The Fifth Annual Coint and Plick Poll for Best Video Games of 2011 - Part One: 74-109

er yeah sorry i need to eat and my mind is woobly

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#109: FIFA 12 – 360 / PS3 / PC – 5 pts - 1 vote
Official Game Site
http://cdn4.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/fifa_12_screenshot_3.jpg
Metacritic
Gametrailers
oppet: I agree with most of the critical moans about this year's edition, though I did eventually come to grips with the initially frustrating new defensive controls. The single player element of this game is terrible but I've played so many great matches against my housemate that it would be churlish not to at least chuck 5 points into the pot on its behalf.

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#109: Fisher Diver – in browser – 5 pts - 1 vote - FREE!
Official Game Site
http://cache.erstgames.com/uploads/games/pictures/VR4HZKUZEMNB.jpg
Rock Paper Shotgun
Soundtrack

http://i40.tinypic.com/vg5us8.jpg
#109: A Game About Game Literacy – in browser – 5 pts - 1 vote - FREE!
Official Game Site
http://174.120.103.90/images-freegameaccess/a-game-about-game-literacy-big.jpg
The Stranger
jjjusten: I don't really get into browser or iOS games because they all seem kinda flimsy and insubstantial to me, so maybe the reason that I dug this so much is that it spoke to me on an elemental gamer level - like we're all in on the same joke so why not just accept it? AGAGL is very very smart and very very good.

forksclovetofu: If you’re looking for a smartass, didactic way to explain the base mechanics of gaming to a non-gamer, you could do worse. I’d be curious to see this idea expanded on in more depth for an iOS game where you start with Pong and end up controlling Infinity Blade-esque characters. Non-gaming folks gotta have a starting point!

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#109: Groove Coaster – iOS – 5 pts - 1 vote
Official Game Site
http://bradnicholson.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/GrooveCoaster.jpg
Ars Technica
Metacritic
Touch Arcade Review
Jeff: Good music saves a hackneyed premise! I never thought I would play another rhythm game again (and especially not on iOS) but this one held my attention solidly for at least a week.

I can totally point cointandplick.com at the existing blog for now. Where is that at?

Is groove coaster worth the $3?

Groove Coaster is ABSOLUTELY worth a buck.
Three is more open to interp.

http://cointandplick.wordpress.com/

On a river bed, I found an old man doubled over holding his head. A woman was laid out in front of him, bloody and dead. When I stopped and walked up to him, he stood up and shakily held a gun to his own head. I ran up and pushed him. He dropped the gun and began weeping and then finally glaring at me angrily until I rode away. That’s not a video game, that’s a Cormac McCarthy short story.

re: de blob 2 - yeah the controls are 100% better because yknow buttons are for jumping, not jerking a wiimote around. note: i did not play all the way through, so it might suck in latter points, but its cheap now and a lot of non-frustrating fun so far.

Dungeons of Dredmor was okay, but in a year with Binding of Isaac...

Groove Coaster is ABSOLUTELY worth a buck.
Three is more open to interp.

Who's the cool guy who voted for Fisher Diver?

it wasn't me, but fisher diver was on my shortlist and probably would've made a ballot of 20-25 games

Fisher Diver is pretty cool!

I'm pretty sure it was me who voted for Fisher Diver. I figured it was on the list, someone else would be repping for it, but nope, just me? I thought it was a great version of that sort of game - it needs a bit of skill, but not so much that it drives a bad gamer mad, and you can grind and upgrade a bit if you are shit, and the story is a very very sweet addition to the gameplay.

(I'm unsure if you can tell, but I'm not a games journalist)

I made www.cointandplick.com a CNAME for the wordpress site for now. jamescobo are you out there? I can transfer the domain to you if the wordpress thing is going to be the home of freshly created coint and plick content like Mordy's essay going forward. Webmail me.

I LIVE~

and fortuitously enough I have been a-portin' this year's entries to the blog tonight anyway so holla at yr boy & tell me what I need to do. also whoever's making the header images for each entry, plz fix the one for Civ 5 so that I can add it.

I would be totally down for making this a repository for ILX gaming essays btw, lord knows there are plenty of times when I get the urge to make lists or erect profane strawmen in defense of random-ass games but have no outlet. how should we handle this? I can just make a gmail where folks can send their blathering missives to and then share the login info w/ a Learned Council of ILX Gaming Elders if that would be easiest.

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#109: Madden NFL 12 – 360 / PS3 – 5 pts - 1 vote
Official Game Site
http://media.operationsports.com/shots/400/16338.jpg
Metacritic
Gametrailers
tomofthenest: This was my first this-gen Madden and I liked it even if I honestly haven't played it much. Truth is that I don't really understand American football so well and the depth is lost on me. In an average game, either me or the lad will find a play that works most of the time, and the other will spend the entire game trying to find a defensive play that neutralises it whilst losing to a score better suited to cricket than the NFL. Then we repeat the other way round.

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#109: Monsters Ate My Condo – iOS – 5 pts – 1 vote
Official Game Site
http://media.edge-online.com/files/imagecache/article/articles/reviews/monsters_ate_my_condo.jpg
Eurogamer
http://www.ienticement.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Monsters-Ate-My-Condo1.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5xuHViALpo
http://www.modojo.com/media/games/monsters_ate_my_condo/ipad/18.jpg
Touch Arcade Forum Thread
http://www.maclife.com/files/u307916/2012/01/reviews/condo.jpg
DJP: Another fucking finger strain game. I am sending Apple my medical bills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5xuHViALpo
Monsters Ate My Facebook
http://assets.ilounge.com/images/reviews_games/92311/6.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuT2tI0_JBo
Metacritic
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/FCKEditorFiles//five-stars-monsters-ate-my-condo.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THfP-CgLIEE
http://www.modojo.com/media/games/monsters_ate_my_condo/ipad/18.jpg

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#109: Oh! Edo Towns – iOS – 5 pts - 1 vote
App Store Download
http://cdn.pocket-lint.com/images/CWDT/aotd-kairosoft-oh-edo-towns-0.jpg?20111109-193656
Metacritic
Touch Arcade Review

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#109: PataNoir– PC – 5 pts - 1 vote - FREE!
Official Game Site
http://indiegames.com/patanoir.jpg
KillScreen

Oh my god that KillScreen review of PataNoir is so bad

Good God, Monsters Ate My Condo looks like a psychedelic nightmare. Very tempting.

I voted for PataNoir, because I am a massive dork. It's a pretty good example of word-game based IF, and in a way I wish I'd given it more points, but I do remember being frustrated with it a few times (parser problems, necessary items easy to overlook, some descriptions not fleshed out - all in quite a minor way, this is actually a pretty polished game, but just enough intrusions to break the flow of play).

Also, I voted right at the last minute and didn't nominate, so the only text adventures I could remember were from the comp (I voted for two). I'm sure there may have been better ones released last year, I just couldn't think of them.

Oh, and yeah, ugh, people writing IF reviews in the style of IF is so ridiculously cliched and awful.

I might need monsters ate my condo I think

me too. And I don't even play games on my phone.

i think PataNoir is really good, emily -- its been a few years since I kept up with IFComp and new releases like I did in high school + college, but I remember thinking it was pretty striking, esp the entire manipulating metaphors to solve puzzles idea. Still not the best IF noir (which is actually my fave IF game: Slouching Towards Bedlam).

Oh yes, I re-played STB on your recommendation, actually. It is very good, definitely up there.

I've actually been thinking bc of Codecademy that I might write another IF game in the near future...

Only someone who isn't familiar with the NFL could vote for this year's Madden. Very fitting.

I haven't played any kairosoft beyond Game Dev Story. Those screens make Edo Towns look a lot deeper than GDS was?

The only kairosoft game I played last year was the football/'soccer' one, which was mildly diverting but not great. It felt more like a rough idea which had been half-heartedly turned into a full game.

Monsters Ate My Condo is absolutely worth a dollar for the visual style. The game itself is best described as reverse Jenga with extra pattern matching and isn't IMO as engaging as a more contemplative game like Bejeweled, but it's totally insane to look at and probably more fun if you dig twitchy puzzle games.

btw writing that has made me want ro play it again

how many more 109s are there btw?

more posts today plz

I should have given more points to Monsters Ate My Condo

i've been digging the lite version but can't really figure out the mechanics well enough to know when i'm doing well or not, and i can't figure out whether i want to pay for the full version. maybe i will. it's pretty fun.

is part of the joy figuring out how to rack up points, or can i safely look up a gamefaqs or something and get the rundown?

you can look it up, but it's mostly about managing the build of combos along with swapping in the right monster for the right powerup

do all combos result in bronze medals and the only way to get silver/gold/platinum is by combining those bronze medals? also -- can you only combine medals if they're touching each other? can they ever combine when there's a colored block between them? also! what are those cat looking blocks that change color? how do you make combos with them?

- three matched color condos make a bronze
- three bronzes make a silver
- three silvers make a gold
- three golds make a diamond
- no idea what three diamonds make
- three "bad condos"(concrete/bomb) make a cat condo
- cat condos upgrade the condo-making process; 3 color + cat = silver condo etc etc
- the only way to make a combo with noncontiguous blocks is if they are separated by bombs, concrete or cats

no idea what happens if you make a combo with three cats

ok, and how does the upgrade/monster system work? i get that the different colored monsters take the different colored blocks, and also that you can swap them out by getting a similarly colored combo. do they have different buffs? i think i fed a bronze to a monster once and they went to sleep? other times i feed them stuff and shit goes crazy, like UFOs appear, etc. unpredictable tho.

check their bios, they list all the powers there and I might get them wrong but IIRC, when you feed a bronze or better to a monster one of four things happens:

red - monsters fall asleep, you can feed them the wrong color block without upsetting them
blue - your tower straightens up and becomes invulnerable for a short period of time
green - when you form a combo, you generate two blocks instead of one
yellow - the points your score are multiplied by 10 for a short period of time

the nicer the combo block you feed the monster, the longer the phase lasts; I gave the yellow dude a diamond earlier today and I think I was in gonzo scoring time for close to a minute

no idea what happens if you feed them a cat
feeding them bombs pisses them off so much, it's hilarious

more coming later on. work and kraftwerk taking priority.
I can get through the 109's by end of day friday methinks