An interesting premise...with a few flaws.
As of recent, Sci-Fi has been trying to cater reality-TV shows aimed at the video-gaming community. Last year, it was 'CHA$E'; now, it's 'WCG's Ultimate Gamer'.
Having seen the teaser videos and read some articles for this, This show seems to come across as a repackaging of the now-defunct 'Championship Gaming Series' league shows in a reality-show format. Of course there's also an interesting spin on the competition, where the gamers compete in real-world events based on the video games.
Sounds neat, eh? Nonetheless the show is now taking a great deal of critical hammering - a lot of it from gamers themselves - and the show hasn't even aired yet. I'm willing to give it a chance, although I already see some flaws in it:
-For one, the choice of hosts. The show is hosted by Joel Gourdin and Hannah Simone. I mean, Joel Gourdin?? I couldn't stand watching him during his brief stint on G4. And Hannah Simone doesn't really do much for me either, she looks kinda like a poor man's Kim Kardashian....ideally, I would've liked to have seen John 'Fatal1ty' Wendel and either Tara Sands, Mel Peachey (where have these two ladies been lately anyway? I haven't heard anything about either of them in the past year) or Mary Greenawalt. Heck, even Kevin Pereira would've made a better host for this show. (And don't EVEN bring up Morgan Webb, she's become an epic fail these last couple of years!)
-Secondly, the diversity of the games. So far we've only heard about Halo 3, Rock Band 2, Project Gotham Racing and the new Street Fighter being featured on the show. All these are relatively new games, and only focus on a small fraction of the gaming genre. If we wanted to see who would be 'The Best All-Around Gamer', shouldn't there be some old arcade/Atari/NES stuff in there as well?
-One spoiler I've read is that some CGS alumni will be competing on the show as well. But I haven't seen anyone in the videos who I'd recognize from the CGS; I'm particularly a bit disappointed that hot gamer-girl Kat 'Mystik' Gunn won't be on the show. (OTOH, it doesn't look like Manny 'Master' Rodriguez, that cyber-gaming equivalent to the equally despicable Jonny Fairplay from Survivor, will be on either, thank goodness!) Offhand, with the possible exception of the one pink-haired girl who kinda resembles Lacey Conner from Rock of Love, none of the contestants really pique my interest from the start, but that may change when the show finally airs...
In the end, there are some flaws in the show that I'd like to see fixed should there be more than one season of the show, but nonetheless I'm still interested in the show and how it will play out when it airs next month...
Tim (aka the Slipperman)
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I Tara Sands
Morgan Webb is EVIL