We are starting to get into the cycle of weekly releases and news updates around titles.
Fantasy Critic League – Like Fantasy Football, but for Video Games
This week we had two titles set to launch. But first, it is time to resume the usual pattern of these posts, which starts with putting up last week’s scores so we can compare that with what happened.
Week 4 Scores
First, as a bit of a follow up, I have been checking in on the title I dropped last time, Highguard, that was supposed to launch this past week. It finally got enough reviews to get a score… of 62!
Highguard Rating: Weak
So I feel like I dodged a bullet there, but was the game that “meh?” There is a long article over at The Aftermath that describes the travails of Highguard if you are interested.
Continuing from last week, Shintar, Ula, and Nimgimli all had a title on the board. We saw some score adjustments on those since the last post.
- Arknights: Endfield
- [Picked by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)]
- Score has gone UP from 78.9 to 80
- Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven
- [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
- Score has gone DOWN from 89.3 to 87
- Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven
- [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
- Score has gone DOWN from 87.0 to 85.5
As I suggested last week, Woolhaven‘s initial score was based on just four reviews, so seeing some fluctuation was expected.
For week five Shintar and Nimgimli were due for a second score with Cairn landing on the 29th and Code Vein II on the 30th.
Code Vein II
Updates landed for the latter first.
- Code Vein II
- [Picked by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)]
- Now has a score of 76.9
- Code Vein II
- [Picked by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)]
- Score has gone DOWN from 77.2 to 70.8
- Code Vein II
- [Picked by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)]
- Score has gone UP from 70.8 to 74.2
- Code Vein II
- [Picked by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)]
- Score has gone UP from 74.1 to 75.1
That is normal behavior when reviews are coming in. Not a great score, but not negative… and enough to move Nimgimli up to second place after the release.
- Publisher Score Updates
- Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)
- Score has gone UP from 10.0 to 15.1
- Moved from 3rd place to 2nd place
- Anthania Interactive (Ula)
- Moved from 2nd place to 3rd place
- Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)
Then there was Cairn, which was also getting reviews but somehow wasn’t hooked up correctly to the league. It went live and had a couple dozen reviews on Open Critic, but had no score.
Cairn
Anyway, somebody kicked the server and that got addressed Thursday morning when a score finally arrived.
- Cairn
- [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
- Now has a score of 86.9
Anything over 85 is a good score in my book. The variation in scoring methods… there are sites that do zero to five with no half points, so you can get a 100 or an 80 out of them… tends to suppress anything higher than 90 unless it is truly exceptional.
Anyway, Shintar was already in first place… so now she is even more in first place I guess, with the scoreboard looking like this at the end of the week.
Week 5 Scores
Shintar remains projected for first place as well… but Potshot, with nothing shipped yet, gets the second place prediction.
This week also saw more drops, bids, and counter picks.
- Drops in TAGN League
- Hidalgo Trading Company (Pallais):
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake (Drop Successful)
- Anthania Interactive (Ula):
- Pokémon Generation 10 (Unannounced) (Drop Successful)
- Hidalgo Trading Company (Pallais):
Prince of Persia was cancelled, so almost a required drop, while a 10th gen Pokemon game… I’d have to hear something official before I credited it. A safe drop for now unless the next Nintedo Direct announces it.
- Bids in TAGN League
- Denshattack!
- Won by S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t) with a bid of $6
- There Are No Ghosts at the Grand
- Won by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss) with a bid of $3
- Kiln
- Won by Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr) with a bid of $6
- Unannounced Fallout 3 Re-Something
- Won by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli) with a bid of $5
- Dropped game ‘Lords of the Fallen II’ conditionally
- Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)’s bid of $5 did not succeed: Bid lost on tiebreakers.
- Won by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli) with a bid of $5
- Invincible VS
- Won by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn) with a bid of $1
- Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
- Won by Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod) with a bid of $1
- Coven of the Chicken Foot
- Won by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss) with a bid of $3
- WWE 2K26
- Won by Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod) with a bid of $1
- Denshattack!
A lot of action in the picks as some people have decided that a buck won’t do it if you really want something I guess. Still, there was a $5 roll-off tiebreaker for… checks notes… an unannounced Fallout 3 remake/remaster/re-whatever.
Did somebody get some news that I missed? Or will there be a race to counter pick that next week?
- Counter Picks in TAGN League
- Bradley the Badger
- Won by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar) with a bid of $2 (🎯 Counter Pick)
- Bradley the Badger
Finally, Shintar is betting against Bradley the Badger. Seems legit given I have no idea what that game is about… save that it may involve a badger named Bradley.
Then we got some updated release dates.
- Scott Pilgrim EX
- [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
- Release date changed from ‘Early 2026’ to ‘Tuesday, March 03, 2026’.
- Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
- [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
- Release date changed from ‘Spring 2026’ to ‘Thursday, April 16, 2026’.
Two more titles with dates nailed down… for now.
That leaves us with the next ten games to be released looking like this.
Coming Up for Week 6
We will have two titles launching next week on Thursday and Friday, with Corr and Cyanbane getting on the score board. Then, the following week the scoreboard will be lighting up with six releases.
Related:
The Ancient Gaming Noob 