2021 Hugo Award game finalists include 'Hades' and 'Animal Crossing'

Late last year, the Hugo Awards announced it would honor a video game for the first time. This week, it revealed the list of six finalists the community will consider before announcing a final winner at the 79th World Science Fiction Convention in August. The list is interesting, to say the least. The Hugo Awards is known for honoring the best in science fiction and fantasy writing, so it's something of a headscratcher to see a game like Animal Crossing: New Horizons make the shortlist. That's not to say it isn't a great game, but there were plenty of genre standouts from 2020 that could have made the list instead, including Half-Life: Alyx, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim or Umurangi Generation.