With the end of week forty-two we are past the 80% point of the league for 2025.  In line with that, we still have about 20% of the titles waiting to go live, if we count the three empty picks that Kluwes might be able to get in as time wanes.  So that lines up.  We’ll just ignore the fact that seven of those picked titles do not have 2025 ship dates as I start writing this.

This week stood out in that we had four titles picked by league members launch this week, an event that might make one look for some changes in the rankings.  Before we go there though, here is where the scores stood a week back.

Week 41 Scores

First out of the gate were two titles picked by Arhanta.  We had already gotten a taste of how well received one of them was last week, when early reviews landed.

• Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 66.2 to 63.6

Not encouraging.  However, the second title on the books this week came in with a better score.

• Ninja Gaiden 4
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Now has a score of 81.2

Not a record setter for scores, but enough to at least offset the negative of the first title, so when they both launched there was a score increase.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)
  • Score has gone UP from 30.1 to 35.1

Five points is five points.

Then, before the next title could hit its launch point, last week’s top scoring launch, Keeper, got hit with a drop.

• Keeper
  • [Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 83.2 to 80.6

That knocked it down into Pokemon Legends: Z-A range and was enough to change the lineup.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 2nd place
  • Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)
    • Score has gone DOWN from 101.0 to 98.3
    • Moved from 2nd place to 3rd place

That swap, based on more reviews coming in did not hold for long.  Less than a day later the situation reversed itself.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 2nd place
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 2nd place to 3rd place

It isn’t clear what cause that, but their scores were close enough that any little shift could cause some movement.  And, just to show how tight the race is for second place, some other minor change upset the lineup again.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
    • Moved from 4th place to 3rd place
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place

However that tight race seemed unlikely to stick as Potshot had the next game on the list set to ship, Dispatch, which takes place… in a bathroom I guess?

Dispatch – In the little heroes room?

Okay, maybe not entirely in the bathroom, but still, that is the game’s title card.

That got moved to “released” on Tuesday… but there were not enough reviews yet.

Which brought us to the fourth and final release for the week, PowerWash Simulator 2, which started getting reviews a day early… but they were not stellar.

• PowerWash Simulator 2
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Now has a score of 77.7

Not the score I might have expected… but, then again, looking back at the original, it did only get a 77 on Open Critic.  Maybe that was about all one could expect.

PowerWash Simulator 2

But then some more reviews came in and it got a boost.

• PowerWash Simulator 2
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Score has gone UP from 77.7 to 83.7

That puts it head of the first title… though I found at least one site that said it didn’t live up to the original and then gave it the same score as the original.  Also, it did get enough reviews to have a score when it hit its release date for the week.

When it was finally marked as released and the score was calculated, Shintar’s score went up, but not enough to get her out of fifth place.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
  • Score has gone UP from 71.2 to 84.7

Meanwhile, things were not done in the race for second place.  While we were still waiting for Dispatch to get enough reviews, Battlefield 6 shifted enough to get an update ping.

• Battlefield 6
  • [Picked by Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)]
  • Score has gone UP from 82.4 to 83.4

That was enough to change the upper rankings once again.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Score has gone UP from 97.5 to 98.5
    • Moved from 4th place to 3rd place
  • Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place

All of which left us with the scoreboard looking like this.

Week 42 Scores

Bhagpuss still seems pretty solid in first position, but the race for second place remains tense.

Potshot played his next to last card with Dispatch, but still had Light No Fire on his list.  We had one bid this week, and it was Potshot dropping that for Skate Story, which does have a December 8 release date.

Shilgrod still has Metroid Prime 4: Beyond with a December 4 launch date, but is stuck with WoW Midnight due to it being counter picked and might regret counter picking Outer Worlds 2, which is set to ship next week.

And Cyanbane, hampered by his own counter pick choice, still has Marvel Cosmic Invasion left for scoring, and that got an update this week as well.

• Marvel Cosmic Invasion
  • [Picked by Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)]
  • Release date changed from ‘Winter 2025’ to ‘Monday, December 01, 2025’.

That is going to make the first week of December a decision point.  Here are the next ten titles on the release list.

Coming up for Week 43

We’re getting down to the point where there will be fewer than ten shipping titles on that chart.

The coming week sees us with three launches, including Outer Worlds 2, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, and ARC Raiders.

As noted, OW2 has been counter picked, so that will hit double hard.  Reviews have already started to land.

• The Outer Worlds 2
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • [Counter Picked by Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)]
  • Now has a score of 81.2

That isn’t going to make or break anybody’s season on its own, but it will still bite.

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