The Second Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2008

the spore ez-chair people are amazing, wow.

what i meant about world of goo - at college writing essays i would think of something clever, but follow and mull and read around the thought till it seemed trivial and obvious, something that must have occurred to everyone - then i'd write a sentence or two of super compressed academese, summing and dismissing the whole thing, totally inpenetrable to professors or anyone else. goo is a little like that with its delights - it presents them to you as if you are already bored with them?

it is also a really satisfying way to spend money - to buy it almost pays for itself in pride.

#49: FIFA ’09 (XBLA/PS3) – 14 point – 2 votes
Official game site

Polyphonic: I don't understand socc... I mean, football. I've never played it; I never watch it apart from the World Cup and I have a shaky understanding of its rules. But I love sports video games, and when a good one comes along, I will play it until I puke.

http://sportvideogames.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fifa09_rooney01optimised.jpg

Roberto Spiralli : Yet again, this is fucking terrible. The biggest problem is the movement of the players which is unnatural, clumsy and very axis-bound. Turning is sluggish and gives the feel of dragging oil tankers around the pitch. When I went to pass, what happened onscreen was frequently not quite what I intended. Tackling is very weird, partly automated and I couldn't get the hang of it at all. I don't know how they keep getting it so wrong, except for the fact that people keep buying this shit and it gets the same lazy ass decent reviews every time, so maybe the developers don't even know that their product sucks.

Cozwyn: I never thought I'd say anything positive about FIFA in my life but this game is meaty and physical and deep and FUN!! The shooting is definitely the best bit; it feels crunchy and heavy compared to PES' floaty and light kicks. The animation is, as ever, impeccable but there was some horrid slowdown during replays.

MPx4A: It is a disgrace that there is no training mode, but it is quite good that the soundtrack has Cut Copy and Gonzalez EA really appear to have brought their A-game with regards to the online possibilities in this; just as long as you have the means to play with people who will pass the ball in co-op games and not just pick Man United all the time, you’re likely to find a good match.

AleXTC: The level of detail in the gameplay and moves/combinations you can do is just great.

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/images/community/fifa09/fifa0901.jpg

we won the war!!!

lol say no to racism

http://sportvideogames.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fifa09_rooney01optimised.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Cave_troll.jpg

Five way tie for #44.

# 44: Singstar (PS3) – 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

http://www.gameguru.in/images/singstar-90s.jpg

Daniel RF : Singstar must be the best party game ever. Sadly, my friends and I have yet to get it together to actually HAVE a party so instead I've been playing on my own, which I realize makes me a very major saddo... but it's fun! It's funny that the game doesn't care about lyrics, so you can stutter your way through a song and if you're in tune it doesn't really matter. Also the attempts at judging rapping are some bullshit; I let the Eric B and Rakim track play while I chatted with a friend and it really didn't matter, as long as there were audible sounds (even laughter) the rap-o-meter thought I was doing okay!

http://www.acegamez.co.uk/screenshots_ps2/PS2_Singstar_Pop_Hits_Screenshot_001.jpg

Noodle Vague : What I didn't give Sony credit for are the Eye-Toy and SingStar games, which must give the PS3 a hell of a lot more mass-market appeal than 360. I guess Sony themselves don't make a big deal of those titles to hardcore gamers, but they sure do seem to make a big difference in console sales.

# 44: Crash Commando (PSN) – 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

http://static1.filefront.com/images/bgfwkkubaa.jpg

Jeff LeVine: Basically a competitive multiplayer shooter take on a Contra / Metal Slug / Bionic Commando game with maybe a dash of N+. The online component seems to work fine (no lag in the few games I had time for) and uses really good AI bots to fill up extra slots. As frantic and fun as Call of Duty deathmatch but in awesome 2-D! Seems easily worth the ten bucks they are asking.

Jamescobo: I knew it was love the first time I banked a grenade perfectly. This game needs open-mic chatter badly; this push-to-talk nonsense is preventing people who kill me from having their sexual orientation loudly impugned in hilarious fashion.

# 44: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (DS) – 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/rdonlyres/22D908FF-4556-4B5C-94D3-9832F57408F4/15867/tactics1.jpg

Dy: My reactions are becoming more positive the more I play but it’s quite slow and certainly no match for Tactics on the PS.

Webber: It's better than FFTA1, but still somewhat infuriating. It’s a good choice if you’re looking for a game to sink a ridiculous amount of time into. I played through about twenty hours but since I didn't like the way I was leveling (and because I am ridiculously anal), I restarted and put in _another_ twenty or so hours into it. I found and used a fourth thief dagger relatively early on this time so my team is well on their way to becoming dual-wielding killing machines.

Will M: Really enjoying it. This game is absurdly slow but it makes my terrible commute relatively fast by comparison so I don't mind. Apparently I've played forty hours now? I think I'm technically 2/3 through the game but I am really fucking dicking around a LOT; I feel sure I could have easily beaten it by now.

http://spong.com/artwork/f/i/finalfanta97917.jpg

# 44: Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden - Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa (PC) – 15 points – 1 vote – FREE GAME
Official game site – Download Here

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j161/kevinsblogger/barkley1.png

Nhex: Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is a ridiculous farce that's actually pretty fun (it uses the RPG Maker engine and basically plays like Super Mario RPG). Even though story-wise it's an ironic fan-wank of Space Jam and Sir Charles, like Super Columbine RPG it uses the medium and its nostalgia to poke fun at the genre in really amusing ways specific to fans of SNES RPGs of the mid 90s.

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/us/Other/News%20Stories/2008/Charles%20Barkley%20Shut%20up%20and%20Jam%20Gaiden/ART/RAW/backley--screenshot_large.jpg

# 44: Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble (PC)– 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

Mordy : One sleeper pick for me is Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! It's this really neat pack of minigames set in a 1920s boarding school. It's very Dorothy Parker'esque.

http://www.macgamefiles.com/imgs_screen/19990.jpg

FINALLY at the halfway mark. More tomorrow.

I considered voting for Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble. I definitely liked a lot of things about it.

I love that our poll has Shut up and Jam Gaiden on it.

The tension is killing me!

hah i was just coming here to post that

Okay, okay; more tonight at the latest.

Thanks for all your work on this; I've been enjoying it as much as (or more so) the music polls.

yah thanks dude, my urging is made out of excitement and anticipation, not bitching

It's cool; I've been annoyed at myself for not getting this finished up too.

yeah this list more than the music lists makes me want to go back and discover a bunch of good stuff

(if the second half would be presented in a new thread I wouldnt mind, this one slows my computer terribly as it is. didnt help logging out either)

It's a reasonable point.
Continued here:
The Second Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2008 - Part 2: The Top Forty!

I am currently porting these results over to the blog and this set of games was so wacky I had to revive this ancient-ass thread. Valkyria Chronicles getting one pity vote! a seventeen-way tie for last! the White Wolf of Icicle Creek cover! et al.

Oh cool, totally forgot about the blog, I'll stick that in my RSS reader. I admit, I'm still proud of my IF YER NOT INDIE FUK U votes for You Have to Burn the Rope, You Found the Grappling Hook, Iji and Barkley: Shut Up and Jam.

Gears of War locked in a 10-way tie for 55th is some pretty next-level challops even by ILX standards

gears is trash tho/// but i mean lol i voted for nancy drew and wld do so again

valkyria chronicles wld place much higher if we had polled this after more than 1 person had played it. same w/persona 4 probably a bunch others

Persona 4 actually did! it went from #70 in 2008 to #25 in last year's poll (on the ballot due to the Euro release)

Valkyria Chronicles probably would have been top 3 for me if I'd played it in the time period. that game fucking owns, flying pig be damned.

kinda wish i had added the persona votes from 08 to last years poll

another classic C&P moment:

http://cointandplick.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/coint-plick-2008-11-fable-ii/

fuck that game fuck that game fuck that game.

Every time I read that I wonder if I am actually G-Zeus and maybe I hit my head and had a coma but SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE AND UI JUST PLAYED FABLE II FOR OVER 2 HOURS

exhibit a: "had a coma"

Not to slight the hard work you've been doing, but for the compiled list of all games, you should probably hyperlink all the games on the list to their respective entry pages... I don't even want to think about how annoying that would be to do!

that was actually on my to-do list after I get the 2007 results up. you ppl better thank your lucky stars that no woman would ever have me.

oh right, the 2007 results were just a straight-up ILX poll result. they're up now, so I'll get started on this rn since I'm miraculously free at work today.

wow, that was much less onerous than expected - both 2008 and 2009 are fully indexed.

thumbs up brother