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

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)

the executive is great but once you max out the bonuses it becomes tedious, hard and not fun

(It may be outside the strict terms of the user agreement but I think if you streamed the Jackbox games on Twitch or somesuch, it would be technically possible for whoever's watching the stream to play.)

http://i.imgur.com/3jA4ikf.png
#17 - You Must Build A Boat - EightyEight Games LTD
35 Points
3 Votes

(It may be outside the strict terms of the user agreement but I think if you streamed the Jackbox games on Twitch or somesuch, it would be technically possible for whoever's watching the stream to play.)

Can't remember if i told this story before, but we had a big get together with some old friends and played this... one guy got sick and couldn't make it, so i opened my laptop, skyped him, and then set up twitch, and he watched us on the webcam on one of his PC screens, watched the twitch feed on his other screen, and played on his phone. you could very easily stream & play (altho there's a little lag, so don't wait until the last 5 seconds to answer the question)

the only complaint i have with that game is that there's no option to "cycle in" audience members (because people can play along and vote as the audience if you have more than 8 ppl)

hey y'all here comes the last tie of 2015 (and it's a three-way)

http://i.imgur.com/HHBI9ys.png
#14 - Batman: Arkham Knight - Rocksteady Studios
39 Points
3 Votes

http://i.imgur.com/ieOO2QY.png
#14 - Crank - Faedine
39 Points
3 Votes

*SIGH*

now crank is a game right and not just 3 ilxors hooked on methamphetemines believing that they're playing a game

who could say

i refuse to draw a conclusion until i am presented with the facts

ilx's 14th most favorite game of 2015: Crank.

it's the white iverson of games except we actually put it in our top 20

dammit, i forgot You Must Build a Boat! somehow i missed it when i scanned the nominations list, but it would have been a top 5 game for me, so in alternate reality it has 4 votes and around 45 points. it's the sequel to 10000000, and it manages to build upon everything that was great about that game. normally i shy away from the match 3 games, but i love the intensity of YMBAB! - when you're playing it, you're always "in the zone" because it forces you to do everything as quickly as possible. the achievements (forgot the technical name for them, but basically you need to complete them in order to advance) also have a good balance, and the harder ones never seem completely impossible. finally, i like the length of the game. it's long enough to feel like you got much more than your $2.99 worth, but it's short enough that you can be completely obsessed with it (in the bathroom) for a week of your life and then move on.

http://i.imgur.com/ybkhhTq.png
#14 - Goat Simulator (PORT) - Coffee Stain Studios
39 Points
3 Votes

ladies & gentlegoats, your 14th favourite games of 2015 are
- a skinner box
- your 2nd favourite game of 2014
- also, batman

http://i.imgur.com/wJPFrAE.png
#13 - Alto's Adventure - Snowman
40 Points
5 Votes

gorgeous game. the mechanics are not so dissimilar from tiny wings, but the music + the visuals are so good. the controls feel perfect. i 100%'d this one and i'll still go back and do a runthrough.

http://i.imgur.com/8IgigZ4.png
#12 - Sunless Sea - Failbetter Games
41 Points
3 Votes
1 First-Place Vote

Alto! I played that, made it to level 40 or so, pooped out, it got hard. but yeah it's beautiful and the controls are great.

I voted for Crank! didn't stick with it like trimps but I don't think it had a long end game

btw I saw that cookie clicker got updated! it even made French newspapers for some reason. looking forward to seeing it place here in 2016

i hate everything you represent

one of the year's best. takes place in the same canon as Fallen London. the writing is, as you'd expect, exquisite. the gameplay is so unusual - slow, meditative, strange. it's fun, but you definitely do have to get used to the pace. and i'm not sure i love the roguelike elements (it's brutal, easy to die in the beginning and some of the early game stuff can feel repetitive) but once you start to make progress there are so many cool niches and things to do. xxp

I am your enemy, Will M

alto's adventure is a fun little timewaster. as mordy mentioned, the controls are spot on and it just feels right.

Sunless Sea looks awesome, that's definitely going to be on my list

srsly tho if you haven't played sunless sea yet i cannot recommend it strongly enough. i placed it just below curious expedition, invisible inc, f4 and binding of isaac, but in some ways it's better than all of those in terms of effortlessly conjuring up a brand new setting, afaict a totally distinctive genre - it's really groundbreaking and hard to overstate it.

hey check this one out u guys

http://i.imgur.com/qMdJqyL.png
#11 - Fallout 4 - Bethesda Game Studios
47 Points
5 Votes
1 First-Place Vote

it's kinda like the ludic version of slow eating or whatever it's called, slow reading. it's slow gaming.

bullshit xp

how is f4 not goty? guys. how.

like i get that it's reiterative but... here's what i wrote about it in my ballot:

My top two votes are both reiterations of games I have given the #1 spot to in the past. It attests to the repetitive nature of video gaming in 2016 but also to how successful these games originally were. Fallout 4 is gorgeous. The violent urban environments are immersive in a way that I’ve never before experienced in video games. Much of the game can turn into a drag (building settlements, trying to figure out why a woman in post-apocalyptic Boston has an Irish accent) but in terms of marrying the aesthetics of Fallout 4’s bright post-apoc counterfactual history to the geography of Boston the game is a gorgeous tour de force. The shooting isn’t too bad either.

there are 10 reasons F4 is not GOTY (xp)

also it gave me terrible motion sickness but even that did not stop me from pouring tens of hours into it

I bought fallout 3 a few years ago, I'm hoping to play it in 2016, then maybe I'll play new vegas, then maybe fallout 4 in 2020 or so.

wow, i feel bad that i didn't put F4 higher on my list. tbh it was kind of a strategic thing because i assumed it would be an easy top 3, but i do think there were a few better games in 2015.

the shooting is the only thing that salvages F4 imo, that game is such a fucking slog.

per my twitter feed a few months ago:

- I haven't liked a Bethesda fallout game ever because I thought these games had nothing to say. But after killing my 436th opponent I realize

- Maybe these games are a statement on the meaninglessness of literally everything ever

- Because Goddamn I play a bunch of video games & none of them make me more acutely aware of how much time I am wasting g doing virtual chores

- Funny picture I wish existed: normal-sized person lying on shaq's bed

8 of my 11 votes have already placed and i'm not certain the other 3 will as well - i've never felt so outside the ilg hivemind!

and then my friend replied with this

imagine a world of infinite possibility... Now imagine you have like 3 interesting verbs and constantly need desk fans

xp it's jsut because you didn't pour 30 points into anything, only 20 ballots y'all know how it is

TOP TEN TIME

http://i.imgur.com/W6TST2i.png
#10 - Beginner's Guide - Everything Unlimited Ltd
48 Points
3 Votes
0.5 First-Place Votes

(i'm gonna start letting these breathe a lil bit more)

haven't played this yet but i loved his first one so i guess i probably should