GNamer Fantasy Games League (And your Year Four winner is...)

So, Andy made a late surge to try and topple the titan of the Fantasy League, but it wasn't enough to stop Cappa from taking his second Fantasy League title and making it a twopeat.

With that, I think it's time to raise the curtain on Year 4 of the GNamer Fantasy Games League! First things first - who's all in for it this year? Does anyone want to drop out? Does anyone want to hop in? Also. what about our drafted/pickup ratio? We went for 12 games last year, do we want to alter that? Let me know!

Once we've figured that out, we can get drafting - we'll use Twitter for that. I'd like to finish our draft by the 20th at the latest as checking Mas's release schedule for this month, that'll be the day with the first likely drafted game in our lineup in Windjammers 2.

Aye I'm in again.

In and this time I won't draft FFXVI like in the PoW version.

I'll try to pick games that will release this year.

It's wild that Metro 3D (?) have timewarpped twenty years back to release a GBA game that marks my twopeat accomplishments:



I'm the good and valiant knight, and you're all the horse. You can decide amongst yourselves who the medieval pub wench in the background is.

Here for a threepeat!

Count me in, hoping it'll be much more active this year with the potential of less delays.

I have been told to register my interest. I am interested obv.

Alright, think it's just Balla we've still to hear from, so I'll chuck a message in the Twitter group in case he missed it here and we can get to drafting!

We can iron out particulars about how many games and such on Twitter too.

Nah, I'm good this year I think. You fellows have fun.

One thing to add before you make up your mind for sure is that they've reworked the bidding system! You can now see what players have bid on (but not how much was bid) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday up till the evening before they get processed. Could make that part of the game a bit more palatable?

If that's not enough to sway you, no worries boss!

That wasn't really the issue, it was more that I struggled to get online in the first place for bids - because I wasn't having a good enough time to do so. Nobody wants my half-empty selection hanging about the process like a bad smell, least of all me. I'll have a much better time following the process as an outsider.

That's all fair enough! I definitely lost interest in the latter half of last year's league, so I can understand that. I'll remove your team from this year's league then, with regret! I think it still saves your spot for any future leagues (Jimmers is still there, for example) if the itch scratches you next year.

Well we are all done and I went for

Starfield. A bit of a risk, not that I think it be bad, but it could miss it's 11/11/22 release date to get it at place where it is a high 8/low 9 game, tad like Halo Infinite where Xbox needed it to be great not just good.

Total War: Warhammer 3. It has a date, and these have scored about 86 in the past.

Forza Motorsport (Xbox Series X). This is TBA, however Motorsport was biannual with Horizon, then they both missed two years, with FH5 last year and FM7 almost five years ago now. It is time for this likely a month part from Starfield.

Moss: Book II. VR games unlike mobile get reviews because they go down as PC or what not, the last Moss has avg of 84 and could see this being a PSVR2 launch title, so it get that launch game rub as well.

DNF Duel. I don't know much about the IP, but Arc System Works seem to have a hit fighting game each year, with Guilty Gear Strive & Granblue Fantasy Versus in the past two years avg 83. Jas countered, picked this.

Weird West. This is my riskiest pick, my reasoning behind it Devolver is the publisher whose games are normally of a decent quality, then dev team is a lot of Arkane Talent, and it's about £35 (On Game Pass) for an indie which to me shows they have some faith in quality to ask that much.

I countered picked Jay's King of Fighters XV (Sorry not Midnight Suns) as I don't think it looks very good and is predicted to score 74, sure I'll lose 4 points, I'll take that.

I would be interested in hearing people's thoughts about how they thought their drafts went. Looking at everyone's picks, it's really hard to criticist much of it as it seems like a very strong year.

I think Jas and Smurf nailed the number 1 and 2 overall picks in Elden Ring and Horizon respectively. Both definitely coming out, both definitely going to do well. With those and BOTW 2 gone, I went for:

God of War: Ragnarok - I'm slightly worried this could be delayed, however I think the upside is way too good for it to not be picked as my #1.

For the rest of my draft, I focused on games that would definitely come out. Last year I had 6 - will not releases - which completely screwed me over.

Gran Turismo 7 - A boring choice, very safe choice.

Forspoken - I don't really like the look of this personally, but I'm sure a lot of people will and it's coming out

Ghostwire  Tokyo - Very likely coming out and should be pretty alright

Stray - Pretty sure this will come out. I think the concept will win enough critics over

Warhammer 40k: Darktide - this studio have made a few other games and they've always been well received. Will definitely come out imo.

Yeah I'm quite happy with my overall draft with not many that I wanted (probably just Sifu & Gran Turismo 7 ) being picked by others.  

Here's my draft list & some thoughts:

Elden Ring - Surely a GoTY contender so an obvious first pick but it could possibly be ousted if BotW 2 releases.

Windjammers 2 - I'm just a massive fan of jamming the wind & I think it has the potential to be this years Rocket League.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human - Might be a bit of risk this one as the first didn't have the best average review scores even though later after release folk did seem to quite enjoy it. So hopefully the sequel can stick the landing.

OlliOlli World - First two games were really well received & I think it looks ace.

Shadow Warrior 3 - Another risky one but I think it looks fun enough to at least get above 75. Not surprised it was counter picked. (By Jay I think)

Salt and Sacrifice - First reviewed well so hoping for a repeat.

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All have release dates too with the exception of the last two that are marked as early 2022 so they should still safely release this year.

masofdas wrote:

I countered picked Jay's King of Fighters XV (Sorry not Midnight Suns) as I don't think it looks very good and is predicted to score 74, sure I'll lose 4 points, I'll take that.

I wouldn't go by the projected scores on the site - that's based purely off how many people have picked that game across all users on the site as far as I can gather, so a hidden gem might have you down as only getting a couple of points. For what it's worth, I think you might lose more than that considering KOF XIV scores in the high 70s and by all accounts, XV is shaping up to be a much improved version built on XIV's foundation. We shall see though!

As for my picks and my thoughts on them...

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 - A slight gamble in that there's always a chance it won't make it this year, but it does feel like this is the year for it, and we all know it'll score very highly when it does come out. Couldn't leave it on the table for someone else to nab!

Triangle Strategy - Definitely coming out this year (always a bonus) and I enjoyed what I played of the demo. I think this will be a solid mid 80s pick.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - Was delayed from last year so I'm pretty certain it's coming out this year. I quite liked the look of this as it seems like they're trying a few new ideas with the tried and tested LEGO formula. Hoping for an 80 plus here.

The King of Fighters XV - See my reply to Mas above for my hopes about this game, but aye, couldn't have my roster left without a fighting game!

A Plague Tale: Requiem - I enjoyed the first one when I played it last year and checking the reviews for the first game made me pretty certain the sequel should rake me in some points.

Metal Slug Tactics - Probably my riskiest pick, but I thought it looked alright in the gameplay trailer. I don't think I'll lose points on this, but it'll almost definitely be my lowest scorer.

I counterpicked Shadow Warrior 3, which I didn't feel great about, but having a late counterpick meant there wasn't much left on the table. It was all about trying to mitigate the amount of points I lose there and I don't think SW3 will score highly, hoping for a mid 70s there. I think we'll all end up losing at least something on our counterpicks, to be fair.

Jay wrote:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 - A slight gamble in that there's always a chance it won't make it this year, but it does feel like this is the year for it, and we all know it'll score very highly when it does come out. Couldn't leave it on the table for someone else to nab!

Imagine the bidding war had it stayed on the table though.

If we'd had a gentlemen's agreement to keep it undrafted, that'd have been a fun idea.

For the first time, it seems like folk are fully happy with what they’ve been able to pick. I know I am!

Bayonetta 3 – This wouldn’t have been my first choice if I wasn’t the last to pick, it’s a risk. That said, it’s a risk purely in the sense that it might not come out. If it does, this’ll undoubtedly be one of 2022’s highest-scoring games.

Splatoon 3 – I think the ceiling of what this'll achieve on OpenCritic will depend on how much content Nintendo ship it with. Neither of the first two Splatoon games released in what I’d call their finished state. Still, OpenCritic reviews seemed very high on those in 2015 and 2017, and really positive about that Splatoon 2 expansion that came out later. I think the third game will be similarly liked here in 2022.

Kirby & The Forgotten Land – I drafted this before that second trailer was broadcast yesterday, and I’m even more confident in its success now. The folk developing this will have had ideas for a 3D Kirby game spinning around in their heads for years, and they’ve got the skill and know-how to make them come to life. I’m optimistic about this choice.

Mario & Rabbids: Sparks of Hope – I was a little surprised to see this go unpicked until my fourth turn, behind over twenty other games. I get that Ubisoft are toxic, but critics loved that first Mario & Rabbids game, and a sequel that builds on that can only do better. If it releases, I can depend on this to get me a good number of points.

Two Point Campus – I’d mentally stashed this away weeks ago, thinking there was a good chance I could draft this for the 2022 league. Nae danger, I’m sure reviewers will enjoy this in the same way they enjoyed Two Point Hospital.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge – I was planning on choosing Metal Slug Tactics, but like other folk I did a bit of background research into the developer of that game. They don’t seem to have released anything that’s been too impressive so far. With who’s developing and publishing it, Shredder’s Revenge has a stronger pedigree, and arguably a better chance of success.

Boring and safe choices all-around, but I’ve got championship winning form.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I was planning on choosing Metal Slug Tactics, but like other folk I did a bit of background research into the developer of that game.

Unlike other folk, I knew it would be a certifiable classic spoken about in the same hushed tones as Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Galaxy and Fur Fighters 2: Viggo's Revenge.

I know the predicted scores aren't perfect but also don't think KoF looks that great, it was what I always planned to counter.

Some bidding may have happened.

It may have happened indeed.

Nice to see the slates and be able to 'play from the outside' as it were. Cappa's line-up looks really solid to me, unless critics do indeed grow a spine and start marking the art based on the sins of the 'artists'.

The artists of M+R is the team in Milan with Davide Soliani at the helm who seems like a nice chap from what we've of him, it's his boss that's the issue, don't think game should be given lesser scores because of that.

I wanted to pick up some Nintendo games, but they were always snapped up before I could pick. I did deliberately avoid the Ubisoft games though as there were always plenty of other good looking games to pick up.

Two Point Campus is a curious one and I considered selecting it. I know Two Point Hospital was well received so there's a pedigree there and a perhaps a formula to follow. Obviously the setting is different and outside of The Sims I can't think of any Campus type builders that aren't Prison Architect, so it'll be interesting to see what they do.

Sometimes games of its kind release a little lacking in features, only to have them patched in or added as expansions, so we shall see what happens. I expect it'll do fairly well though as they seem to have captured the humour that the old Bullfrog games had, at least well enough, so as long as the rest of the game is decent I think that style alone will help it.

I was also tempted to pick up Project Triangles with my number 3 pick and Marvel's Midnight Sons with my last pick, but Jay and Andy snatched those up before me. I was a bit disappointed by the demo for Triangles, and I think it'll be a game I like a lot less than the X-Coms of this world, but I feel like it'll review well. There's no denying that it has style; lovely art and a killer soundtrack. The Marvel game, assuming it releases, is right up my street.