Forza Horizon 5 versus Divinity Original Sin 2 – First Quarter

Kicking off my 2022 Rambling Redshirt’s Gaming Madness tournament is the contest between Forza Horizon 5 and Divinity Original Sin 2.

The Pre-Game Warmup

My initial thought was that Forza was easily gonna win this entry into the tournament, but upon further investigation, I think this may be a closer match than expected. It’s also a good match to kick off my Rambling Resdhirt’s Gaming Madness tournament.

Forza Horizon 5 is the ultimate installment of one of the greatest racing simulation game series. They’ve always earned high marks on both Xbox and PC, and while I have never played one, my gaming buddies will attest to the game’s enjoyment.

Released in November 2021, Forza Horizon 5 quickly moved up the charts and was picked up by over 10 million gamers during the first week of release. Set in a fictional representation of Mexico, the game features an open-world environment that is claimed to be over 50% larger than previous installments. Apparently, there is a volcano, and plenty of jungles along with beaches and a weather simulation that we all know can cause trouble for dirt and paved roads alike.

The game won multiple awards in 2021 and ended up with a Metacritic score of 91. There are tons of things to do between various races, accolades, a battle royal mode, and mini-games. If you’re into cars, this is definitely a game for you.

While Forza is a beautiful sight to see, Divinity Original Sin II, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to knock your socks off visually. The game features an isometric view and can be played as either a single-player or multiplayer RPG. One thing I did not know about the game before it joined the tournament was that it started as a Kickstarter, and considering its success, I think it’s probably one of the best games developed from a Kickstarter

Original Sin 2 is a sequel to a popular game and has been regarded as one of the “best role-playing games of all time,” according to many critics, so I am curious how it passed under my radar. In any case, it is here in the tournament, and I think it will be a close battle between Forza and Divinity since both were well regarded and seem to continue to have fans.

The Actual First Quarter

Looking at Metacritic, I see that the first two contestants are pretty evenly matched. Forza Horizon 5 scored a 91 on Metacritic, which set the bar pretty high, though there is still room that it could have been higher. Divinity Original Sin II did reach even higher and scored a 93. Even when I consider the Forza Xbox rating, it only gets to 92.

So, Forza gets an RNG between 1 and 91 while Divinity rolls in between 1 and 93. It’s all pretty close, and either could pull out the magic 5 points to push them to 30 for the quarter.

The Rolls

I’m gonna have to say the RNG gods are not with Forza because rolling a random number between 1 and 91 gets the racing game a whopping 6. that means that not only does Forza not add on any points beyond the 25 base points, but it loses points and sits at 20 points for the first quarter.

Divinity is up next, and there’s not really any way that the RPG could do worse. Sure, they could roll a 1–9 and end up with a similar 20-point score, but there is no way they could end up with 19 points.

They end up rolling an 11.

The Score

Wow! The RNG gods were not happy with either game in the first quarter, and we ended up with a one-point game.

Divinity leads Forza 21 to 20.

Wrapping it Up

So, with the first quarter of the first match under my belt, we see that neither team even made the base 25 points. Of course that leaves things wide open as things could easily tilt to one side or the other over the next 3 quarters.

Next up, I’m going to advance to the 2nd quarter for this match and look to kick off the contest of the Wild Card for the Shadows Division, pitting Star Trek Online against Black Desert Online.

RRGM 1 | Elephant 3| 2022.87 | Forza Horizon 5 versus Divinity Original Sin 2 – First Quarter