@Th3solution I saw the Valor Mortis reviews last night and, while I was indeed happy for both you and the developers, I was simultaneously dismayed that I'd lose points. I tried emitting a "No!" and a "Yay!" at the same time and ended up neighing like a horse. Thank goodness I live alone!

In all seriousness, it was a gamble, but I'll never begrudge a game trying something new and managing to stick the landing. I'm real glad it's a hit... and hey, what's a minus ten between friends, eh?

Especially when there's a Zelda game still to come!

Oh, don't worry about Forever Ago, I believe you! Some other scores have taken a while to settle down, so it's smart of our supreme overlord to keep things provisional until year's end. Gives me plenty of time to investigate why those bribes didn't work, because I promised the iDoss shareholders that Forever Ago would climb higher than a measly two points, and that it would stay up, gosh darn it!

@Tjuz ...and just dropped, that's Castlevania with a healthy 86, too! Congratulations! You may have stolen it from my draft shortlist, but I'm not bitter! Not bitter at all, no way!

[goes off to scream into pillow]

@Werehog And right on cue, Valor Mortis has dropped to 79 already today. 😂

Edit: Oh! And I completely forgot that Planet Zoo 2 launches today. OC doesn’t have anything yet but Push’s 9/10 score is a great start! A double dose of good news for iDoss!

@Tjuz And a double congrats to TjuziMax for Belmont’s Curse and its strong scores. Higher than I expected!

And not to be left out — @Ravix has Witch’s Bakery coming in a couple days so I’m keeping an eye out for those reviews to drop.

Oh good I was right about Valor Mortis being one of ours, I did pre-order the game because I'm doing my part (by rigging sales, just one copy I promise) and because I like History, I don't see it used enough in gaming. I think the History side should bump reviews too, but we'll see, or we saw and I missed it because my vacation to Silent Hill was extended (that game is really long) and afterwards I was drained/zapped and I'm still only today coming back online, I'm looking forward to trying Witch's Bakery too. I yearn for colour, vibrancy and happiness after the under-saturated, depressing vistas and sights of that foggy void. Belmont I'm passing on for now, that aesthetic (though I like it) can't be my first Castlevania game. I need to honor it's Retro roots, and shall eventually. There are too many games.

@Ravix This devastation you mention in regards to Professor Layton not (yet) scoring 95+ seems rather like manufactured sympathy if you ask me... but I'll take it as a gesture of goodwill as a result of my willingness to undo your poor judgment. Way to throw your beloved Grave Seasons under the bus after your continuous excitement, though! Your sympathy clearly does not extend to your employees, as per usual for us big-business folks. Sympathy only amongst the top class! I'm glad that Order of the Sinking Star seems to have worked out well enough for you at least. It thankfully wasn't the critical monster I feared it might be, but it still gave you some solid points.

Meanwhile, The Witch's Bakery is due out today with no reviews in sight yet. Come on, BoobiSoft. Give us those reviews. Stop hiding this stinker and take the hit!

***

@Th3solution The audacity of ball and gun gamers not to give Rog his deserved 90+ for Forever Ago. As the currently lowest-standing company in our biz, I have to agree that critics are clearly not to be trusted. I've learned as much with this draft. Beast of Reincarnation is beyond a doubt an all-timer. At least your wild swing towards a game advertised as a Souls-like with Valor Mortis has turned out better. A squeaky clean ten points. Nothing to scoff at, even if it's the lowest performer in your draft! Added benefit of stealing more points away from Rog than vice versa.

I do have the sad news for you that you have lost one of your 90+ games.... as Well Dweller has dipped to a still great 87 score. So much for all that arrogance! And to put salt in the wound, I now can lay claim to the other 90+ score as Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave has now climbed to a 90. I'd act arrogant now, but it's less a sign of my dominance than it is a saving grace in a draft full of criticaly maligned trash. Trash, I tell you! At least Castlevania was gracious enough to lent me another ''Mighty'' scorer, as OpenCritic likes to call anything above 85. Phew. No one jump in there and have the score drop further. I will have their head.

When Ravix finally deigns to bless us with the (no doubt) embarrassingly bad The Witch's Bakery scores, good luck on one of the final two October picks left on the draft with Phantom Blade Zero. I'm going to have see you lose some points. It simply cannot be that you will end this draft much like our current standings and have double my points!

****

@Werehog Well, despite knowing that Nintendo generally has a great track records with remakes, I concur that the mighty-high expectations on this one could still get in the way. With how beautiful the trailer looked though, I honestly don't see any reason why this wouldn't be a top tier scorer! Maybe not 99... but it should clear the 90s with ease. Anything less would be a failure on Nintendo's part there! Now, please excuse me as I retreat into a corner to kick myself on not choosing Silver Pines. Why'd I let nostalgia get the better of me and go with the game from the now controversial Level-5? I should not be running a company!

At least I can feel better in the knowledge I stole just another mid-80s hitter from right under you. Not that you'll feel the loss all too much, seeing Planet Zoo 2 now land at an only slightly inferior 84! With how loaded your draft was in October, it's all up to Zelda to essentially decide your final point tally. Let's hope you go out with the banger of a lifetime!

@Werehog @Tjuz @GirlVersusGame @Th3solution

The enforced holiday at 'The Retreat' is going great. Thanks for asking. Thanks for asking. Did anyone ask? Ah, who cares? Thanks for asking.

Now, back to business! The Witch's Bakery is being kept a secret, for now, mostly to avoid everyone else's stock from tanking when people realise their products pale in comparison, so you know... you're welcome for that!

I do always find that keeping reviewers in the dark builds up an extra level of excitement, too, as people forget the game exists and then all of a sudden they get to play the greatest release this side of any game that came out yesterday. What do you mean Planet Zoo 2 came out yesterday? You're so fired. How could we possibly compete with a game with such a convincing rhyming title?! I knew we should have gone for 'The Witch's B*****" a slight tweak to the bakery mechanic, yes, but who wouldn't want to play as a Witch who is also a successful Parisian pimp? Who wouldn't want to swap all that Dough for all those Ho's? Goddammit, we should have fired the creatives and just had me take charge of their job.

Delay the game, now! There's still time, right? Right?

No, no. Just kidding. I'm totally confident in the scores we will get from our hand-picked reviewers that we sent the game to - packed nicely in a briefcase stuffed with non-sequential bills... to keep the disc from being damaged in transit, of course.

Thanks for the tags - you've given me a reason to spout a little nonsense on here today, and it is good to see everyone doing so well, even if I am massively out of touch, once again.. And if Tjuz can get a 90, well, maybe none of this is real, anyway. Which would probably mean that Wolverine did in fact get a 92? Yes? Yes that seems most likely.

Oh, Zelda is going to be the biggest score of the year, we all know it, and we can all agree on that (GTA will definitely annoy enough people and be reviewed by about a million different entities all wanting some clout). So should we just start constructing the Sonic, Star Wars and Star Trek themed Palanquin for the victory parade now? Roger Roger.

Stroking the ego of someone who doesn't want their ego stroked will be tough, maybe we should start training the hog up in how to fulfil that egomaniacal destiny. Not that i'm ruling Sol out, either, but, you know. It is Zelda 😬

Ooh, those counter picks actually played a little havoc.. and Sol still has 2 games left? How is this even possible. Perhaps I was a little hasty. Such a shame to have to stick an artisanal carved Sonic through the woodchipper, but I may have been premature with that commission.

@Tjuz What?! Well Dweller has been absolutely robbed! Robbed, I tell you! And Fire Emblem continuing to climb to higher scores?! Seems very fishy. Ah, no matter. I won’t cry foul unless Phantom Blade Ø bombs and/or Rayman is delayed. Then I’ll definitely start sending out the search team to find the conspiracy!

Joking aside, it’s been quite fascinating to see how the Fantasy Critic game has unfolded. As we’ve mentioned before, I think everyone has done a very impressive job finding critical hits. Very few games are going below 80 that we picked. The key differentiation is the bad luck of having a game delayed, which has bit you and Rav in the behind. And then just having one game underperform can make all the difference too.

If/when we do a full year in 2027, there will certainly be a slightly different strategy since there’ll be such a large number of releases to choose from, and also a higher chance for game postponement or cancellation if one chooses a game that’s still far from release. It depends on how the rules are set up, I guess. But we won’t worry about that right now. I have a 2026 crown to win yet!

@Ravix I started be highly offended that you were about to prematurely anoint @Werehog the victor… until I started to run some numbers and now I’m all nervous! I thought with the counter-picks that I had this in the bag, but—
It is conceivable that Zelda scores a 98, and that would grant iDoss 36 whopping points. Gratefully I have a 10 point cushion but that still means I need >26 points out of my last two games. 13 points each… so if each can score at least an 83? It seems reasonable, but definitely not a given. And if Rayman is delayed into 2027, that means PBØ needs a…. 93?! Seems highly unlikely. Yikes! And all this assumes that Well Dweller doesn’t continue to sink more and more. Ugh, I have heartburn now…

Edit: And just for fun I ran some reasonable estimates for BoobiSoft— giving Witch’s an 80, FFR an 85, and GTA a 95… even with Goldman not releasing you are actually right in the mix, sir! That would give you 111 points and you’d be in the ballpark of my estimates for me and Rog. And for TjuziMax’s score estimate… [cough, cough], erm, no comment. 😅

@Ravix Can this enforced vacation at 'The Retreat' be extended in any way? Like until, I don't know, 2032? I can pay up-front if necessary! As for The Witch's Bakery, um... it seems the game has launched and any review embargo that was in place has been lifted. The problem being that I can only count a grand total of two critic reviews so far. From TheGamer as well as a smaller site called LadiesGamers. Did BoobiSoft forget to send review codes to the big sites? Or are they just uninterested? The sad part is that it seems the two critics who did review it are highly positive on it, but that other sites are simply... not engaging with it. If it stays this way and doesn't see a boost of post-release reviews, I have a feeling we have our first ever 0-point score as a result of no critic score at all on our hands. What a twist. Maybe you hand-picked these reviews a bit too sparingly!

***

@Th3solution What? You don't find these recently added 10/10 reviews from newly established sites such as ''Fire Emblem Fever'' and ''Fortune My Weave'' convincing? I'l have you know I paid good money for those!

You cannot tell me ''everyone has done a very impressive job finding critical hits'' only to follow it up with ''let's not talk about TjuziMax'' the next post! Surely you wouldn't want to inflict such whiplash on a good friend. Unless you meant it in the sense that you know I will reign supreme and you don't wish to ruin the tension by revealing my inevitable, mathematically proven victory. In that case, I can only concur. Though admittedly, I did pay these mathematicians a lot of money to get study results in my favour. I was never the best at math myself, you see.

You know what can also make all the difference other than an underperformer? These meddling goose people sabotaging my (what should've been a) perfect counter-pick. I said it once and I'll say it again: slop. Slop! I'll have no doubt 2027 will be more complicated and more of a rollercoaster ride than anything. This was just the crash course! Let's hope I've got it together by next year as the ever humble host as well and no more snafus will befall me.

@Tjuz do we need to pressure Sammy for that review? He was definitely excited for the game, but maybe the schedule has just been busy for getting this one out there (for most outlets) due to the small size and ethical nature of it. PC Gamer were high on it, too, so hopefully they can get their 9.9/10 review posted soon enough!

Now, tactically, if we can meet the bare minimum for aggregation with some 5 star and 10/10 reviews and leave it there who knows how big a hit it could appear to be. If the only people that review it are ones who know they already like it we could definitely be in business 👀

OpenCritic has, so far, only acknowledged AltChar (?) and their 9/10 review. So we now know there are 3 reviews out there, at least 😅

@Th3solution psychological warfare, good fellow. I don't know how it could affect your pending score but perhaps you could inherit a total breakdown from me or Tjuz and join us in the narranturm - after jetisoning your last title out of respect for the Hoggly one, as we pave way for their victory.

Oh, and @Tjuz listen closely. If I tap on the pipes you may just hear me. We all know this tempory vacation is permanent for us both

@Ravix Ah, I see the one paid review you were able to fit in your budget came in nicely on time! Very convincing name, this ''AltChar''. Frankly, I'm a bit upset for your sake that you paid for this review and it didn't receive a 10/10 because of the ''bad'' that is... lacking DualSense haptic feedback during baking and the character's placement while preparing dough. It's giving 7/10, too much water. I guess they weren't quite happy enough with the cheque you provided them! Either way, don't worry about Sammy. I'm sure he's much too busy. Or hopefully in a bad mood where he'll be more inclined to give it a low rating. I'll accept either.

You're the ones in the pipes? God! I knew there was someone in there! You're mouse-sized, right? I saw you and your friends. Ha. My cell is filled with mouse traps. Just try to get me!!!

@Ravix Welp, since it’s one of the few outlets to give a hoot about it, I gave ladiesgamers.com some traffic today just out of sheer morbid curiosity of what on earth is going on with The Witch’s Bakery and I’ll pull out two quotes from the review that stood out. First—

“Unfortunately, the press copy I received for review had a bug that made Oreo stop producing baked treats at the start of each day, no matter how much dough I had in stock…”

A baking game where the baking is broken? Sounds like a 5/10.

And—

“The Witch’s Bakery has a Content Warning in the main menu of the game, as well as when starting a new game, for several things, including mentions of suicide, arachnophobia, mentions of violence and bullying, stress and burnout, side character death, panic attacks, and optional sexual content, since we can be in a relationship with another character and be intimate…”

Wait… is this GTA6? Did BoobiSoft send the wrong review code? Shifty little rascal.

Also, why am I now suddenly much more interested in this game now… 😏

@Tjuz You weren’t supposed to see that second post! Your publishing company has done a wonderful job of picking some great games… so what if half of them are 2027 releases… 😜

@Ravix I don't know what's going on, there's a lot of new posts and Silent Hill 2 did a number on my focus so I'm just going to nod and say exactly. Also now I want to watch Twelve Monkeys, it's been so long. I'll have to read back tomorrow, I thought WaveBoy was a WaveGirl now because he changed his name to WaveWitch (for Halloween) so I definitely need to regain my sharpness. I asked him in chatchat if I'm now to call him she/her, he saw the funny side of it. My focus has gone out the window this week. I think it's the cough medicine too, I did finish my first Horror game though and now is Dredge then sometime during Spooky season it will be Still Wakes The Deep. I'm trying to time it so both the Th3solution and I experience the game in and around the same time. It will be interesting for feedback. Come to think of it Crimson Desert may have taken it out of me too, and travel too, that was a big game.

@Th3solution “The Witch’s Bakery has a Content Warning in the main menu of the game, as well as when starting a new game, for several things, including mentions of suicide, arachnophobia, mentions of violence and bullying, stress and burnout, side character death, panic attacks, and optional sexual content, since we can be in a relationship with another character and be intimate…”

• And that's me out, I thought it was going to be a cosy game. SpiritFarer was what it was, and that was just one topic, that all sounds like a bit much. I checked on ladygamers and sure enough the warning is there too, I was hoping for a spooky bakery in a witchy town with supernatural customers. It's set in Paris where I keep an address, it's the last place I'd expect a spooky bakery and that's because it's not a spooky bakery, easy come easy go. I'll wait for The Haunted Chocolatier.

@Th3solution maybe my script for the Witch's Bit*** did get through to the devs, after all. Now it can be sold to the billions of gamers who just like to sit there and go "phwoar" at their games. Nice of you to throw your name in with them, Sol. Dirty boy.

But to be adult for a moment, it is a cozy game that is clearly about mental health that strays quite jaggedly from the cozy elements, so the warnings do make sense. I think stories like this are well worth making.

Though i'm not sure how the ladies gamers score of a big green thumbs up and an 'I like it a lot' converts to a points score, unfortunately.

@Tjuz (they actually since included that 'score' on open critic 😂)

In other news, it seems that maybe Sammy isn't slacking on all fronts (come on, lad. I need that 10/10 review 🧙‍♀️🥖) as he is at least kindly drawing attention to how the 'best of all the Resonances' is scoring in Japan. And if Famitsu like it, surely europe will follow 👀 As for america, well... maybe we should have added an Ifrit sized Tifa summons to get those scores up? Would that be something you'd want in the game, Sol? It might not be too late to add it 👀