Coint and Plick 2013 - The Sixth Annual ILX Video Game Poll

And yeah DayZ is kinda great if you can stand the fucking torture of getting it to run, even though it is also quite awful. I found running around by myself weirdly enjoyable... so lonely. If I played it again though I think I'd want to have a couple of buddies to rove the countryside with.

dayz with friends is fun for a while, but at the stage that i played it it was buggy to the point that you could count on someone in your group to be having problems at any given time, and they inevitably start lagging in a dangerous area pulling the whole group into a situation where everyone dies and loses everything. and so every time we'd play it'd take a good while to accumulate a decent amount of supplies to do anything and then there's always the risk of like, falling through a rock and losing everything again. so the concept and atmosphere is fantastic, but it still needs some serious polish to be playable, imo, unless you can invest a lot of time into it and don't mind "starting over" a lot.

Battleheart is actually great; it's a single player MMORPG (if that makes sense) where you're working to level up your squad through constant resource and time management. The art style is light and fun, the RPG elements give a constant sense of progress and the boss battles are challenging without being annoying. I really loved it; well worth a few bucks to keep you busy for a half a week.

Gunman Clive is also available on iOS for $2 and is equally enjoyable there.

Fortune Summoners is one of those Carpe Fulgur games I've been meaning to dig out of my backlog, I'll try to give it a shot this year

#91 (Tie): Knytt Underground – PSN – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://uk.playstation.com/media/f0brRIFW/1621/KnyttUnderground_FeaturedImage.jpg

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video (lol dude shut up)

http://i1.cdnds.net/12/30/618x390/gaming_knytt_underground_1.jpg

IGF Winner

Dork Shelf

http://www.gamrreview.com/media/images/knytt-underground-review-5-39654815357038572368309240189465.jpg

#91 (Tie): McPixel – iOS, PC, Mac – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/McPixel_Steam.jpg

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://media.desura.com/images/games/1/17/16196/shot9.1.png

Free Soundtrack

Created for Ludum Dare

Rock Paper Shotgun

http://www.universityobserver.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Mc-Pixel-4.png

#91 (Tie): MLB 12: The Show – PS3 – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://gamingirresponsibly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/mlb-12-the-show.jpg

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://download.gamezone.com/uploads/image/data/875270/MLB12TheShowFeature2.jpg

Brainy Gamer: Put Me In Coach

Operation Sports Forums

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2012/0305/mlb_e_pujols12show_576.jpg

MLB: The Show

WillM: The reason I finally bought a PS3. What The Show gets that not only other baseball games but other SPORTS games don't get -- out-of-game menus. When I play the Show, I spend as much time in OOG menus as I want. Contrast with FIFA 13 and NHL 13, which I got and promptly stopped playing. UNBELIEVABLE bloat in the menus. Pop ups about lucky-dip card modes I don't want to play. Is this a fucking filesharing website or a video game I paid money for? Oh and when you start a career in FIFA, prepare to wait upwards of 15 minutes for simming between games. Utter fucking garbage. The Show is the only good sports game left -- because it's the only sports game where I can actually GET INTO A GAME in a mode I want to play before my macaroni and cheese finishes cooking.

#91 (Tie): Pixel Defenders Puzzle – iOS – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://images.jayisgames.com/pdp-b.png

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://user41396.vs.easily.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Pixel-Defence-Puzzle-Screenshot-e1358504429608.png

Pixel Defenders Puzzle is fun! a dece matching mechanic + strategic combat. nothing too brainy but a fun kick nonetheless

#91 (Tie): The Simpsons: Tapped Out – iOS – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/the_simpsons_tapped_out.jpg

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://web-vassets.ea.com/Assets/Richmedia/Image/Screenshots/the-simpsons-tapped-out-iphone-screen03_656x369.jpg?cb=1341252656

jjusten: First off, fuck you. I get it, The Simpsons hasn't been funny for a decade, and this is sort of a glorified farmville (or I think so? idk ive never played farmville and i don't understand it, but i am awesome at assuming stuff), but that hasn't kept me from sinking dumb amounts of time into this little yellow people simulator. it probably actually sucks, but fuck it, i spent weeks hiring and firing people in tiny tower and building them fake apartments and shit, so what kind of paragon am i really. its free. it makes noises, and reminds me to do stuff at regular intervals, which appears to give me feelings of "achievement" and "progression" and "fun". Let's just call it the "I am a rat pushing a button to get a food pellet simulation" of 2012.

http://s.pro-gmedia.com/videogamer/media/images/iphone/the_simpsons_tapped_out/screens/the_simpsons_tapped_out_2_605x.jpg

more tomorrow!

does anyone else want to vouch for the simpsons game??

A buddy of mine says he loves the Simpsons game, it's definitely a "this'll be done building in a wihle, but you can pay to speed it up" type game but it seems like it's pretty much the best one, sooo

pretty sure that link for "play online" for pixel defenders puzzle is wrong. its a game called "pixel defenders" instead, which appears to be a tower defense game, while pixel defenders is a merge-3 triple-town style thing.ed. note: right you are. i pulled the link

MCPIXEL. my vote!

yes yes i admit i am totally a third-grader but that nut-kicking animation gets me every time

#91 (Tie): Sleeping Dogs – PS3, X360 – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://almostnerdy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sleeping-dogs-game-play-preview-0.jpg

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://leviathyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/sleeping-dogs-04-700x3931.jpg

Zero Punctuation

Quarter to Three

Brainy Gamer: Me, My Avatar and The Space Between

California Literary Review

Popmatters

Three part Siliconera Dev Interview

YouTube Soundtrack Playlist

Gamasutra: How Sleeping Dogs Tackles Open World Design

http://www.abload.de/img/untitled-104-faster9ss4z.gif

SLEEPING DOGS

if: This is not so much a vote for the game (although that didn't do a whole lot wrong, being even worse than LA Noire for supposed good guy in reality being a terrible psycho aside), as for the setting. Even more than Driver San Francisco appealed to me because of its realisation of San Francisco, for me Sleeping Dogs was all about the massive and involving version of Hong Kong that it takes place in and how fun it was just to run/drive around. Also while I'm not going to stand up for every aspect of its portrayals, it's kind of cool that the UK's biggest selling new IP of 2012 was a game with a majority Chinese main cast of characters/actors.

#91 (Tie): Super Monsters Ate My Condo! – iOS – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://www.androidpocketreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/banner-super-monsters-ate-my-condo.jpg

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8324/8364773260_4c2a4ba5eb_z.jpg

#91 (Tie): Waking Mars – iOS – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://media.desura.com/images/games/1/20/19975/WakingMars-Boxshot.png

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://ifanzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/WM1.jpg

Quarter to Three

Touch Arcade’s Game of the Year

Rock Paper Shotgun: The Real Science of Waking Mars

Wired: Game Postmortem

Soundtrack

How the money works

Gamasutra: Learning from the Style of Tiger Style

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/222884-review-waking-mars/wake3-620x.jpg

#89 (Tie): New Style Boutique – 3DS – 6 pts – 1 vote

http://media.nintendo-gamer.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/style-feat.jpg

Official Game Site

Gameplay Video

http://cdn3.spong.com/screen-shot/n/i/nintendopr381253l/_-Nintendo-Presents-New-Style-Boutique-3DS-_.jpg

Gay Gamer Discusses Style Savvy

Tumblr

”Skyrim Writ Small and Accessorized”

Neogaf Forum

http://www.cubed3.com/media/2012/October/Style_Savvy_813_Screen_05.jpg

if: Like a slightly more in depth Game Dev Story/F1 Story/whatever with a different sense of humour, a Nintendo polish and a self-defined difficulty level. No interest in fashion even required to enjoy the gradual accumulation of cash/options and fixing things up for the succession of customers and other interested parties. Also flat out assumes that you are female without ever tipping you off that it's going to do so when you're putting in your name, but it's not like there aren't plenty of games doing the opposite.

Whooooooaaaaaaa I really expected Sleeping Dogs to place higher... it just just JUST fell off of my top 10 games this year. And even then I slightly would reconsider. The space felt intelligently designed... things that should be close together WERE close together, things that were far apart were connected by paths that were actually fun to drive, side missions were fun, beating friends' scores at various achievements was fun (aside from "clean drive" showing up on screen every 10 seconds, that was annoying as hell), the story was... you know, the psycho/hero disconnect was obviously there but I for some reason cared less than I did w/ eg. GTA IV (maybe the HK action trappings made this easier, because chow yun fat always shoots a ton of dudes)... the ambience was chewy and delicious... man, that was a good game. not an incredible game, but a darn fine game. 91 way too low.

#89 (Tie): Spellwood – iOS – 6 pts – 1 vote

http://lh3.ggpht.com/qPFKns8LSygfQgUbDdYG6rWl35x0xRU_rp1QyPNV8Zq5sm3J5RfCUB7Z8iP7OxYYOao=w705

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://www.mobot.net/writer/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Spellwood-1.jpg

lol, gimpshit.

the demo for sleeping dogs was so s o bad that i never even thought of going back to play it - is the real game much better wrt the actual melee/shooting mechanics? because the demo was pretty lacking, esp the hit detection etc.

obv i am not opposed to changing my mind about a game after disliking the demo because BULLETSTORM

JJJ - did you change your mind about Kingdoms of Amalur? Because that demo was hideous. Even worse than Sleeping Dugs.

Sleeping Dogs was awesome because street vendors sold you stat buffs in the form of dim sum, and for the 80's throwback comedy horror Halloween dlc.

I wish they would have beefed up the drunken master style a bit more tho. I'd like a deeper moveset.

Playing the game has the same effect as watching proper kung fu flicks. "Dude, I'm hungry, lets go get some pork bun."

Sleeping Dogs up on EU PS+ today, gonna try it out later on tonight

i never actually bought kingdoms of amular, but yes, you are right, that might have been the worst demo of 2012.

how's the format sitting with everyone? I went link and info heavy; you should be able to learn a lot more about these games with minimal effort.

works for me.

yeah i am down

i am actually about to finish a game that i voted for (no spoilers) which i almost never do these days, which i find exciting. might have actually bumped it further up the list if i had spent more time with it before voting

I didn't know the Simpsons had a game like that. I wish there was another puzzle element in it like Puzzlecraft had to offset the mindless timed tapping away

puzzlecraft was 99% puzzle! the timed tapping was just a dumb mechanic to stretch out the puzzling.

& to drive purchases of in-game money

dammit I wish they would update that game, would happily keep playing it but there's no more "progress" to be made

i want 20000000000

yessssssss

also want plants vs zombies 2 ffs

yessssssss

― Euler, Wednesday, February 6, 2013 12:49 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just played through the spellwood lite version and yeah, i could see this getting pretty fun, altho i have to rewire my scrabble brain not to plan ahead since they yank the words after play, but that does add an interesting mechanic. kinda cutesy to the point of semi-annoyance, and it seems mostly like single player scrabble with a wrap around it. not bad tho

You can play it 2p, which is how I play it.

puzzlecraft was so quick to beat, even with no iap. i have no idea why anyone would have actually spent for it.

so far all these games look like garbage

Well, these are the one-vote, lowest possible points ties, so yeah, most of them will be 'a thing I played that passed the time and was relatively fun but certainly not the best game ever'.

so far the lowest-rated games in this poll dont look good!!!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/48124_10151114325844649_2118752997_n.jpg

^^ also enjoy puzzles

Which one are you?

im the ocean

is that...castlevania III?

i think i checked out waking mars earlier this year but it was too pricey for an iphone game. i'm really interested in it tho.

Super Monsters Ate My Condo! > different game from normal monsters ate my condo?

btw enjoy your free tiki drinks while you can, kid - someday you're going to have to pay for those ingredients yourself, and good demerara is hard to find

my ballot:

30 - 01 - last story - wii
20 - 02 - unchained blades - psVITA
15 - 03 - xenoblade chronicles - wii
10 - 04 - crusader kings ii - pc
08 - 05 - shin megami tensei: devil survivor 2
07 - 06 - zero escape: virtue's last reward 3DS

also i had some really good comments about all these games too

you really did!

yeah, they were pretty entertaining

ok, how did I not know about Spelunky when it looks like all the games I loved aged 14 rolled together?

otm

#1: Spelunky
Problem here I think is that I played it ages ago, wasn't it a PC game/maybe freeware for a long time? Anyway I didn't feel it way back in the day. Maybe it deserved more time but tbh it's 2013 & I don't have time to be punished by a game. Roguelikes are for unemployed Will M.

#2: XCOM: Enemy Unknown - My #2 (20 pts)
God what more is there to say, so chunky and clicky and satifying

#3: Frog Fractions - My #10 (5 pts)
Shocked to see it place that high since it's basically just a really funny joke but… well, the joke is really funny

#4: Fez - My #6 (5 pts)
Another shock high placement, but boy it is a gas

#9: Super Hexagon
The learning curve for this game appears to be entirely learning how to press left and right at the right times so that all of your brain power goes into looking at what's coming up. I can't bridge that gap and am far too aware of the controls at all times. Give me this on a controller or keyboard and maybe it's a different scene but as of now I find this exhausting and unplayable.

#12: The Walking Dead: Episodes 1 through 5 - My #1 (25 pts!)
A masterpiece. TOO LOW etc

#13: FTL: Faster Than Light
This one is appealing, will definitely spend more time with it at some point, but definitely disappointed that it doesn't rip off star trek more b/c star trek is the best you guys

#14: 10000000
This game is about as fun as working in a call centre and pays almost as much

#18: Fallen London
Playe3d it before they changed the name and mostly got mad that it fucked with my Twitter, fuck you games that fuck with my SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND

#21: Mass Effect 3 - My #8 (5 pts)
MP made it worth ranking, and I didn't mention before but the music way better than ME2/almost as good as ME1!

#26: Puzzle Craft
Got this after it placed. Wtf it's like Tiny Tower but with a game in it. If I had never played Tiny Tower I'd like this but since I DID and I deleted it because THAT IS NOT A FUCKING GAME AND IT IS SHIT, this game makes me mad

#29: Fairway Solitaire
Got after placing. Spent about 20 mins with it. ICDGI

#30 (Tie): Wargames: WOPR
I got through a whole bunch of this, now I find it boring. Why the fuck did a Wargames game come out in 2012 anyway?

#38: Hotline Miami - My #7 (5 pts)
Not sure this'd place for me on Feb 20 2013, but, hey, it is pretty goddamn cool & needs more ILXors to try imo.

#41 (Tie): Dungeon Village
I bought this and realized I had just spent money on my 5th or 6th Kairosoft game, which I enjoyed the first time but exponentially less w/ each game I bought so I didn't play long at all.

#41 (Tie): Infectonator
Fun enough, I guess? More fun than some of the other micro-trans games on this list, anyway.

#41 (Tie): Rebuild
Played it last year on the browser, liked it, beat it, forgot it existed.

#44: Plague Inc.
Not sure how to do anything in this game other than almost win.

#45 (Tie): Triple Town - My #3 (15 pts)
The only match 3 game on this list worth a fuck, everything else can jump in my recycle bin or w/e iOS has

#54: New Star Soccer
I had fun with this but I had more fun with GORILLA.EXE 20+ years ago

#56: Minecraft
I voted for this 2010, forgot, voted for it in 2011, so you know I like Minecraft

#57 (Tie): QatQi
This game, man. I dunno. The coins and shit feel so arbitrary. I don't feel rewarded for playing the way I deem "good"?

#60 (Tie): Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator - My #4 (10 pts)
S1ocki, wasn't kidding when I said we sohuld play this, see if your friend w/ the projector is on board.

#60 (Tie): Dikembe Mutombo 4 ½ Weeks to Save the World
Gonna play this more but based on what I saw when I found that link for forks, I am gonna liiiiiiiiiike it.

#60 (Tie): Letterpress
Thanks ILX, found this after you turned me on to it, do we have an ILG GameCenter name sharing thing? Wanna play this with non-randoms.

#91 (Tie): 9 Innings Pro Baseball 2013
Just doesn't grab me like 2011.

#91 (Tie): DayZ - My #9 (5 pts)
Bonkers, and broken, and magical.

#91 (Tie): McPixel
Another "thanks ILX", this is a great goofy game. Reminds me of Panic for the Sega CD (I think?).

#91 (Tie): MLB 12: The Show - My #5 (5 pts)
The sports game against which all other sports games should be measured, fuk u if u EA

#91 (Tie): Sleeping Dogs
Barely missed my ballot. Unfairly maligned, TOO LOW!, awesome game.

#91 (Tie): Super Monsters Ate My Condo!
Got after placing. Fun but god it makes my phone hot/die fast, gonna be hard to find a way to play this w/o burns & battery burnout

#91 (Tie): Waking Mars
Got after placing. Seems really interesting. Didn't even know it existed, love Spider, thank you ILX!!!

in case my ballot is hard to read in there and/or wrong, here:

#01 Walking Dead: Episode 1–5: 25 points
#02 XCOM: Enemy Unknown: 20 points
#03 Triple Town: 15 points
#04 Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator: 10 points
#05 MLB 12: The Show: 5 points
#06 Fez: 5 points
#07 Hotline Miami: 5 points
#08 Mass Effect 3: 5 points
#09 Day Z: 5 points
#10 Frog Fractions: 5 points

btw Lamp imo gets +30 points for comments, loved those... and forks get +100 points for putting it together and ZS gets +100 for dopest gifs in history

wow Plasmon, you are a beast

Thanks, you're no slouch yourself. Rematch later, I'm supposed to be doing paperwork. Can never put this down without playing just one more word.

Will...

#1: Spelunky
Problem here I think is that I played it ages ago, wasn't it a PC game/maybe freeware for a long time? Anyway I didn't feel it way back in the day. Maybe it deserved more time but tbh it's 2013 & I don't have time to be punished by a game. Roguelikes are for unemployed Will M.

It's really more of just a really weird (tough) platforming game that borrows some elements from roguelikes (random levels, permadeath). The XBLA is much improved from the old PC version, especially in the controls department (though maybe it loses a little of the freeware versions charm).

#9: Super Hexagon
The learning curve for this game appears to be entirely learning how to press left and right at the right times so that all of your brain power goes into looking at what's coming up. I can't bridge that gap and am far too aware of the controls at all times. Give me this on a controller or keyboard and maybe it's a different scene but as of now I find this exhausting and unplayable.

It also came out for PC with controller support. $3.00 US.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/221640/?snr=1_7_15__13

Hotline Miami made this nice little innovation on roguelikes in that once you finish a level, you've finished it at whatever score you got for that level. So you can keep dying and dying and dying but you don't have to start over from the very first level unless you aren't satisfied with your score.

haha ive been re-reading the old C&P and its fun as hell, but i really want to start putting all of my patented "lemme bitch about the wii in a sly and sideways way" pull quotes in one thread.

for example, from my madworld vote:

"Jjjusten: I make no attempt to hide how angry a Wii owner I am. I'm one of those guys that look at this particular console with a little more bile rising in my throat every week that a new fitness program or pet management simulator falls like a turd onto the new release list. So when MadWorld rolled out, I was very glad to see it. The game has its faults: there are times where the wiimote works against you rather than for you; songs are AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL and the game is SHORT. All those caveats fall away the first time you impale someone with a signpost, necklace them with a tire, jam firecrackers down their throat and THEN bisect them by slamming their body in a dumpster. Boss battles are even more insane. Anybody who whines like a baby about the lack of hardcore games on the wii that didn't buy this is a jerk and a traitor and I hope they realize that I will hold them directly responsible when "Wii Play Tamagochi Fitness 3" sells 40 billion copies."

wii was awesome, madworld a turd of a game though

OH HOLY SHIT MY GZEUS CHRONO TRIGGER XTRANORMAL STILL EXISTS! i was certain that had died, but a link in the chrono trigger thread still worked!

here for safekeeping http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/545351/wimps

xpost u monstar

I have a friend that's really into min-maxing and used to be big into nethack and etc. and likes to find games with tough mechanics and just burn through them. Spelunky got him seriously hooked. I, on the other hand, played maybe three games, died quickly each time, got frustrated and decided to play something that hits my reward centers more directly.

super mamc has now got me totally hooked.

I would have voted for Chrono Trigger if I'd finished it

next year, instead of "biggest disappointment" can we have a -10 vote slot that can only be used if accompanied by an angry rant? then we could have amusing entries with negative point values

Well then you'll have people claiming that their game won a moral victory, because it would have been #34 instead of #39 but for the HATAS. So yes, I am totally behind this.

Haha that said I'm curious about why you're hating on Pandaria, I haven't played it yet but I'm quite looking forward. It seems to have a more coherent vibe than Cataclysm's "Oh we'll have a sand level and a rock level and a water level and an unspeakable evil level"

Games from this list I have played last year are:

10000000 - and then after going to sleep at 4am two nights in a row I thought "Maaaybe it's time to reconsider my relationship with videogames"

Though I did play the demos of Quantum Conundrum / Diablo III / Star Wars: The Old Republic / Sleeping Dogs / Magic: The Gathering 2013 - Duels of the Planeswalkers/ Rayman Origins, which is roughly the order in which I'd be interested in playing them (will play / won't play line is probably between Sleeping Dogs and MtG)

omg listening to that xtranormal link without reading the thread in a while and i'm DYING

so like... did ni no kuni come out in 2013 or

yeah

Get 30 diamonds in one game yah fuck u super monsters ate my condo

Any tips

the Peace tip that DJP gave me earlier totally changed my game, i always use that now

30 diamonds - you're gonna need some Blue power for time (as with any strategy really), more Green power for Double, but mostly you need to keep making Cat/Garbage condos most of all for the constant upgrades

annoyingly though, all the multiplier goals seem to be broken (reach 50x/100x in one game)

Yeah I had to pay for both of the multiplier goals, but only after I tried to do them without boosts or hats. Fucking bullshit

However I have hit the 1 billion high score now, so I have scraped my way into the top 20000. ffs

Can't hit 1 billion yet. Still at 800 million asjklfjskladfjkalsdf

Pushed over 3 billion this morning but I'm still nowhere near Dan.

The multiplier goals are totally broken, don't know why

buy the hats, they'll slowly push your score up

dled this but oh shit, is this a game I'm gonna have to shell out "real money" to do well at. b/c fuck that obi

nah you don't. i thought that at first too but you really don't have to

yeah you don't have to at all

I grabbed the game before it was free (;_;) and that is the only money I've paid for it

sorry I failed to get a vote in.
woulda gone for:

1000000
Dishonored
Walking Dead - though this does suffer from some of the same QTE lag annoyances that happen in Witcher 2 which I am currently crawling through

did not like ME3 or Diablo 3 - got burnt out on both after a couple hours. still have not fired up sleeping dogs.

most of my gametime went to LoL and word games on ipad/iphone :-/

surprised Dyad isn't on here. I should've voted.

it kinda flew under the radar here, even more than most PSN games

hotline miami! amazing!