Into our fourth week the FCL bot was busy broadcasting updates about releases and scores and how the initial round of releases were shaping up.

This is where we left off in week three as far as scores:

The standings for week 3

Not too much going on there with only two people having scores.  But that changed this week… at least a bit as the FCL bot chattered away on Discord.

First, some launch dates were modified.

• Date Everything! [Picked by Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)]
  • Release date changed from ‘Friday, February 14, 2025’ to ‘June 2025’.
• MLB the Show 25 [Picked by Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)]
  • Release date changed from ‘2025’ to ‘Tuesday, March 18, 2025’.
• WWE 2K25 [Picked by Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)]
  • Release date changed from ‘2025’ to ‘Friday, March 14, 2025’.

That was two going from just “this year” to specific dates, while one, Date Everything! pushed back from a clearly synergistic Valentine’s Day launch to… June.

Then we had three titles release this past week, announced by the bot:

• Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter has released!
• Sniper Elite: Resistance has released!
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector has released!

But the scores started coming in early for several titles.  Some games get sent out for review ahead of launch so reviews will start popping up.  When a title hits the minimum review count threshold FCL starts calling the score out.  It doesn’t get applied to your team until launch, but you started getting updates.  This is what popped up this past week:

• Sniper Elite: Resistance [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
• Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
• Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 78.6 to 76.2
• Sniper Elite: Resistance [Picked by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm)]
  • Score has gone UP from 72.5 to 73.5
• Rift of the NecroDancer [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
• Rift of the NecroDancer [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 86.7 to 81.7
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector [Picked by Hare Brained Schemes (p0tsh0t)]
• Rift of the NecroDancer [Picked by Slightly Scuffed Studios (Kluwes)]
  • Score has gone UP from 81.7 to 82.9

All of that ended up with five teams having one title on the board, leaving the standings looking like this for week four.

The standings for Week 4

In addition to that, we had two bids this week, one for a pick and one for a counter pick.  There were no attempts to outbid either, so they went through.

• Ninja Gaiden 4
  • Won by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta) with a bid of $3
• Fable
  • Won by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn) with a bid of $1 (🎯 Counter Pick)

Ninja Gaiden 4 has an estimated release of Fall 2025, while Fable is just a 2025 estimate, so might be a solid counter pick if it doesn’t ship.

And next week will see two more titles release.

Coming releases for Week 5

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Rift of the NecroDancer will land for Kluwes of Slightly Scuffed Studios, making them the first team to have two releases on the board. Rift of the NecroDancer is already looking like a good pick.

And then comes Civilization VII, which will be in early access on the 6th while Firaxis will have likely lifted any embargo on reviews before that, so even if it isn’t on the board yet, we’ll start getting a sense of its score potential.

That is how things look at the end of week four.