Coint and Plick 2013 - The Sixth Annual ILX Video Game Poll

totes robbed

no inverted Y would be unforgivable in even dark souls

i forgot to vote for Walking Dead, although i've only played the first episode. thought it would be a good game to play with my gf and she got way into the decision-making but didn't really care to play more. plus it seems like it's best played a full episode at a time, and i only have time for shorter bursts these days. also #invertyaxis.

i feel like the only games that i recognize are the ones i voted for

predicting a top 3 finish for Hexagon

ones i know have yet to place are hexagon, spelunky, xcom, dishonored, and frog fractions -- and i would not be unhappy if that ended up being the top 5 in that order

Journey hasn't placed yet, has it?

no, kinda hoping it isn't no. 1 tbh

It topped my ballot.

three letters, baby

I'm not sure if Spec Ops is going to not place, or place high, both of which would shock the hell out of me

I haven't yet played Spec Ops, but why would a high placement be shocking? It seems to be generally well-reviewed, or at the very least interesting to have been talked over a lot this past year.

I've yet to finish Spec Ops. It just strikes me as one of those games that 1 or 2 people on ILX would champion but far from a "universal appeal" type game.

ok i ahve to ask is the invert y axis walking dead thing for serious? i have no idea how the control scheme is on console, i played it w/ a mouse,but it doesn't exactly strike me as a game where axes are very important (as in the plural of axis, not the plural of axe, which are fairly important in TWD)

there's a handful of FPS sequences, i suppose

http://i.imgur.com/B6cvRU1.gif
#9: Super Hexagon – iOS – 62 pts – 5 votes - 1 top game votes - Top iOS Game

http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2012/09/super_hexagon_tips_03.png

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://www.thumbactive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Super_Hexagon_original.png

Play Hexagon Online

Wired: Terry Cavanagh can’t keep his high score

Composer Interview

Super Text-Based Hexagon

Little Big Hexagon

Rock Paper Shotgun

Problem Machine: Spiralling Shape

A Modest Proposal

Batterywine

Unwinnable: Allow Natural Death

Soundtrack

http://morbidholiday.com/comics/2012-09-15-super-hexagon.png

JCL: Such a simple concept, so perfectly executed. I was never able to master the last few levels of challenge, but for a few weeks there, I had a great time trying.

cozen: fuck this game in its fucking fuck

BASTARDS #1 4EVA HEXAGON HEXAGON HEXAGON

sigh hexagon ijdgi

my number one vote. kinda a perfect game.

a great game for iOS, for sure. Perfectly suited for 0-60+ second bursts (depending on how good you are, i guess). and it's satisfying to witness your skill level gradually improving, even if it feels like you're just failing repeatedly at first. before you know it, that first 30 seconds that used to be a nightmare is something that you navigate through relatively calmly as you prepare for the onslaught that arrives near the end.

still, cozen otm. it's kind of a stressful game! even just making the gif brought back flashbacks to losing at 57.8923 seconds and realizing that i'd been holding my breath the entire time.

i've seen super hexagon called a 'rhythm game' elsewhere but i was never able to connect the music and throbbing with the gameplay.. is this something that makes itself more apparent the better you get?

i always play better w/ the sound off

i'm with cozen on this one

Re: Spec Ops - the only downside to forks' exhaustive approach is the certainty that if anyone voted for something that hasn't placed, it is still to place.

ok i ahve to ask is the invert y axis walking dead thing for serious? i have no idea how the control scheme is on console, i played it w/ a mouse,but it doesn't exactly strike me as a game where axes are very important (as in the plural of axis, not the plural of axe, which are fairly important in TWD)

not a big deal when nothing is happening, but annoying in the 'action' scenes where zombies are breaking down the door and you need to move the cursor up to select something quickly and you move it down and have to do it over again.

^ this. i'm fine during the downtime/exploration parts but nearly all the action parts which need you to make a split-second reaction i've had to replay a couple of times

That's why I only played the first chapter. Liked the storytelling, but the split-second stuff controls like balls on the ipad.

I'm pretty sure that's not how you're supposed to use an iPad

no invert Y axis = no dice for me

Oh man that super hexagon gif!

I can't look away!

yeah i really can't understand it when developers don't implement inverted Y functionality.. it's literally just: if ( inverted_y ) { y_value = y_value * -1; }

my thoughts on a few of the others:

i got a hold of need for speed: most wanted after seeing the results of the poll, and i would have voted for it had i played it earlier! it was cool to drive around the city and see all the places that jjjusten and JimD had already visited, try to break their high scores, etc. after about 10 hours or so it gets to be pretty repetitive: start using a new car, complete a few races, upgrade the car, do the terrible "lose the cops in XX seconds or less" challenge that makes me want to tear my eyeballs out (more on that below), beat the more difficult race, switch cars, repeat.

the police. i love their presence during races. they add an added layer of mayhem, and the game strikes a nice balance between ensuring that they're a factor you have to consider as you race, but they rarely completely ruin your race and make you restart. i HATE HATE HATE the missions where you start out being chased by the police and have to completely lose them within a certain amount of time. outrunning them is not an option, unfortunately - new police always seem to show up in front of you, wherever you're heading, so apparently you're supposed to lose the ones behind you and hunker down in a hidden space off of the road instead. however, even if you go off the main road and hide in a tunnel (or whatever), when the police get within a certain distance they'll just automatically detect you and suddenly veer off the road to your location. i dunno, it's possible that i'm just a complete idiot, but i came to really, really dread these challenges. unfortunately, there's a nice upgrade that you get whenever you complete the Lose the Police challenges, so they always feel mandatory in order to be competitive in the races.

online is just complete mayhem. even though i never did very well, it's very addicting. overall, even with its flaws, i'd highly recommend NFS:MW to fans of burnout, especially when it drops down to $29.99 or whatever

Driver: San Fran pretty much sated any driving game needs I'd ever have outside of an open-world game.

So far i think the only game ive played has been "Hotline Miami" (unless "Sleeping Dogs" already came up). It's pretty damn amazing but i do wish there were like dozens and dozens of levels to the game rather than what they have w the story and all that.

Oh cool "Sleeping Dogs" did make it. What an AMAZING looking game. At night in the rain, it's probably the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous thing i've ever played.

they're working on an DLC expansion-turned-into-sequel for Hotline Miami now, so your wish shall likely be granted in some form. also, it just got announced for a PS3/Vita port

Pro tip for nfs:mw about ditching cops - They don't tend to follow you off of jumps, so hitting a few jumps is key to the evasion challenges

gtfo of here with that suepr punch quest shit coming in so high

so this walking dead game, i wanna play it, is it much better on PSN than ipad?

yeah super punch quest is awful sorry ya'all

Walking Dead on the iPhone was terrible for me, the controls were awkward. PSN was great, though.

Played Hexagon once for a minute. IDGI

not sure about psn or ipad but i would play walking dead on a computer personally... i can't imagine trying to point and click any other way. plus i think it's mac-compat?

i can confirm that it is mac compatible, tho if you have a retina macbook you have to do a full-screen > windowed > full-screen move to get text to display correctly

idg what is not tg about hexagon? it's so simple and intuitive - pure like tetris

It was boring?
Tetris ramps up, you have time to consider moves. Hexagon is just tap tap tap/hope you get the rhythm right.

http://i.imgur.com/8B7Xrra.gif
#8: Dishonored – PS3, X360, PC – 64 pts – 4 votes - 2 top game votes

http://cf.shacknews.com/images/20120604/ratswarm_22292.nphd.jpg

Official Game Site

Metacritic

Gameplay Video

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18180wg5ga8b5jpg/original.jpg

Errant Signal

Zero Punctuation

Popmatters

Gamasutra: The Creative Team Behind Dishonored

Behind The Scenes

Dev Interview

Soundtrack

http://media.t3.com/img/resized/di/xl_Dishonored_2_624.jpg

Dishonored.

Jordan: The world is imaginative, and the gameplay is not only creative but it works. Missed opportunity: can't believe they didn't set one of the missions on a whaling ship. Or let you...possess a whale? It also provided my favorite gaming moment of the year, in the form of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4JH96KcgQ

Zora: Hand on heart, I have probably not played enough of this to rate it fairly, having bought it for the console. For various reasons, I've been gaming mainly on my laptop. However, what I have played of it was right up my flooded, rat-infested alley. Still - it's not quite the Thief 4 I'm looking for. Keep on jonesin'.

what is "super punch quest" and is it like normal punch quest?

the two objections to it i could see would be A) you didn't get into it and so just ran a bit, died a bit and got bored or B) you were really good at it (I'm not) and didn't find it challenging it at all.

on another note, people like to vote for _important_ things for their #1, so I could see spec ops placing really high.

PSN walking Dead controls are the two joysticks and four main buttons. Super simple.

i was not a fan of punch quest either. all the elements of that style of iphone game were there - gradually unlocking skill trees, semi-randomized levels, bite sized play periods perfect for sitting on the toilet the modern lifestyle - but somehow it was missing the FUN. punching through enemies never really felt satisfying. tiny wings had a similar structure (minus the unlocking skillz part), but the main thing it had going for it was that it felt really GOOD to fly way into the air and sail forever and then nail the landing and whooooooosh off again. Punch Quest didn't create any comparable moments, for me at least.