For the past 2 months, I’ve gone on several interviews for several different jobs, and my first rule to live by is: Dress to impress. Now, of course since this is for a reality show where many many gamers would be seen all throughout the day, and I would be one of the first interviewed, I decided to “Dress to be unforgettable”. I showed up with my black satin and lace ruffled sleeved shirt, perfect fit boot cut jeans, and super cute teeny tiny top hat headband adorned with a feather and pearl, and waltzed into that audition with my 3 inch heal boots that made me as tall as a short supermodel! I looked confident, I walked confident, and in the Atlanta audition- with some of the rowdiest loud mouth gamers around- I smack talked confident too!

Surprisingly enough, there was not a lot of WCG Ultimate Gamer wannabes waiting in the room at 9am when the audition started. I counted 12 at most, but little by little more gamers started trickling in and began getting called back for game testing. I was in the second group called to the back. In the game testing room there were 2 tables, both with 3 TVs on them with the 3 games we would be tested on: Forza 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Street Fighter IV. Not a surprise at all. What was a surprise was the fact that we couldn’t change any of the settings provided for us when we sat down, which is a BIG deal for someone like me who drives a manual on Forza- the first game I played- and was forced to drive an automatic. But like the judges said, “If you’re good at the game, you’ll adapt”. Adapt I did, and by the second lap, I was leading the race in first place! It literally felt like I sat down at this game for a minute before the judges were telling me to switch seats and start on Modern Warfare 2!

For this game we had to play on the mode Special-ops on level Favela on “hardened” difficulty. I figured this would be a piece of cake since I play Special-ops with my husband every day on “Veteran difficulty, but playing without a partner definitely ups the anti by a mile! I was caught off guard and was taken down fast. The sight of the words “mission failed” on my screen kicked my confidence in the ass a bit, especially with FPS being my strong genre. Luckily the judge let me have another go at it! This time I played more tactical and more aware of my surroundings, and managed to stay alive in the minute left on MW2 testing.

The last game in this mini gauntlet was Street Fighter IV. Again since fighting games are my strong genre, I wasn’t nervous at all, but I learned from dying early in Modern Warfare 2, that I didn’t want to underestimate my CPU opponent. I chose Chun-Li to fight with since that’s who I played with in Street Fighter II as a kid, and my opponent was El Fuerte (the Lucha Libre style fighter). I smashed him, almost landed a perfect, and even threw in some sass so the judges could see that I could be fun to watch playing video games!

The next part of the audition was the interview with the casting producer. While waiting for my interview, I got to watch some of the other gamers get tested in the mini gauntlet, and let me tell you- it was NOT good. I witnessed lots of crashing, spinning out, and off-roading in Forza 3. There was a ton of missions failed in Modern Warfare 2, and some of the gamers got KO’d in Street Fighter without even laying a scratch on their CPU opponents. My worries about my 1 death in MW2 suddenly faded away, and my confidence was soaring before my interview; again, a seemingly nerve-wracking experience that I was figuratively jumping out of my seat to get done!

The last part of the audition was easy as pie. A few simple questions- “Why do you want to be the Ultimate Gamer blah blah blah”- and I was out the door with my callback for 9:15am the next day!

Sunday, or Day 2, was serious business. This was literally D-day. The most important interview. The one that gets filmed for the show’s directors to see and convinces them to chose you over maybe 100 other hopefuls for the show. A cool twist to my story is that my husband- who only came there to support me- ended up with a callback too! So my callback interview was definitely special compared to the rest. Here’s how it went: I got called back into the hot seat, then my husband was called into the room and we were interviewed together, then I was asked to leave the room so that he could get his solo interrogation. I use the word “interrogation” lightly of course, but I must admit, this was the only time during this entire process that I actually broke into a sweat. There were some obvious questions asked from the application I already answered in writing, but there were some questions thrown out to see how I would react, and others that twisted the words from my previous answers around (jokingly of course) to see how quick I could think on my toes. Yet, I did amazingly! I managed to answer all their questions while slapping on the CHICKAMUNGUS sassy cuteness, slip in some info about myself I thought would be interesting to directors, and they even let me do my signature sign off (from my vlogs and game reviews) for my audition tape!

The interview with me and Mr. Mungus was even better. It allowed them to see our personalities meshing together. Our super cute giggling corny bubbly ball of geeky romance actually impressed the casting producers enough to want to pitch the idea of “the married gaming couple” to the directors! The idea is golden! But, of course, I’m biased. When we were asked, “What would it be like if both of you made it on the show?”, the answer was unanimous. We would steal the show and dominate the competition. Mr. Mungus is very strong and athletic, and specializes in racing, sports, and shooters. I’m fit, but great at puzzle solving, fighters, shooters and rhythm. Our team- Deathlock of Love- would be a force no one could reckon with!

All-in-all, it was a great interview. It left me feeling like there was no way I couldn’t be on the show! I’ve been spending too much time training for this competition. Yes, I say competition because as a competitive gamer I’ve been putting the same hours preparing as I would a normal tournament. If you add the time spent in the gym, getting in shape, then it would equal more. Whatever happens, I just want to be able to represent as much as I can for the people who have been supporting me through this process. Especially all the female support I’ve gotten from my team Gamer Beauties, the ladies here at Gaming Angles, and all other well wishers and congratulators who just believe in me and want to see me smash some kids on TV!

Don’t worry, I plan on running through these kids like a freight train! Or like a Chicky train with a teeny tiny top hat adorned with a feather and pearl!

Ever since WCG Ultimate Gamer aired in March 2009 on SyFy in the United States thousands of gamers have been wondering when they would get their chance at $100,000 and a 1 year contract with Samsung and World Cyber Games. At CES in January the announcement was made that a season 2 was going to be in the making, and since then gamers have been impatiently waiting to hear when they would have a chance to audition for the 12 spots at the insane LA gamer loft (http://www.wcg.com/6th/fun/news/news_view.asp?keyno=C10010710000).

Well the dates are in! April 7th casting producers will be sifting through the rough in Los Angeles, and April 10th in Atlanta, Chicago, and New York. I hope you’ve been practicing, because this year it’s going to be a heck-of-a-lot harder to make it into the loft- especially since the show’s auditions are now open to gamers from Asia and Europe.

This season is supposed to be “bigger and better than ever“! Writers are already busy coming up with more over the top real life challenges and better game challenges to throw contestants for a loop. The show is apparently so successful, that there’s already talk of holding a casting call in Los Angeles at the show’s finale (http://www.thegamersgarage.com/losers-bracket-episode-8/ )! From the amount of attention this show has gotten- good and bad- it’s a sure thing that this season will be a big hit, yet again.

Of course there’s no telling what games you need to be practicing, BUT it wouldn’t hurt anyone if they’d at least be good at the top Xbox 360 games WCG has used in past events. They’ve already announced their first 7 titles to be used at the 2010 Grand Finale in Los Angeles (http://www.wcg.com/6th/fun/news/news_view.asp?keyno=C10030810000), so you have no excuse for not being able to kick butt in WCG‘s chosen titles. There has been speculation that PC games and even old arcade games may be added to the challenge, especially since 2 of the top WCG games are Warcraft III and Starcraft, but the flier that’s been circulating states otherwise- sorry PC gamers! There’s also been speculation that there would be online auditions held for those that couldn’t make it to any open casting calls. Information about that still has not been released.

One thing that is for sure- I’m going to have my butt in line early for my shot at $100,000 and job with WCG and Samsung! Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted on how the auditions went!

Be on the lookout at WCG.com and WCGULTIMATEGAMER.com for more information. I’m sure there will be many updates coming in the next 2 weeks, so stay tuned!

BUY

Need For Speed is a hit franchise better known for it’s street racing-police chasing shenanigans, but EA’s new Need For Speed: Shift is a hair pin turn in a totally different direction! Fans will remember their last title, Need For Speed: Pro Street, concentrating on track racing with street cars; well Shift takes the franchise to the track once again. Instead of climbing a black list, you’ll be competing in a series of track races and climbing the Tiers to get to the “Need For Speed World Tour”.

So what’s new? Shift has found several ways to engage their fans with new cars (nearly 70), new tracks (over 15), several new race types, an insightful way of leveling up, and what the developers call “True Driver’s Experience”.

Starting off in the game, you are welcome to a pretty good selection of cars in the Tier 1 group. 22 to be exact! The best cars you’ll find in Tier 1 are the BMWs and Audis for their horse power, and ability to contend with cars in Tier 2 races. Tier 2 isn’t lacking either with a hefty selection of M Series BMWs, your choice of the EVO 9 and EVO 10, and a Lotus Elise (which is surprisingly slow even after the highest upgrades). Tier 3 and 4 is a smorgasbord of Porsche, Lamborghinis, Mercedes, and lots of exotic German and Italian luxury sports cars. The C6 Z06, Audi R8 TDI, and Nissan GT-R SpecV are some of the best in show for Tier 3. As for Tier 4, it’s a very close match up between the $1.2 million Bugatti Veyron, and the $1.1 million Pagani Zonda R. Both have maxed out acceleration and the Veyron has the upper hand in top speed, but it’s the Zonda that may take the cake of “best car in the game” with maxed out handling, great breaking, and a top speed that’s not lacking either. This series has arrived in a totally different class than it’s previous titles, and it definitely shows with the cars!

All cars are upgradeable through the game’s pre-set stage and body kits. These kits make your car faster, lighter, and more aerodynamic. On the upside having only one kit to chose from makes for easy and quick shopping for gamers unwilling to mess around in a virtual car parts store, but for others having no choice is a bad trade-off. Unfortunately, if you care about your car’s look, you will eventually have to make the choice of whether or not you want to throw a large wing or wide body kit on your car to make it better, or keep your car’s nice clean look. Adding on to the inconvenience, trying to see said body kits in the upgrades preview window may be a tad bit difficult with all the menu screens in front of your car. Good thing if you sell your car you’ll get all your money back (including upgrades) if you don’t like it!

As for tracks, you will be swerving around on some actual real world renditions, like Laguna Seca and Road America, as well as some that NFSS threw in of their own to test you, like downtown Tokyo, scenic London River, and insane Hazyview Eight! There’s 18 tracks with over 50 different renditions, making your selection seem endless! In Quick Race and online, you can even chose the time of day- dusk, dawn, or midday- for your track!

There’s several different race types in the game that can retain even the most ADD gamers’ attention! Surprisingly, you won’t even get to drive your own car in a great deal of them! For example, in the Manufacturer’s Competition every driver will be put in the exact same car; with an even playing field, it will take some skill to come in first. In Car Battles, you will get the choice of driving one of two rival cars and duke it out in a game of Leader and Follower. This race is best out of 3; in the first 2 races each driver will take turns starting in front. The driver that finishes first or takes a 5 second lead wins. If a winner isn’t determined by the second race, the third race will start the drivers side by side, the rules to winning the race are the same- cross the finish line first or gain a 5 second lead.

Though most race types are fun and engaging, there’s one that may send some controllers flying into the wall, and that one is Drifting! This is another race type that gives you a loner car to drive, but the car they give you seem to be tweaked to fly into walls at the tap of the joystick. Of course the directions are simple: insanely throw your car around a curb, use your handbrake to control speed, and whip your steering wheel in the opposite direction to control your angle! But, NO! The game says this is wrong, and insists on every slight movement sending your car in the opposite direction. Of course you can get used to these mechanics, but that’s if you haven’t already given up on trying. Yet and still, this one race type doesn’t detract from the other events like Time Attack and Eliminator races that keep the game challenging , yet enjoyable!

Don’t think NFS has gone completely soft. Though Shift has gone all simulator on us, the game doesn’t just shine the light on safe driving. Shift has a leveling system that rewards drivers for their Precision and Aggression. You’ll get points for staying on track, mastering corners, and politely passing other drivers as well as spinning your opponents out into the gravel! Everything you do on the track is reflected in your Driver Profile and reflected in your emblem that evolves as your level increases. This is a direct representation of your driving style, which will show to anyone you play online.

Every race has specific challenges to complete, similar to “milestones” in Need For Speed: Most Wanted; complete the objectives, and earn stars which help unlock higher Tiers for advancement of your career. These challenges keep the races fun, and keeps Shift from being just an ordinary, mundane racing simulator. Some of the stars are down right difficult to achieve, so there will be many-a-time gamers will go back to Tiers trying to acquire their long lost gold stamp of approval. Along with points, you will also earn badges, which are in game rewards for miscellaneous achievements around the track. After every level gained, up until Shift’s level 50 cap, you will earn sponsorship cash, unlock several goodies like cars, garage slots, and vinyls to customize your car; and get invited to higher tier events where you’ll be able to drive cars you can’t even afford yet!

The best feature on Need For Speed: Shift is what the developers call “True Driver’s Experience”. The developers at Slightly Mad Studios wanted to create a simulator that virtually makes the players feel like they’re in the seat of a race car going 150mph. From the moment you press the gas petal and take off in a race, the inside of your cockpit becomes blurry, creating a feeling of tunnel vision. The blur of scenes around the track as you accelerate give you the feeling of a race car driver being stuck to their seat from G-forces! Experienced best from the incredible inside-view, every bump and thud and ram is made even more intense when you crash! The moment your car smashes into an object, you’re immediately thrown into a daze, your breath gets heavy, your eyes can’t focus and the world around you is fuzzy until you regain your bearings and get back on track. Slightly Mad Studios definitely gave this new effect the right name! The “True Driver’s Experience” is what really puts this game on the map to be recognized as a racing simulator, and not just a racing game.

All that’s good, but how’s the game online? Multiplayer was surprisingly entertaining, and a much needed diversion when you get tired of playing AI. Unlike some games, Need For Speed: Shift’s matchmaking doesn’t differentiate between a player’s level, so you may wind up in a game lobby of players ranging from 11 to 50. With this game being so popular, for a good reason, it’s pretty easy joining and hosting matches; the game menu is simple and straight forward as well. There’s two modes in multiplayer, Versus and Driver Duel. You have access to the maps you’ve unlocked through Career mode, and the choices of racing, drifting, and even time attack in Versus. You aren’t earning stars during these races, but if you end up on the podium, you will earn cash! If you go to Driver Duel, you will be in a 1v1 match of Leader and Follower, but unlike Car Battles, you both will be driving the same randomly selected cars and working your way up several stages in a ladder to win the Championship. If you were worried about lag, rest assured that in most matches, it wasn’t even noticeable!

Overall the Need For Speed series has come a tremendous way by making this game! Need for Speed: Shift is both in-depth and fun for all levels of gamers, and has brought to the table a new and exciting experience that is unmatched by any other racing game out there! By reinventing themselves, but managing to keep to their roots, Need For Speed has created yet another favorite that fans and new comers alike will be playing for a long time!