Ninth Coint & Plick: The ~60 best games of 2015 according to ILX

oo what is that?

another cow clicker

don't do it!

don't!!

we all know how this ends

http://i.imgur.com/l3doUih.png
#25 - Neko Atsume - Hit-Point
29 Points
4 Votes

oh ok i thought maybe it was a sim or something. i'm burnt out on the clickers.

Don't get this kind of thing at all (re: clicker)

i was a neko atsume vote. this might belong on the good writing about videogames thread, but: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/magazine/why-am-i-obsessed-with-a-cellphone-game-about-collecting-cats.html

I forgot to say upthread, thanx to reddening for sending some of the screenshots used in this thread!!! (i apparently used a different one for until dawn but there are one or two more coming up that reddening supplied so thx) :)

is neko atsume still japanese(?) language only? no translation?

it's translated now

http://i.imgur.com/PujdARN.png
#23 - Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - Capcom
30 Points
1 Vote
0.5 First-Place Votes

i never played Hotline Miami 2 but i loved the first game. it had an amazing presentation and addicted gameplay.

i voted for "Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell" bc i really enjoyed SRIV, it was an open world GTA with way more freedom to it. the super-powers made the most boring part of those games (driving to/from missions) a complete thrill as you flying, leap over buildings, run up the side of skyscrapers, etc. essentially you are superman. GOOH is more of the same but with a nice hellscape version of the city to play in. i feel like hell as a setting is oddly unexplored in video games and GOOH did a great job with the fire and brimstones of the popular depiction. adding the angel wings for flight was a no-brainer, and makes the whole thing even cooler. lots of fun and the perfect alternative if you ever tire of GTA's seriousness.

http://i.imgur.com/Jg0ffgX.png
#23 - We Know the Devil - Aevee Bee
30 Points
1 Vote
0.5 First-Place Votes

I dig the Saints Row games despite their tenacious adherence to 6th gen aesthetics. Dumb and fun. I really need to screencap and share the hideous character I created for SR2 sometime.

ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh

http://i.imgur.com/JBHGzX6.png
#22 - Marvel Puzzle Quest (PORT) - D3
30 Points
1 Vote
1 First-Place Vote

I might have bought and played and voted for this if it had been released, more logically, on the Vita rather than the PS3.

vote for it at the end of 2016 when it inevitably is so we can have it on the ballot for 4 stupid years

Will do!

(I am truly sorry for the pain you continue to endure.)

this year i made an active decision to not include an image of match-3 gameplay you're welcome ilx

last one for today... the thrilling finale is tomorrow! 20-1. But for today: a game that actually came out in 2015 (prepare to see me grumble next year when y'all vote for it since it's getting a disc re-release apparently?)

http://i.imgur.com/C3tfPgw.png
#21 - Tales from the Borderlands - Telltale Games, Gearbox Software
30 Points
2 Votes

AND TODAY'S BONUS FEATURE: best non-2015 games of 2015

Mentioned on two ballots:
Marvel Puzzle Quest
Crusader Kings II

Mentioned on one ballot:
Crossy Road
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin
Desert Golfing
Far Cry 4
Hearthstone
Hexcells Infinite
Red Dead Redemption
The Last of Us HD
the longest journey
The Swapper
Valdis Story
Vanquish

hey whose the other cool cat who voted for ck2

Vanquish was my non-2015 game. One of the most thrilling games I've ever played, like being dropped in the middle of a futuristic sci-fi action movie. I need to play more of it to figure out how it does what it does in a way that differentiates itself from other games of its ilk. I've played lots of good PS3 games that flew under the radar, but this one seems to be as low under the radar as it gets.

Boo at only me voting for Monster Hunter, but I guess.. I'm the only one voting for 3ds games in general? Mostly PC / mobile stuff here. Anyway MH4 lacks the unfairly hated underwater claustrophia of MH3, but adds so much content you could conceivably play it forever. With each entry they get a bit better at introducing new players to MH, pay a little more attention to the single player story, charming side characters, etc. The real genius of 4 is the new dynamic level design with lots of vertical, agile movement, amazing battlegrounds in the mountains, in the jungle, in caves.

vanquish finished 28th in the 2011 poll

Voted for Broken Age and Neko Atsume. Pretty sure I cut agar.io from my ballot, though had I more points I would have thrown it a few. I don't actually remember my final ballot mind you, so maybe I did.

Think I tried Trimps but didn't find it as interesting as other idle/clicker games. I played one called Realm Grinder quite a bit last year, didn't need another one.

well i just wasted an hour on trimps
never again

Boo at only me voting for Monster Hunter, but I guess..

i'm kinda curious about the Monster Hunter games, since they sometimes come up in articles about Dark Souls, but i don't think they've even been out on the platforms i've owned.

will m: did you get my ballot? if you did that means that at least one other person voted for all my top choices, which is rad.

actually you must have gotten my ballot b/c who else would have picked rayman adventures as a disappointment.

anyway, yeah tales from the borderlands was one of my picks. one of the only semi-big-ticket non-mobile games i played this year (i played a lot of borderlands 2 also, wrote about it on the thread).

i'm sure it only works if you're familiar with the whole borderlands deal, but its great episodic storytelling with maybe only minimal "game" elements -- there's _some_ interactivity to picking the choices, but none matters too much, and the gameplay bits themselves are pretty trivial. what makes it work is the writing, which matches or outpaces the best in BL2 -- great characters, goofy details, and lots of knowing fourth-wall nods that work particularly well given the weird combination of how immersive BL2 is while at the same time being so foreign and full of (forgive me) purely ludic elements. so the constant tease of actually _not_ getting awesome equipment and seeing awesome guns but _not_ getting to fire them, or the loot-obsession of otherwise actually-normal-seeming characters, their familiarity with brands of gun manufacturers and different characteristics, their geeking out over the same details a fan might, all this works particularly well.

And on top of this the satisfaction of a story that actually relates fully to the main franchise, and "moves canon".

at least one other person voted for all my top choices

no comment :P

Any of the three voters want to rep for it?

Yes me, wholeheartedly! I'll write up a few thoughts on it (esp wrt The Beginner's Guide, which was my disappointment of the year) when I'm not typing on a phone but you can play through the whole thing in 20 minutes at most, so you should just jump in anyway. It made me laugh more than anything else I played last year.

I was another one of the votes for Dr. Langeskov and will also rep for it. It's free, short, and pretty funny so there's really no reason not to give it a shot. I wound up playing through it 3 or 4 times to get all of the achievements, which I rarely do (and only took about an hour), and I can recommend searching out the bizarre director commentary tapes in particular.

Also, I was the other person who voted for Crusader Kings 2 as my non 2015 GOTY. I've been trying to get into these Paradox grand strategy games for a while to no avail, but CK2 finally clicked with me in a major way a few weeks ago after picking up a couple DLCs on sale and figuring out that I could just play it with a Visual Novel/Relationship Sim style bent as opposed to constantly micro-managing a dense web of sliders and brokering trade embargoes.

things of mine that placed today:

Dr. Langeskov etc. -- i'm the third voter, and i also highly recommend it! it's delightful. like you mentioned, emil.y, it didn't make the high end of my ballot because of its briefness, but i also had a feeling other people would vote for it and bump it onto the main countdown. it's a game that's really easy to blast through quickly, but you can also take a recalcitrant approach to the gameplay and get a lot more content that way.

Until Dawn -- i don't have a PS4 so i watched a friend play this, and even though it has a lot to be dubious about, it was a blast. dubious elements: occasional uncanny valley heebie jeebies (motion-capture Peter Stormare getting right up in your face was v. unsettling), SO MANY GODDAMN QTEs, and also the whole thing is reveling in teen horror movie tropes so the characterization is really broad. but the plot unfolds in a way that's more complicated than i thought it would be, and like i mentioned with Her Story, playing with a group made the clue-hunting and story-theorizing really fun. the graphics are gorgeous, and it's really gruesome and gory and fun once it gets going.

since it's a choice game it's got a decent amount of variable content (i ended up watching a lot of it on YouTube afterward). i think one of the big marketing points was that there's eight controllable characters and you can end the game with all of them alive, none of them alive, or some permutation in between. in my playthrough we only got two people killed.

it is time

http://i.imgur.com/C5BpS8J.png
#20 - Destiny: The Taken King - Bungie
32 Points
3 Votes
1 First-Place Vote

I'm a little surprised Destiny's so low - I got the impression the new version was a tour de force, bringing back people who'd played the original and found it a bit wanting.

Is it just "shooting games belong on PC"?

probably more "this isn't a brand new game" factored in i imagine

I don't know what that is? tbh I don't know what most of these games are. looks like I'll miss this current generation of consoles, or at least it'll be 5 years or so, so maybe the console games here will still fun in 5 years? Red Dead Redemption was my non 2015 vote & that's a console game, outstandingly fun, has a game that good come out on console recently?

so far my trimps and mpq votes have placed.

http://i.imgur.com/n6XdNYJ.png
#18 - The Executive - Riverman Media
35 Points
2 Votes
1 First-Place Vote

Destiny was fun, played a bit at a friends' house back when it came out, tried the new DLC recently and just got destroyed. with those FPS games you really need to keep your skills in check

http://i.imgur.com/4eW5UgL.png
#18 - The Jackbox Party Pack 2 - Jackbox Games
35 Points
2 Votes
1 First-Place Vote

^ Not a great screenshot but this is legit in the running for the best party game of ALL TIME and everyone should own it if they ever have >2 people to their house at the same time

jackbox offers an iphone controller download that works with consoles/pc/mac via bluetooth, right?

Mobile devices ARE the controllers for the Jackbox games, full stop. Very simple interface (go to their website, enter the code that pops up on the screen, you're good to go).

Jackbox was my number one. I think for the second year in a row. What Will said, basically. These games are a complete blast and hilarious, especially if you're playing with people capable of vulgarity and willing to utilize it. Quiplash is the new stand-alone that's worth a look, if you don't want the full set (which is valid, since, once again, two or three of the games are sort of duds). I believe that's the one where someone called the game stupid and got both a trophy and a seriously hilarious response.

these last 3 were all ones that missed my ballot but i wanted to give points to. jackbox is hilarious + good fun (and so many ppl can play at once!), executive was a iphone game (that ramps up significantly in difficulty as you move through it -- has anyone here actually finished it 100%?), and destiny was a ton of fun (loved the multiplayer maps)