Topic: PushSquare Forum Fantasy Critic - 2026

@Th3solution I have a draft board for picking my games, because I am incredibly sad 😁 time to leave you in the dust 😛 although I will have to check the release dates of some. But yeah. It is being left down to us. @Tjuz can tag us to alert us if any picks aren't valid, I assume. Mostly for the indie game, I guess, as who knows what was shown on all those showcases 😭

@Tjuz Ah! Foul! I cry foul! How convenient that the league commissioner just happens to have been “randomized” to get the #1 overall pick! I file an official grievance to the board!

Just kidding of course. 😜 Through the beauty of the snake draft I get both pick #4 and then immediately pick #1 in the next round so I guess that’s ok.

@Ravix Oh crud, you’re way ahead of me. I have a little research to do! Googling “upcoming video game releases 2026” right away!

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Oh, and question— I assume any and all platforms are open game, correct? The game doesn’t have to release on PlayStation?

Another question (sorry… 😬)— I assume re-releases or ports wouldn’t be eligible? For example, I see Elden Ring Tarnished Edition coming out to the Switch 2 next month and it’s a slam dunk for >90 scores. Same goes for a number of other Switch 2 ports and complete editions like Lies of P, Metaphor Refantazio, Octopath Traveler 1&2 pack, to name a few. These games might get new reviews, so wondering if they were options or not.

@Werehog No worries about being late! Still just in time. Feel free to ask questions if anything is unclear. Like you said, I'm decent at explaining, but my brain is also too chaotic to cover all the fine lines most of the time! I'm very fond of both BioWerehog and iDoss, so you can't go wrong with either. I'm not thinking along etiher of those lines, so just pick whichever one you'd prefer when you make your pick.

@Ravix You really got the simplification down better than I ever could. My simple version would still be three paragraphs and somehow confusing to many... As for your question regarding the scores, yes, OpenCritic is just critic scores. When you open a game review page, you'll see "Top Critic Score" and the percentage of recommended. We'll go by the Top Critic score, which aligns with Metacritic more often than not. The benefit of OpenCritic is that it surveys more reviewers and thus smaller games that might go unnoticed on Metacritic or barely have reviews will also have a fair chance to build up a proper score.

As for the showcases, I can give you a little tip to check IGDB.com when it comes time to choose your sleeper pick. You can search a game there, and it'll have a section when scrolling down of "Events Featured In". It's what I'll be referencing for your sleeper picks, because yeah, I don't have every game that's ever been showcased in them memorised either!

@Th3solution Haha, if you have the money to spare to bribe PushSquare, then go for it! I will look the other way. Fun idea though, but I wanted to discuss with all of y'all before I put it into writing. My initial thought was maybe something along the lines for additional positive or negative points for every point PushSquare's review is above or under the average, but that might put too much weight on one review if it's a major outlier. Since PushSquare only rates in full numbers, maybe something along the lines of 8/10 is +1 point, 9/10 is +3 points and 10/10 is +5 points no matter what the average is and vice versa? That way PushSquare would get similar bonuses to the whole 90+ extra points rule, but nothing that gets fully out of hand. Let me know what your ideas are if you have any better ones!

As Ravix said and already sounds incredibly prepared for, yeah, you'll have to come up with your own games as and when. To make a full master list sounds impossible if I'd have to include everything from major to minor releases! I can't do all the work for you 😜. I think the big post already covered the delays, but let me know if you're still confused on anything there.

Frankly, I'm jealous of your position as fourth if anything! If I were a cheating man, that's where I would've put myself. Or maybe this is just some reverse psychology to try and convince you I didn't rig it.... we will never know for sure. To answer your last questions (which, no problem): yes, all platforms are open. If you wanna steal go full Pretendo and steal Nintendo's shine by picking all of their games, you'd be free to do so. And as you correctly expected, no ports or re-releases, no. Anything that was previously scored in one version or another is not eligible. Remakes are fine, though!

***

Okay, I think that covers the questions. Again, let me know if you have any more. With that... I shall kick off the draft!

Whenever it's your turn, please tag the person next in line in your post along with your pick so that they'll be notified it's their turn to pick! That way we can hopefully get through it before the end of the year. As the picks come in, I will update the original post. If you've forgotten at some point if a game has already been picked, just open the first page of the thread and you'll find the overview of what has been claimed. Without further ado...

First off: I shall introduce you to my newly established gaming publisher, TjuziMax (since we went the pun route). There's a very obvious first pick here that is probably on everyone's mind, but I have (against my better judgment) decided to not be boring. For my first pick, I will be going with Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. Take that, all of you who probably imagined I'd go with the obvious first pick! That means, @Ravix, you're up next to have the chance to be boring. What tone will you set for your company?!

@Tjuz I, and by "I" I mean BoobiSoft, will 100% be taking the top of the draft board pick which is of course: GTA VI And let's hope there is not one more cheeky delay (which for some reason I still think there might be 😬) and yes, I did want to back some other games highly, and I still will, but I must adhere to my draft board and pick my estimated best that is available in true NFL style.

I shall now hand it over to the esteemed @Werehog, who is on the clock.

With thanks to organiser @Tjuz and fellow participants @Th3solution and @Ravix for the extra explanation of the rules yesterday.

Let's confirm that my fictional publisher is iDoss and its first pick will be...

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls

You're up, @Th3solution! Here's hoping your ability to pick a winner is more than just pretend(o)!

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Question for @Tjuz (or more just clarification). We can include our sleeper pick at any time, right? Should we just chuck it in when we're making a pick, or can it be random? And does an Xbox "Partner Preview" blog post count as a disqualifying major showcase?

@Werehog ooh, nice pick and an early scorer as it will be out soon. I was hoping that would still be available to sneak into my tier-2 pick, so things are heating up already. This is where the snake gets interesting as @Th3solution now has two picks in a row, right? And I can now see why @Tjuz would have favoured being the end of the snake 😛

My publisher is PocketPet (Palworld's PocketPair) my game is The Elder Scrolls 6 (I'm reserving this space for whenever it comes out, Ravix went for Grand Theft Auto 6, I have no idea what else is releasing this year other than Wolverine and a couple of people here and elsewhere tried to explain this game but I'm still not sure, I'll at least reserve a future game)

• I checked a list, if it has to be be this year then perhaps Control Resonant. If Tjuz is going to all of this effort I might as well try.

@Ravix I'm gonna have to act surprised that BoobiSoft is publishing the game with the highest-fidelity boobies. Who could have seen this coming? Hope you didn't crunch your employees too much to get the most out of those many pixels! And yeah, see... this is why no one wants to be the first on the snake order! This is the worst placement!

@Werehog Way to find out about games I didn't know existed yet! Looks like fun though, and I see why you're thinking this could be well-received. Solid choice. To answer your question: yes and no. The sleeper pick is a special round after the regular 7, so you will have to pick a game after your initial draft that fits those requirements. You can't do the sleeper pick earlier and then not do one later. But of course, you can choose a game that would fit the requirements of a sleeper pick for your regular picks too, as long as you're still able to fill your mandatory sleeper pick at the end!

As for blog posts, I won't count them as disqualifying any sleeper picks. I'll be going by the showcases mentioned on IGDB, which are just showcases in video form (as far as I know). As long as your game isn't mentioned as having been featured in any showcase by Nintendo/Sony/Xbox or the main Summer Game Fest event or Game Awards on that site, you're good!

@GirlVersusGame Ah, I'm sorry GVG, but I've already started the drafting process now and the order is ongoing. I don't think I can just add you into the order somewhere now while keeping it fair. If you want, you could still wait out the full drafting process and just post a list of qualifying games after we're all done picking our games with ones that haven't been chosen yet!

@Th3solution And to clarify also based on what Ravix said, yes, you can go ahead and pick two picks at the same time as the butt-end of the snake order and pass it back to Rog. My time will come eventually...

@Tjuz Yes that's quite alright, I still don't know how it works, I was just adding to the numbers if four was low. Or three, it doesn't look like a lot of people answered, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing considering the effort on your behalf. This way at least I get to watch how it works and follow along to some degree.

@GirlVersusGame Oh, that would be a nice pick. I do think Control Resonant is going to be a critical hit. Early reports are all positive and footage looks great. And yeah, ES6 is going to be great too, but unfortunately won’t be coming out before 2026 ends.
Side question >> I assume that’s the timeframe @Tjuz , right? We are trying to pick only games that are going to release before Dec 31, 2026? One of the games on my board is literally penciled in for Dec 31st. 😬

>> Edit: I just re-read the explanation post and it seems clear there that the game eligibility is a 2026 release. But I guess there’s still a question of the rare possibility that said game releases on Dec 31st but they review scores wouldn’t be finalized for a couple weeks into 2027. So wondering if the game is still eligible.

—Alas GVG, our overlord Tjuz has disqualified you so I’m still able to steal your idea. 😁

So without further ado, with the final pick of round one, Pretendo®️ will select… [drumroll, please…] :
Control Resonant

Now, since we are doing snake ordered picking, that means round one is over and we start round two and go in reverse order, so I pick next! Yay! Maybe being last ain’t so bad. 😄

So with my next pick, the first game to be chosen for round two, I select:
Blood of Dawnwalker

I can hear Ravix cursing from across the Atlantic because I know he was probably hoping to have that one. 😛
I hope I don’t regret not taking one of the more obvious potential GOTY darlings out there, leaving maybe some more conservative choices still on the board. But I was tempted by the huge positive response from previewers. This is a bit of a gamble on a new studio. C’mon, Rebel Wolves… don’t let me down! It’s also scary that this is a small team, a new IP, and that the game is going from concept to release in only about 4 years, which for a big open world game is really fast. I’m almost talking myself out of it… ah, what the heck. Wolverine will probably stink. I’m staying with Dawnwalker. 😅

You’re up @Werehog , CEO and founder of iDoss Interactive.

@Th3solution I respect the theft but that also means I'm unofficially on your team so try to beat Ravix if you can, I don't mind not being on the books so long as Ravix doesn't win for picking the obvious choice.

@Th3solution no, no it's fine. It's fine. You pick "Blood of Dawnwalker" all you like.

Maybe i'll be pedantic and pick "The Blood of Dawnwalker" instead 😛

Just so you know... you picked two of my top 4 and I'm backing them to get 90 and 91+ respectively, so enjoy your points haul 😄 I'm going to have to decide whether to make a relative gamble on my next pick or to keep it fairly sensible 🤔

@GirlVersusGame I am shocked and dissapointed that you are ganging up on me like this, as I can't not pick the game I assume will be around 94/95 rated 😭 but I shall endeavour to conquer with immense bravery and valour with one of my picks, you'll see.

@Ravix Ah, crikey, in my obsession with avoiding the temptation of putting in a second “the”, I left out the first one! 😂

@GirlVersusGame Sounds good. Welcome to the executive C-suite of Pretendo Entertainment Corp. As Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer you’ll be there to advise me if I get too far off track. You’ll be running our indie and AA division with special expertise on PC, building and simulators, and international relations. We internally call it the PocketPet division. 😄

We do need to crush BoobiSoft for sure. Hopefully his company will have another one of those lawsuits to slow down his behemoth GTA release. Also, he’s killing physical disc media so we need to send some picketers to his headquarters.

@Th3solution Thanks for the reminder that my developer's full name should indeed be iDoss Interactive and so let's hope our supreme and benevolent overlord @Tjuz sees fit to correct my oversight for the official record. Also, nicely done on the one-two punch!

Additional thanks to @Ravix for the pick praise earlier, and to that aforementioned overlord of ours for the response to my lingering questions. Looking forward to those sleepers!

On with iDoss Interactive's next pick, and I'm gonna be predictable (with good reason)...

Star Wars: Galactic Racer

With that, it's back to @Ravix who rest assured, I absolutely will not be ganging up on. Now, c'mon, hurry up and pick yourself a booby prize!

@Werehog @Th3solution @Tjuz

Nice. This is where I was going to be backing Vampiric game of the year contender.

That said I'll go for Marvel's Wolverine, and hope reviewers aren't review bombing Sony like the people that wouldn't buy it physically or digitally anyway will be 💀 (yes I dislike review bombing very much, but let's keep this fun 😛)

Sorry, i'm going mainstream for now because people aren't picking these games 😅

@Werehog Apologies for inserting added flourish on the company name; it wasn’t a suggestion that you officially adopt it, moreso me being silly and making it sound grandiose. The simplicity of iDoss by itself works well too. 😄

And I had Galactic Racer on my board too. The previews have been really high on it!

@Ravix I don’t remember a recent Sony first party ending up lower than 70, so I think your pick is a solid one. But yeah, I hadn’t thought about the bleed over of any review bombing that might happen…. (No pun intended)

@GirlVersusGame Yeah! Like I said, if at the end you want to put in a team as well, feel free to do so. You can always check the front page for what was already selected once the draft's done. For now, I'm glad to see you're rooting for Sol even if you have decided the wrong company to back... Heresy!

@Th3solution Yup, it's just games that release this year. This mystery December 31st game of yourself would be fine! Feel free to pick it. No problem in waiting it out a week into the new year to see where the scores land. Solid picks with Control and Dawnwalker. I was expecting these to leave the possibilities within the first round still, so I'm not surprised you have snatched them away from us...

@Ravix Wolverine? In this climate where Marvel is failing left and right? Such bravery. Kidding. I'm sure it'll be well received. In a hilarious world, GTA VI and Wolverine will both end up being stinkers.

@Werehog I should've seen the Galactic Racer pick coming, but I still didn't! Excited to see if it works out for you... but I hope it doesn't. I cannot support the competition. Didn't know there were already promising previews though, so this makes me worry...

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Alright, it is my turn to pick two. Yay! For my first choice, I shall be going with The Duskbloods. That'll have to be my risky-maybe-still-getting-delayed pick, but a console exclusive FromSoftware original IP that seems to be in a similar vein stylistically to Bloodborne? Where have I heard the highly acclaimed reviews roll in before? Yeah, I'm gonna have to have that in my portfolio just in case. One step ahead of you, Pretendo!

For my second pick, I'm going with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. It seems like Konami cannot go wrong with any of their recent revivals, and this one looked promising in and of itself. Being from the Dead Cells people too? I smell a big fat hit that's going to print me money (points).

Alright, @Ravix, back to you!

@Tjuz Ah man! Did I tip my hand too much? Did you google “what game has a Dec 31st 2026 release date?” and that’s how you knew to steal Duskbloods from me? 🤬
Of course now I can’t find the article where I saw that date and it’s probably not even a date based on anything, rather just the fact they keep confirming that it’s a “2026 release” so they penciled in the last day of the year.
Well, now that it’s a TjuziMax property, I hope the server beta test next month goes horribly and it gets delayed into next year!

Nice pick with Belmont’s Curse though. I had looked at that one and wondered if it was worth a spot on my board and hadn’t decided yet. I think it has potential. It’ll get a ‘Castlevania bump’ in scores from reviewers, just like Duskblood should get the ‘Nintendo exclusive bump.’

@Tjuz ooh, okay @Th3solution seems to be crying corperate espionage, I like it.

As we near the middle of the pack for my own draftboard i'm going to take a loopy, risky gamble on a game I discovered solely because of this fantasy idea (yay, the spirit of it)

I was considering it for my sleeper/indie pick, but i'm going to be cool and take it now because I feel like I have enough stable projected mid 80s picks lined up to save me if it's a mistake in the next round, and I kind of want to see this one be a breakout hit. Also, I don't know if it got a showcase anywhere, I didn't really love the layout of IGDB visually, so we will cross that bridge when we come to it and I have to make an actual indie pick within those bounds.

So without further ado, I announce to the shareholders that we are putting our misguided (but genuinely quite excited) faith in:

Grave Seasons

It's a murder mystery/horror/farming and town life sim, because of course it is. Maybe @GirlVersusGame has a little knowledge on this one, as it seems to be the kind of game you might like based on it being horror and a life sim/management type thing, and I assume raising cute animals and / or vegetables alongside the horror and mystery!

It just sounded cool, previews are positive, and so i'm gambling on it scoring higher than some of my other middle of the board picks due to it's uniqueness. Yay! Take that, mainstream!

(It actually looks amazing and I might pre-order it 😄 edit: okay as it got delayed it technically doesn't have a release date, so I can't actually pre-order it, woops. But it is supposed to be autumn-ish after a small delay from August, and I did research that part when picking it, just forgot you can't pre-order without set dates)

Over to you, @Werehog as we now wait for the dreaded snake to cause havoc on our remaining draftboards. Second is the worst, right? 😅

No apology necessary, I meant it when I thanked you! Methinks the pun lands a little better with it.

And yes, bringing in @Tjuz on this point as well, I wouldn't have chosen Galactic Racer had it not enjoyed a bunch of glowing previews recently, some of the most glowing of the year. I'm also seeing hype separate from its licence, since it's set to fill a gap in the market. It's just luck that I happen to be a Star Wars fan who gets to include a Star Wars game as a legitimate choice!

@Tjuz has also gone and stolen one of my shortlisted picks with Castlevania: Belmont's Curse. I have a good few back-up choices, but I was hoping to claim that game for myself. D'oh!

Props to @Ravix for taking a shot with Grave Seasons there! Can't argue with the logic!

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The CEO of Pretendo has inadvertently foreshadowed my next pick, by pointing out that Nintendo's first-party output always scores 20% higher than it deserves. I'm genuinely surprised that this game's still available to me, considering that, in a non-GTA year, it would be a lock.

That being said, its limited teaser did have "delay" written all over it, so perhaps that's the risk. Ah, what the heck. Let's live dangerously.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake

Over to you, @Th3solution (and I swear, if anybody steals anything else from my shortlist...)!