Last time I’ve done this was in 2010, and it was kinda fun. I especially liked the two nostalgia rounds because finding screenshots for all the old games was a trip down the memory lane. This time I figured I restrict myself to recent or semi-recent games.

Number of these were reviewed here, some were not. Some are indies, some are major studio releases. Most are pretty good, or at very least interesting. Let’s see if you can guess them all:

Name That Game, post answers in comments.

As usual, the rules are really simple. Each screenshot above is numbered. If you think you know what game it is, post the name, along with the number it in the comments. You can do multiple games per post if you wish. First one to guess a game receives internet points. Whoever gets most internet points wins.

Internet points are inherently worthless and can’t be redeemed for anything, traded or used constructively. But they are, like, points that are on the internet. You know you want them! No one can resist internet points!

Here is something of note: a lot of these screenshots for games released in the past year or so, look remarkably similar to some of the screenshots I posted in the nostalgia threads. While the big releases keep getting bigger and more shiny and polished, the indie scene has been consistently bringing us games that look, feel and play like the stuff that got many of us into gaming back in the 90’s. Personally, I frequently find these smaller, less opulent games more interesting than yet another annual military FPS release. Because a lot of these games are made on the cheap, they can afford to be different, risky and quirky. And that’s a great thing.

The indies are slowly revitalizing the gaming scene by bringing us variety. Projects such as Kickstarter and Greenlight are helping to bring these small and inexpensive games out of obscurity and distribute them to the masses. Whenever an indie game catches on, and starts racking up the big bucks the big studios take notice, and we can probably expect to over time see these ideas percolate to big-budget releases.

I will be posting correct answers below, along with the names of the people who guessed them.

Results

The object of the game is to have your name appear here more often than any other name. Or something like that:

1. Don’t Starve guessed by Pariahpism
2. DOTA2 guessed by Chris Wellons
3. FTL guessed by Pariahpism
4. Gunpoint guessed by Prison Architect
5. Prison Architect guessed by Chris Wellons
6. Shadowrun Returns guessed by moragos
7. Hotline Miami guessed by Pariahpism
8. Tomb Raider guessed by Pariahpism
9. Bioshock Infinite guessed by Prison Architect
10. Doshonored guessed by Pariahpism
11. — guessed by —
12. Reus guessed by セレネ
13. X-COM guessed by Pariahpism
14. Kerbal Space Program guessed by Pariahpism
15. Legend of Grimrock guessed by Pariahpism
16. Deus Ex: Human Revolution guessed by Pariahpism
17. Terraria guessed by Pariahpism
18. Spec Ops: The Line guessed by Chris Wellons
19. LA Noire guessed by Pariahpism
20. Bastion guessed by Pariahpism
21. Dear Esther guessed by Chris Wellons

Honestly, I’m not even sure I still have audience for this. In the past quite a few people commented on these, but lately I think my reader base has been shrinking. This might be due to the fact that my posting frequency has dropped quite a bit over the years, or that I tend to go for long, thought out articles rather than short, easily digestible top ten lists. Anyways, here is something small, short and encouraging reader participation that most people can join in an participate.

Praising or trashing the games depicted in the screenshots in highly encouraged.

For those of you who have not been lurking long enough to see one of these the rules are simple: try to guess the titles of as many of the games you see in the picture below. The screenshots are numbered for your convenience.

Also, perhaps this time I will try to hold off acknowledging right answers right away. Instead you can try to feed off what other people said before you and discuss it amongst each other. Whoever posts a list of titles that is completely correct first wins. Otherwise the win goes to the person who got the most titles right. The prize is a coupon for one free internet (void where prohibited).

Name that Game: Nostalgia Edition 2

As usual, post your guesses in comments. For full effect, don’t read any comments first and try to guess on your own. Then read the comments and see if you failed to recognize some games that you played but did not recognize from the screen shot.

Enjoy!

As usual, try to guess the titles by looking at the tiny screen shots and post the answers in the comments.

This version of the game may appeal to slightly different crowd. Instead of identifying movies, I’m asking you to identify video games in the picture below. And instead of random screenshots, I’m actually using the box covers. Naturally since each video game box has the name of the game printed on it, and usually a signature, distinct art I’m adding some Gaussian blur to each of them. I tried to make them fuzzy enough to conceal telltale details (and the title of course) but clear enough to allow you to recognize the box by shape, color and composition.

I tested it on my brother and he immediately identified 5 boxes correctly, 2 incorrectly and had no clue as to the rest. So hopefully this won’t be solved by the first commenter. :P

Something tells me I’m making it to easy, but we’ll see. Let me know whether you like this new variation on the game. I will probably continue making “Name that Movie” panels in the future, but this could be another fun distraction. :)