claims for names that include words like "rockstar," "social club," "mafia," and "civilization." These words all have connections to products or services that Take-Two owns, such as Rockstar Games, Rockstar Social Club, and the Mafia franchise.
Not only is Hazelight affected, but other businesses unrelated to...
Players heading into Final Fantasy 14's recently launched Endwalker expansion are reporting a number of problems with the game, including long queue times, and even error codes sending them back to the end of the line.
As is quite often the case when it comes to content launched for MMOs, FF14's Endwalker expansion is seeing some teething issues when it comes to server wait times. As reported by VG247, the server queue times for the game seem to be causing additional frustration for players due to the fact that they're being mixed in with a number of error codes that seemingly keep pushing players back to the end of the queue.
As per reports from fans, error 2002 appears to be the main code that players are encountering when sitting...
Valve has shared a number of images showing off the packaging for its upcoming handheld PC, the Steam Deck.
According to a blog post by Valve, the company has recently completed its Design Validation for the handheld which it says is the "final prototype build before production." While this is the newest build to come from the company and offers improvements on its previous prototype (EV2) Valve has said that there will be "additional minor changes in the final product.”
One of the major changes between the current prototype and its predecessor comes through the product's design packaging - which the company says it is now testing before it ships to fans next year. Included within the post are a number of images (as seen above) that...
After Battlefield 2042's latest update accidentally revealed a 'Father Winter' skin – which wasn't received well by some fans – DICE has said that Holiday-themed cosmetics could be for 'single-time use' and that some may not appear in the game this year at all.
A Twitter thread (below) shared by the Battlefield developer looked to address fans' concerns surrounding the leaked skin. "Today some of you accidentally got a glimpse of some Holiday themed cosmetics and we wanted to help clarify their intended usage," reads a statement.
"Development for Live Service requires us to work months in advance, and enables us to have options when we reach key moments in our first year. Today, we have other priorities, and so whilst we have the...
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, IGN made a free game that has you play as the anthropomorphic D-pad known as Iggy in a side-scrolling platformer that lets you travel through the past 25 years in pop culture. Witness the birth and evolution of IGN while avoiding the danger posed by every iconic video game, movie, and piece of technology of the last 25 years. It'll be available in a few weeks and you'll be able to play it right here, on IGN.
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Magic: The Gathering developer Wizards of the Coast has announced a new play format coming exclusively to MTG Arena on December 9. Called Alchemy, this new mode will regularly rebalance cards instead of outright banning them, as well as introduce brand new digital-only cards.
While Alchemy will use the same sets and rotation schedule as Standard, Wizards of the Coast is explicit about the fact that this is not intended to replace what it’s now calling “Printed” formats. Instead, it’s using Alchemy to create something new that is free to more fully embrace the digital nature of Arena in a way other digital card games like Hearthstone already do.
That means certain printed cards will have versions with rebalanced text or abilities...