Coint and Plick 2014 - The Seventh Annual ILX Video Game Poll

i think i actually own this game on the 360 and have never played it. i should really put it in the docket.

#50 (tie): Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon - PS3/X360/PC - 15 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/sUYj0xt.jpg

Website | Metacritic | Darkstation | PC World | Zero Punctuation | Trailer

Played the demo, hated it, but it stuck in my head. bought it when it was cheap, loved it. once you get that it isnt a 30 minute jokey diversion but a pretty fully realized game, it really comes into its own. easily the funniest game of the year, and if nothing else deserves points for the developer fully committing to something that no one believed was real, and was a fairly long shot for success as well. if nothing else, grab the demo and play it realizing that the cut scenes and the mood of the tutorial section are really actually going to be maintained through the entire campaign, and if that hooks you, buy that shit immediately. - jjjusten

Listening to the Blood Dragon soundtrack about as much as I play the game - kingfish

#50 (tie): Doctor Who: Legacy - iOS/Android - 15 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/RQH1nuX.jpg

Website | Metacritic | Digital Spy | God is a Geek | Trailer

Not only is Doctor Who: Legacy very nicely presented, with plenty of episodes to work through and lots of famous characters to add to your fighting team, the actual matching mechanics feel refreshingly different. You can move gems freely around the board to complete your turn, which allows you to build more complex strategies with ease. You'll face off against a wide range of foes from the Doctor Who universe, and each team member comes with their own attack bonuses for tackling certain enemies. So as well as adding a fresh twist to the typical match-three gameplay, Legacy also offers up considerably more strategic depth via its team combat system. - John Bedford, Modojo

I only played this because of the license. It's almost wholly personality-free and I didn't even recognize some of the characters until I read the bios that went along with them, which is really bad when talking about, say, the Doctor's current companion. The gameplay is just good enough to keep this from being useless but it really has nothing to do with Doctor Who. - DJP

i tried the doc who game and found it wholly inferior to marvel puzzle quest

I chucked it five points, it's a reasonable diversion. Just a minor variation on any match-3 game. The characters aren't drawn that well but they're recognisable. Also one of the few games on my Pod that actually allows me to play offline, which is a major plus in my book.

yeah, as much time as i spend in subways i REALLY wish MPQ had that option

#50 (tie): No One Has to Die - Browser - 15 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/xNJRftn.jpg

Game | Pop Matters | Rock Paper Shotgun | TV Tropes | Walkthrough

No One Has To Die, ironically, sees all of its characters dying at one point. They’re all trapped within a huge corporate building, and there’s a fire raging. You were delivering stationery to the building when you noticed that the two security guards in the lobby were dead. Seeing that a monitor was flashing with a warning of a fire, you logged in as a visitor, and that’s when you end up speaking to the other four characters in the building. From your monitor you’re able to tap into the security system, locking doors to protect certain characters from the fire and instructing others to flood other parts, but in doing that, you have to be careful not to drown them as well. - Chris Priestman, Gamejolt

There are puzzles in this but they're not really the point. An interesting bit of speculative fiction in game form. - reddening

Oh yeahhhh that came was really cool. Play it!

Really liked this one. Basically interactive fiction with some minimal graphics, but a good story.

side note for MTL ILXors: first 2 seconds of far cry 3 blood dragon shows nouveau palais. be prepared because i got really confused and wondered if i might be dreaming abt playing the game and not actually playing the game.

There's a bundle coming out in stores soon w/Far Cry 2, 3, and Blood Dragon on disc, will probably pick that up later this year

#50 (tie): Remember Me - PS3/X360/PC - 15 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/VV3GGdZ.jpg

Website | Metacritic | Financial Post | EGM | Trailer

Rather than having the lasting impact of a distinct, vital recollection, Remember Me plays out like a stressful fever dream requiring the player to forget it. The game is an often muddled compilation of memory-centric sci-fi plots (shades of Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days abound), borrowed futuristic visuals, and a creatively restrained battle/platforming system in need of considerable retooling. The myriad cerebral theories presented in the game aim to be bold and innovative, but because of the way players are unadvisedly limited in their traversal of a 2084-set Paris, the blossoming of its customarily interesting ideas is ultimately restricted to the bud phase. - Mike LeChevallier, Slant Magazine

Reminds me most of Enslaved - decently inventive mechanics and way of telling its future dystopia story, kind of easy and short but that works in its favour because it would get boring otherwise. The remix bits were a little bit of a wasted opportunity, but still cool. - if

Blood Dragon was fun! But I was hoping it would be a dumb shooter the whole way through and sort of lost interest at the first stealth mission. But for the glorious intro section it is basically Laser Tag: The Video Game, which I love!

Remember Me is free right now on PS+, FYI, so grab it fools

#50 (tie): Clockwork Cat - Browser - 15 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/LRJHhcL.gif

Game | Gameological | Indie Game Mag | Speed Run

I gave Clockwork Cat a go - that is SUPER CUTE. Shame it's so short, but eh, Ludum Dare, what you gonna do... - emil.y

yeah, this was great.

So cute.

#47 (tie): Pocket Mine - iOS/Android - 20 pts - 1 votes

http://i.imgur.com/g4uqtxO.jpg

iOS | Android | 148 Apps | IGN Blogs | Trailer

This isn't a triumph of good game design, this is a triumph of modern free-to-play addiction oriented game design. Whatever, I still play. -s.clover

i'm embarrassed to admit i've been playing pocket mine recently - Mordy

but proud to admit i did not vote for it

But it's the 47th best game of 2013!!

if i had thrown it a vote (it happened there were probably 15-20 games above it jostling for a place) it would've only gotten 5 points. very disposable iOS type - easy to play a couple quick rounds (and tho it refills your 'runs' timer through paying, i never felt compelled to buy more runs than i could take at a given time).

#47 (tie): Ollie Ollie Oxen Free - Interactive Fiction - 20 pts - 1 votes

http://i.imgur.com/ngEMno1.jpg

Browser version | IFDB | Ecclesiastical Revue | Emily Short

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free begins with the protagonist, a teacher, coming to in the moments after his school has been bombed. He has to find six of his students and help them get out of the severely damaged, burning school building. Some students are frightened, some wounded, some have more frustrating or kid-like reasons not to want to leave where they are, so the puzzles chiefly revolve around helping the kids get out. To make things worse, the teacher has himself been gassed, and cannot manipulate things properly, so most steps require asking the kids to do the physical manipulation.

This is a premise I found compelling: the stakes are high, the protagonist is acting nobly, and the situation is about as bad as it can get. The kids and their space are sympathetically drawn, and although they have various quirks that are mildly frustrating (the better to provide puzzles), they come across as endearing and also as having distinct personalities from one another. The protagonist also gets a few touches of personality: he is gay, married to a husband who is currently likely to be in danger. These facts affect how he feels and even (in small ways) how he relates to the students. - Emily Short

Highly recommended game from me. Anyone who likes IF at all should give it a go. A lot of reviews I read found the limitations on the player character's abilities frustrating and annoying, but to me it added a layer of proper puzzling on to the game. Loved the characters, the writing is great, the premise dealt with well. There were a couple of minor bugs and one relatively large thing I wasn't convinced by, but the latter is spoilery, so I won't go into it here.

Excited about that one - will play it! Thanks.

Got through Ultra Business Tycoon III. (damn that readme biz) it's good work. I wish it was a LITTLE less random gameplay-wise, but I guess it works because I'm a softie (my emotions!).

I chucked it five points, it's a reasonable diversion. Just a minor variation on any match-3 game. The characters aren't drawn that well but they're recognisable. Also one of the few games on my Pod that actually allows me to play offline, which is a major plus in my book.

― emil.y, Wednesday, February 26, 2014 3:35 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but the one thing the dr who game has going for it is puzzles and dragons style you can drag the thing as much as you want and not just swap gameplay, which is a nice dynamic, and it has that without lots of free to play nonsense thrown in.

i beat the first set of worlds (season whatever) but the second one had a huge difficulty spike and i gave up.

#47 (tie): Mario & Luigi: Dream Team - 3DS - 20 pts - 1 votes

http://i.imgur.com/TbWJUzh.jpg

Website | Metacritic | Lazy Gamer | Armchair Empire | Trailer

The core gameplay remains the same between these two modes — exploring, solving puzzles and getting into turn-based battles — but the context changes entirely. The regular game exists in a fully realized cartoon fantasy world, with different shops and towns, multiple regions to explore and tons of random characters to provide flavor text. The dream world is more incorporeal and more directed. Most dream world locations only have two or three rooms and very little in the way of side quests or NPCs to distract you. By hopping back and forth from the dream world regularly, Dream Team successfully provides both the eager exploration of an RPG and the focused get-to-the-end challenge of 2D platformers. But the gameplay variety doesn't stop there. - Philip Kollar, Polygon

#46: Papa Louie 2: When Burgers Attack! - Browser - 20 pts - 1 votes - 1 top game votes

http://i.imgur.com/CHXtZmH.jpg

Game | Unbelievably Annoying Let's Play Guy

Sarge and Radley Madish have kidnapped all of your customers in this long-awaited to sequel to Papa Louie: When Pizzas Attack! Marty and Rita will travel to the Land of Munchmore to rescue Papa Louie, and find other trapped customers along the way to help on your journey! Every customer you rescue becomes a new playable character, with unique weapons and a variety of special skills that can help you on your quest. Use your customers’ skills to complete challenges across multiple worlds, and unlock all 28 playable characters on your way to defeat the wild Radley Madish! - game copy

If you're a Kongregate badge junkie, the Papa's Pizzeria/Burgeria/Pancakeria franchise is an annoying glut of badges you get for playing basically the same game over and over again. So I was surprised when this game turned out to be a charming platformer with satisfying physics and a managable level of difficulty! 8 levels with 6 tasks to complete each, 28 unlockable characters with different abilities and weapons, and a bonus level that looks like the wallet section of a Hot Topic exploded. This was the game I came back to the most when I needed to chill out over the summer. - reddening

i found that one... very annoying

I enjoyed Bowser's Inside Story and I've had Dream Team on my eStore wishlist for ages, I don't know why I haven't bought it already. It's not like Mario games ever go down in price. And 20 points from one vote! Wow.

ugh, i started playing Fish Out of Water after it placed upthread and haven't been able to stop. level 22 fish thrower. i already threw a few perfect 10s. my life is...sad

Remember me, which I am now playing, is super on the rails but seriously awesome

I'm playing Dream Team now, because it came with the system and it's something to do while listening to music (I don't have any other game systems). Bowser's Inside Story was great but this game mostly recycles the same gameplay template, sometimes the exact same attacks, with a less interesting and less cute story. Lots of stupid little sequences that you have to waste time watching or clicking through too. But it's fine I guess.

#41 (tie): Paint it Back - iOS - 20 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/yVdYL2t.jpg

Website | Metacritic | Touch Arcade | Modojo | Trailer

I love doing Nonograms, but as soon as the grid gets too big they're difficult to play on a smartphone. This is the first app I've used that makes the interface workable, and the surrounding conceit with the paintings and their clever titles is very cute. - reddening

Didn't know about Fish Out of Water - it's by the Jetpack Joyride/Fruit Ninja guys, I'll have to get it at some point (probably when it goes free)

Paint it Back looks good, but does it actually work on a phone (instead of iPad)?

The interface on PIB bugged me. Not sure why, but I'm just used to the way HD Color Cross does picross.

#41 (tie): Pikmin 3 - WiiU - 20 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/XPGJ6vG.gif

Game | Metacritic | Nintendojo | ZTGD | Commercial

been playing Pikmin 3, sooo fuckin good. - Zappi

Cute game with beautiful graphics and a nice sense of humor. It's definitely a good fit for the Wii U. Marks off for lack of co-op in story-mode as the game seems made for it. And the timer part of the gameplay has been infuriating a few times. Interrupting a boss fight with "the sun's gone down so you have to stop fighting for your life and go home now" spiked my NERDRAGE. - bnw

I haven't played the Wii re-releases of either of the old two, so this was my first time playing Pikmin with controls that suited it, and it was a super charming breeze. - if

i've been playing Paint It Back on my ipod touch (4th gen). I do fat-finger the grid sometimes, but not enough to diminish my enjoyment of it. seriously i've played it so much over the last month that i've started dreaming in rows and columns.

Ok so how is it possible that in a game as literally gorgeous as remember me the main character animation is so terrible?!

Didn't know about Fish Out of Water - it's by the Jetpack Joyride/Fruit Ninja guys, I'll have to get it at some point (probably when it goes free)

― Nhex, Thursday, February 27, 2014 7:46 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

as far as i know it hasn't gone free even as a promo yet, and its been out a loong time. there's fairly minimal totally avoidable iap in it, so i don't know if they'll ever bother to go free with it, especially since it sadly didn't take off as much as their other stuff. for $1 its totally worth it.

I was the Pocket Mine voter. Sorry everyone.

Remember me, which I am now playing, is super on the rails but seriously awesome

― Corpsepaint Counterpaint (jjjusten), Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought this was good to look at but really silly and the combat just wasn't slick enough. Fun though!

Re: Mario and Luigi Dream team, and "And 20 points from one vote! Wow".

Sorry, this was me :) I never got round to writing blurb for any of my votes either because I'm super lazy... I've liked all the Mario & Luigi RPGs so far, and while this is just recycled gameplay from previous iterations, that's pretty much all I wanted from it (and more Broque Monsieur because I'm weird and find him hilarious). On the whole I'm a big fan of RPGs where I don't have to grind, and the M&L games always seem pretty well balanced (or maybe that's just "easy").

wait i gave 10 points to pocket mine too, so the #s for it have gotta be wrong.

Never apologize! I always do a couple of 20pt votes every year

pocket mine should be a 20/2 rather than a 20/1, sorry sc

#41 (tie): Shin Megami Tensei IV - 3DS - 20 pts - 2 votes

http://i.imgur.com/y1idd99.gif

Website | Metacritic | Destructoid | Worth Playing | Let's Play

With its raw, horror-inspired settings, Shin Megami Tensei IV fits right in with other games in the series, yet in many ways it's unlike anything else in the current 3DS library. It's occasionally weak, held back by menial character development and a frustrating overworld, but it provides a challenging combat system made even more interesting through discussions and arguments with fantastically designed demons. Unfortunately, it's not a pillar of character development, or the best-looking game of its type. It's saved by the lure of the dark and mysterious world and the trials of fighting its inhabitants make Shin Megami Tensei IV a great role-playing game worth seeing through to the end. The excellent combat and the almost never-ending quest to explore the compendium of demons should keep you coming back for more, even if you have a fairly good assumption of what the other endings might entail. - Peter Brown, Gamespot

on shin megami tensei iv: sometimes process is more important than outcome. - Lamp

Pokémon for adults where you have to bribe monsters to join your party and, more often then not, they will just take your items and leave. Great JRPG with an excellent soundtrack - diamondave85

agh that gif! scary!

i'm not sure if Lamp and Diamondave85's comments are actually praise

certainly sounds interesting. there's a couple things here i would like to have a 3DS for. not enough tho. never enough.