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

Should I keep going?

Sure! I'm following along by zing. Comments on other honorable mentions: fiz fizzled out quickly for me, borderlands 2 was fun but since I never finished it I didn't bother w the expansions. Haven't tried the other 2 yet- looking forward

with people, i never heard the mission statement and i assumed the game was about saving the little black guys from being snagged up! just played it with the opposite impetus in mind and "beat it"
what does it say about me that i've seen enough limboesque sad guy games that i assumed this one was about protecting your friends from being snapped up rather than helping be a matchmaker

yeah, keep going!

glad someone voted for "people", it was the last thing to fall off my ballot. i also panicked at first when my little guys got siphoned off, it went against my hoarder's instinct.

also, loving the rollout format, polyphonic!

also following this with a mix of enjoyment and shame, having forgotten to vote :(

imgur is being a dick at the moment

Honorable Mention: Year Walk – iOS/PC – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://i.imgur.com/ZP7FTK5.jpg

Website | Metacritic | 148 Apps | Slide to Play | Trailer

The super old school gameplay wasn't frustrating because it added to the oppressive creepy atmosphere so effectively. - if

Spooky 2D/3D adventure game Year Walk, based on Swedish folklore, came out this week. I'm liking the Contre Jour aesthetics. - Sanpaku

Year walk is frustrating. Memorising sequences and revisiting old areas of the map to see if anything's changed are the dudliest of dud game mechanics. - ledge

i really want to play year walk

Honorable Mention: Resogun – PS4 – 5 pts – 1 vote | Top PS4 Exclusive

http://i.imgur.com/OguE7WL.jpg

Website | Metacritic | Polygon | Gaming Age | Trailer

Resogun's DNA comes from Defender and Robotron: hulking, high-scoring chasing 80s arcade cabinets from Williams that placed skill front and centre as your lone spaceship cut swathes through patterns of flitting bad guys. That is Resogun in a nutshell, retaining that purity of gunning down alien invaders in a scrolling siege. But don't be fooled, the heart of its gameplay may be timeless but there is modern fizz to its makeup.

It is beautiful for a start; sparkly, glitzy laser fire exchanged over the neon wreckage of the last human cities, enemies exploding in a shower of voxels. It is busy but eminently readable, with distinct colours and patterns keeping your eye fixed between your ship and your foe. Resogun is a side scrolling shoot 'em up, but its levels are cylindrical, wrapping around a central point like a carousel. - Tom Hoggins, The Telegraph

I had forgotten how much I enjoy side-scrolly shooters before I started playing this. Super simple, super fun. -DJP

Top PS4 exclusive! Yeah this is why it's more fun keeping this poll insular.

Honorable Mention: Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut – PS3/Vita – 5 pts – 1 vote

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

Website | About the Director's Cut | Metacritic | The Digital Fix | Gaming Age | Trailer

Lone Survivor is Jasper Byrne's psychological survival adventure game that allows players to choose the method of their madness: Shoot everything that goes bump in the dark or sneak around quietly to escape the ravaged city; stay healthy with food or pills; seek out other survivors or go it alone. Jessica Conditt, Joystiq

Lone Survivor hearkens back to the classic Team Silent installments of Silent Hill, and shows how expressive pixel art not strictly tied to evoking nostalgia can be. - one way street

lone survivor was pretty good. i can't remember why i stopped playing it, i think i forgot about it. so maybe not that good...

This is a lot of work here Poly, nice rollout!

just keepin ya seat warm

Honorable Mention: The Wolf Among Us: Episode 1 - Faith – PS3/X360/Vita/PC/Mac/iOS – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://i.imgur.com/shqqGx8.jpg

Website | Metacritic | Eurogamer | Washington Times | Trailer

Classifying this adventure as a game seems almost silly. There are some quick time events and a little bit of investigative action but as a whole you're taken on a choose-your-own-adventure storytelling thrill ride. Highly stylized in its presentation the player is put into the role of the Big Bad Wolf himself. After the exile from their Homelands he tries to clean up his image as Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown. What follows is a well-acted and absolutely gorgeous to watch film-noir style mystery into the seedy underbelly of Fabletown, its denizens and its daily struggle to keep everything together.

Aside from a very select few the exile has not been kind to most of the characters we know and love. Their 'happily ever afters' have long since been forgotten and what's left is dark and gritty characters pushed to the brink of survival. Who would have thought that the hero of Red Riding Hood would be a foul mouthed woman beater who strolls Fabletown for hookers? I know I never would have and The Woodsman is just one example of a great hero's fall from grace that you'll encounter here. This treatment sinks its hooks into you and doesn't let go and is easily one of the best things about the story as a whole.

To be quite frank, as much as I'd like to give some commentary on the opening episode’s plot it really would take away from the enjoyment of watching it unfold for yourself. It's crafted so well that taking even a single piece of the pie and handing it to you on a plate would take away from the impact you'll feel discovering it on your own. - Shawn Petraschuk, Canadian Online Gamers

This game is absolutely amazing! - AnalDoomsday, Nov 6, 2013

iirc walking dead finished much higher in its year. was this not as good?

The first episode is strong, but there's just not that much on the basis of which to judge yet--I say this not having played the second chapter. Thanks again, polyphonic, for your work on this poll!

walking dead was top 10 last year, i believe. i'm interested in this but i'm not familiar enough with the source material to pre-pay for the whole season up front.

Fables isn't done yet, we'll have a better idea once the season is complete. Same w/Walking Dead Season 2.

what a cool thread. I can't wait to try some of these out.

Lol who the hell is AnalDoomsday

Sad I missed the first day of this on account of being dead w/ a cold, but psyched to follow it today!

general complaint: is GOTY edition supposed to mean something? Game of the year according to who? seems like every mediocre major release has one of these now where they charge an extra $30 to make the case black plastic!

def. prefer the more generic "Ultimate"/"Gold"/"Complete" subtitles for monetizing DLC on disc

A Game of the Year Edition is any video game that has been repackaged and advertised as having earned either one or many Game of the Year awards from any number of recognized publications or websites, often times with a discounted price and additional content.

So anything from here I guess. But anything that fails to get a GOTY seems to just use "legendary edition" or something anyway.

Honorable Mention: League of Legends – PC/Mac beta – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://i.imgur.com/Wm2Jjx7.jpg

Website | Metacritic | World's Final 2013 | Trailer

League of Legends - do we do this? We should do this.

The most-played PC game in the world isn't the Sims or SimCity or even World of Warcraft. It's League of Legends, and it's a lot of fun.

Part of this game's success is that players can compete in tournaments against other players from around the world. At the 2013 championships, the top two teams gathered in front of thousands at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A team from Korea, called SK Telecom T1, took home the $1 million prize. - Business Insider

did anybody see the League of Legends piece on HBO real sports? They threw out the stat that "1 in 20 people play LoL" which sounds utterly false. - forks

The free 2 play esport. What's fun about it? Short learning curve, relatively level playing field. Your character evolves in a matter of minutes while playing so it satisfies that rpg itch. This was my WoW pvp substitute for awhile. The community is like any other online game, totally fucking horrible. - bnw

i played through the Fables one with my gf and the visuals and atmosphere are perfect, but your decisions just don't seem to matter (we tried it twice with opposite choices). maybe they will down the road, but it feels more like a semi-interactive story than a game.

bahaha that graphic is awesome

yeah it really captures LoL's deviantart character design style

the LOL community kind of puts to rest any superiority complex pc folk might have over console kiddies imo. i mostly stopped playing when i realized i enjoyed the bot games more then pvp because you avoided most the sewage spew. aside from that I think Riot does a great job presenting and updating their game.

it's ALL garbage

a few times when someone tried to tell me that PC gamers were more civilized than console gamers, I copied a couple of sections of WoW general chat from my play session that evening and gave them to the person as a rebuttal

basically humans are terrible, this is what i have learned from gaming

I learned that humans are terrible from living through childhood and adolescence ;_;

children are terrible, let's just admit it

^ and childhood lasts abt 25-45 yrs

if you're lucky

Honorable Mention: Ultra Business Tycoon III – Browser – 5 pts – 1 vote

http://i.imgur.com/5m3kP2s.jpg

Game | Indiestatik | Indie Games | Rock Paper Shotgun | Hairpin

I'm hesitant to vote for a Porpentine game, given my lack of enthusiasm for most Twine games and given Porpentine's reputation for abusive behavior toward other queer women, but Ultra Business Tycoon III is hilarious and surprisingly moving.

...

It starts off as a whimsical parody of mid-90s "edutainment" games, and winds up somewhere more emotionally urgent. - one way street

In case anyone tries to play this, you'll eventually need the serial number (3497282) in the mock-readme.txt here to finish the game: http://aliendovecote.com/uploads/twine/tycoon/nfo.png

Porpentine's reputation for abusive behavior toward other queer women

I didn't know about this. Sucks if so, because if nothing else she has been an instigator for a lot of people to find a voice through DIY gaming. Mostly appallingly shitty twine games I'd rather shoot myself than play, but that kind of doesn't matter - I don't need to want to play them for them to be useful to a community. Porpentine games themselves are very varied in quality, which I guess goes with the personal-gonzo style. This one I remember as being okay?

Yeah, I think this is one of her stronger works, although the narrative of the player character in the 1990s takes time to unfold. Their Angelical Understanding from 2013 (http://aliendovecote.com/uploads/twine/angels/angel.html#48is also worth playing through. I won't get into the grievances people have had with Porpentine here, but I don't have a good reason to disbelieve anyone who's felt emotionally mistreated. Still, the twine community carries on, whether or not I find many of their games compelling.

sounds interesting, will give it a shot soon

Honorable Mention: Quadropus Rampage – iOS/Android – 5 pts – 1 vote

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

Website | Metacritic | Touch Arcade | Droid Horizon | Trailer

I love a good Roguelike. More than that, I enjoy a good game that makes excellent use of Roguelike design elements. Enter Quadropus Rampage: an "Endless Roguelike Brawler" starring an incredibly angry four-legged octopus and his almost equally miffed starfish companion. It's a weird concept, certainly, however Butterscotch Shenanigans knows exactly what they're doing. - Rob Rich, 148 Apps

Man, folks slept on this. Action RPG meets iphone sized gameplay length. Loot, rampage, descend, die, rinse repeat. - s.clover

ok black crown (the first game listed) is def the best writing ive ever seen in storynexus, holy crap. super creepy

thing i am gonna check out this Quadropus Rampage

looking forward to more recommendations from AnalDoomsday

man if i had a dollar for every time youve said that

Honorable Mention: flower – PS4/Vita – 5 pts – 1 vote

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

Website | Metacritic | Gamespot | Eurogamer | Trailer

FLOWER | Concluding The Third Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2009 - Part Four: #1 through #20

typical hipster comment "this must be amazing to X while you're high". you can tell something is overrated pseudo intellectual tripe when junkies come on a video and bore you with some anecdote about how they shoot heroin to this or whatever. if anything it shows how unengaging gameplay wise this "game" must be if its possible to "play" it will taking illegal substances. this game has no story, you play as a petal ffs, yet "oh no its too deep for you, its minimalist art you uncultured barbarian" - Gabriel Voidx, 8 months ago

This captivated a room of thirtysomethings on New Year's Eve at a friend's house. - Jordan

(AnalDoomsday is not an ilxor fwiw, just some person in a comments section.)

yes bagman in the fight is key

1. Gone home - 20
2. Gunpoint - 20
3. Assassins Creed IV -10
4. Lego Marvel SH -10
5. Tomb Raider -10
6. Thomas was Alone -10
7. Saints Row IV
8. Stanley Parable
9. Shadowrun Returns
10. Guacamelee

Papa Louie 2: When Burgers Attack! (Browser) - 20
Cookie Clicker (Browser) - 10
Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing (Browser) - 10
Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective (Browser) - 10
Pom Gets Wi-Fi (PC) - 10
Gone Home (PC/Mac/Linux) - 10
The Last Door: Chapter 1 - The Letter (iOS/PC) - 10
Paint it Back (iOS) - 10
A Dark Room (Browser) - 5
No One Has to Die (Browser) - 5

looking over it now, i see my ballot is split between shortish games whose concept/writing/humor i enjoyed, and more grind-y games that i fixated on for a month or two and then abandoned. that's probably due to low finances steering me toward games that are cheap or free. i'm interested in checking out some of the longer PC games on the rollout once they start showing up in bundles.

thanks poly

Batman: Arkham Origins (PC) - 5
BioShock Infinite (PC) - 30
League of Legends (PC) - 5
Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign (Android/iOS) - 20
Tomb Raider (PC) - 10
XCOM: Enemy Within (PC) - 5
Pikmin 3 (Wii U) - 10

from what i played since I'd give Rayman Legends at least 15-20 pts

Well hey I've started ni no kuni and hey this is goddamn depressing

game takes basically forever to ramp up but hey thats a jrpg for you

Ok and now it is tremendously charming

someday i wanna go back to it when i have no job

cool list, thanks polyphonic and everyone who voted

'gone home' is 8 bucks on steam today, fyi. even though i voted for it, i think it counts as my 'disappointment' of the year; it just didn't quite live up to what i was anticipating. the ability to pick up objects was pretty pointless, no traditional puzzles, and i guess i just wanted more of a creepy/scare factor. i think if it had been a flash game i would've been supremely impressed by it, but as a downloadable title i just expected there to be more.

someday i wanna go back to it when i have no job

This is what I tell myself about every game

Yeah I mostly agree on Gone Home, the main flaw for me was the fact it gave me a specific character to play then didn't really let me play that character realistically. If the set up had been "you are just some dude exploring an abandoned house" then spending ages rifling through drawers and cupboards reading old receipts etc would've felt fine, but telling me I'm a sister who's home from college to find my family missing spoilt that, because I wanted to be calling the cops, not wandering down to the basement to search for old newspaper clippings about the previous owner of the house etc (or spending the first 15 minutes going around turning all the lights on ffs). Didn't feel like it needed a scare factor, but did think it was a bit cheap of them to imply early on that it was going to have one when it ultimately didn't.

Still voted though because once I'd got past all that I really really enjoyed the period detail, I'm the right age now to have been around the same age as the main characters at the time the game's set, and they just got a lot of the "being a late teen in the mid 90s" stuff dead right.

Where's my family? I know! I'll sift through my dad's vinyl to find out.

'gone home to vibe out'