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Top 11 Games I've Played So Far This Year
11 years ago
General
So... thanks to Christmas, my tax refund, and just my usual 'fuck my future' spending habits, I've had more than a few new titles to play the hell out of in the past several months, so I figured I'd post a few of the recent titles I've played on my various gaming systems. These aren't ones that necessarily came out in the past year, nor are they necessarily the best games... but rather ones that left an impression on me and that I'm still thinking about even if I haven't gone back to play more of them.
Also, I want to mention this now, I'm not going to include AAA games that I've played. Those ones already get enough publicity on their own. This is for smaller niche titles that people may not have heard of. Yes I played Gat out of Hell and loved it, and yes I played Final Fantasy XIII and found that it wasn't what everyone was saying it was... but Deep Silver and Square Enix hardly need help in the publicity department.
So here's the top eleven of the ones I've done recently. Why top eleven? Because I watch way too much Nostalgia Critic.
11. Armello (Steam): http://store.steampowered.com/app/290340/
I'm not normally one for hex games, or board games of any sort, but this one caught my attention for attractive art style and all furry cast. Its still in Early Access but is already a pretty solid game that my mate
lunarnio won't stop drooling over. Hell I was able to play it because I bought her a copy on Steam and our accounts are linked.
Not my favorite type of game, but a neat enough title in of itself and something that I'm looking forward to giving a try once development is a bit further along.
10: Shin Megami Tensei; Devil Survivor Overclocked (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....swLhlRxJr0mcZG
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for Atlus games in general and the SMT series as a whole, and this one is no exception. Originally a DS title, Devil Survivor 1 was re-released on the 3DS with a bunch of revamps to the game including full voice acting, an extra 8th day to the story (originally it was only seven), a host of new demons to summon, and more.
A game that's like a mix of Strategy RPG, turn based combat, and Pokemon for adults (or at least Pokemon geared towards adults and teenagers rather than kids), this is definitely one of the more fun and engaging titles I've played.
9. Shellrazer (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/she.....512290900?mt=8
I had to get an iPad for school when I first went back to college, it was a requirement for Brown Mackie students (some kind of contract with Apple), but I have to admit that I'm very pleased with my little tablet PC. I've got a ton of iBooks, I watch Youtube while I'm cooking my meals, I listen to iTunes and Pandora when I'm doing my homework while I'm in school, and (of course) I game on it.
Shellrazer is one of the more addictive titles I've gotten on there. It has the dreaded micropayments, but don't let that discourage you because I never once had to give them even a cent in my trip through the game! You play a group of orcs who ride a gigantic war tortise through hordes of enemies, each orc having their own specialty in combat to help you deal with the oncoming enemies. You can mix and match three at a time and practically have a setup for any situation. Some examples include a heavy gunner for shredding ground troops, a mortar cannon for blowing buildings straight to hell, a flak cannon for taking down areal foes, and so on. Some are pretty practical and standard (a blacksmith who repairs damaged guns), some are just completely nuts and a hell of a lot of fun (ever want a dragon on your side?). A fun little game that I'm still picking up and playing months after I initially downloaded it.
8. Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....t1S55-kVPn5gs4
Yep, another Atlus game. This one isn't a stand out for the gameplay (dungeon crawler in random dungeons), the battle system (solid, but nothing amazing), or the characters (if you ever watched a harem anime like Tenchi Muyo you know these characters), but rather... well...
Lemme put it this way, the title is Conception II, the second in this series, and the reason it's called that is because your party is made up of your character, a female heroine (one of seven), and the 'star children' you make with them. How do you make these star children you ask? Well, when a protagonist and a heroine love each other very very much...
... no really, I'm serious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy4idiSrBE0 Its called 'classmating'. You do the magical glowy hand-holding and you literally give birth to your party members. After a while the kids will hit their level cap and you give them 'independence' where they go out into the city, get jobs, and improve the city overall.
Atlus can always be counted on for interesting games if nothing else... and dammit Serena is probably my waifu now. >_> Whatever the fuck 'waifu' means.
7. Darkest Dungeon (Steam) http://store.steampowered.com/app/262060/
Moving on from one end of the mindfuck spectrum to the other, here's a game that's been making a lot of buzz lately. Darkest Dungeon, a dungeon crawler that asks the question: "How would people really handle having to fight hordes of the undead, bloodthirsty brigands, and other assorted horrors?". Apparently they go completely mad from it all.
Darkest Dungeon is a very very cruel game. It will stomp on your nuts and laugh at your tears. Oh sure you start out fine... your Crusader is a stalwart and noble warrior, your Highwayman is perhaps a bit shady but willing to support his allies so long as he gets his cut of the coins, your Vestal is a faithful and righteous soul who's prayers soothe the wounds of her friends, and your Plague Doctor is inquisitive and eager to test her concoctions on the creatures that lurk in the dark... and then they actually go in.
... within a few hours it's a whole different story. Upon their return to the town your Crusader immediately goes to the church and spends the night in prayer, begging his god to scour the memories of what he saw from his mind. The Highwayman is just as bad, going to the bar and spending every coin he earned on various spirits until he passes out drunk at the table, whimpering fitfully in his sleep. The Vestal twitches, fumbling through her prayer book, and screams if anyone tries to touch her... and the Plague Doctor? Oh dear the Plague Doctor, that poor poor bastard... he never saw what hit him.
In Darkest Dungeon your characters will die, stress will drive them insane, and they will suffer horribly. The dungeons are unforgiving, autosave is the only option so your characters will die permanently, and even when they don't they wind up so shattered and mad from their experiences that they may as well have.
Coin is spent almost as fast as it comes in, upgrades and training are costly, and the setting is dark, gloomy, and threatening.
This game will punish you and all I can say is; 'Thank you Sir, may I have another?'
6. Nihilumbra (iOS/Steam) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nih.....500161349?mt=8
I just stumbled across this one a couple days ago and, well, its gorgeous. Thats all I can really say. A puzzle platformer where you play a little sentient speck of the 'void', travelling through a world as the void slowly consumes it. A voice speaks to you during your travels, warning you that your fate is inevitable and that you will become one with the void again.
The art style is beautiful, the puzzles are challenging, and the music is haunting. Its worth a try for anyone who likes such games. If it seems like I'm not saying much compared to the others, well, thats because there's not much else to say. Its a solid, small, beautiful gem.
5. Wayward Souls (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/way.....857555369?mt=8
Its very hard to make a good action game for the iOS due to the touch screen controls, but Rocket Cat is one of the few companies that pulls it off. You play one of a group of adventurers (three at the outset, three more unlocked as you play) who travel through a mine, then a tower, and beyond. Each travels for their own reasons too. The Warrior goes to hunt down a necromancer who killed his friend, the Magus goes to find her sister, the Rogue is in it for the coin, and so on. Its a rougelike, but each character has their story and I found these stories quiet compelling indeed.
The music is good, the gameplay is nicely varied for each class, and the difficulty will have you screaming threats at your iPad before hitting the button to try again.
4. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titan (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....xSzFGpj8jMj5U5
I do love my Atlus games don't I? Etrian Odyssey is the fourth installment of a series that got it's start on the original DS (the remake of the original is also available on the eShop: Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....mLaKFXzeVwFm9l ). It combines a first person dungeon crawling experience with puzzle solving, classic JRPG elements, some truly beautiful music, and an interesting story.
Make your team out of several classes, mix and match as needed, and lead your guild across the world of Etria to discover the secret behind the legend of the 'Titan'. For my team I went with the Landsckhent (or however the fuck you spell it) who is an all around solid warrior, a Dark Hunter which is skilled at inflicting and exploiting status effects (the more effects a foe has, the more damage she does), a Dancer who can enhance my group's abilities, a Sniper which I use to take out enemies at range and support my Landsck... Landsckeh... Landskibbitydibbitydoo and Dark Hunter, and a Medic who is a medic and keeps my group from dying horribly.
You unlock more as you move through the story, gain the ability to give your guys 'subclasses' to let them use other abilities (choose wisely! It can't be undone!) and so on. A good solid JRPG for any fan of the genre.
One more thing about it, which is also used by all the Etrian games... the bottom DS screen is your map screen, but here's the thing... it doesn't draw the map, YOU do! You have to keep track of where you're going, mark down various things like FOEs (big monsters that wander dungeons), secret passages, obstacles and hazards, and so on. Strange as it sounds this is one of the big draws for me because it makes me feel much more engaged in exploration. Its not enough to just bumble around the dungeon, I have to keep an eye out for various features that mark hidden paths, remember certain spots, and plan where is safe to walk and where will get me pounced by a giant ape... because if I don't then the game sure as hell won't!
3. Hero Emblems (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/her.....645797558?mt=8
Its been a long time since I sat down at my kitchen table and thought 'I think I'll fiddle with this a bit' and then three hours later surface long enough to go 'wait, WHAT time is it!?'. Hero Emblems is a game that has done that to me recently. The game is a Puzzle RPG akin to Puzzle Quest and similar games, but I've found I enjoy it a lot more than those games for some odd reason.
A cute art style, catchy music, and a combat system that's easy to learn but difficult to master. The story is fun (though a bit Engrish-y) and its hard to beat the satisfaction you get from matching three symbols and watching it set off a chain reaction that not only restores all your health and shield but leaves your enemies a pile of mulch and tears on the battlefield before you. Three bucks on iTunes well spent if you ask me.
2. Azure Striker Gunvolt (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....-G1eK7I8Oc8Eu9
Remember Mega Man Zero? I do, I played the hell out of it after one of my exes introduced me to the series. This is a game in the same vein as MMZ, but with a different theme to it. You play Gunvolt, an 'adept' with power over electricity. You use this by using your gun to 'tag' enemies with a sort of miniature lightning rod, then using your adept powers to cook them like a human microwave.
The story is pretty standard. Gunvolt rescues a girl who takes the role of both love interest and macguffin, fights a collection of colorful enemies, and the game is so damn close to Mega Man Zero you'd swear that its a wonder Capcom didn't call foul... but thats not a bad thing. The art is good, the gameplay is fast and fun, and I really enjoyed playing through it. Worth a shot if you'd like a good classic 2D action title.
And now the big one, the one that I bought on a whim and found more addictive than enough coccaine to entertain all of Hollywood's biggest parties, a game that scratched all my itches at once...
1. Hand of Fate (Steam) http://store.steampowered.com/app/266510/
This is one of those rare games that comes along and really really gets me. The setting is perfect, making you wonder if you're really playing the game with the mysterious dealer or if you're a pawn in the game. The narration is wonderful, the dealer's voice being the perfect mix of mysterious and wise, while being goading enough to keep me going. The art is excellent, the drawings on the cards fitting the setting to a T. The concept, the music, the combat... this is a game that I'm probably going to go play some more as soon as I get done writing this.
You play... well, I'm not sure if you're the player in the game or the piece in the game... but this game is a game of cards that combines Magic the Gathering with Dungeons and Dragons. The cards become a maze for you, making a path that leads you through your game with the mysterious dealer.
Each turn you move onto another card and discover your fate. Will you meet a fae princess who will gift you with food or blessings, a pack of roving goblins who will try to steal your belongings, a demon who will offer you a choice of combat for it's own twisted amusement, or a path leading to the next leg of your journey?
You may stumble upon a maze of traps and danger with treasure at the end. You may wind up in a carnival being run by strange eldrich creatures from beyond the world you know. You might find a helpful caravan that will sell you supplies and steel. You might find a group of bandits who demand your gold or your head. Each journey is different, each is unique, and each will have you coming back for just one more game...
Defeat his jacks, his queens, and his kings to earn the dealer's symbols. The cup, the wand, the coin, and the sword. Each one makes you more powerful, but your enemies grow in strength too. Each different suit represents a different army of villains for you to fight. Bandits, brigands, and outlaws make up the suit of Dust. The Skulls are the forces of the dead, skeletal horrors from beyond the grave. Scales represents the lizardmen, inhumanly strong and fast, some with the power to breathe fire. Plague is the horrid ratmen, poisonous and diseased, they always attack in swarms with the desire to strip the meat from your bones.
Each game is unique, each adventure different, and sometimes all it takes to win is to get a smile from Fate herself. If you buy one game this month, this is the one you should get. Hands down.
Also, I want to mention this now, I'm not going to include AAA games that I've played. Those ones already get enough publicity on their own. This is for smaller niche titles that people may not have heard of. Yes I played Gat out of Hell and loved it, and yes I played Final Fantasy XIII and found that it wasn't what everyone was saying it was... but Deep Silver and Square Enix hardly need help in the publicity department.
So here's the top eleven of the ones I've done recently. Why top eleven? Because I watch way too much Nostalgia Critic.
11. Armello (Steam): http://store.steampowered.com/app/290340/
I'm not normally one for hex games, or board games of any sort, but this one caught my attention for attractive art style and all furry cast. Its still in Early Access but is already a pretty solid game that my mate
lunarnio won't stop drooling over. Hell I was able to play it because I bought her a copy on Steam and our accounts are linked.Not my favorite type of game, but a neat enough title in of itself and something that I'm looking forward to giving a try once development is a bit further along.
10: Shin Megami Tensei; Devil Survivor Overclocked (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....swLhlRxJr0mcZG
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for Atlus games in general and the SMT series as a whole, and this one is no exception. Originally a DS title, Devil Survivor 1 was re-released on the 3DS with a bunch of revamps to the game including full voice acting, an extra 8th day to the story (originally it was only seven), a host of new demons to summon, and more.
A game that's like a mix of Strategy RPG, turn based combat, and Pokemon for adults (or at least Pokemon geared towards adults and teenagers rather than kids), this is definitely one of the more fun and engaging titles I've played.
9. Shellrazer (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/she.....512290900?mt=8
I had to get an iPad for school when I first went back to college, it was a requirement for Brown Mackie students (some kind of contract with Apple), but I have to admit that I'm very pleased with my little tablet PC. I've got a ton of iBooks, I watch Youtube while I'm cooking my meals, I listen to iTunes and Pandora when I'm doing my homework while I'm in school, and (of course) I game on it.
Shellrazer is one of the more addictive titles I've gotten on there. It has the dreaded micropayments, but don't let that discourage you because I never once had to give them even a cent in my trip through the game! You play a group of orcs who ride a gigantic war tortise through hordes of enemies, each orc having their own specialty in combat to help you deal with the oncoming enemies. You can mix and match three at a time and practically have a setup for any situation. Some examples include a heavy gunner for shredding ground troops, a mortar cannon for blowing buildings straight to hell, a flak cannon for taking down areal foes, and so on. Some are pretty practical and standard (a blacksmith who repairs damaged guns), some are just completely nuts and a hell of a lot of fun (ever want a dragon on your side?). A fun little game that I'm still picking up and playing months after I initially downloaded it.
8. Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....t1S55-kVPn5gs4
Yep, another Atlus game. This one isn't a stand out for the gameplay (dungeon crawler in random dungeons), the battle system (solid, but nothing amazing), or the characters (if you ever watched a harem anime like Tenchi Muyo you know these characters), but rather... well...
Lemme put it this way, the title is Conception II, the second in this series, and the reason it's called that is because your party is made up of your character, a female heroine (one of seven), and the 'star children' you make with them. How do you make these star children you ask? Well, when a protagonist and a heroine love each other very very much...
... no really, I'm serious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy4idiSrBE0 Its called 'classmating'. You do the magical glowy hand-holding and you literally give birth to your party members. After a while the kids will hit their level cap and you give them 'independence' where they go out into the city, get jobs, and improve the city overall.
Atlus can always be counted on for interesting games if nothing else... and dammit Serena is probably my waifu now. >_> Whatever the fuck 'waifu' means.
7. Darkest Dungeon (Steam) http://store.steampowered.com/app/262060/
Moving on from one end of the mindfuck spectrum to the other, here's a game that's been making a lot of buzz lately. Darkest Dungeon, a dungeon crawler that asks the question: "How would people really handle having to fight hordes of the undead, bloodthirsty brigands, and other assorted horrors?". Apparently they go completely mad from it all.
Darkest Dungeon is a very very cruel game. It will stomp on your nuts and laugh at your tears. Oh sure you start out fine... your Crusader is a stalwart and noble warrior, your Highwayman is perhaps a bit shady but willing to support his allies so long as he gets his cut of the coins, your Vestal is a faithful and righteous soul who's prayers soothe the wounds of her friends, and your Plague Doctor is inquisitive and eager to test her concoctions on the creatures that lurk in the dark... and then they actually go in.
... within a few hours it's a whole different story. Upon their return to the town your Crusader immediately goes to the church and spends the night in prayer, begging his god to scour the memories of what he saw from his mind. The Highwayman is just as bad, going to the bar and spending every coin he earned on various spirits until he passes out drunk at the table, whimpering fitfully in his sleep. The Vestal twitches, fumbling through her prayer book, and screams if anyone tries to touch her... and the Plague Doctor? Oh dear the Plague Doctor, that poor poor bastard... he never saw what hit him.
In Darkest Dungeon your characters will die, stress will drive them insane, and they will suffer horribly. The dungeons are unforgiving, autosave is the only option so your characters will die permanently, and even when they don't they wind up so shattered and mad from their experiences that they may as well have.
Coin is spent almost as fast as it comes in, upgrades and training are costly, and the setting is dark, gloomy, and threatening.
This game will punish you and all I can say is; 'Thank you Sir, may I have another?'
6. Nihilumbra (iOS/Steam) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nih.....500161349?mt=8
I just stumbled across this one a couple days ago and, well, its gorgeous. Thats all I can really say. A puzzle platformer where you play a little sentient speck of the 'void', travelling through a world as the void slowly consumes it. A voice speaks to you during your travels, warning you that your fate is inevitable and that you will become one with the void again.
The art style is beautiful, the puzzles are challenging, and the music is haunting. Its worth a try for anyone who likes such games. If it seems like I'm not saying much compared to the others, well, thats because there's not much else to say. Its a solid, small, beautiful gem.
5. Wayward Souls (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/way.....857555369?mt=8
Its very hard to make a good action game for the iOS due to the touch screen controls, but Rocket Cat is one of the few companies that pulls it off. You play one of a group of adventurers (three at the outset, three more unlocked as you play) who travel through a mine, then a tower, and beyond. Each travels for their own reasons too. The Warrior goes to hunt down a necromancer who killed his friend, the Magus goes to find her sister, the Rogue is in it for the coin, and so on. Its a rougelike, but each character has their story and I found these stories quiet compelling indeed.
The music is good, the gameplay is nicely varied for each class, and the difficulty will have you screaming threats at your iPad before hitting the button to try again.
4. Etrian Odyssey IV: Legend of the Titan (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....xSzFGpj8jMj5U5
I do love my Atlus games don't I? Etrian Odyssey is the fourth installment of a series that got it's start on the original DS (the remake of the original is also available on the eShop: Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....mLaKFXzeVwFm9l ). It combines a first person dungeon crawling experience with puzzle solving, classic JRPG elements, some truly beautiful music, and an interesting story.
Make your team out of several classes, mix and match as needed, and lead your guild across the world of Etria to discover the secret behind the legend of the 'Titan'. For my team I went with the Landsckhent (or however the fuck you spell it) who is an all around solid warrior, a Dark Hunter which is skilled at inflicting and exploiting status effects (the more effects a foe has, the more damage she does), a Dancer who can enhance my group's abilities, a Sniper which I use to take out enemies at range and support my Landsck... Landsckeh... Landskibbitydibbitydoo and Dark Hunter, and a Medic who is a medic and keeps my group from dying horribly.
You unlock more as you move through the story, gain the ability to give your guys 'subclasses' to let them use other abilities (choose wisely! It can't be undone!) and so on. A good solid JRPG for any fan of the genre.
One more thing about it, which is also used by all the Etrian games... the bottom DS screen is your map screen, but here's the thing... it doesn't draw the map, YOU do! You have to keep track of where you're going, mark down various things like FOEs (big monsters that wander dungeons), secret passages, obstacles and hazards, and so on. Strange as it sounds this is one of the big draws for me because it makes me feel much more engaged in exploration. Its not enough to just bumble around the dungeon, I have to keep an eye out for various features that mark hidden paths, remember certain spots, and plan where is safe to walk and where will get me pounced by a giant ape... because if I don't then the game sure as hell won't!
3. Hero Emblems (iOS) https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/her.....645797558?mt=8
Its been a long time since I sat down at my kitchen table and thought 'I think I'll fiddle with this a bit' and then three hours later surface long enough to go 'wait, WHAT time is it!?'. Hero Emblems is a game that has done that to me recently. The game is a Puzzle RPG akin to Puzzle Quest and similar games, but I've found I enjoy it a lot more than those games for some odd reason.
A cute art style, catchy music, and a combat system that's easy to learn but difficult to master. The story is fun (though a bit Engrish-y) and its hard to beat the satisfaction you get from matching three symbols and watching it set off a chain reaction that not only restores all your health and shield but leaves your enemies a pile of mulch and tears on the battlefield before you. Three bucks on iTunes well spent if you ask me.
2. Azure Striker Gunvolt (3DS) http://www.nintendo.com/games/detai.....-G1eK7I8Oc8Eu9
Remember Mega Man Zero? I do, I played the hell out of it after one of my exes introduced me to the series. This is a game in the same vein as MMZ, but with a different theme to it. You play Gunvolt, an 'adept' with power over electricity. You use this by using your gun to 'tag' enemies with a sort of miniature lightning rod, then using your adept powers to cook them like a human microwave.
The story is pretty standard. Gunvolt rescues a girl who takes the role of both love interest and macguffin, fights a collection of colorful enemies, and the game is so damn close to Mega Man Zero you'd swear that its a wonder Capcom didn't call foul... but thats not a bad thing. The art is good, the gameplay is fast and fun, and I really enjoyed playing through it. Worth a shot if you'd like a good classic 2D action title.
And now the big one, the one that I bought on a whim and found more addictive than enough coccaine to entertain all of Hollywood's biggest parties, a game that scratched all my itches at once...
1. Hand of Fate (Steam) http://store.steampowered.com/app/266510/
This is one of those rare games that comes along and really really gets me. The setting is perfect, making you wonder if you're really playing the game with the mysterious dealer or if you're a pawn in the game. The narration is wonderful, the dealer's voice being the perfect mix of mysterious and wise, while being goading enough to keep me going. The art is excellent, the drawings on the cards fitting the setting to a T. The concept, the music, the combat... this is a game that I'm probably going to go play some more as soon as I get done writing this.
You play... well, I'm not sure if you're the player in the game or the piece in the game... but this game is a game of cards that combines Magic the Gathering with Dungeons and Dragons. The cards become a maze for you, making a path that leads you through your game with the mysterious dealer.
Each turn you move onto another card and discover your fate. Will you meet a fae princess who will gift you with food or blessings, a pack of roving goblins who will try to steal your belongings, a demon who will offer you a choice of combat for it's own twisted amusement, or a path leading to the next leg of your journey?
You may stumble upon a maze of traps and danger with treasure at the end. You may wind up in a carnival being run by strange eldrich creatures from beyond the world you know. You might find a helpful caravan that will sell you supplies and steel. You might find a group of bandits who demand your gold or your head. Each journey is different, each is unique, and each will have you coming back for just one more game...
Defeat his jacks, his queens, and his kings to earn the dealer's symbols. The cup, the wand, the coin, and the sword. Each one makes you more powerful, but your enemies grow in strength too. Each different suit represents a different army of villains for you to fight. Bandits, brigands, and outlaws make up the suit of Dust. The Skulls are the forces of the dead, skeletal horrors from beyond the grave. Scales represents the lizardmen, inhumanly strong and fast, some with the power to breathe fire. Plague is the horrid ratmen, poisonous and diseased, they always attack in swarms with the desire to strip the meat from your bones.
Each game is unique, each adventure different, and sometimes all it takes to win is to get a smile from Fate herself. If you buy one game this month, this is the one you should get. Hands down.
