I trolled people in both the leagues I am in this year by picking Squadron 42 in order to tempt them into a possible bidding war to get it as a counter pick.  That didn’t really happen, though it did get picked up in both leagues.  And, sure enough, the wisdom of grabbing it as a counter pick has been shown.

Fantasy Critic League – Like Fantasy Football, but for Video Games

The rules in both leagues allowed me to drop the title after being counter picked… I wouldn’t have touched it otherwise.  I basically gave people a shot at a very safe option.

But the ongoing, multi-year story of Squadron 42 to failing to ship… Chris Roberts said it was done already last year, but somehow couldn’t ship it yet and is now blaming GTA VI for the delay to Q2 2027, when it will still not ship…  I would bet money on that… is only the most amusing item for me this week.

Squadron 42 – Launches 2026

That was the banner at the bottom of so many of their 2025 and 2026 weekly updates… and then it suddenly stopped getting used around June of this year.  Go figure.

There was other activity this week… this update isn’t all about mocking Chris Roberts… including two titles that shipped.

First, however, we have to check in where we left off last week.

Week 34 Scores

That baseline set, we had two titles on the list for the week, Star Wars Zero Company and Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy.

The first out of the gate with a score was Star Wars Zero Company.

Star Wars Zero Company

The turn based tactical XCOM-like title showed up with a strong opening score.

  • Star Wars Zero Company
    • Picked by Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
    • Counter Picked by Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
    • Now has a score of 86.7

With that in place, it wasn’t long before the second title landed.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy showed up soon thereafter.

Resonance: A Plague Tale

It also landed with a very solid starting score.

  • Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
    • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
    • Now has a score of 85.3

Resonance couldn’t quite hold the line as more reviews came in and eventually sank some, moving closer to the 81 point average score that the league saw last year.

  • Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
    • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
    • Score has gone DOWN from 84.8 to 82.7

And then it was just the waiting for both titles to launch.  When they did, the scoreboard got a bit of a shuffle.

  • Publisher Score Updates
    • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
      • Score has gone UP from 81.8 to 99.3
      • Moved from 3rd place to 2nd place
    • Anthania Interactive (Ula)
      • Moved from 2nd place to 3rd place
    • Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)
      • Moved from 9th place to 8th place
    • Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
      • Score has gone UP from 16.1 to 28.9
      • Moved from 11th place to 9th place
    • Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
      • Score has gone DOWN from 43.8 to 26.2
      • Moved from 8th place to 11th place

That pushed Corr up to second place while Cyanbane, who had counter picked Star Wars Zero Company felt the pain of his error and dropped down to eleventh position.

However, it wasn’t going all Corr’s way.  Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls showed up again with a small drop in score.

  • Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
    • [Picked by Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)]
    • Score has gone DOWN from 87.1 to 85.5

Again, still a strong outing, but more is always better, right?

Then, in a last minute hit during the week Beast of Reincarnation took a blow.

  • Beast of Reincarnation
    • [Picked by Anthania Interactive (Ula)]
    • Score has gone DOWN from 73.7 to 72.4

All of which left the scoreboard looking like this.

Week 35 Scores

Shintar remains the league pick for first place.

We also had some bid this week.  Three of them were swaps for new titles as well as one fresh pickup.

  • Bids in TAGN League
    • The Eternal Life of Goldman
      • Won by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli) with a bid of $6
      • Dropped game ‘Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement’ conditionally
  • Nivalis Nights
    • Won by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss) with a bid of $5
    • Dropped game ‘There Are No Ghosts at the Grand’ conditionally
  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered
    • Won by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta) with a bid of $23
    • Dropped game ‘Minecraft Dungeons II’ conditionally
  • Enter the Gungeon 2
    • Won by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar) with a bid of $20

We also had Archey commit to a counter pick.

  • Counter Picks in TAGN League
    • Ecco the Dolphin Re-Something (Unannounced)
    • Won by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey) with a bid of $5 ( Counter Pick)

In addition, we also got some release updates.  We had one title get nailed down to a specific date.

  • Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2
    • [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
      • Release date changed from ‘2026’
      • to ‘Wednesday, October 14, 2026’

And then we had three titles, including Squadron 42, slip out until next year in one form or another.

  • There Are No Ghosts at the Grand
    • [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]
      • Estimated release date changed from ‘Q4 2026’
      • to ‘2027 or Later’
      • Note added: ‘Planned for Early Access in December 2026’.
  • Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement
    • [Picked by Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)]
      • Estimated release date changed from ‘2026’
      • to ‘2027’
  • Squadron 42 (Star Citizen)
    • [Counter Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
      • Estimated release date changed from ‘2026’
      • to ‘Q2 2027’

As noted, Squadron 42 was ripe for a counter pick, so congrats to Arhanta for picking it up.

That leaves the next ten titles up for release as follows.

Week 36 Coming Up

We will have another big week next week, with four titles launching.

Related:

  • TAGN Fantasy Critic League
  • TAGN Discord Server
  • Fantasy Critic Site
  • Fantasy Critic How to Play
  • Fantasy Critic FAQ
  • Fantasy Critic Most Desired Reviews
  • Open Critic Review Site