Rolling out Wild Card Under with Disco Elysium against Death Stranding
Today kicks off the match between Disco Elysium and Death Stranding, but while these two competitors get rolling, we’re still in the midst of 2 other battles…Divinity Original Sin 2 versus Forza Horizon 5 and Star Trek Online versus Black Desert Online.
Around the Tournamemt
My Rambling Redshirt’s Gaming Madness tournament is starting to pick up steam as we kick off the third match of the wild card series but first, let’s see where things are with the other 2 games going on.
Divinitiy takes a Commanding Lead
After winning the first quarter 21-20, Divinity trounced Forza in the second quarter 27-23. Divinity also has an advantage in the 3rd quarter as they have a higher rating on Steam and are supported by more blogs that I was able to find. Forza does hold an advantage in population (probably because of the recency of release), so while DOS2 has a 90 RNG target, Forza ends up with an 85. With the target advantage and luck of the roll, Divinity scores 28 on a roll of 76, while Forza falls short again with a roll of 60 and a score of 26. Divinity takes a commanding lead of 76 to 69, and I’m not sure Forza will be able to come back in a single quarter.
STO holds on at the Half
With STO holding a 3-point lead heading into the 2nd quarter, Black Desert looked to gain some advantage from its social media presence. BDO came in with an RNG target of 95, while the older STO had fewer Twitch and Reddit coverage, so could only muster an RNG of 85. With that said, STO pulls out the upset and rolls a 75 to BDO’s 68. That pushes Star Trek into a 51-47 halftime lead.
The Pre-Game Warmup
Now to the main event for the day, the kickoff of the battle between Disco Elysium and Death Stranding.
Disco Elysium comes in as an RPG released in 2019 with a very interesting art style. The game uses oil painting techniques to present a cool aesthetic and one that I think works well with the content. And that content is fascinating from what I’ve seen – actually, I haven’t seen much since my first experience in the game ended up with my hanging by my neck-tie from the ceiling fan 5 minutes into the game. In any case, the game is about a murder mystery that needs to be solved by the player, and from what I’ve heard, the game works well.
According to Wikipedia, the game was released to “universal acclaim” it won multiple game awards and was even nominated for a Nebula Award. Disco Elysium seems like a strong competitor.
Death Stranding, on the other hand, is a game I know mostly from the TV commercials featuring Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead. It too came out in 2019, but for Play Station, and then in 2020 for Windows, but it was already a well-received game before the Windows release. Thi action game features an open world and centers around a courier running supplies between isolated colonies in a devastated United States. The game was nominated for and won numerous awards and received favorable reviews. Interestingly, the setting and events reminded many of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have been related to my reluctance to start playing during lockdown.
The First Quarter
As before, the first quarter is based on Metacritic scores.
Disco Elysium comes in with a 91 score giving it a strong chance of scoring big. Death Stranding is no slouch, though, putting up an 86 score and making this a pretty close contest.
The Rolls
And the rolls reinforce the closeness of this match…Disco throws down a 43 resulting in a first-quarter score of 24, while DS rolls out a 27 for a score of 23.
The Score
With a 1-point contest, this could be a close battle all the way through, considering they are both newer games, and both can easily be streamed. I’m looking forward to seeing how things play out here.
Wrapping it Up
With the start of the Wild Card Under match, we have 3 contests underway…
Disco Elysium is leading Death Stranding after one quarter, 24 to 23.
STO is leading BDO at the half by a score of 51 to 47.
Divinity Original Sin 2 is rolling over Forza Horizon 5 by a 3-rd quarter score of 76 to 69.
Next up, I’ve got the final wild card match between Half-Life 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. I’m kinda pulling for Half-Life in that contest since it’s kinda one of the all-time classics, but from what I’ve heard, Cyberpunk has been making a strong showing once it got over its initial release troubles.
RRGM 4 | Elephant 9 | 2022.94 | Rolling out Wild Card Under with Disco Elysium against Death Stranding