July has come and gone and has made way for August. This past month started the 2nd half of our 2024 season, and it will be in this 2nd half that we find out who will be crowned our 2024 DCL Champion! With most of our rosters full of potential point-getters, it is now transitioning to that time of the year when we see if our predictions and predilections are well-founded or uninformed.
In the month of July, six (6) games were released:
- Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess [Ranch Walker Inc] – 11.8 points
- Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition [Homie Don’t Play Games] – 0.8 points
- Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn [Lambda Strain Games] – -0.5 points
- Dungeons of Hinterberg [Sad Dad Bod Dev] – 10.8 points
- EA Sports College Football 25 [Bearded Champions] – 12.1 points
- Thrasher [Homie Don’t Play Games] – (not linked)
And with that, this is how the league is shaping up (as of August 1st):
For the 4th Monthly Newsletter in a row, Adam and Bearded Champions find themselves at 1st place in the standings. Others have held the top spot for a little while (Micah & Amanda), but no one has been able to dethrone Adam from his perch… (yet)
Bearded Champions released the best reviewed game of the month in EA Sports College Football 25 (12.1pts). July 19th became the day many people had dreamed of for years and to the delight of many college football fans, the reviewers agreed with them. Followed closely behind was Ranch Walker Inc. and their July release of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (11.8pts). A unique game that combines the Tower Defense, Action, and Strategy genres in new ways. Dungeons of Hinterberg (10.8pts) by Sad Dad Bod Dev was also a well-received game that was released in July to help Nate stay at the top half of the standings.
Not so well received was Nintendo’s nostalgic game of the summer in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (0.8pts) for Homie Don’t Play Games. Nintendo continues to stretch the lifespan of the Switch for all it’s worth and we were bound to get a few stinkers thrown in as we wait for the much-anticipated Switch 2 (or whatever Nintendo decides to debut next) Not that this was a bad game per se, just not a “high-scoring” one. Also not scoring well, this time for Lambda Strain Games, was the Souls-like wannabe of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (-0.5pts). Many have tried to capitalize on the ‘Souls-Borne’ sub-genre, and to be fair I wouldn’t know the difference between a good one and a bad one, but the reviews seem to have found this one to be good but certainly not great. As for Thrasher by Homie Don’t Play Games, there seems to be no link on Open Critic yet. We’ll see if something pops up soon or if this one is hung out to dry, but it is scoring a 72 on Metacritic as of now…
Now we move on to what August will bring to the DCL. This month has six (6) game releases as of now; most of which are heavy hitting games. The games are (in release order):
- World of Goo 2 – Wolfpack Games (08/02)
- SteamWorld Heist II – Bearded Champions (08/08)
- Tactical Breach Wizards – Crystal-Cross Games (08/20)
- Black Myth: Wukong – Ranch Walker Inc (08/20)
- Visions of Mana – Jersey-Rican Productions (08/29), &
- Star Wars Outlaws – Ranch Walker Inc. (08/30)
I think we know what all of these games are (except maybe ‘Tactical Breach Wizards’ – more on that later) so instead of spending some time explaining what these games are, I thought I could ask a couple of questions here about the month ahead and have you all answer these questions either via a reply on this page, or you can just answer it in our Facebook Messenger chat. Here we go:
- Of the following games, which do you think will be the highest reviewed of the month?
- World of Goo 2
- SteamWorld Heist II
- Tactical Breach Wizards
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Visions of Mana
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Of the following games, which do you think will have the highest sales in the month? (same 6 games)
- When August ends, which game do you think will SURPRISE you the most? (same 6 games)
- Gamescom is this month – What do you think will be the standout game of Gamescom this year, AND Do you think it will be a game that is shown off during Geoff Keighley’s “Opening Night Live”?
Okay, that’s pretty much all that I have for this month’s newsletter. Sorry that it was a couple of days late! If you want to bounce out here, you can. However, if you are at all curious as to what Eddie’s August game (Tactical Breach Wizards) could be, I looked up some info on it and put it down below since I was also curious.
Take care & God Bless,
Alex C.
Tactical Breach Wizards is being developed and published by a small indie: Suspicious Developments Inc. (Gunpoint / Heat Signature). This is what their Steam page describes their game as: In Tactical Breach Wizards you lead a team of renegade wizards in Kevlar through turned-based battles to unravel a modern conspiracy plot. Combine their unique spells in clever ways, or rewind time to try every crazy plan you can think of to punch a Traffic Warlock through a 4th story window.
I’m a fan of turn-based anything, and anything that tries to look at all like XCOM usually gets a second look from me, so I am intrigued by the game for sure. Good on Eddie for finding something like this (he also picked up Capes earlier this year) and we’ll see how this turns out for him.
Deer Critics League 