The Fifth Annual Coint and Plick Poll for Best Video Games of 2011 is CLOSED - Poll Results Starting Feb 15

Hey all, here we go again! Thanks to polyphonic for helping support the poll last year and thanks to ZS for helping support it this year!

For 2010's Coint and Plick we had almost forty voters; this time I'd love to aim for at least fifty! I'd like to request that folks who even just played one or a very few games this year put in a ballot with us; if you're only voting for one or two games, that's just fine. We like casual gamers too and we'll happily take lurkers or off site readers! Everybody is welcome.

Coint and Plick is not another irrational THIS IS THE BEST GAME list. It's a broad survey of the year in games among a thin slice of gamers that's intended to provide a guide for future curiosity seekers and would-be game historians.

Some history:

The First Annual Coint and Plick: The ILG Best Game of 2007 Poll
The Second Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2008
The Second Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2008 - Part 2: The Top Forty!
The Third Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2009 - Part One: #77 through #93
The Third Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2009 - Part Two: #52 through #75
The Third Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2009 - Part Three: #21 through #51
Concluding The Third Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2009 - Part Four: #1 through #20
The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part One: #106 - AKA the 26 games that got one vote and five points
The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Two: #80 - 105
The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Three: #53 - 79
The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Four: #21 - 52
The Fourth Annual Coint and Plick Video Games Poll - Part Five: #1 - 20

Please submit your ballot via email to me at
forksclovetofu at gmail dot com
in Pazz and Jop style vote/point format: You'll have 100 points to divide among your Top 10 games released in 2010, with each entry receiving no more than 30 points and no less than 5 points (seriously, for my sanity, you MUST keep it to a MINIMUM of five points please).

If you'd rather not rank individually, just assign 10 points per game. I'll list at least the top 50 games of '11 in the final results, presuming we get enough entries.

Additionally, please include the single game released this year that was your biggest disappointment. This can mean it didn't live up to your expectations, flat out sucked, didn't quite get it right... whatever "biggest disappointment" means to you. We'll list the disappointments before we get to our top ten of the poll.

Please note your ILX username on the ballot (if you have one) and the system you personally played each game on. PLEASE WRITE A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHY YOU'RE CASTING YOUR VOTES AS YOU ARE; I'll include many of the best comments with the winners. If you'd like to volunteer to write a longer essay/appreciation/critical beatdown of a specific game or games, regardless of where they place on the poll, just let us know. Games that received votes in the 2010 poll will have their numbers rolled onto the 2011 poll, so no need to vote for them twice.

DEADLINE FOR ENTRY IS JANUARY 31st.
ZS and I will try to start the final results posting by February 5th.

Pointless obsessive rules:

1) One entry per person.

2) If you don't assign points to your picks, I'll assess each vote at ten points per game. If you do assign points but they add up as either more or less than a hundred, I'll assess each vote at ten points per game. If you assign over 30 or under 5 points to any individual game, I'll assess all the games on your ballot at ten points per game. If you list more than ten games, I'll just take the top ten on your list. If you include a game that clearly didn't come out in 2011, it won't be counted. Ask on this thread if you want to check to see if your pick is valid. If you're listing an obscure import-only title, flash game, in-browser, garage-made, social network or phone game, please include a URL for the game's fan/homepage so I can figure out what you're raving about. The more info the better.

3) Though I'd like you to note what system you've played a game on, I'll be considering votes for a game that's been released on different systems (i.e. PS3/360/PC Skyrim) as all counting toward one nomination... unless there's a clear difference due to systems that affects gameplay (i.e. Aquaria for PC vs Aquaria for iOS). In a case like DiRT 3 PC vs console, I'll likely not be splitting hairs, but if you want to make the point that you ONLY like the PC version in your ballot, I'll take that into account.

4) Flash games, art games, MMORPGs, videogame versions of card and party games, online fantasy sports, social network games and cellphone games are all entirely valid choices as long as they were versions released and played in '11.

I will also accept any game that has been re-released this year in a new format/console, any game that is in a continuous state of change (basically MMORPGs) or downloadable content for a game made prior to 2010. That means World of Warcraft, Fallout New Vegas DLC and Scribblenauts for iOS are all fair game. Any classic NES/PS2/SNES/Genesis/etc games released as downloadable games are legit picks if you downloaded them onto a current system and played them there. Here's the catch though: I do ask that you keep in the spirit of the thing and only vote for reissues/new content/ongoing games if you played them THIS YEAR and (when applicable) only on the new system in question... in other words, I won't vote for Limbo on PS3, even though I liked Limbo a lot, because I played it on the 360. Similarly, if you played Dead Space this year on your PC, don't vote for the iOS version. If you played a ton of World of Warcraft but not this year, don't vote for it. If you played Fallout: New Vegas for the first time this year, don't vote for the game unless you're voting solely for the new content. If you got XCOM for the PC from GOG, it's not a 2011 game. And so on.

Things that shouldn't be nominated: board games, card games, puzzles, table RPGs, etc. Good rule of thumb is that if it has a screen, it's valid.

A list of some of the best known and loved games released in 2011 follows; your ballot will not be limited to these games but they're certainly the front runners to placeand a good place to start your list.

Make sense? Then VOTE!

1000 Heroz
2012 IGF Pirate Kart
A Game About Game Literacy
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome
Age of Empires Online
Alice: Madness Returns
Amazing Breaker
Angry Birds Rio
Anno 2070
Anomaly: Warzone Earth
Another World 20th Anniversary
Aquaria
AR Games 3DS
Arkham City
Assassins Creed: Revelations
Async Corp
At Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel
Avalon: The Black Fortress HD
Back to the Future
Bastion
Battlefield 3
BattleHeart
Bejeweled Blitz
Binding of Isaac
Breath of Death VII
Bring Me Sandwiches
Brink
Bug Heroes
Bug Princess iOS
Bulletstorm
Bumpy Roads
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Cardboard Box Assembler
Casey's Contraptions
Catherine
Cave Story 3D
Cave Story+
Child of Eden
Civilization V (Patched)
Contre Jour
Crysis 2
Cthulu Saves the World
Dance Central 2
Dark Meadow
Dark Nebula 2
Dark Souls
Darkspore
Dawn of War II: Retribution
DC Universe Online
de Blob 2
Dead Island
Dead or Alive: Dimensions
Dead Space 2
Dead Space iOS
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dice Soccer
DiRT 3
Disgaea 4
Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy
Don't Take It Personally Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story
Dragon Age II
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2
Driver: San Francisco
Dungeon Defenders
Dungeon Raid
Dungeons of Dredmor
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
Edge Extended
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Elder Sign: Omens
Elephant Quest
EPOCH.
Escape from Puppy Death Factory
F1 2011
Fable III
Faceraiders
Fallout New Vegas - Old World Blues
FIFA Soccer 12
Fight Night Champion
Fight Night Champion iOS
Fisher Diver
Fluidity
Football Manager 2012
Forget Me Not
Fortune Street
Forza Motorsport 4
From Dust
Frozen Synapse
Gears of War 3
Gesundheit!
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Glitch
Glowfish
Goat Up
Grand Prix Story
Grand Theft Auto 3
Great Little War Game
Groove Coaster
Gunstringer
Hydrophobia Prophecy
iBlast Moki 2
ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection HD
ilomilo
inFamous: Festival of Blood
inFamous 2
Infinity Blade II
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
jAggy Race
Jamestown
Jetpack Joyride
Just Dance 3
Killzone 3
King Cashing
King of Dragon Pass
King of Fighters iOS
King of Fighters XIII
L.A. Noire
Last Rocket
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
Lego Star Wars III: Clone Wars
Limbo
LittleBigPlanet 2
Lost in Shadow
LostWinds
Machinarium
Madden 2012
Mage Gauntlet
Magicka
Mario Kart 7
Marvel vs Capcom 3
Mass Effect 2: The Arrival
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes HD
Mighty Fin
Minecraft
Minotaur Rescue
Monsters Ate My Condo
Mortal Kombat
Mos Speedrun
MotorStorm: Apocalypse
Ms. 'Splosion Man
NBA 2K12
NBA JAM iOS
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition
NCAA 2012
NHL 2012
Okamiden
One and One Story
Orcs Must Die!
Outland
Patapon 3
Perfect Cell
Pinball FX2 (Tables released in 2011)
Pocket Academy
Pocket Half Pipe
Pocket RPG
Pokemon Black / White
Poker Pals
Portal 2
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012
Professor Layton and the Last Specter
Pushmo/PullBlox
Puzzle Agent 2
Quarrel
Radballs
Radiant Historia
Rage
Rayman Origins
Rebuild
Resident Evil Code: Veronica X
Resistance 3
Rick Santorum
Rift
Rise of Nightmares
Rocksmith
Runespell: Overture
Saints Row the Third
Sanctum
Scribblenauts Remix
Sequence
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
Shadowgun
Shadows of the Damned
Shift 2: Unleashed
Shinobi 3D
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
Sliding Hero
Snow Fight
Socom 4
Sonic CD
SpaceChem
SpellTower
SPY Mouse
Stacking
Street Fighter IV Volt
StreetPass Quest 1/2 aka Find Mii 3DS
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Super Mario 3D Land
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Tales From Space: About A Blob
Temple Run
Terraria
Tetris Battle
Ticket to Ride
Tiger Woods 2012
Time Ducks
Tiny Heroes
Tiny Tower
Tiny Wings
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars
Top Spin 4
Total War: Shogun 2
Touchgrind BMX
Trenched
Trine 2
Tropico 4
Two Worlds II
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Velocispider
Vetica
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Warhammer 40K Dawn of War II- Retribution
We Are Alone
W.E.L.D.E.R.
Whale Trail
Where Is My Heart?
Where's My Water?
Wind Up Knight
Windosill
Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Wizardry iOS
Wizorb
Wonderputt
Wooords
WWE 2012
WWE All-Stars
Xenoblade
X-Men Destiny
Yakuza 4
You Don't Know Jack
Zen Pinball (Tables released in 2011)
Zombieville USA 2

Two ballots as of today. Let's get cracking folks!

i know we keep the ballots to 10 bc we like to list every game that got a vote. but 10 is really too few imho.

who's gonna submit this in a rush at the last minute *raises hand*

i have my list done but i need to write up my blurbs still

I'll only be voting for two games is it worth it y/n

y

great now I have to decide which of those two unquestionable GsOTY really is GOTY.

hmm i aint played much new game this year, probably about 3 games, not sure if i'm qualified to vote.

duh last year

Anything more than a single game is a fair ballot imo

hmm i aint played much new game this year, probably about 3 games, not sure if i'm qualified to vote.

vote! i haven't played too many new games either, no big deal.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vX3mODCTkKs/TPW5411I6KI/AAAAAAAAASY/uD5jLLJIJDk/s320/Vote-Or-Die.jpg

http://origin.kaboodle.com/hi/img/c/0/0/1b9/9/AAAADEHPsc8AAAAAAbmVsA.jpg?v=1325036549000

one thing to consider for peeps voting for 3 games - if you give them all 30 points yer getting a mathematical freebie that those of us voting for ten dont get (ie given the rules if i give 3 games 30 points i can only vote for 2 additional games at 5 points). so maybe it is more fair to only allot 60 points total between the three? i guess that you could do 2 games at 30 each and still have enough to give 5 points to the other 8 but that still seems like its a little unfair weighting-wise somehow.

/mathdork

http://www.wearyourbeer.com/images/Happy_Days_Sit_On_It_Red_Shirt.jpg

eyyyyyyyyyy

But you as a ten-voter have the option to vote for less than ten, if you so choose. It makes your smaller list more relevant?

I encourage diversity for this list, but if gaming for youw as two games, who am i to argue?

GUYS I TOTALLY FORGOT PATHPIX / PATHPIX PRO for iOS
Please vote for this.

one thing to consider for peeps voting for 3 games - if you give them all 30 points yer getting a mathematical freebie that those of us voting for ten dont get (ie given the rules if i give 3 games 30 points i can only vote for 2 additional games at 5 points). so maybe it is more fair to only allot 60 points total between the three? i guess that you could do 2 games at 30 each and still have enough to give 5 points to the other 8 but that still seems like its a little unfair weighting-wise somehow.

that's fine, just note it.

8 Ballots
50 games nominated.
Shake a leg guys.

OK!

i will have mine in by the deadline i promise

i am still waiting for a time where i can muster the appropriate level of steam for my ranting, but i will make it under deadline pinky swear

ballot sent.

Just to clarify, you can have less than 10 games, but still allocate the full 100 points over your selections, correct? I'm going to have like 7 or 8.

I don't think there's been an official rule about it, but it seems fair to leave off enough points that you could vote for the full 10 if you wanted to. (So that if you vote for 8 games, you only allocate 90 points between them. Or if you vote for 7, you can only allocate 85.) This just seems reasonable to me.

yep, less is fine. More is not. No less than 5 points, no more than 30 per game. If you have multiple games listed with the highest number of points that you've allocated, I'll split your "top game" vote however many ways necessary.

As per usual, we're only one vote away from a runaway winner or a very tight race.

and to clarify, you can have 1 game with 30 points or 8 games with 100 points or whatever. Just not more than 10 games, not more than 100 points, not more than 30 points a game, not less than 5 points a game.

but feel free to adhere to whatever personal ethos you think is appropriate as long as it fits within those guidelines.

I just went with 10. Easier that way.

I've only managed 3 or 4 new releases this (last) year. My first resolution for 2012: keep up.

oh hey, i voted.

figured i probably should because i'll probably play even fewer games this year.

I really wanted to play more games on the list before I voted, but instead I just played Skyrim.

I think you meant "instead I took an arrow to the knee"

How in the world can you keep up? New console releases are so expensive. Which is why most of my list is iOS games.

i don't have an "iOS" because it is too expensive

Obviously you can't keep up, but if I played ten new releases instead of a bunch of old iOS ports, Tropico 4 and Skyrim... at least I could file a sensible vote?

Coint and Plick is really designed to be hella egalitarian and realistic... i don't think there is a NON sensible vote.

I plan to vote for Rosetta Stone

14 ballots in right now btw. I really want to get this to 50 total. Y'all go canvas.

if you beat rosetta stone, do you get an italian model?

oh shit i still need to do this

so do the rest of you sad sacks obv, this closes next tuesday

Well, at least you eliminated Kingdom of Average-at-best from next year's ballot.

ballot in, can i send in my hate rant later forks? i need to consider which thing i hated the most and build my unimpeachable case against it before i send it in

haha yeah srsly xpost

15 ballots, everyone who has sent one in has been tabulated. Looking for 35 more here people!
70 games and a very interesting top ten right now. I don't wanna hear you guys bitching when tiny tower ranks #4 if you didn't vote.

hate rants and criticism are totally welcome to come a little later.

you know that you won't really get $5 right

but i need that money for pizza!

I think the inability to make a living off of freelance games journalism seems a good topic right now.

it has been slim pickings out here in the BLOGOSPHERE lately

i actually have something i wanted to think over so ill send you something z

can games an art?

cool! just send it to forksclovetofu at gmail dot com! also, if anyone else wants to contribute something, you will be a legend. also, i will give you 5 dollars i swear

I'll provide malort.

was just discussing malort tonight, and could not figure out how to describe it other than "alcoholic cotton candy, but way worse"

that is a very inaccurate description

i say that as a dude that spent a few months with the username "i think i just malorted a little bit in my mouth" so

back where i'm from, one thing we always say is "don't criticize someone's description of malort unless you have a better one" - what's your description?

i had one but
shit
i might have to ask djp because it was at my bachelor party and things are kinda hazy still

lol you are asking the dude who doesn't remember falling into the embers of a bonfire to help you remember something from that night?

I see photographic evidence of things from that night that I am still certain never happened

I'm still waiting for Zelda to really impress me, tbh.

check your email forks, just sent a bunch of blurb text, which I probably spent too much time on

Got it! I need to find more time to work on this. But it will happen! ZS is doing great graphix.

MAKE THE MAGIC HAPPEN ITS COINT AND PLICK CHRISTMAS

PLICKMAS IS MY FAVORITE DAY!

JJJ - did your box arrive in time for PLICKMAS?

It did and holy shit dude i have been meaning to send you an email - you pretty much made me weekend because i have never owned sin after sin in any format ever, and most of the rest only on grimy half self erased cassettes so i am in pretty much hog heaven. also yeah the remasters sure do make a difference! basically you are the best dude ever in my opinion, and thx thx again.

you're more than welcome. Happy Coint and Priestmas!

It's tonight guys

i'm taking the evening off

TO DO THIS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzlNFcT2aOE

when does tonight officially start for you in forkworld?

not needling, just curious how long i actually have to "do work" today

oh man, like 9pm est
get your work done and we'll roll deeper tomorrow.
will try to drop between three and five a day as we move forward

hey forks, finally sent you my hate rant, lemme know if you dont get it.

haha no, I got it alright. It's a humdinger.

the rollout is nigh! grab your beer and chips.

Yay! Will keep me entertained during another night of insomniaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

come play me some tunes while we wait

hold on, forks and i are getting stoned in the dressing room

I don't have my 'phones working at the moment, so alas I cannot.

xpost

I'm a shit warm up act and for that I'm sorry. You guys deserved better.

xpost

i've really gained an appreciation, though, of the immense amount of work that goes into these (and is still going into it). forks has already done a toooooon of work in putting things together, and i feel guilty about not helping out as much as i would like. lucky for me, though, there's still work left to do so i can still help out!

bummer emil.y. Next time.

xposts

Is this happening tonight or no? I don't really have a concept of what EST is but the internet seems to tell me that it is past 9pm.

Might as well wait at this point. Pretty late.

i know we have results ready to go, but i don't want to jumpstart things since forks has put so much work into it. i'm relatively free tomorrow, hopefully we can start it then?

Z S maybe to tide us over you can post a few of your presumed anigif creations decontextualized? Like a teaser?

or post fake results itt

#1 game of 2011 seeing if ilxor.com is back up

just to totally lower expectations, very few of the images will be animated. at this point it'll probably just be part of the top 10. the reason is that they take me forever to do, usually at 30 minutes minimum, and an hour or two if i'm actually trying (which i'd like to do for this poll!) so if you multiply that by dozens and dozens of results...by my calculations it comes out to several billion hours

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

J/k, I'll be fine but some results tomorrow would be cool

uhhh, i'be been editing and typing for hours.
let's get started

The Fifth Annual Coint and Plick Poll for Best Video Games of 2011 - Part One: 74-109

Well, I'm still awake. So let's hit it.

Locking this up; let's keep it going on the poll thread.