Picks for Rambling Redshirt’s Gaming Madness Wild Cards

Today I am going to start making my picks for how I think things will turn out during my Rambling Redshirt’s Gaming Madness tournament by taking a look at the four wild card matches. I’m actually still not sure how I’m going to determine the outcome of the contests, but I know I’m going to have some aspect of RNG incorporated into the results so that they are not just a repeat of what I pick or what I simply want to win. Instead, there should be opportunities for games to win, even if they are not my favorite in the match.

In any case, I am going to start with my picks for the Wild Card matches.

Wild Card Dark

The Wild Card Dark matchup features Forza Horizon 5 and Divinity Original sin II, and I have played neither at this point. As far as that goes, I purchased Divinity a while ago since I had heard good things about it, and it sounded worthy of my interest. Forza came as part of Xbox Game Pass, and while I am not usually inclined to play racing games, I’ve heard good things about the title…and it’s the 5th installment, so it must be good.

My pick here is pretty much a toss-up, but I’ll go with Forza since it would be interesting to see a racing game in the tournament. Either could feasibly win, though, and I would not be upset here.

Wild Card Shadows

The Wild Card Shadows contest features two contestants that I’ve played before. Star Trek Online is a game that I’ve leveled up in and discussed on this blog before, and it’s a game I’ve enjoyed playing in the past; I just never seem to be able to get past a certain point. Black Desert Online is another game I’ve played, but I really only dabbled in the title. Both these MMOs are appealing to my tastes, and I’d gladly play either if they won the tournament, but I think I would prefer to see STO move forward into the tournament proper. Considering how much I love the Star Trek universe…I gotta throw them my support.

Wild Card Under

The Wild Card Under battle takes place between two RPGs. One I’ve played for about an hour, and one I’ve never even loaded on my machine. Disco Elysium looks like a really cool game, and I was looking forward to playing it last year, but it threw me into analysis paralysis. There are so many variables to choose from just in character selection that I got stuck trying to start the game…and then I died because my tie got caught in the ceiling fan. Death Stranding, on the other hand, was a game that I saw boatloads of advertising for and felt I would enjoy the game, so I purchased it. Unfortunately, I never even installed the game. With that breakdown, I think Disco Elysium would fair a bit better in this matchup.

Wild Card Winter

The Wild Card Winter face-off pitches a classic – Half-Life 2 against a reinvigorated Cyberpunk 2077. Interestingly, I’ve played more Cyberpunk, even though it’s been out for about a year, than I have Half-Life, which has been out for well over a decade. Of course, Cyberpunk has all kinds of the bells and whistles that modern games from 2020 and beyond feature; while Half-Life might be a bit dated at this point but it IS a classic. I could see either game moving forward, but I have to stick to the classic. There’s gotta be a reason Half-Life 2 is still around, and people still discuss it all these years later, so I pick it for my final Wild Card winner.

So there we go; my picks to win the Wild Card matchups are: Forza, Star Trek Online, Disco Elysium, and Half-Life 2. These are just the tip of the iceberg in the picks, so over the next few installments, I’m gonna lay out the games I think will move forward in the tournament and eventually pick a winner. Then the contest will really start, and I’ll get to see how my picks match up to the actual results in the tournament, and eventually, I’ll have a game to dedicate myself to complete.

Ramble 125 | Dingo 54 | 2022.64 | Picks for Rambling Redshirt’s Gaming Madness Wild Cards