Developed by Evan Daniels of Atlanta, Georgia, this collection of stained glass artwork will be very familiar with anyone who grew up with an old-school Nintendo. Up for sale on the Etsy store MartainGlasswork with prices reaching up to $5,000, Daniels creates stained glass pieces of popular video game characters such as Master Chief, Samus Aran from Metroid, Mario and Mega-Man.

He also creates pieces using iconic symbols from games like Portal, Half Life, Warhammer, Pokemon and Legend of Zelda. In addition, there are a couple movie pieces in the collection that make reference to the Iron Man and Star Wars series of films. If you are interested in how Daniels creates these items, take a look at this Reddit thread he created as well as some more pictures of his work in action.

If you are interested in purchasing one of the pieces, here’s the Esty store. Check out some of our favorite stained glass pieces below:

Half-Life

Halo

The Legend of Zelda

Super Mario Brothers

Mega-Man X

Metroid

Star Wars

Iron Man

Pokemon

Portal

Warhammer

Stained Glass + A Love of Gaming =

There’s little use denying that the past year has been a challenge for the video game industry, notably for fans of Xbox systems who haven’t had much luck finding their Series console of choice since November of 2020. There aren’t many ways that Microsoft can really make up for it, either, because of factors beyond their control. However, one could consider their big Game Pass Ultimate addition at least a mild way of softening the blow for those who subscribe to their preferred monthly service regardless of console: the inclusion of the latest title in what’s arguably the most significant, important franchise in the history of Xbox.

Like most other things surrounding it, the rest of the titles are less memorable from both the other Game Pass offerings and the Games With Gold, but there are a few gems that aren’t so sus from among the rest.  Let’s take a closer look, but before we do, jump over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Game Pass Ultimate on Amazon to gain the benefits of both sides.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Halo: Infinite

For an entertaining deep-dive into the evolution of gaming and evidence of just how ingrained Halo is with the culture, head over and search through the images on Google for “Halo LAN party”. You’ll spot many things: big, outdated televisions and monitors; bottles of beer and Mountain Dew atop foldout tables; nearly as many smiles or intense faces as there are cables spread out everywhere. Most of these parties focused on the highly refined multiplayer of Halo 2, but all the early titles had their moments of fun like this before online multiplayer really took over … and even now, convenience be damned, people tap into nostalgia with classic LAN get-togethers. In essence, this is the spirit of Xbox as a gaming console, and while Halo has had its ups and down in quality in recent years, this’ll never change.

Halo: Infinite ends the franchise’s half-decade hiatus by way of 343 Industries, throwing Master Chief into battle against an alien coalition known as the Banished on the ringworld Zeta Halo. Tied to this is an extension of the saga between Master Chief and Cortana, now a rogue and rebelling AI who’s the target for removal, as well as a more open-world landscape for battle engagements. Players have been notoriously fickle about the recent lore and storytelling of Halo, but for the most part they’ve been satisfied thus far with the directions the plot has taken. Multiplayer is, of course, paramount for Halo: Infinite, and luckily it seems as if the community has remained satisfied with the quality since it entered beta testing in the middle of November. After two decades, Halo delivers once again.

Among Us

The pandemic succeeded in making a pair of games surprisingly popular, likely much more so than they would have under other circumstances, and they’re both for widely different reasons. Animal Crossing provided a creative, stable outlet for people to just … well, tend their garden and mind their business in a calming and cute slice-of-life management simulator.  The other does exactly the opposite. Among Us borrows the gameplay philosophy behind Werewolf, Mafia, and other identity deduction games, and during the pandemic’s peaks it provided ways for players to interact online and play a unique, layered game with one another.

The concept sounds like the classic sci-fi movie The Thing, in which a group of astronauts on an isolated station have been infiltrated by “impostors” whose objective is to sabotage and eliminate the crew. Players, who can range from 4 to now over a dozen, are randomly and discreetly selected to be either legitimate crewmates or impostors; impostors go about fake duties to try and convince others that they’re on the up and up, or they end up being labeled “sus”-picious.  Votes are held as to who gets to stay aboard when something suspicious happens, and the deduction skills – and deflection skills – of the players will determine who gets thrown out the airlock.  It’s a familiar party-game derivative a la Resistance and Secret Hitler, but the personality and online versatility of Among Us make it a quite enjoyable iteration in these trying times.

Mortal Kombat 11

Next year will mark the 30^th anniversary of the release of the original Mortal Kombat, and it’s really tough to wrap one’s brain around that. It started as a taboo gaming experience – one that sparked Congressional hearings – and morphed into a console decision maker during the peak of the “wars”, dependent on whether someone wanted Nintendo’s edited version or SEGA’s unedited release. It all seems like old news now, but the topic of the realistic body models and the gruesome fatalities – end-of-battle finishing moves that involve heaps of blood and broken or impaled body parts – caused an immense stir. The folks at Midway, and now the folks at NetherRealm Studios, have embraced that unsavory reputation and continued to up the ante in the brutal, yet engaging and layered fighting game.  

With that reputation also comes a hefty fanbase that’s ready to scrutinize every title, and the latest installment, MK11, earned a mixture of polarized opinions from among its fanbase. For some, it’s the pinnacle of what Mortal Kombat can be in the current era and heavily satisfies those who “grew up” with the original iconic 3-4 games that started the franchise. For others, the game’s emphasis on flashier aspects over more hardcore fighting-game complexity comes across as trying to appeal to too-broad of an audience. Regardless of where one falls on that spectrum, Mortal Kombat 11 continues to offer narrative progression and bountiful item/cosmetic collection in single player and fluid combat in online and multiplayer formats, and it’s universally regarded as the best-looking MK to date.

It’s also worth noting that the version of Flight Simulator 2020 available through Game Pass has been upgraded to the Game of the Year edition, and that two exquisite narrative-based adventure games — Campo Santo’s Firewatch and Double Fine’s Broken Age — have also snuck in under the radar.

Xbox Games With Gold

Over on the legacy subscription wing at Xbox, they’ve served up yet another passable, unexciting foursome of free titles for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 that fail to prompt one to continue shelling out for the service if that’s their primary reason for doing so.  On current-gen consoles, they’ve made available The Escapists 2 (December 1-31), a prison break sim that taps into a similarly charming multiplayer energy to that of Among Us. Retro pixel graphics mesh with a top-down gaming perspective as the player crafts a strategy to flee, both figuratively and literally through the game’s item crafting system. Players seem to run out of fun with the single player experience after a while, but still enjoy the multiplayer escapes. There’s also Tropico 5 (December 16-January 15), the last installment in the longstanding island construction sim franchise developed by Haemimont Games, which was met with irritation from players and critics alike for spit-polishing the status quo and not improving the wobbly infrastructure of the previous games.

In terms of legacy titles, there’s Orcs Must Die! (December 1-15), a third-person fantasy action game that’s a mix of tower defense and horde mode. It has spawned a handful of sequels, notably one that came out last year on Stadia and ported over to consoles in July of this year, and they’ve all received moderately positive marks from critics and players for its quirky attitude and clever blending of genres. The other title is Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (December 16-31), a side-scrolling spacecraft shooting game that comes across as if a flying saucer with a little blaster has decided to explore the worlds of LIMBO and World of Goo.  

December’s Xbox Game Pass, Gold Titles: More Than Halo: Infinite is Among Us

Regardless of the shortage in consoles available to purchase, 2021 has been a terrific year for new video game titles. Be sure to hop over to Ben’s Bargain’s Holiday Software Gift Guide to see a brief rundown of some of the hits, which range from novel spins on open-world games and innovations in horror and sci-fi to several celebrated rejuvenations of franchises. There are three variables clogging up the last two months in the year, though, that’d understandably scare off other developers from dropping anything too big during the period: holiday shopping in an already complicated year, the approaching release of Halo in December, and of course Call of Duty.

Even with those things in mind, the months of November ad December shaped up into a diverse, packed stretch of remasters, unique new titles, and one delayed long enough to unfortunately “compete” with CoD in the same genre during November, resulting in a nice array of titles squeezed into the last months before the holidays that could end up being worthwhile gifts. Let’s take a closer look.

Call of Duty: Vanguard – November 5 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

It’s difficult to make heads or tails over whether the gaming community really feels positive or negative about a new Call of Duty title at release, as there’s always a hefty rush of impressions and opinions before and around the big date. Ultimately, this has all but stopped mattering, as the latest COD title works off the nonstop energy of its multiplayer fanbase who’ll continue to purchase the FPS juggernaut despite any iffy thoughts about the latest campaign’s tone and longevity or the multiplayer’s sameness. Despite this, the folks at Sledgehammer, Treyarch, and Infinity Ward – and Raven Software in a support role – have continued to deliver annual titles that utilize AAA polish and ambitions to keep the series immersive, versatile, and exhilarating for both campaign and online players.

Vanguard is the latest, in which the campaign takes the audience back to the World War II and shortly after, where special ops forces are tracking down the actors involved with “Project Phoenix” and a theoretical true successor to Hitler’s place in government. Alongside the interesting single-player narrative, the multiplayer hopes to shake things up with a new “Combat Pacing” function, which allows players to select the intensity, style, and team size for the upcoming match. So far, critics have received both those core aspects of Vanguard fairly well, though there seems to be some “been there, done that” attitudes towards those things and a stronger consensus that the Zombies mode is lacking this year.    

Order Call of Duty: Vanguard at Amazon

Jurassic World Evolution 2 – November 9 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Sequels to sim games have a different set of benchmarks to hit than other genres, and they also tend to have a bit more of a forgiving player base when it comes to delivering incrementally better versions instead of drastically new entries. While enhanced features and expanded options will always be celebrated, there’s also lots of satisfaction to be found in picking up a simulator and discovering that a lot of the gameplay aspects remain the same, kind of like having a bunch of brand-new tools and upcoming projects yet the same workbench and organization area to know where everything’s at. Jurassic World Evolution delivers on the concept of, essentially, a “dinosaur zoo simulator” with callbacks to the movies and books, but critics generally felt that the sim could use more depth.

Evolution 2 has the opportunity to improve upon its middlingly reviewed first entry by improving its big draws, by deepening the business and construction aspects and refining its dinosaur interactions. It hopes to do so by widening the workspace maps – relocated to the US for more landscape variety — and placing more unique demands upon the players, such as maintaining animal diets and catering to different visitor tastes.  Improvements in those areas seem less pertinent to game-makers Frontier Developments than enhancing the authenticity of the dinosaurs themselves, though, upping the species count to 75 and ensuring that their behaviors authentically intersect on a more frequent basis. Whether that’ll amount to enough to make Evolution 2 a worthwhile upgrade remains to be seen.

Order Jurassic World Evolution 2 at Amazon

Skyrim: Anniversary Edition – November 11 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

At this point, the multiple iterations of Skyrim across several consoles have transformed into a running joke – a meme, if you will. For the most part, all the re-releases have had their purpose for showing up when they did, from lateral ports to other consoles and virtual reality accessibility to new console upgrades that’d hopefully tide players over until Elder Scrolls 6 finally arrives. The mantra’s pretty simple, according to Bethesda’s studio head: so long as players are buying and enjoying Skyrim, they’ll keep finding ways of re-releasing and upgrading the celebrated open-world RPG. Thus, when the announcement came that the studio would release an “anniversary edition” of Skyrim designed for Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles, few if any people were surprised. So, what else could possibly be added?

In essence, the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim makes it easy for players to have an up-to-date version of the complete Special Edition game – including all official DLC — that’s also beefed up with a ton of small to moderate additions through Bethesda’s Creation Club, ranging from artifacts to activities and quests. This includes brand-new content released alongside the Anniversary Edition from the Creation Club, such as fishing, a simulator-ish survival mode, and new quests. The Anniversary Edition also touches up the visuals for next-gen consoles, though those on the Xbox Series X will likely see no appreciable difference over the already optimized version of the Special Edition. There’s a $20 digital upgrade options for those who already own the Special Edition, but there’s also a complete physical copy of the Anniversary Edition for $50.

Get ESV: Skyrim Anniversary Edition at Amazon

GTA: Definitive Trilogy – November 11 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; Switch; PC)

It’s hard to overstate how influential the sequence of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas was to the video game landscape. GTA III brought together different aspects of free-roaming action and emergent gameplay into a singular experience, Vice City took that blueprint and gave it a distinct, violent attitude … and then San Andreas upped the attitude, narrative potency, and sheer volume and variety of things to do to such a degree that it almost felt like a simulation. The ability for players to do essentially whatever they wanted in a “sandbox”, to create whatever degree of chaos they wanted, became a blueprint for other games to follow that range from revolutionary and historical assassin sims to animated show tie-ins.   They’ve aged, but their legacy exists in the bones of countless modern titles.

One would naturally assume, then, that games with such a rich legacy would receive high-quality remasters, especially during a time when remasters are hotter than normal. The recently renamed Grove Street Games, previously known as War Drum Studios, the developers behind mobile ports of this same trilogy, have undertaken the challenge with this Definitive Edition, and they showed clear inspiration early on in how to approach the project. From what aspects to preserve full stop (such as the physics engine) to which aesthetics should be cleaned up and which ones should be amplified, it sounds like worthwhile promises. The execution, however, has been polarizing, due in large part to the underwhelming visuals and a lack of editing and refinement, alongside a hefty share of technical glitches.

Order GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition at Amazon

Shin Megami Tensei V – November 12 (Switch)

It took a bit of time, but Atlus has really grasped one fact about their Shin Megami Tensei series: the fanbase still really, really likes the third entry, Nocturne. Even as the spinoff Persona series mounts in popularity and creates its own hot spinoffs – like the fighting-based Arena line – there remained plenty of enthusiasm behind the prospect of a remastered iteration of the PS2-era Nocturne, which was finally released to critical acclaim earlier this year. Aside from the rerelease, the enthusiasm has also spread into the development philosophies of the long-awaited fifth entry in the primary numbered Shin Megami Tensei series, where the vague but somewhat telling description of its “profound charm” has been laced into the new entry alongside the more objective demon-raising aspects of SMT IV.

As one would expect, players gain control of a high-school student who ropes a few buddies into a demon search through underground tunnels. Shortly after entering the tunnels, the player gets transported to an alternate reality version of Tokyo embroiled in a war between angels and demons, where the existence of the high-schooler – and his friends — soon becomes linked with that of a god-like being so that the students can get directly involved with the battle. From there, the signature turn-based combat system of the Shin Megami Tensei series and the frequently challenging nature of its battles take hold, supported by a choice-and-consequence system that’ll help dictate the sort of ending you’ll receive.  It’s a manifestation of much enthusiasm that’s currently exclusive to the Switch.

Halo: Infinite – December 8 (Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Xbox turns 20 this year, and it’s hard to argue with the assertion that the most popular … well, thing, period, to ever come out of Microsoft’s console would be their exhilarating sci-fi shooter series, Halo. The first confidently labeled itself “Combat Evolved” and the distinction didn’t feel unmerited, providing an engaging campaign and multiplayer experience that handily dethroned previous competitors such as GoldenEye, escalating the popularity of LAN parties and shaping the PvP landscape as it’s known today. Its sequels would refine the positive aspects of that experience, even when the campaign’s storytelling or brevity would wobble and waver across both Bungie and 343’s installments. After half of a decade away from regular installments, Master Chief has decided to jump back into action for the 20^th anniversary of Xbox in Halo: Infinite.

With the creative energy of former Bungie writer and cinematics director Joseph Staten as the project lead of the campaign, Halo: Infinite aspires to bring the series back to its original glory in the modern era, tying familiar aesthetics and plot devices into a new story of alien invasion and world repair. Players once again control Master Chief for the entirety of the game as they zip across the landscape of Zeta Halo, opening up the gameplay for free roaming and emergent battles while also sticking to a firm campaign with its sights sets on Cortana. The multiplayer also has its heart in the right place by focusing on familiar modes such as capture the flag and slayer, while also incorporating new powers and designs to spice up the formula. More than anything, though, folks who’ve played Halo: Infinite have reaffirmed the expected: the gunplay is outstanding, and should make either campaign or multiplayer a blast.

Order Halo: Infinite at Amazon

The end of year has a cluster of other interesting titles worth looking into, though one of them may or may not be Battlefield 2042, which has been getting dragged through the mud by the community and certainly is up against some hefty competition in the shooter genre through here. Just Dance 2022 (November 4) gets the party moving at the end of the year with a smattering of new songs and intricate choreography, while Football Manager 2022 (November 9) keeps the pace slow, familiar, yet addictive with its updated roster simulation gameplay. Similar to Far Cry: Blood Dragon, the Borderlands-themed DLC Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep (November 9) has received a standalone release, while Frogwares has returned to the Sherlock Holmes for something of a prequel, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (November 16), that focuses on the detective’s career in his early twenties. There’s also a space combat game called Chorus (December 3) worth keeping an eye on, as well as a futuristic platformer Solar Ash (December 2).

Notable Video Game Releases Closing Out 2021: Call of Duty, Halo, MOAR SKYRIM

So far, this year has taken severe and distressing turns for nearly everyone across the globe, which leaves video games in an awkward space between being trivial and almost necessary as distractions.  We’re reaching those summer months where people typically start to head out on vacations and, alternatively, retreat inside from the heat … but as we’ve all come to expect with this temporary “new normal”, the inclination to just stay indoors is much stronger than the average. Had one particular release not been delayed due to the year’s complications, we’d have a pretty desolate release calendar for this transition month of June, driven mostly by ports – proportionately for the Switch — of admittedly some pretty great games. Alas, PlayStation owners will have much to rejoice as a long-awaited sequel to one of the format’s best experiences finally gets unveiled. Let’s take a closer look.

Get The Outer Worlds at Amazon          Get Project Warlock at Microsoft

The Outer Worlds (Nintendo Switch) – June 5

A lot of anticipation mounted for Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds, as it looked like they were bringing their open-world strengths from Fallout New Vegas into a brand new property built from the ground up. Expectations were perhaps a bit too lofty or even skewed, as what they delivered wasn’t on the same broad sandbox scope as the newer Fallout games. Instead, Outer Worlds satisfyingly resembles the structure and exploration of older-school RPGs – branching narratives on self-contained areas on a map — through the perspective of a first-person shooter, and it excels through the lovingly-crafted world, characters, themes, atmosphere, and role-playing options. What it lacks in length and the possibilities of endless exploration across this unique world, it more than makes up for in polish, devotion to the concept, and smaller-budget gumption in actually trying to deliver on the concept.  Now the Switch can get in on the action.

Project Warlock — June 9-12

Amid this renaissance of rebooted shooters, notably Doom and Wolfenstein, nostalgic memories have been rediscovered of playing through those classic games in their original, low-pixel state. While those other games are reminding old-school players of gaming experiences from the past, Project Warlock hopes to transport them back there through a new first-person shooter that echoes their strengths. Fusing together standard FPS artillery with magic weapons and spells – which also taps into memories of Heretic and Hexen for the same group – Project Warlock dedicates itself to feeling exactly like those games with more modern, self-aware design elements behind upgrade choices and level construction.  Released in 2018 to Steam, it’ll be available on all the current-gen consoles by the third week of June, popping up on different consoles on different days of the week.

Get Disintegration at Amazon          Get The Last of Us: Part II at Amazon

Disintegration — June 16

Innovations aren’t easy to achieve in established gaming genres, especially when trying to combine ideas into a new concept that’s appealing to a broader audience.  Disintegration is giving it a shot, though, by welding together the immediate action of a first-person shooter with the stage-based pacing of a real-time strategy game.  Players control a soldier who pilots a device called a Gravcycle, which allows the controller to hover above the battle area, shoot enemies and dictate the actions of squad mates on the ground.  It’s this navigation that introduces the RTS aspects of Disintegration, where dictating their abilities seems to play out like a single-player squad-based shooter on steroids, driven by the strengths and weaknesses of choosing different specialists for actions. Originally built with real-time strategy in mind and then branched out into the FPS perspective for variety, this title from Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto and his new development studio, VI Interactive, has a lot of potential.

The Last of Us: Part II — June 19

Few people will say that Naughty Dog makes the most challenging video games out there, but it’s very hard to dispute how masterful they are at blending cinematic and engaging game design. When they took their philosophies into the realm of zombie pandemic storytelling for The Last of Us, it was a brilliant marriage of style and concept made even better by the endearing relationship that develops between Joel and Ellie, the game’s brilliantly voiced protagonists.  A sequel wasn’t a certainty, but most aren’t surprised that Naughty Dog has continued the story with The Last of Us: Part II, shifting the gameplay perspective to that of the now 19-year-old Ellie. Driven by a plot involving a cult that’s emerged in the wake of the disease apocalypse, the gameplay philosophies should be relatively similar between the original and this sequel, powered more by strategic cover-based tactics and the horror-survival tension that follows. Expectations are high for Part II, but Naughty Dog’s primed to deliver.

Also, good luck getting the Ellie Edition — the one with the backpack and the other special edition goodies — featured in our Limited Edition Video Game Guide. It continues to sell out as soon as it becomes available.

Get Spongebob: Rehydrated at Amazon          Get Brigandine 2 at Nintendo

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated — June 23

If a videogame adaptation manages to capture the charm of a popular property, then it can be forgiven for some simple game design and mechanics. The Spongebob Squarepants game released during the PS2 / Xbox era fits that label, offering tons of content and heaps of personality that a wide range of audiences can enjoy, much like the animated show itself. Perhaps Battle for Bikini Bottom is an unusual choice for a remastering, but there’s no denying the enduring popularity of the character nor the fondness players from that era have for how it extended the character into the gaming arena. Rehydrated will be preserving the general gameplay framework of the version from 2 console generations back, while also reintegrating cut content, remastering the soundtrack, and including multiplayer modes.

Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia — June 25

It’s interesting that we’ve arrived at a state for media where sequels can come a few decades after the release of the first installment, and there isn’t much damage done to enthusiasm for it … or, if it’s a lesser-known property, it can just rejuvenate interest in a long-lost property. Released on the first PlayStation over 20 years ago, Brigandine is a tactical war strategy game that involves orchestrating battles between nations on a hexagon grid, which then cuts to zoomed-in depictions of the combatants – both knights and mythical monsters – engaging in attack or defense. This sequel, The Legend of Runersia, retains a huge chunk of the gameplay ideas from the original, leaving this current-gen iteration looking just like an updated, polished iteration of the legacy title with little overt change. That is, except for the zoomed-in scenes of the battles, as it seems like the developers have switched to letting the mini characters on the hex map beat up on each other as enough representation, like other tactics games.

The PC will actually be getting a few satisfying goodies throughout June, including remastered collections of Command and Conquer on June 5 and Samurai Showdown on June 19, timed with the PC port of the 2019 Samurai Showdown reboot also arriving on the 19th.  Switch users will also have the pleasure of hopping behind the wheel with Burnout Paradise: Remastered on June 19, while those interested in free-to-play games will have multiplayer shooter Valorant on the PC on June 2  and actioner Ninjala on the Switch on June 24 to try out.

June’s New Video Games Overshadowed by The Last of Us (Part II)