Over the Hill

As I mentioned last time, I poked Potshot about grabbing Over the Hill after I had just a couple of hours invested.  It seemed like our kind of thing, a simple, open world driving game fraught with the possibility of disaster that tends to lead to comedy.

He obliged by buying in on Steam, at which point we had to figure out how to join up.

Over the Hill has the most simple of multiplayer modes, which I think is mostly enabled by Steam.  But that is fine.  This isn’t a game that needs a hosted server with a persistent world or anything.  There is no procedurally generated content or seed values that make one person’s play through differ from another’s.

In fact, hosting a game, or joining somebody else’s game, changes nothing about your own game or progress.  When you arrive your profile arrives with you with your map reveals, your vehicle selection and upgrades and cosmetics in place, and your pebble balance as before.

It is almost weirdly simple.  It highlighted to me that there is only one play mode and, aside from the ability to reset everything to the default, no profile options at all.  I am not sure you NEED profiles, but it might be a future feature to have one where you unlock the world together with someone while having your own world where you have raced ahead and done stuff.

But, for the sake of simplicity, that isn’t a thing.  I’d rather have the game now than in another year with a built-out profile manager.

Anyway, multiplayer is right there on the options when you log into the game.

It is the second option

When you select that you can then join a public server, there is a list of them available, or a private server, for which you need a code.

Or you can create your own server.  For our first attempt I did that.

Create Server Options

I am not sure about the desirability of creating a public server, but you can do it if you want.  For our first venture I created a private server.  Then, once I figured out where the code was, shared that with Potshot who joined my game.

We’re in the lobby

From there you enter the game by picking where on the map you want to start, with all your currently discovered cabins available, and then you’re in.

At which point the game is pretty much the same as single player, except now there is somebody else driving around in the world with you.  As noted, you arrive as you were in your single player session.

There is no in-game chat. Given how many other titles have shown up without chat as a feature in the last decade, this is no longer a surprise.  And from a small company for a controller focused game that is going to appear on consoles it probably was a stretch in any case.

However, there is already an in-game chat mod.  I haven’t fiddled with mods yet, but there is a mod browser right there in the main menu.  Seems easy enough.

When you are together in the game you can see each other when close by, naturally.  You also get a marker on your compass at the top of the screen that indicates what direction the other person is relative to your current position.  You can also see the pins each of you drop on the map… you can drop a navigational pin on the map to help guide you through the wilderness… which are color coded so you can tell one pin from the other.

Potshot ahead, icon on the compass

We got on voice and did a quick compare of where we had both been so far.  There is no map sharing, not yet, but through vague descriptions, pin drops, and an occasional screen shot paste into Discord, we came up with a plan.  I had seen a meteorite down near the southeast corner of the map… finding meteorites is also a thing with Over The Hill, which seems a little random, but who cares if it give you something else to do… but had not gone to inspect it, so we figured we would head down that way.

The first destination was the cabin nearby, Malachite Lodge, which would give us fast travel.  However, for the initial trip we would have to go cross country, with no trail marked, and through the snow.

That included a detour to a point of interest which ended up with my Blazer under water and stalled, needing to be winched back to dry land.

Blazer under water

At that point it was only raining.  The weather turned to snow shortly thereafter and lasted for a bit, then the sky turned clear.  We managed to make it to the cabin, go back for the meteorite, then looked around at what else we could do.

There was a point of interest on a ridge close by, which we went for in the night.  I swapped from the Blazer, which I had been trying out, back to the Scout, which was my most upgraded vehicle.  I wanted the better tires and taller suspension and winch with the longer reach.  These are all things you can buy from Crazy Gunther with the pebbles you get as rewards.

That climb was a bit of a struggle, with some winch work required, as well as being the first lesson in needing to approach boulders just right in order to get over them.  But we made it up with only a few falls.

At the top of the ridge

You can see the purple smoke from my map pin.  Map pins manifest themselves in the world as a smoking flare of the appropriate color.  The point of interest had a crate which unlocked the longhorns cosmetic that can be attached to the hood of your vehicle.

We then fast traveled back to the cabin and decided to take on the challenge trail that was close by.  It had begun to snow again, but we were not daunted.  Off we went.

This was the third of the three challenge trails on the Emerald Lake map.  The first, Elizabeth Oath Trail, is basically a lesson in how to follow a challenge trail, something I failed on my first attempt because I did not see the big, obvious waypoint marker because I somehow approached from the wrong direction.

Later I figured out my mistake and ran the trail.  It is easy.  I have done it with the Blazer in high gear at speed since then.  You end up at a nice waterfall and collect some pebbles as a reward.  You get rewarded every time you run a challenge trail.

The second trail, the Windy Joe Trail, is a bit more of a challenge, but still feels a bit introductory.

And then there is the Hermit Trail, the third challenge trail on the map, when you actually graduate to the “challenge” part of the name.  We started out in the snow up the first big slope, which was a too steep to go straight up, so it required winch work, using the terrain, correct approaches on boulders, and a bit of luck.  Mishaps occurred as we worked our way up that first slope.

Potshot down the hill

I don’t think the snow was helping, though I am not sure how much weather influences tire adhesion.  You can see the winch point one of us planted to help us get up an open stretch of the slope.  You can only carry a limited number of those… I think we both had two… but you can use the winch points others put down, so traveling as group gives you some advantage.

It was during this climb up the Hermit Trail that I started to really explore Photo Mode.

There on the pause menu

You don’t actually pause the game with multiplayer, but that is the title on the menu.

What Photo Mode does is give you a camera view unlocked from your vehicle so you can navigate around and see things from different angles.  This let me keep an eye on how Potshot was doing if I got a bit ahead of him.

Split level view of our climb

That particular corner and climb up the washboard was a challenge.  I got up it because Potshot pushed me, then had to go back to the top of it to help with some more winch work.

Photo Mode is pretty awesome, to the point of being a bit of a cheat I guess, because you can really get a view of what is going on.  The camera moves around slowly, so you wouldn’t want to try to “drive” the map with it.  Any vehicle in low range would be faster.

Anyway, we kept on up the trail, making our way slowly.

Not actually photo mode in this pic

There were all sorts of challenges and reinforcement of early lessons about things like your angle of approach being very important when climbing boulders.

Sometimes your approach is everything

There were more moments of comedy as we tried to get over various obstacles, figuring out the hard way what was going to work and what was going to end up with somebody stuck on a rock.  But with two people you have more options.  It opens up the game.  So we carried on to the top.

Up through more gravel and rock

As we arrived at the final waypoint and finished the trail I mentioned that this was my second run, that I had done it solo before.  Potshot wondered if that made the whole thing like pulling teeth, but I had to strongly disagree.

Playing co-op, getting together to take on obstacles is actually more fun.  You have more options and can actually engage in some actual cooperative game play.

Having wrapped that up, we were closing in on finishing all the objectives on the Emerald Lake map.  We spent some time exploring dark areas on the map until we found the final points of interest, then took the ferry to Gimli Ridge, the next area of the game.

Now we have some new challenge trails to find.

Descent to Val’Zyroth

Joining the LOTRO Wolves or Mordor and the EverQuest Favors of Fortune expansion announcements, we’re back to the Norrath team and their fixation on the dark elves.  I guess we’re over the era of scantily clad dark elf females on the cover of EQuinox Magazine with the splash screen above… though we can’t get away from the ever impractical high heeled armor… but somebody is still way too into this.

The dark elves on the expansion splash screen… which I had to crop back a bit so I could actually read the name of the expansion… are not gratuitous however.  They are the focus of the new expansion and are up to their usual no good.  The brief for the expansion is:

For years, a tenuous pact between Freeport and Neriak has been reluctantly honored, but after sensing weakness within the surface city, Queen Cristanos is done biding her time. Soon, Freeport and the entire continent of D’Lere will fall to Neriak unless the skilled artisans and brave adventurers of Norrath can find a way to stop her!

Spelunk the twisting caves of Corathus Descent, a treacherous network of passages overrun with insatiable predators and crevasses that plunge into the unmapped worlds, far below, where the borders of Subtunaria and the Underfoot blur. This is Val’Zyroth Ness, an enormous cavern replete with menacing fauna and malignant flora, where the Teir’Dal city of Neriondalon has emerged from ruin!

Breach the formidable walls of this resplendent city, revitalized by Hate, and hide amongst the downtrodden who serve their Teir’Dal and drachnid masters, such as the gnemlins forced to create and maintain an army of clockwork golems. Aid the wary race of molemen, known as tontu, as they fight for their survival within the nearby, ancient mines of Khor Boldir. Follow the Teir’Dal as they pierce the Plane of the Underfoot and invade Keramos Caverns, Brell’s mythical planar workshop, with vengeful intentions!

Be amongst the rare living souls to enter the infamous Duchy of the Dead. Navigate the sprawling labyrinth of impressive Teir’Dal crypts and mausoleums now devoted to the exploration and advancement of necromancy and other dark arcanum. Defeat the magical defenses and face the unnatural denizens that haunt the Duchy. Witness terrible wonders, unravel deific mysteries, and unlock unknown potential within yourself. Only then can you possibly stop Queen Cristanos in her own holy sanctum!

Hope rests on you and your Descent to Val’Zyroth!

So we’re off to thwart the nefarious plans of Queen Cristanos and save… Freeport?

I’m kind of a Qeynos and Antonica partisan if we’re going to get into factions.  Also, since you can start in Neriak as a dark elf, are you too expected to go on the guided tour to the Duchy of the Dead?

I guess I would have to roll up a dark elf character to see.  I am sure I must have at least one, though my main complaint about the dark elves isn’t them being viewed as a fetish object, but the fact that they are played as angry cardboard cut out villains, mean and swaggering without any sense of greater purpose.  Well, except for the taking over Freeport and its surrounding lands I guess.  They can stop betraying each other constantly to come together for a big project I guess.

So what does the new expansion bring, aside from, as Bhagpuss pointed out, a deep and abiding love for the color blue?  These are the bullet points being offered up:

• Level any class on a single character with the new Personas Feature!
• New and improved Untold Heroic Dungeons!
• Embark on a scavenger hunt to discover a new Epic mount!
• Descend into new Adventure, Tradeskill, and Signature quests within the speckled fluorescence of the deep!
• Plunge into the depths of Val’Zyroth Ness, discover the shadowy machinations of the dark elves within the Duchy of the Dead! Witness the wonder of Keramos Caverns, delve into the mines of Khor Boldir and get prepared to tackle new solo, heroic and raid content!
• Discover powerful new Collections!

It sounds like four new zones, an array of dungeon instances, the usual new collections, the new persona feature, and no increase in the level cap. (The previous expansion got us to level 135.)  Also, you get all the previous expansions because expecting you to buy them all is clearly a bridge too far, and a level 135 character boost token so you can get stuck right into the new stuff.  There will no doubt be the usual gear crate to equip yourself from when you arrive.

They usually like to point out that there are new alternate advancement options (to offset the static level cap this time around) and new spells and skills.  That is pretty much every expansion boilerplate.  That those are missing makes me wonder if they are betting on this new Persona feature to keep people busy by allowing them to multi-class on a single character.

EverQuest Legends much team?

Okay, maybe it isn’t playing three classes at once, but… well, I am not sure how the feature actually works, but there is a FAQ for it which I linked below.

Or you can find out how the feature works if you pre-order because not only will you get an array of pre-order bonuses, you will also be allowed access to the beta for the expansion.

Buying the expansion means the usual four price points… I am just going to re-use the graphic I made for the EverQuest expansion since they are the same.

Expansion Pricing

The Standard package gets you the expansion content and a wee bit of pre-order fluff, while the Collector’s and Premium packages pile on the fluff.  And then there is the Family & Friends pack, which gets you an addition in-game tradable copy of the expansion and a few other like items.

As usual, I have to assume somebody is buying it because they keep offering it every year.

Also not mentioned, at least I didn’t see it, was a launch date.  I assume we’re pretty safe in guessing somewhere between mid-November and mid-December.  I am sure we’ll get more details on that later.

Related:

• Daybreak – Descent to Val’Zyroth expansion page
• Daybreak – Descent to Val’Zyroth Beta and Pre-order is here!
• Daybreak – Persona Guide and FAQ
• Daybreak – Expansion order page
• Daybreak – September 2026 Producer’s Letter
• Inventory Full – Any Color You Want, So Long As It’s Blue

Crimson Harvest 2026 – Open the Bloodgates

I collected the remaining prizes from the track, including the blueprint copy for the Akoman, the new Bloodraiders battlecruiser.

The initial reward track complete

The SKINs I have redeemed, and the SKINNR design elements.  The boosters will probably all just expire unclaimed and the blueprint will likely sit in a hangar in a station until the end of New Eden unless it gains some huge value or the Akoman turns out to be even more OP than usual for new ships in the game.  And the event currency, that I am socking away for now.

Having done the hacking path first, which earned 500 of the 1,000 required points for the reward track, and then another round of that, which brought me to 600, it became a matter of finding which collection of rewards would get me to exactly 1,000 because any excess is lost.

That was a bit annoying because the large increments that the company has chosen this year means that you can, as I had done, put yourself in a situation where you will end up with some waste, and I personally detest waste.   (Except, obviously, when it comes to words.  This whole blog might be fairly characterized as a waste of words.)

As I mentioned last time, I decided to hit the Hollow Outbreak sites, alternating between class 1 and class 2 sites initially.  That seemed to get me into a routine of only seeing one type of site when I was in the wrong ship, so eventually I just committed to the class 1 sites as I also worked on the exploration achievement for Amarr space.

My Tristan chasing that final ship in a site… the one kill you need

That got me 250 more points for the first run, putting me at 850 on the board, so I did another round of Hollow Outbreak sites for 50 points and another round of hacking where 40 gets you 100 points.

So on the event front, it is now a wait for the final week when CCP/Fenris extends the rewards track, likely by another 500 points.  That is expected to land on the 27th.

I already have 150 points queued up for that, having done another round of hacking and Hollow Outbreak sites which I did not turn in.  That will leave me with 350 points to gain, 250 of which might be the vendor task… but probably not.

Like all of the other tasks, this one is no longer available in interim steps.  Instead you have to receive 150 items from the event vendor.

150 items received required

That feels like… kind of a lot of items.  And they have to be paid for in mutated blood samples.  I have enough of those.  The cheapest item in the store is 15 mutated blood samples and I have about 3,000, so I can get it done.   But it means not buying any of the better items… though some of those run to 30K in price, so that didn’t seem likely in the first place.  I like the hacking mining game for the event, but maybe not that much.

The event store for the Order of St. Tetrimon

If I do that I will just need another 100 points on the event track to get whatever the final prize will be.  It might not even be worth the effort.  We shall see.

Meanwhile, on the exploration achievement side task, which I have been manually tracking as I do the event, which has gotten me into some quiet corners of Amarr space where event sites seems to sit untouched… a big help… has found me with six of the eight regions of Amarr space fully explored according to my sophisticated calculation… which is me checking them off the list.

Amarr – Blessed Pilgrim Achievement Progress

As I mentioned before, the achievement in game does very little to help you track your progress beyond a raw count of systems visited.  Missed one?  Good luck figuring it out!

494 systems visited, but which ones?

That said, at least the new map in the game has been somewhat helpful in this venture.  Having gone to a logical map… and going with something very similar to the DOTLAN map layout… has made setting waypoints to plot a route less painful than it would have been with either of the previous two in-game maps.

So I look at my tracking map in Paint.net, where I mark each system with a red dot… again with the red dots… as I visit them.

One of my regional tracking maps… this one for The Bleak Lands

When I want to setup the route to the next few systems to visit, at least the in-game map looks enough like the DOTLAN map that I can easily find the system I want at a glance.

That same section of space in The Bleak Lands as above

Also, I have apparently not spent a lot of time in The Bleak Lands region, though with that name it is not hard to guess why.

I have the map set to show the systems I have visited, which gives me a count… and there are some systems I have visited quite a few times in Amarr space.

905 visits to Ebtesham… there is a level IV Amarr Navy mission agent there

The systems that show as gray circles are ones I have never visited.  It does seem to take a few days for the last visited date to update.  It doesn’t not show up after just one downtime cycle, but will show up eventually.  So now The Bleak Lands shows I was there last week in all the systems.

A visit counted on October 14, 2026

Now I just have Aridia and Domain left to explore.

Aridia isn’t so bad.  It is a low sec region so I have to take some care.  But if I am out there in my covert ops Helios it shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Domain, on the other hand… that is where the bulk of the remaining 195 systems are.  I’ve already visited chunks of it, but with 189 total systems… well, you can barely squeeze them all into a single map over at DOTLAN and have the system names remain readable.

Anyway, I am in a bit of a holding pattern for the event.  But a lot of people have finished the initial bit and, while some people will just farm them all through the run of things… there are valuable drops… now is probably a good week to catch up.  Next week, when the final track drops, there will be a second rush to wrap things up.

Related:

• CCP/Fenris – Crimson Harvest: Open the Bloodgates
• CCP/Fenris – Crimson Harvest: The Bloodgates Are Open
• CCP/Fenris – Blood Raiders Invade Unstable Pochven
• CCP/Fenris – Don’t Miss the Biggest Rewards!
• CCP/Fenris – Patch Notes for Crimson Harvest
• TAGN – Crimson Harvest 2026 Lands in EVE Online Today
• TAGN – Hacking and Exploring My Way into the Crimson Harvest Event
• EVE University – Crimson Harvest 2026

I also bought a copy of it for the Switch.

Over the Hill

Over the Hill follows their model for success so far, which is a driving game with modest, stylized graphics that still look good, which plays well, is modestly priced, and feels like they absolutely obsessed about the physics of driving.  Art of Rally really showed in that regard and, while I have not played Absolute Drift, the demo reel for it pretty clearly shows it was all about modeling the motion of vehicles.  (Also, the origin story of Funselektor is interesting in itself, as it is just one dev at the center of all of this.)

I tried pre-launch demo of Over the Hill back during one of Steam’s Next Fest events, which features demos, and liked the idea of it quite a bit.  I was even going to write a bit about it… then somehow never got around to doing so.  The only sign that I played it was a comment I wrote on a Bhagpuss post where he mentioned playing the demo.

Anyway, I put it on my wishlist and, when it launched last week, I grabbed a copy.  There is a launch trailer if you need a video intro to the game.

Then I spent nine and a half hours playing over the weekend.  And not nine and a half Steam hours, where maybe it sat at the menu in the background while I worked on something else.  That was nine and a half ManicTime hours, which only counts when the app has focus and turns off the time if I am idle for five minutes.

So maybe it has something going for it.

As the splash screen indicates, Over the Hill is about driving off road.  After a brief tutorial that shows you the basic controls you are let loose in a Land Rover Defender to roam the wilds of British Columbia.

Of in our Defender… I mean, Protector!

Except it isn’t a Defender because Funselektor is a small company… again, just one guy… and probably can’t afford to license all the names and whatever from the various companies.  So all 21 vehicles in the game are unique creations and the fact that I recognize almost all of them, have seen most of them in person at some point, have ridden in a handful, and have driven at least four of them, is purely a product of my imagination, so if I refer to the Protector as a Defender… well, that is just on me.

(You can see the full list of vehicles here.)

Anyway, the Defender is a fine start, but I traded it out for the International Scout… erm, the Trail Rat… which is on the list of vehicles I have driven.

A mud spattered Scout

Not this specific version, which looks like a later revision from the Model 80 my grandfather had on the farm and which might be the first 4WD vehicle I ever drove.  Also, as you can see, your vehicle will pick up a patina of mud and dirt when you are out and about.

Your goal is to drive around and find things… and take pictures of wildlife when you have a chance.

You get a map which is mostly obscured and which, in the classic video game method, reveals as you travel.  The fog of war… only there is no war, except against the elements.

A bit of a map

These are real elevation maps like the USGS puts out… or used to put out, who knows these days… with trails marked where they exist and other game objectives.

There are camps, which are rest stops where your vehicle gets repaired and resupplied (and cleaned), and where you can speed up time if you want to get through the night or wait for a storm to pass.  There is a full day/night cycle, so it gets dark out.

Going up a trail at night… and it is starting to rain

I went through a whole night in the dark before I figured out how to turn on the headlights.

As for weather, there is rain and fog and lightning and snow.

A Blazer in the snow

You can press on or stop at a camp and have time fast forward.

Camps also act as fast travel points.  You can teleport to them from the map if you don’t want to go all the way back the way you came or if you’ve managed to get yourself completely stuck.

In the water and too far from anything I can hook the winch to

Then there is the mechanic, of which there is one per map.  You go to him, Crazy Gunther, to upgrade your vehicle or apply cosmetics like the Christmas lights on my bumpers.

There are scenic point, from which you can see a wide range of the terrain… unless the fog has set in.  Had that happen once.  Behold my valley… of pea soup fog!  With some luck, however, you do get a nice view.

Arrival at a scenic point

Also, the view distance in the game is astounding.  Weather limits it, of course.  But on a clear moment you can see forever in detail.

There are points of interest… lots of those… which earn you pebbles, the currency you use to buy upgrades… and unlock cosmetics.

And then there are challenge trails, which have you follow a specific route, often through difficult terrain, which is very much an off road puzzle as you figure out how to get yourself up an otherwise too steep hill or line up the approach on a boulder just right so you climb over it.

Maybe not like this

Challenge trails reward more pebbles and also unlock things.  Worth doing, but after the first one… which is kind of an intro trail… somewhat challenging.

And then there are item recovery tasks, which involve you getting out the winch and towing a stuck vehicle back for repair.

Towing an abandoned Land Cruiser in the rain

Finally, there is the portal to the next map… which on the first map is actually a ferry.

The challenge is getting places.  The trails are bumpy, the trees are all over, the marsh will have you slipping and sliding, and you can find many ways to just roll over if you’re not careful.

Upside down again

If you’re in a good spot you can get out the winch and right yourself.  And if you do both you’ll have a pair of achievements.

Achievements for everything

So far it is a lot of fun.  I have found myself doing the whole “one more trail, one more point of interest” thing when I should be headed for bed.

Part of me wants to contrast it with Forza Horizon 6, which arrived earlier this year.  Unlike that, Over the Hill is a slow, almost sedate, off road game where you don’t drive fast down freeways in Japan or do rallys or races.

But, from another angle, it is exactly like Forza Horizon 6, or at least aspects of it.  It has an exploration aspect, it has trails to drive, challenges to take on, and even vehicles to find… though you might have to tow the vehicles back to a camp to get them repaired.

It even has a radio… well, it has a cassette deck… where you can choose what style of music you want to have play while in game.  So not polar opposite.

There are a couple of things I am not fond of.  Sometimes the physics bugs out a bit when you’ve gotten yourself wedged in a fresh new location.  Sure, having the earth spit you out of the hole you fell into is funny, but maybe not so realistic.

It is also a game that prefers a controller.  That is fine for me, and you can play it without a controller, the way you can play Forza Horizon with keyboard and mouse.  But, since Funselektor puts their games on consoles as well… Over The Hill will be on PlayStation, XBox, and Switch 2 early next year… and I will probably buy it again for the Switch… it does play better with a controller.

Then there is the camera.  You only get a third person chase view, which you have to manage with the second analog stick.  Too often when I am in some precarious spot and trying to pay attention to several things I’ll start trying to steer with the camera like it is an FPS.  That never works out well.

Also, the camera is stuck at a somewhat higher angle than I need at times.  Really, I would like to have a driver’s seat first person view as an option when I am doing something like threading through trees in the snow at night and I can barely see anything.  But then they would have to have windshield wipers and it gets complicated.  Also, Funselektor is also known for its top down view, so even having the camera down at a 30 degree angle is breaking ground for them.

None of those are deal breakers for me.  But occasionally, in the moment, the camera won’t show me what I need to see.

Overall I have found it a good time.  It feels like it is filling a niche similar to what Outbound was attempting, a semi-outdoorsy exploration title with some customization.

But I hear you saying, “Outbound hand co-op!  Does this have co-op?  I thought Funselektor only did single player titles.”

That has been there usual method, but not this time.  Over the Hill has co-op play!

Naturally I had to tell Potshot about it, so he bought a copy.

That means a follow up post about playing together.  That is where the comedy really begins.

There are only ten weeks left in the league but, as I mentioned last time around, the final scheduled launch will land in week fifty and there isn’t much one could pick in the final two weeks.  The holidays will do that.

So any week with four titles in play is a big week this late in the game.  But first the usual establishing shot of the scores from last week.

Week 41 Scores

Week forty-one saw Arhanta in first place with one more title expected to go live… and that is part of this week’s tally.  And we’ll get to that.

But first up this past week was Valor Mortis.

Valor Mortis

Picked by Archey, it got a score on Monday morning.

• Valor Mortis
  • [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
  • Now has a score of 80.5

That score stuck so that by the time it hit launch that evening, it was enough to give Archey a bit of a boost in the rankings.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)
    • Score has gone UP from 40.9 to 50.4
    • Moved from 11th place to 9th place
  • Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
    • Moved from 9th place to 10th place
  • Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)
    • Moved from 10th place to 11th place

Monday evening also saw Planet Zoo 2 release.

• Planet Zoo 2 has released!
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]

However, it did not have enough reviews at that point.

Planet Zoo 2

The next morning saw a few scores drop in.  First up, was Nivalis Nights, which dropped down to 70, making it a zero points pick.

• Nivalis Nights
  • [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 73.8 to 70.0

Then we had Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse check in.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse

As one of Shintar’s final three titles, this one was important to see if she could stay in contention for first place.

• Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Now has a score of 86.1

That was the sort of strong score that Shintar needed.

Then Planet Zoo 2 hit the review threshold for a score and got on the board.

• Planet Zoo 2
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Now has a score of 82.5

A good, middle of the range score, not great but not bad.  That was the final title for Arhanta, so now their score is pretty much set, barring fluctuations from more reviews showing up… which, of course, happened immediately.

• Planet Zoo 2
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Score has gone UP from 83.0 to 84.2

The moved Planet Zoo 2 from average to good in my book.

The next day Archey got back on the board again, this time with Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2

That, one of the four Warhammer titles picked in the league (out of six launching this year) and the second 40K title for Archey, launched Tuesday night and by late Wednesday morning had a score.

• Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2
  • [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
  • Now has a score of 84.5

That put Archey up a bit more on the board.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)
    • Score has gone UP from 50.4 to 64.9
    • Moved from 9th place to 7th place
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 7th place to 8th place
  • Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)
    • Moved from 8th place to 9th place

That was the last of Archey’s nine picks to ship, though two of them still had no score at that point.

But come the afternoon we had a burst of updates as more reviews came in for a few titles.

• Planet Zoo 2
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 85.0 to 82.5
• Gears of War: E-Day
  • [Picked by S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 87.0 to 86.0
• Nocturne
  • [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]
  • Now has a score of 78.3

That put Planet Zoo 2 back down to average, shaved a bit of greatness off of Gears of War: E-Day, and filled in one of Archey’s missing scores.

None of which changed anybody’s position on the board.

Then, come the evening, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse hit its launch, which put Shintar up a few notches.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
    • Score has gone UP from 94.9 to 110.6
    • Moved from 6th place to 3rd place
  • TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place
  • S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)
    • Moved from 4th place to 5th place
  • Corr’s Creative Collective (Corr)
    • Moved from 5th place to 6th place

Friday saw a couple of score updates.

• The Blood of Dawnwalker
  • [Picked by Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 84.5 to 83.5
• Order of the Sinking Star
  • [Picked by Anthania Interactive (Ula)]
  • Score has gone UP from 82.5 to 84.2

But that was about it for the week, leaving the scoreboard looking like this.

Week 42 Scores

Arhanta is now settled into first position with all their picks launched and a score of 141.59.

Shintar sits in third place currently with a score of 110.12, but has two more titles left.  She needs a pair of 86 scoring picks in order to claim first place, a challenging but not impossible scenario.  However, her two remaining picks at the start of the week seemed in question, neither having a solid ship date announced.

The Duskbloods is still estimated for 2026, while Enter the Gungeon 2 is simply listed as TBA.

There was a bid this week for the latest Call of Duty Modern Warfare title.  I thought it might be Shintar making a move, though I suspect any CoD title will fall in the 78-82 ranger.  But it was not her.

• Bids in TAGN League
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
    • Won by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn) with a bid of $50
    • Dropped game ‘At Fate’s End’ conditionally

So that is now on the board, with the next ten titles looking like this.

Week 43 Coming Up

There are only twelve titles left with confirmed launch dates.  This coming week another three will be on the board and then things will slow down some.

Related:

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