WCG Ultimate Gamer Review

Well the WCG ultimate gamer had its finale yesterday, and let me say, it was all you could of asked for and more.  This blog will have spoilers in it, so if you haven't seen the finale, or the show stop reading here and go check out the show.

Link: http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=wcg%20ultimate%20gamer

When the show first started, I was very skeptical as to how things would play out.  After the first few episodes I found myself skipping through much of the show just to watch the gaming portions.  It seemed like just another reality show trying to cash in on the gaming community.  I know a lot of people didn't like the real life challenges, but I think in the end it was a good way to shed the "fat nerd" stereo type that gamers get.  I actually enjoyed a lot of the real life challenges more than the gaming related challenge to that game (virtua fighter ESPECIALLY)

On the other hand the way a lot of the isolation chamber challenges were handled I didn't like at all.  I would of liked to have seen more head to head type challenges.  Like in Virtua Fighter when they had to see how far they got versus the computer, I mean come on that's boring as hell. I guess there was really no other way of handling it, but still it was pretty meh.

Halo really pissed me off too, there is absolutely no reason they shouldn't of had a FFA team slayer, and Dante got completely ****** because of it since players on his team tanked to get him last(I thought he had a legit shot to make the finals).  The elimination round kind of sucked too, I would of LOVED to see a 1v1 of Jamal vs Dante although the tea-bag was great comedy.

The gauntlet I'm kind of torn on.  On one side of things it sucked having everyone put so far out of their comfort zone and much of it seemed gimmicky, upside down driving?, one man band?.  On the other side, putting people out of their comfort zone makes it so whoever adapts the best would win, which is definitely a good thing.  In the end, for as disappointed as I was in the Halo competition earlier, they completely made up for it in the gauntlet with a 9 hour marathon of ffa slayer.  Toss in some distractions like food and 1,000$ there was definitely some strategy and twists to it.  Mark and Rob ended up being the final two, which was a classic underdog average joe vs the seasoned veteran.

The final episode did not disappoint.  I was on the edge of my seat the entire episode, and it was honestly one of the best finales for a show I've seen in a long time, and this is not just from a gamers perspective.  Hell I liked this finale 100x more than the heroes finale from monday.  WCG/Sci-Fi really out did themselves here, and I take my hats off to them.  I don't really have a complaint with the games they picked, and I also really liked the scoring system.  The 3 2 1 point system was great, because no matter what going into the 3rd game whoever was behind still had a chance to come back.  Thankfully they did snowboarding first because having that worth more than 1 point with GoW 2 and Soul Calibre still left would of been a travesty.  Snow boarding was a toss up, but Mark dominated it, and like everyone figured Rob outclassed Mark on Gears of War 2.

Then there was Soul Calibre.  If you thought the Virtua Fighter elimination match that went down to the last match was intense from earlier in the season, well this blew that out of the water.  Rob played Maxi who is a close range player, and Mark was Mitsurugi who was more of a mid range fighter (feel free to correct me).  Rob's strat was basically get in Marks face and go for ring outs, and it worked to perfection as he took the first 4 rounds.  Mark eventually adapted to this strategy and backed off and took advantage of his characters longer range, taking 3 rounds in a row. 

There is no proper word in the english dictionary to describe what happened in the 4th round.  Watching this round gave me that same chill down my spine that I got when I watched the Daigo vs Justin Wong comeback and the Orange Marmalade unreal antics in his 1v2 on ruins of lord.  Back foot ON LITERALLY THE EDGE OF THE CORNER OF THE MAP with no more than 5% health (that's being generous) and Rob going all out with close to 60% health, somehow, someway Mark pulls a ******* rabbit out of his hat and makes the comeback against all odds.  The crowd ******* goes nuts, Mark practically loses it after the match and you can see the adrenaline pumping full force through him.  Right then and there you knew he was going to win the 9th round.  The 9th and final round was a land slide where Mark nearly flawlessed Rob and started jumping up and down on stage going crazy.  You couldn't of written a better finish, and for all the things I disliked about the series this final episode more than made up for this.  I would bet any non gamer who watches that final will be glued to the TV for the duration.

If you are interested in more about the WCG ultimate gamer, definitely go check out www.djwheat.tv and watch Lo3 as he talks with all the contestants throughout the episodes.  Hopefully this is only the first season of many Ultimate Gamers as I think with some tweaking it has potential to be a very popular show.

Also I loved the fact they had Celldweller in almost every show, definitely one of my favorite artists great pick for a gaming show.