Winter is Starting and Dark is Closing Out
Today is a big day in my Rambling Redshirt’s Gaming Madness tournament. It is the first day of results. But not only do we find out who came out victorious in the battle for the Dark Wild Card, but we also kick off the Winter Wild Card.
Around the Tournamemt
My Rambling Redshirt’s Gaming Madness tournament sees one match come to a conclusion and another kickoff today as Divinity and Forza resolve their contest and Half-Life 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 get rolling.
Third Quarter Shadows
First off, I’ll cover one of the events that are not starting or finishing today…Star Trek Online heads into the second half of their match against Black Desert Online. BDO is facing a 4-point deficit entering the 3rd-quarter, but this round features their Steam rating, blog numbers, and in-game population, and they have a clear advantage being a newer game. For starters, each game comes in with a “Mostly Positive” rating from Steam but then, while there are tons of Star Trek blogs out there, there are not quite as many covering STO. BDO leads in the blogger coverage and also in population. With that said, the RNG makes their determination for the 3rd-quarter, and BDO flops and rolls a 10 while STO pulls out a 70! Another upset for Star Trek and they jump to a 10-point lead heading into the final quarter.
Life at the Disco
Disco Elysium finished off the first quarter with a 1 point lead and faces a stiff challenge in YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit coverage against Death Stranding. Facing a difficult contest has not stopped competitors in the past, though, and Disco rolled out a 40 out of 90 compared to Stranding’s 22 out of 95. Disco gains 2 points and leads 48 to 45 at the half.
Divinity is the First Winner!
While today kicks off the Half-Life and Cyberpunk battle, we also have our first winner of the tournament. Divinity Original Sin 2 takes the first wild card spot, beating Forza Horizon 5 103 to 93. Of course, that means that my prediction on the very first contest was wrong, so I am a bit frustrated about that, but getting to know a bit more about Divinity makes me feel pretty good that this would be a game I could sink my teeth into. Divinity will face a stiff challenge, though, as it faces off against the number one seeded Dark Souls 2 in the round of 64.
The Pre-Game Warmup
Now to the main event for the day, the kickoff of the battle between Half-Life 2 and Cyberpunk 2077.
Half-Life 2 came out in 2004 to rave reviews. It won countless awards and is considered by many to be an all-time classic. This first-person shooter by Valve basically created Steam and has sold well over 12 million copies (as of 2011). I am quite surprised that I have never taken the opportunity to play this game, but I would be pleased to see it win its way into the tournament and even win. I could easily see dedicating myself to playing and finishing this all-time great game.
Cyberpunk 2077 is an action role-playing game that came out in 2020 for Xbox, Playstation, and PC. Its open-world environment, pedigree (the game was made by CD Projekt, who made the highly acclaimed The Witcher 3), and stylings made this a greatly anticipated game, and for the most part, the results were positive. There were some technical difficulties that marred the release, but by 2022, the game had sold more than 18 million copies and won numerous awards. I’ve heard there have been quite a few improvements made to overcome the difficulties initially encountered, so I have no fear that this would be a great addition to the tournament. I’ve played it for a couple of hours, and it looks beautiful, and I could easily see myself dedicated to finishing the storyline all the way to the end.
The First Quarter
As before, the first quarter is based on Metacritic scores.
Half-Life comes in with a whopping 96 Metacritic score and one of the highest (I think) in the tournament.
Cyberpunk is no to be trifled with, though, as it brings an 86 Metacritic score even though it probably could have been higher if not for the technical difficulties on release.
The Rolls
With a roll of 25, Half-Life jumps out to a first-quarter lead. Cyberpunk threw down a 19 so we have a very close match.
The Score
Half-Life holds a one-point advantage after the first quarter, and with the scores and ratings, I think this might be an even battle.
Wrapping it Up
We have our first winner in the tournament! Divinity Original Sin 2 beats out Forza Horizon 5 for the first victory lap. It’s only the wild card match, though, so Divinity will still have to face a gauntlet that begins with Dark Souls 2, but they only need 6 more wins to be crowned champion.
The other wild card matches are all in motion now as well. STO leads BDO, Disco Elysium leads at the half over Death Stranding, and Half-Life 2 takes the 1st-quarter against Cyberpunk 2077.
I’m already having fun with this and am looking forward to seeing how the matches continue to resolve and who ends up advancing all the way to the finals.
RRGM 5 | Elephant 11 | 2022.96 | Winter is Starting and Dark is Closing Out