Eighth Coint and Plick - The 80 best games of 2014, as chosen by ILX

Finally, it is time.

Thanks to everyone who voted and wrote blurbs on the games -- I should be able to post about 20 a day 'til Friday (I hope).

It seems like this is a fractured year. Not a lot of buy-in on the next-gen consoles yet, stronger-than-normal showing from PC/OSX and the continually surging mobile market meant a staggering number of one-vote-games. What is the future of C&P? The number one game will be the one game that two of us played?!

Enough commentary. Enjoy the rollout!

#74 - Don't Starve: Reign of Giants
http://i.imgur.com/kK8Uda6.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

I mentioned elsewhere that this game satisfied the part of me that was sad when Glitch shut down. I played a LOT of the base game until I started getting mad that I was surviving so successfully. Fortunately this DLC adds a bunch of new challenges and closes some of the loopholes I had been exploiting (RIP storing 75 live rabbits in a wooden chest to eat all winter long).
- Reddening

(does anyone want to tell me what a good rollout speed is for these things)

Not doing the five pointers, huh?

Love the layout.

I'll post the five-pointers at the end, had to cut SOMETHING so nobody will know what is coming in number one!

Is this intentionally on ILE instead of ILG? I don't have a problem with it, just checking.

Because I am histrionic and I WANT EVERYONE TO LOOK

It's on ILE every year

It is???? Shows how much attention I've been paying

#74 - The Dream Machine: Chapter 5
http://i.imgur.com/xOr0gOF.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

An adventure game series done in claymation with real sets. The aesthetic is very arresting, especially in this chapter where one of the dreams takes place in an overgrown forest crammed with model-railroad-style detail.
- Reddening

Is there a difference between the white background Win and the black background OSX?

woohoo! looking forward to the rollout! this is always the most expensive thread of the year for me because i usually end up purchasing several games.

those are jsut the colors i picked for those platforms based on their websites, haha

xbox is green, playstation is blue, winsdows is white, mac is black etc

#74 - Elsa Frozen Brain Surgery
http://i.imgur.com/xGfDpeT.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

I could totally construct a feminist reading that says it's good for little girls to see the medical profession normalized and made accessible while they're playing shitty off-brand flash games. But I think I'll dig around in my own brain with a magical fucking carrot and erase that impulse because WHAT THE FUCK.
- Reddening

haha what is that game!

http://i.imgur.com/9FNLA0n.png
all highlighted, all greyed out for reference

this is off to a great start so far.

Yeah, and I love the little color-coded bar.

(apologies in advance if some of these images are from the wrong games. a lot of them have generic names.)
(not elsa frozen brain surgery tho, that's the only game called that i think)

#74 - Helix
http://i.imgur.com/mL5tkBV.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

My iOS gaming centered on games that I could play for short bursts. I love the strange, unexplained iconography of Michael Brough's games. But where 868-Hack was a contemplative exercise (that I was probably too high to figure out), this is a simple physical task: draw circles around enemies until you die.
- polyphonic

i wish i had known you were starting w/ 6 pts and not 5 so i could give all my 5 pt noms 1 extra point

i didn't know i was starting at 6 until i saw how many 5s there were tbh

gotta game the game poll i guess (see: reddening) (who you will see A LOT OF today)

#74 - The Last Door: Season One
http://i.imgur.com/r9fkAbE.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

A pixellated horror game made by an indie company in Spain. The first chapter was a simple "explore the creepy mansion" deal, but the other three chapters branched out to other locales in an effective way. The plot gets kind of convoluted as it goes on, but the draw here is less the plot and more the macabre set pieces.
- Reddening

okay I may lose an hour or so to Elsa Frozen Brain Surgery based on that screenshot alone

i didn't even pick one of the screenshots where her head is open

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8654/16086864863_97a5d6df95.jpg

what the fuck

#74 - Retry
http://i.imgur.com/txnk5z8.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

just played through Elsa, it's only about 60 seconds long. it's a thing.

it's a hilarious, insane thing

#74 - Transmission
http://i.imgur.com/WSNtTrS.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

A puzzle game by the Science Museum with such nice sound design that I'll doggedly try to beat the harder levels even though I'm terrible at them.
- Reddening

that game looks really pretty

retry is free, btw

lol i guess it paid off to cut a few games so i could affix stray points to my lower ballot!

i'm not going to search for examples on my work computer, but that website with the elsa frozen game has a tag specifically for games where the frozen characters are pregnant and need your help to give birth. they're not graphic but i'm still pretty sure i'm on an FBI watch list for opening them.

#74 - With Those We Love Alive
http://i.imgur.com/uh0I4JI.png
Points: 6
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

I've found Porpentine's games hard to settle into in the past, but this one hooked me unexpectedly. Striking and unexpected imagery is one of her hallmarks, but this was the first time I didn't feel any resistance to it and was just like "hell yeah, the Empress was mantled with fleshrags and wearing a diadem of heretic bone."
- Reddening

i really could not find compelling images for this that didn't involve people drawing on their arms. which kinda makes me want to play it because why the fuck are ppl drawing on their arms?

These image cards with all of the game info and points on them look great. Well done!

admittedly i didn't follow the instructions to draw on my arms, i thought she was being metaphorical until i looked up ppl's reviews afterward and saw literal arm-drawings.

#72 - Flappy Golf
http://i.imgur.com/DUP82m9.png
Points: 7
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

this is definitely the weirdest early crop of games yet

#72 - Nidhogg
http://i.imgur.com/irVwn8H.png
Points: 7
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

A bit like if Éric Chahi made a jousting sim. Great fun, although it didn't have a lasting appeal for me.
- Polyphonic

that's a PS4 game?

Flappy Golf and Retry were mine. I liked them both for similar reasons. Just the right about of difficult to keep you playing over and over and over and over without making you think that it is impossible. You get just the slimmest glimmer of hope.

nidhogg looks the same on all systems and is very intentionally intellivision retro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmqS5C7jIQ

whoa, soundtrack by Daedelus!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidhogg_(video_game)#Development

nice work so far, will!

#71 - Metal Slug Defense
http://i.imgur.com/hO8rrxY.png
Points: 8
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap boom tap tap boom.
- Sterling Clover

oh man, i hate that game

btw, next year for revenge i'm gonna give all my low picks numbers like 8, 11, 13, 6 pts

metal slug tower defense ugh whyyyyyy

at least all these dumb freemium apps are splitting votes so they can't win (oh wait lol last year)

#60 - 80 Days
http://i.imgur.com/V4iLIv5.png
Points: 10
Votes: 1
1st Place Votes: 0

I liked the idea better than the execution tbh.
- forksclovetofu

i jsut went back and looked at my ballot for the 2012 games...

(01) Walking Dead: 25
(02) XCOM: Enemy Unknown: 20
(03) Triple Town: 15
(04) Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator: 10
(05-10) MLB 12: The Show, Fez, Hotline Miami, Mass Effect 3, Day Z, Frog Fractions: 5

I would probably drop the baseball game for sleeping dogs, and it'd be tough to leave out far cry 3 & tokyo jungle, and i came around on spelunky... but shockingly i wouldn't change much.

SO MANY games i played after 2012 though because (A) steam sales (B) PS+... its no wonder our placements are always out of whack

Looking back at the older Coint & Plicks (because I haven't bought a non-Nintendo machine since the PS2, and this may be the year to fix that), the thing that stands out is how many games labelled PS3/360 made their way over to PC about a year later.

xp Yes Octodad is really difficult and very funny.

the other day i listened to an insert credit podcast (i know, shut up)

I listen to all their stuff, it rules.

every couple of weeks the octodad theme pops up in my head and drives me nuts for a while

octo-daaaaaa-aaa-aaa-aaaaaad / nobody suspects a thing

i haven't listened to an insert credit podcast in a couple of months... did they stop or is my feed out-of-date?

damn, Hearthstone

What's yr battletag

Grinz

any plans for another one of these?

i'm out on this one this year as far as organizing but i would absolutely vote.

I probably have enough games to make up a small ballot this year if anyone does do one.

Will M, are you into doing it again this year? if not, i would be willing to run it. i mean, SOMEONE has to. it's the best poll of the year imo

I don't mind running it again!

We usually wait a couple of months though don't we? To allow for playing of xmas presents etc (I got fallout 4 for Christmas and it's not even made it into the disc slot yet).

can I vote for Red Dead Redemption this year? I'm finally getting around to it and it rules. next: Assassin's Creed 2 and then Fallout 3. I guess I'll be ready for Coint and Plick 2009, finally, in 2016.

although it "means something" that games that came out 7 years ago are still pretty much up to date wrt gaming mechanics, whereas compare e.g. Combat on the 2600 to SMB 1.

That's always my problem with year-end polls. I only have maybe three 2015 games and I don't think I've played a one. I have some very strong opinions about 2012, though.

Year-end polls should always be polls of what was released five years prior, imo.

otm

... i don't see why coint and plick shouldn't extend to games made between 2000 and 2015 but played in the past year? Just that much harder to make a consensus.

i don't see that working very well. besides, it's nice to have the poll as a time capsule of that particular year, even if like everyone else here I won't get to the best of 2015 until probably 2019.

Yeah, I wouldn't seriously promote the inclusion of pre-2015 games. Year end polls just always make me think a) there's no way anyone had time to really get through enough games/music/movies/tv shows to have a clear idea of what really stood out and b) there's no way anyone had time to really sit with any individual game/album/movie/tv show long enough to get a sense of how much they really like it or how it's going to hold up. How many year-end list-topping cultural products are justly forgotten just a few years later?

What if we did a Coint & Plick -5 where we polled 2010? And then next year we could do 2011? I dunno, I'd be into it

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gZEdDMQZaCU/hqdefault.jpg

lol

What is the new FTL? I could do with it for my shit old slow pc.

Not sure what "the new FTL" means. If you mean game along its lines, the two games I've read about are _Renowned Explorers_ and _Convoy_. Explorers is the one I'm most tempted by, fwiw, but I don't know much about it.

The big hype of the moment seems to be _Undertale_, which at least LOOKS like it shouldn't require a powerful computer. I've bought into the hype and picked it up now, despite having no history with the NES sort of RPG that it seems to be based on, but hopefully I'll "get it" nonetheless. I have the impression that it's sort of a self-reflexive metagame, done in a funny, unpretentious manner.

I guess "metagame" is a poor word. I gather people use that term for when they make up their own goals in a game to make it more challenging. E.g. play FTL without ever pausing it or without buying anything in the stores.

"there are no good video games in 2015 c u next year"

i just dl'd Undertale but haven't play it yet.

good games in 2015 that readily come to mind: witcher 3, MGSV, Bloodbourne

Actually, looking through the stuff that came out in 2015, I'm realizing that pretty much all I've bought and played are reissues of super old games (RE, Duke Nukem). Plus I only own a PS3 (and a Vita for all of five days). Despite some releases I've heard good things about but haven't gotten around to yet (MGSV, Life Is Strange, Lego Dimensions), 2015 wasn't exactly catering to me.

The Jackbox Party Pack 2 came out in 2015 and got good mileage with my family yet again so I might wind up just voting for basically the same thing I did last year.

Marvel Puzzle Quest wins again

Uuugggggggh

I'll add Nuclear Throne, Invisible Inc, and Crypt of the Necrodancer.
My favorite is Afterbirth, the DLC for the Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Ones I want to play: Undertale, Prison Architect. Curious about, but don't have the computer for it, I think: Cities Skylines.

I only played Bloodborne and some non-2015 games (Demon's Souls, The Swapper). Would really love to play Undertale and Talos Principle though.

recommend flywrench if you like extremely difficult twitchy geometric things

2015 games for me were Mortal Kombat X and Batman: Arkham Knight, neither of which really knocked it out of the park. Other than that, mostly mobile and older games as usual. I need to start keeping a game journal

There's never enough time to play all of the games of the year, but considering people didn't have enough time to play all of the NES games for that poll we can't exactly just say adding a couple years' lead time will "solve" anything. Maybe I'll set up something like a bonus question where you can put the best 1-3 games not from 2015 that you played in 2015 and they can get shouted out after the poll or something?

plz don't include pre-current year games, i don't participate in these but i like the general sort of desperation that makes up everyone's ballots and results in bizarre lists of games i've never heard of

not kidding at all C+P is great every year

Maybe I'll set up something like a bonus question where you can put the best 1-3 games not from 2015 that you played in 2015 and they can get shouted out after the poll or something?

that seems like a good compromise. Can't wait!

I will probably start setting up the nominations list next week, which can run into feb, then voting into start of march, and the rollout early march... i know it's late but games take a long time to play! i still have 5ish in steam that may place but i need to play

also it's early but everyone play life is strange, i want that game to place well

Oh, I looked at getting that. Might see how much that and Her Story are on Steam in a bit.

My top pick is probably going to be Sunless Sea, a slow-paced exploration game from the same universe as Fallen London/Echo Bazaar. A little of the old steampunk tendency (in case you're against that sort of thing) but great narrative work and tbh I really needed something of that relaxing pace.

Other things will probably be bits of IF... and Neko Atsume.

otm about sunless sea I kept thinking about how it's "slow play" in the best way (I love the brooding meditative silence). I got the merchant cruiser recently after three captain deaths and I feel like I still have 90% of the storylines to see

Oh, Life is Strange is PC only, no mac version. Bah.

Life Is Strange is getting a PS4 disc relase in January - I will probably pick it up then, bar some crazy PSN flash sale.

I definitely support using the inevitable nomination thread to needle each other into playing titles for the first three months of 2016 btw

Ninth Coint & Plick: Best Games of 2015 NOMINATION THREAD