Written by Alex Castellanos

DCL 24 – August

With Labor Day weekend happening, we are unofficially ending the summer season of 2024. Kids and teachers are heading (or have headed) back to school and Starbucks is trying to remind everyone that P.S.L.’s are back and still trendy to drink.  In the world of video game news, there wasn’t a lot happening towards the end of summer either.  Many of us are probably trying to finish any backlog games we may have or maybe plow through a small/indie title we picked up as we mentally prepare for the upcoming onslaught that will be the Fall & Holiday season.  And in case we were unaware of the games we should be looking forward to, Geoff Keighley and our German friends over at Gamescom were there to show us the way with “Opening Night Live 2024” and a bunch of gameplay showcases & interviews throughout the week via “Xbox @ Gamescom 2024” to whet our appetites for fall.

In this past month of August, we had five (5) games released in the League:

  • World of Goo 2 [Wolfpack Games] – 12.1 points
  • SteamWorld Heist 2 [Bearded Champions] – 11.9 points
  • Black Myth: Wukong [Ranch Walker Inc] – 11.2 points
  • Tactical Breach Wizards [Crystal Cross Games] – 17.0 points
  • Star Wars Outlaws [Ranch Walker Inc] – 6.3 points

And with that, this is how the league is shaping up (as of September 2nd):

For the 5th Monthly Newsletter in a row, Adam [Bearded Champions] is still at 1st place in the league standings. This month however, Marshall [Ranch Walker Inc] was able to close the gap to almost exactly 1 point behind Adam as he had 2 games release this month [Black Myth: Wukong (11.2 pts) / Star Wars: Outlaws (6.3 pts)] to Adam’s 1 game [SteamWorld Heist 2 (11.9pts)]. These next 60 days or so is when I expect to see the biggest shake up in the standings, as the fall video games start to drop one after another! Adam shouldn’t get too comfortable just yet!

Meanwhile, Eddie [Crystal Cross Games] received the best reviewed game of the month in Tactical Breach Wizards (17pts). A true surprise to say the least, the indie Tactical RPG was able to lift Eddie from 7th place to 6th place by the end of August, and with three more games releasing in September, I’m sure Eddie is looking to really make his move up the standings this month! *{Eddie’s games of September: Star Trucker (Sep. 3rd), Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Sep. 9th), Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown (Sep. 10th)}

The 2nd highest reviewed game of the month was World of Goo 2 (12.1pts) – a great choice for Jeff [Wolfpack Games] but unfortunately, this was also Luke’s [Lambda Strain Games] counterpick! So, while Jeff climbed in the standings from 6th to 5th place, this brought Luke down from 8th to 10th place…

This upcoming month of September will bring 11 games to the Deer Critics League! Eddie has 3 games, Micah & Alex have 2 games each, and Amanda, Nate, Jeff, & Josh all have 1 game each. The games are (in release order):

  • Star Trucker – Crystal Cross Games (09/03)
  • Astro Bot – Dougsvest Digital (09/06)
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – Crystal Cross Games (09/09)
  • Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown – Crystal Cross Games (09/12)
  • Wild Bastards – Vapor-Wares (09/12)
  • The Plucky Squire – Homie Don’t Play Games (09/17)
  • UFO 50 – SadDadBod Dev (09/18)
  • Frostpunk 2 – Wolfpack Games (09/20)
  • Ara: History Untold – Jersey-Rican Productions (09/24)
  • Bloomtown: A Different Story – Jersey-Rican Productions (09/24)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – Dougsvest Digital (09/26)

For this month, instead of calling extra attention to a few of the games releasing this month, (or asking you all to make predictions on this month’s games like I did in August) I think I’m going to try to make some predictions on each of the upcoming games for September:

1st some score predictions: both for Open Critic as well as my own personal hype-level for each game

  • Star Trucker: Open Critic (75), Alex’s HYPE score (3/5)
  • Astro Bot: Open Critic (89), Alex’s HYPE score (5/5)
  • Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2: Open Critic (79), Alex’s HYPE score (3/5)
  • Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown: Open Critic (73), Alex’s HYPE score (2.5/5)
  • Wild Bastards: Open Critic (77), Alex’s HYPE score (3/5)
  • The Plucky Squire: Open Critic (80), Alex’s HYPE score (4.5/5)
  • UFO 50: Open Critic (75), Alex’s HYPE score (3.5/5)
  • Frostpunk 2: Open Critic (82), Alex’s HYPE score (3/5)
  • Ara: History Untold: Open Critic (100 obviously) (okay honestly, 81), Alex’s HYPE score (3.5/5)
  • Bloomtown: A Different Story: Open Critic (100 obviously) (okay how about, ≥ 78?), Alex’s HYPE score (4/5)
  • The Legends of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: Open Critic (83), Alex’s HYPE score (4/5)

2nd a DCL Standings prediction: I believe that Micah [Dougsvest Digital] will pass Marshall [Ranch Walker Inc] &Adam [Bearded Champions] to re-take 1st place by month’s end!

3rd A Personal prediction: I believe that my publisher’s projected score of “76.57” is a little low. And while I don’t honestly expect to make a run for the trophy this year, I am hoping to push past 80 points by the year’s end!

Hopefully you don’t hate me too much after those predictions. I am looking forward to a busy gaming month and I’m looking forward to all the chatter on our Facebook Messenger Deer Critics Group chat!

Take care & God Bless,

Alex C.

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