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

Massive super-nerdy list of playable characters was great. Not so great, massive difficulty spikes, which are kind of a first for lego games. Some vehicle side-missions were just really let down by unpredictable handling + interference from other traffic + overly harsh target times. And some of the flying races were borderline unplayable, the mechanism for open-world flying is different to (and nowhere near as good as) the one they used in Batman 2, so the drawn out "get through all these small rings in a row" races were just awful.

otm, I play all these lego games with my godson and this was the one we didn't like for pretty much everything JimD just said.

(tho he did enjoy playing as the hulk to be fair)

i always want to be able to get into lego games but every time i try i just lose interest so quickly

also it seems like every one is a big leap forward in the eyes of lots of people, so by the time the price drops to an acceptable level of risk, the new one is out and purportedly makes the last one and all the previous ones pieces of shit. like, lego batman came out, everyone raved, whatever the next one was came out and suddenly everyone was all "fuck can you believe we wasted time on that horseshit garbage."

lol i feel similarly. i've got an unopened copy of Lego Star Wars Trilogy sitting around, feels like "what's the point man"

The first/last one i spent any time on the Indiana Jones one, and i didn't really get what all the fuss was about. then again, they seem like games that would be fun to play multiplayer, and i was alone, terribly alone

#9: The Stanley Parable - PC/Mac - 58 pts - 7 votes

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

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The Stanley Parable

"When Stanley came to a set of two open doors," the narrator says, "he entered the door on his left."

It's a choice. A real choice, made all the more fascinating by the fact that the game, via the narrator, explicitly communicates its expectations to you. Do you cooperate with the narrator, letting the story he wants to tell play out? Or do you go the "wrong" way, seeing what awaits down the hallway on the right?

No matter what you do, here, as in most games, exerting true independence is impossible. You are operating within a severely limiting system that others have created. You can play into its expectations or attempt to defy them, but either way, you are engaging in behavior that the system allows, moving through environments that others have constructed with you, the player, in mind. No matter which way you go in The Stanley Parable, you are confronted with choices again and again. And again and again, the narrator communicates his expectations to you. When the narrator tells you that Stanley walks straight ahead into the room marked Mind Control Facility, do you follow his narrative lead, or branch off to the left, down the hallway marked "ESCAPE"?

It's an experience that makes you reflect on the nature of choice in games, on how games that purport to offer choice almost always offer only an illusion of choice. You might find the narrator commenting that you made a choice that you shouldn't, by design, have been able to make, or you might make your way to an area that the narrator claims you were never meant to see. But of course, the very fact that there's recorded dialogue commenting on these circumstances makes it clear that these are situations that the designers planned for and wanted you to discover. - Carolyn Petit, Gamespot

The Stanley Parable isn't all that original in calling into question the player's sense of agency in or outside of the game, but it does so with irresistible wit. - one way street

Alien enough that I was never able to guess what would happen next; recognizable enough that I cared. My only regret is that I think I got the most interesting ending first -- and I didn't understand what made it so interesting until I'd gotten a bunch of the other endings (and, in fact, I forget how I did that ending so I wasn't able to repro it when I tried later). Aaaand I just looked it up and I might've only gotten like half of these endings... time to go back! - Will M.

i actually spent very little time playing 'the stanely parable' but i admire it quite a bit, its like the cgi in the hobbit movies or something, digital monuments - Lamp

a friend at work asked me if i played this game and when i said no he said "you need to play it. don't read anything about it and just play it." when i finally got the game in a humble bundle, i was glad i didn't spoil it

err maybe i didn't get it in a humble bundle and just bought it, i cant remember

it hasn't been bundled yet, waiting for inevitable inclusion or sale

the stanley parable is my favorite game of the year that i didn't actually play and just watched on youtube instead.

Worth noting that it's properly laugh out loud funny in places too. It sits very close to the "not actually a game" line, although the "find all the endings" metagame is what keeps it on the right side.

In the end though it was a bit disappointing to me because the (entirely separate and almost unrelated to the main game) demo was even better (maybe just because the writing was more consistent over that shorter period). Definitely play both, if you're trying this. And hey, play the demo anyway, it's super short and free.

SORT OF SPOILER

The "other games" ending was one of my favourite gaming moments ever actually.

#8: Grand Theft Auto V - PS3/X360 - 59 pts - 5 votes

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

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which city for GTA 5?

I'm in Downtown, and after stealing some precious weaponry for a jewelry store heist from a moving van, I find myself under the attention of local constabulary. Sirens blaring behind me, I gun my car through the latticework roads before finding a freeway. Thundering into oncoming traffic, cars scatter and smash into the partition. It's not long before I'm in countryside. I slide off the freeway into the brushland, sweeping round dusty trails and leaping over grass hills. Losing sight of the cops, I dump my vehicle behind a bar, walk into a discount store, change my clothes and find another car. I'm miles away from where the chase started, in a completely different area, purely due to the natural course of my actions. Now I’m out in the sticks, free of the law and with a scenic trip back to the city ahead.

Such a scenario is enabled by a few things. The map design is one, with wide roads that allow you to weave through its dense traffic and a cogency that means the expanse of land feels connected from top to bottom.

Secondly, Rockstar has tweaked how the police hunt you. Now you can play a game of hide and seek from the very beginning, nipping out of sight down an alleyway or under a bridge and watch police cars prowl by. Or you can go hell for leather and try to lose them in a high-speed, destructive chase. Your choice. - Tom Hoggins, The Telegraph

Probably the most satisfied I've been with a GTA game since GTA:SA. It seemed actually a bit interesting. Of course, like all of the others, as soon as I beat it, it completely fell out of my mind. This is maybe the first time in a few years where I didn't leave the C&P #1 game off my list and/or include it in my "complain about a game" section, so I guess that's cool. - Will M.

i think as good as any in the series but i think with each iteration the franchise becomes less impactful? i don't know, i loved it when i was playing it, even though i kind of don't care about it in hindsight - Roberto Spiralli

(...)the C&P #1 game(...) - Will M.

SHUT UP WILL

wow seriously did not expect it to be EIGHTH...

not that surprised tbh

If I'm being honest I would have made it my number 1, but it feels kinda boring to vote for GTA even though I spent an ungodly amount of time with it.

considering that the (imo inferior) rockstar games GTAIV and RDR placed #2 and #1 in 2008 and 2010, i expected a stronger showing i guess? altho i guess this really really shows the ilx move away from consoles more than anything. if my guesses are correct, we still have 3 mobile games at least, and 2 pc games at least (and a console game, and... something else... possibly a console game). <-- Don't wanna play that "here is what is left" game since I know 5 of them from my ballot.

xp otm, i guess i'm most surprised bc this is the first time i didn't put the rock star game of the year on my most overrated rant thing

slash i voted for it

#7: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - PS3 - 62 pts - 6 votes - 1 top game votes - Top PS3 Exclusive

http://i.imgur.com/AYSFuR2.jpg

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Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Studio Ghibli meets Level 5

While Level-5 did a wonderful job of concocting a worthy game, Ni No Kuni's most overt draw is in how it looks, and for that, you need to look outside of the game's developer and into the firm actually responsible for the graphics: Studio Ghibli, perhaps the most famous anime producer in the world. Ni No Kuni is unquestionably gorgeous; its stellar aesthetic transcends each and every inch of the game. You'll see a vista and think to yourself "this is the most beautiful scene in the game." Then, you’ll see something an hour later and you'll think the same thing. This happens over and over again, because Ni No Kuni looks that much better than a vast majority of games on the market. - Colin Moriarty, IGN

Ni no Kuni's combat takes place in real time, though it allows you to pause to switch between Oliver and one of the other party members or any of the familiars currently in your employ. You can run around the battlefield at will as whichever character or creature you've selected, but you still choose your actions — even the most basic attack — from a menu. While real-time combat makes for faster battles than if it were turn-based, the lack of direct control is often frustrating. Selecting "attack" brings up a five- to ten-second timer, and until it runs out, your character will continue a series of auto-attacks on the enemy. Sometimes you'll choose attack but the creature you're controlling will inexplicably just stand there for the first few seconds of the timer, letting it tick down. I was never able to work out why this happens from time to time. - Philip Kollar, Polygon

The only big ticket game I’ve played this year, and I’m not even that far in. But so far, despite some irritating battles, this is beautiful and great and pushes all my JRPG buttons. - s.clover

Not the most compelling jRPG ever, or even really of the past few years (I'd put Persona 4 Golden in this top spot easily if it had really come out in 2013), but once the game got its hooks in me (and, if it didn't for you, keep trying -- it takes a while) it was a warm bowl of chicken soup every time I booted it up. It's easy to find faults, but I was smiling my whole way through. And if that's not the point of playing video games as an adult, what the hell is? - Will M.

Visually lived up to everything you'd hope for from a Ghibli RPG, and while the plot was no great thing the battles were really fun - somehow boss battles won through patience and desperate counter-attacking with one character left never felt like a drag at all. - if

loved this, put 80 hours in before it got too hard to catch pokemons. - soda

If I'm being honest I would have made it my number 1, but it feels kinda boring to vote for GTA even though I spent an ungodly amount of time with it.

yeah, pretty much the same with me. normally i just vote honestly but it didn't seem like GTA5 would be hurting for votes

considering that the (imo inferior) rockstar games GTAIV and RDR placed #2 and #1 in 2008 and 2010, i expected a stronger showing i guess?

i only can think up like 2-3 of the final games left to place

also RDR >> GTAV imho

i still have three games left from my ballot this is weird

Interesting that Ni No Kuni showed up highly here, I got the feeling that it eventually fizzled for many people on this board.

yeah, only 2 left from my ballot.

unless i am failing at ctrl+f and/or failing at having a memory, i have 4 left and one of them is really O_o

i think i have p good guesses for the other two, as well... shutting up now

are we finishing today?

Ha, love your comment on Ni No Kuni, Will

are we finishing today?

I have a lot of work left to do on them but I can keep grinding. Or we can do 1-5 tomorrow. What do you think?

past the FF on snes (however you number it officially) i've never played a jrpg

Take your time, poly, we're in the home stretch.

goole: FFVI (III in the US) was a great one to stop with tbh

Ni No Kuni is just so beautiful. It really reminds me of the first time I ever saw a Dragon's Lair arcade cabinet and couldn't even believe that WOAH IT'S A MOVIE YOU CAN PLAY! Course in that case it turned out not to be. But this time it really is! Also welsh sidekicks deserve recognition.

(I also played, enjoyed, didn't vote for GTA. Just too many other games that deserved the votes this year).

#6: 868-HACK - iOS - 65 pts - 4 votes - 1 first place votes - Top iOS Exlusive

http://i.imgur.com/bk8UUjw.jpg

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Your objective is to pass through eight data sectors. Each houses two siphons: collect these and you can deploy them to earn cash and energy from the surrounding squares, or to gain abilities, used by expending said resources, from data nodes. Activating these, however, releases more enemies. Viruses move two spaces for every turn you take; glitches can pass through nodes to get to you. You can zap them, but each attack uses up a turn, and without judicious use of your limited resources, you’ll soon be surrounded. - Edge

I like the way the theme matched up with the pleasure of it. I liked that it felt like the apex of an awful lot of thinking about games. - Gravel

it's the classic 868-HACK dilemma - do you just start going for points and try to beat your record, or do you play cautiously, get fewer points, but have a chance to increase your streak? *bites your nails* - Karl Malone

woo - just scored a 66 single run alive in 868-hack. i parlayed an antivirus into an early game score - used score judiciously until around sector 5 when i was able to grab a debug (plus a reset) and then started popping the big score boxes + left score alone. grabbed a step before the final sector, siphoned a 8-pt box on sector 8, and then stepped all the way over to the exit. - Mordy

two weeks after announcing i disliked 868 hack i am still playing it every day - thomp

my #1

i need to grab this

is it landscape orientation?

yes, although that image is cropped

ha wow did not expect gta to be that low, DEFINITELY did not expect ni no kuni to beat it

i hadnt played either by the time voting came around, still havent played NNK, would have thrown some points to gta for sure

please dont take this the wrong way but before i take the plunge on ni no kuni, is it actually far less "cute" than the promos would lend me to believe? i got the dreaded chocobo fears from it

It's very cute, sorry.

what are the dreaded chocobo fears?

yeah isn't it a story about an eight year old trying to save his mom or something

An eight year old trying to save his mum after she apparently dies of a heart attack. Which actually was a massively difficult cut scene to sit through with an 8 year old whose grandad had a heart attack the week before, really wished I'd had some pre-warning about the content tbh. But hey, everything turned out fine in the end (in game and irl).

dreaded chocobo fears is just my own private shorthand for all the times FF games would cram some cutesy stupidity in my way and make adorable animals talk in babytalk for my "amusement"

like i have no problem with heartfelt or even vaguely saccharine storylines, just dont make me spend half my time wandering the game with some fucking half bunny that talks like henrietta pussycat from mr. rogers and wont ever stfu

in this game the half bunny talks in a deep welsh brogue