As the year comes to a close, a post on Steam takes a look at "The Best of 2021." Of course when you run a games store, the best games of the year are the ones that sell the most, and the update reflects that. There's a discussion of the top sellers for the year along with this page with the links to buy them. There are also sections that drill down into bestselling new titles by month, most played games, top Early Access graduates, top VR games, and more. Here's the explanation of the mix of new and familiar titles among this year's Platinum Sellers:

In terms of titles new to this list, 2021 was a good year for games making their debut in both the Platinum category as well as the list overall. Six games made their debuts in the Platinum category this year (New World, Valheim, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, Apex Legends, Battlefield™ 2042, and Dead by Daylight), with more than a third of the entire list being comprised of first-time Top Seller appearances. Many of these debuts are new releases for 2021, but a handful of older titles also cracked into the top 100, thanks to continued passion from their developers and dedicated community support from players.

Meanwhile, many of the perennial leaders continued to enjoy success on Steam. Dota 2, CS:GO, and Grand Theft Auto V all remain in the Platinum category for the sixth-straight year, which comes as no surprise to the passionate fans that launched these games throughout 2021. Five-time appearances in the Platinum category include PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege.
A special shoutout to Destiny 2 as well, which has made the Platinum three years running since its Steam release in 2019.

• Humble Big Music Bundle for Games, Films, and Content Creators 2 (pay what you want and help charity).*

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item.

Official patch.

• Ashes of Creation Development Update with Unreal Engine 5.

Content creator video.

• Game DEVELOPER sees his game for 1st time in over 26 years.

• Former League world champion GimGoon retires from pro play.

• Final Fantasy 16 has been delayed "by almost half a year" due to COVID-19.

• How to save your most important — and most precious — voice mails (may require registration or subscription). Thanks RedEye9.

• Starboard acquires stake worth $800 million in GoDaddy. Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Core i5-1250P Alder Lake CPU Rivals Ryzen 7 5800X In Single-Threaded Geekbench Benchmark.
• Two-Year-Old GeForce GTX 1650 Is The Best Selling GPU On Newegg, Amazon.
• Radeon RX 6500 XT, RX 6400 GPU Renders Reportedly Surface.
• Whoever invented USB-C deserves a Nobel Prize. Thanks Ant.
• Windows 11 Bug Changes White To Yellow On HDR Displays.
• 8 Ways to Open the Windows Computer Management Tool. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Windows 11: Give yourself more time to roll back the upgrade. Can I still roll back to Windows XP? Thanks RedEye9.
• The 2021 Good Tech Awards - The New York Times (may require registration or subscription).
• PC Gamer Hardware Awards: What is the best CPU of 2021?
• Awesome Diablo II Custom PC.

• Shutterfly reports ransomware incident.

• Dead by Daylight players can get 250K Bloodpoints just for logging in before January 6…

Last Link of the Day: THE BATMAN - The Bat and The Cat Trailer.

Obituary: Richard Marcinko, first commanding officer of Navy SEAL Team 6, dies at 81. Thanks brother19.

Today's holiday giveaway from Epic Games is now live, as you can now collect Mages of Mystralia for free from the Epic Games Store. This action/adventure from indie developer Borealys Games is yours to keep as long as you hit the snag it now button before the next giveaway starts at 11:00 am EDT tomorrow. The listings on Epic's store are frequently the strong, silent type, and this one is no exception. Here's everything it has to say:

In a world of magic, your mind is your greatest weapon. Learn the ways of magic and design your own spells to fight enemies, navigate treacherous terrain, and right past wrongs in the kingdom of Mystralia.

GOG.com's Winter Sale continues on, offering bargains on thousands of games to celebrate the season (those south of the equator can feel free to call this a Summer Sale). Today the good old gamers unveil a third giveaway that's part of the festivities. Everyone with a free GOG account is now entitled to a free copy of X-Morph Defense Complete Edition as long as they claim it over the next 48 hours or so. This includes the base version of this shooter/tower defense hybrid along with four DLC packs. Here are the details:

Unique fusion of a top down shooter and tower defense strategy. You are the X-Morph - an alien species that invades Earth to harvest its resources and terraform the surface. Strategize in the build mode by carefully selecting various types of alien towers or throw yourself right into heat of the battle. Build mazes for incoming enemies in an environment that provides exceptional planning freedom. Tear down buildings and collapse bridges to support your defense or to simply indulge in a spectacle of unprecedented destruction. Possess a range of unique alien weapons and use defense strategies like you've never seen before in this genre.

A playtest is now underway for Regiments, a Cold War RTS game in the works at Bird's Eye Games to be published by the revived MicroProse Software. To join you must use the "request access" button on Steam, but this is being called an open playtest, so presumably all applicants will be accepted. A new Playtest Trailer has a sneak peek at what to expect, and the announcement explains more:

In Operations, you will lead your regiment through days of grueling combat over several maps, making tough decisions and experiencing the full weight of their consequences.

Operations feature a high level of persistence. All the losses are recorded, the deployed platoons retain their positions, the engineering obstacles stay where they were emplaced. Even the wrecks and the scarred terrain remain between battles on the same map.

Each phase of combat advances the time of day - eventually, you'll have to fight at night, relying on night vision equipment or Illumination artillery rounds.

Continue here to read the full story.

World Nations Game is now available on Steam, offering a free-to-play MMOG for Windows from SCLITIFY IT. Here's a Gameplay Video with developer commentary. This game is apparently many things to many people, as its listing carries the following tags: "Action, Adventure, Casual, Free to Play, Indie, Massively Multiplayer, Racing, RPG, Simulation, Strategy." The description confirms this is intentional:

World Nations Game is an online MMO game in which you can have your own virtual life. You can join a nation, buy vehicles, items, properties, open a political party, fight in international battlefields, participate in races, take part in special agent fights between agents from other countries, attack other citizens space colonies on any country map, be a nation senator or president, be part of the world congress, vote on nation issues and you can do many other activities.

Upon joining World Nations Game the player starts his life as a citizen and is assigned to a virtual country citizenship based on his choice from when joined the game. Each of these countries are named after an actual country in the real world. Once started the game a citizen also has assigned his own space colony in his country teritory that he can use to produce items and attack other citizens colonies.

Continue here to read the full story.

Official patch.

• The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark - Christmas Bonus Case is Now Live.

• Warzone's “most broken” weapon gives players extremely easy kills.

• Ars Technica’s top 20 video games of 2021.
• The Best Indie Games You May Have Missed in 2021 (may require registration or subscription). Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Best Warzone Double Barrel Shotgun class- Loadout, attachments & perks.

• I suspect 2021's gaming laptops might be a little too technologically advanced.
• This ambitious smart ring hopes to one day monitor chronic illnesses.
• 5 Settings to Change on Your New Windows Laptop. Thanks Neutronbeam.

Thanks Max.

• Kahlúa will pay $25K to couple who can ditch technology for a month. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Not so stealthy now: Google Maps catches rare shot of B-2 stealth fighter in flight.
• Remote working has pushed me away from PC gaming.

Thanks Ant.

• CPUs Could Use 85 Percent Fewer Transistors With New Adaptive Tech.
• Your next mouse might come with an SSD inside.
• LG Display's latest transparent 'shelf' OLED can display or augment artworks.
• New AmigaOS 4.1 SDK 53.34 available now.
• TIN 2.6.1 (stable) released.

• In 2022, security will be Linux and open-source developers job number one.
• Spyware scandal rocks Polish government.

• Beasts of Maravilla Island - Christ Centered Gamer.

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Performance Review - The FPS Review.
• Gaming Chair: Vertagear PL-6000 Review - Vortez.
• Headset: ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White Review - APH Networks.
• Keyboard: ROCCAT Vulcan TKL Compact Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Christ Centered Gamer.
• Misc: Quick Look- Silverstone TS16 SSD to USB-C External Docking Station - TechPowerUp.
• Mouse: SteelSeries Aerox 3 2022 Edition Wired Gaming Mouse - Mad Shrimps.
• SSD: ADATA XPG ATOM 50 1TB SSD Review - TweakTown.

There was a cute moment here yesterday as it almost seemed like nature was participating in the holiday celebrations. In the morning the pair of swans that rule the neighboring pond were lazing around as usual. But a little later the family of swans that live in the nearby lake chose to join them. With four newcomers, this was a near miss of the 12 days of Christmas. It's supposed to be seven swans a swimming on the seventh day of Christmas, and this was six swimming swans on the second day of Christmas, but that still seems like a win. I mean, swans are notoriously difficulty to organize. Now I guess I need to start hunting around for an indeterminate number of golden rings.

Obituary: Leading American naturalist EO Wilson, dubbed 'Darwin's heir', dies at 92.
Obituary: Sarah Weddington, who successfully argued Roe v. Wade, has died at age 76.
Obituary: 'Dallas Buyers Club' director Jean-Marc Vallée dies.

12 Days of Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Link

• An Interview With Jolt, aka Hawkeye's Lucky the Pizza Dog. Thanks Max.

Story

• Spectacularly Rare, Enormous Eagle Shows Up in North America, 5,000 Miles From Home. Thanks Max.

Science
Thanks Max.

• An Element of Surprise Is the Recipe for Creating False Memories.
• Peto’s Paradox – Biological Enigma Offers New Insights Into the Mystery of Cancer.
• It's Possible to Accidentally Develop an Allergy to Red Meat. Here's The Science.
• Fiber is better for immunity than probiotics — study.
• Scientists Have Identified The Driving Force Behind Your Darkest Impulses.

Media

• Around the World in 80 Days- Official Preview. Thanks The Flying Penguin.
• A valiant attempt to save an air conditioner. No knot tying merit badge for you.

Follow-up

• Coffee’s health benefits aren’t as straightforward as they seem—here’s why.