The time has come! My bags are packed, my guitar is ready to go and I’m heading off to Houston to prepare for a 4 day long Rock Band marathon!

What is The Rock-A-Thon?
The Rock-A-Thon is a multi-day event where gamers from around the country will be coming together to put on a 4 day Rock Band concert, playing every song in the Rock Band catalog back-to-back to raise money for Child’s Play!

I’m told that the Rock-A-Thon will have live UStream footage available to watch through the official website http://www.therockathon.com so tune in and watch us rock out starting November 27th at midnight and for the next 100 hours straight!

I’m so excited! Be back on Tuesday!

With Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero being two of the easiest Guitar Hero versions to date, StarSlay3r has decided to put more emphasis on the harder versions of the title and has switched her focus to Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and now Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Even though Guitar Hero: Van Halen being the hardest version of the game released to date it has still proven to be no match for StarSlay3r as she dominates the leaderboards with her full combos! Make sure to check out some of her newest videos recently uploaded to youtube.

StarSlay3r made her debut in the Netherlands and Belgium via this months issue of CHIEF magazine. CHIEF magazine is a paper press gaming magazine published in Belgium and the Netherlands (Europe) on a monthly basis. StarSlay3r is featured in the November issue #27 and her interview can be found on page 80 and 81 in the Pro Gamer section. StarSlay3r now joins the list of pro gamers interviewed by CHIEF magazine along side Todd Rogers, TriForce Johnson, Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen and Tom “Tsquared” Taylor and would like to extend her gratitude to Stijn Bolle for taking the time to interview her.

The interview is completely in Dutch but luckily we have a copy of the original questionnaire which includes some bonus Q&A’s for you guys! Enjoy!

CHIEF:  At first sight, people could think you only recently hopped the wagon of eSports, but you’ve been at it for more than ten years. How did you first get into gaming and what kept you interested after all these years?

StarSlay3r: I first got into gaming competitively for fun but then I learned about people like Fatal1ty. I knew that I loved gaming and had fun at competitions that were local, but when I heard that a kid is making THOUSANDS of dollars winning tournaments it made me stop and think… ‘You’re telling me this could be my career?’ and that’s something I’ve always thought would be great to pursue even though it seemed pretty impossible to do back then. About three years ago I started placing well in tournaments and started to gain attention and that’s when I realized that I was on the right track to actually making what seemed like a foolish childhood dream actually come true. I was happy to see that years of hard work spent practicing were actually paying off and I was slowly starting to get attention from the gaming community as well as respect from the already well known pro gamers.

CHIEF: A lot of players seem interchangeable in their appearance, but playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, your look, complete with piercings, tattoos and a matching outfit, really makes you seem a part of the game. Do you consider it a complete lifestyle rather than a hobby you happen to be exceptionally good at?

StarSlay3r: I’ve always been a more alternative style type of person but this was the first time where my look actually worked well with a game that I was playing. I already had the bright red hair the tattoos and the piercings and when competing in Guitar Hero tournaments participants started to tell me how similar I looked to a character in the game named “Judy Nails”. After realizing that many people started giving me the nick name of “Judy Nails” at tournaments I decided to roll with it and start cosplaying as her at tournaments for fun and it worked out extremely well. People were drawn in by my appearance but stayed interested when they learned that I was more than just a cosplayer, I was actually placing in tournaments as well. While cosplaying as Judy was fun, I have always had this type of style and just want people to know that when I dress up at events that’s just me being me… not Judy.

CHIEF:  You participated in WCG Ultimate Gamer, where gaming was mixed with emotional setups and drama like an authentic reality show. How do you feel about the whole experience afterward? Do you think it’s the future of how games can become entertaining for a larger audience?

StarSlay3r: I liked the concept of WCG Ultimate Gamer, although I don’t think the drama was really helpful toward showing the world what gaming is all about. Unfortunately drama is something that most reality shows need to keep audiences interested, however I think a reality show based on following 12 gamers as they practice all year long for the WCG championships, following them around the US as they compete in local tournaments all the way up to National Finals would be something that would more accurately portray what it’s like to be a professional gamer and would in the end help to boost awareness of how hard we work as well, although I’m not exactly sure how interested the world would be in watching 12 gamers stare at tv’s all day long.

CHIEF: In July, you wrote a long post on your blog about the state of professional gaming. What are the gripes with eSports you care most about?

StarSlay3r: I think right now some of my biggest upsets with the gaming industry include things like Pro gamers that are signed to teams belittling your average player which discourages many people from trying harder to be better. The fact that there aren’t enough major tournament/ leagues around these days is something that bothers me as well. WSVG and CGS are just two of the major tournaments that have come and gone that were a step in the right direction having salaried players on teams, televised matches and so on. I am pretty disappointed to see how few tournaments there were this year on a large scale. Also the amount that gamers are winning in console tournaments is so low compared to pc tournaments. When Fatal1ty wins $250k in a Painkiller tournament and players come from all over the world to enter EVO or Devastation for just a couple grand max. it’s disappointing to see that when Xbox is today’s major way to game, we don’t really get much for our hard work and high placement.

CHIEF: With television appearances, more than 1,000 followers on Twitter and your popular website, you have become one of the first, true, female celebrities. In what way did it change your life?

StarSlay3r: I’m just happy that I have so many supporters. I have received MANY inspiring emails and messages through Xbox and myspace and such from people that make me pretty happy and tell me I’m doing the right thing in the gaming world. WCG Ultimate Gamer was a great way to help connect me with some of the most awesome people I’ve ever met in my life and I’m happy that I had that opportunity to be a part of peoples lives in one way or another, whether I physically helped them to accomplish a goal or was just inspiring them to pick up a game or enter a tournament from them watching me on tv or online. For the most part, I’m pretty much the same person I was before the tv show and before I was recognized in the gaming community, I just look at it as I have more friends to play games with now, and that’s something I’m really thankful for.

CHIEF: There was a downside to your popularity, as you were often harassed on Xbox Live and had to start blocking people. What kind of messages did you receive?

StarSlay3r: Over 600 thousand people saw WCG Ultimate Gamer and I understand not all of those people are going to love me. Because of the fact that for many of those people Ultimate Gamer was their first time ever seeing or hearing about me, they thought that everything they saw about me on the show was 100% how I am at all times. People have a hard time realizing that reality tv is edited to portray people in a certain light, so I got some messages from people who think I made some poor decisions on the show and did not like how things went down between myself, Geoff, Dante and Mark from the show. Sometimes I’d get messages saying that I made that I was stupid for doing something, and sometimes I’d just get straight up hate mail from people saying that I wasn’t a true gamer, I was just some actress hired to be on the show or that I had no real skill in the games I played on the show and was told to “go back to guitar hero”. It’s something I knew I’d have to deal with when the show came out, but I wasn’t quite as prepared for what I had in store as I thought I would be. Since I’m easily accessible on myspace, facebook, aim, raptr and I’ve attended many gaming events, I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of people who watched the show and they’ve changed their opinion of me. I’m sure things like this have happened to all people on reality shows, and its just something that people need time to get over. Gamers are probably some of the most judgmental people I’ve ever met, and it’s just a part of being in the spotlight.

CHIEF: While having regular sponsors such as Tritton Technologies, you also have some such as Coffin Case which would otherwise be reserved for real rock stars. Do you feel the popularity of music games is changing the music industry and the way people want to experience music?

StarSlay3r: I think that Rock Band and Guitar Hero were two of the greatest things that could have ever happened to the music industry honestly. On top of increasing peoples awareness about amazing bands, those games are the best way for you to sort or live the rockstar life but without all of the stress! It’s so fun to hop up on stage and full combo a metallica song for example, and have people stand up and applaud. I’ve been told that watching a good showmanship tournament for guitar hero is just as fun to some people as actually going to a concert. Great music, people rocking out on stage and not just doing it just to hit the buttons… but sliding around the stage and headbanging because they honestly just enjoy the game… it’s definitely one of the things I love the most about gaming and the main reason why I clung onto the rhythm game genre for so long.

CHIEF:  Do you play music yourself and what kind of bands and genres are you interested in?

StarSlay3r: I’m still learning how to play guitar and drums in the real world but it’s definitely a lot more difficult than it is playing Guitar Hero. I played the electronic keyboard for a long time but stopped playing a few years back. I really think that having a musical background is something that helps when trying to master the rhythm game genre. When it comes to what type of music I like, I love industrial, techno, Jrock, metal and hard rock so bands like The Gazette, Rammstein, Metallica, Celldweller and Combichrist to name a few. Basically if I can mosh or dance to it, it’s probably something I’d enjoy listening to.

CHIEF: Are you able to make a living out of professional gaming or do you have another job that takes precedence?

StarSlay3r: I used to test games for a living, checking for software glitches and errors. My job title was “sprinter” meaning I had to check for bugs while beating the game on the hardest difficulty as fast as possible. While I loved testing games, unfortunately the demand for these positions has dropped and I now have the opportunity to focus all of my time on gaming. I decided about a month ago that I would go full force into gaming and train as hard as possible to make this something I do for a living and not as much something I do when I’m not working. Gaming is my life, and something I enjoy doing very much… I’m just hoping I can find a way to make “pro gaming” my actual 9-5.

CHIEF: You also work as an actress, host and model. Could you talk about the kind of projects you have been involved with because of your notability in gaming?

StarSlay3r: Most of the acting that I did in the past was actually before I was known as “StarSlay3r”. I used to be very camera shy but once I started being taped for my Guitar Hero performances I started to loosen up a bit and I was asked to interview some people at the Guitar Hero 3 launch party with Rob, the host of Coin-Op TV. After we shot that footage he kept in touch and asked me to come back to his show a few other times both as a guest, IM girl and just to talk to the fans of the show. Since then I have been in commercials for Tritton, was on the tv show Ultimate Gamer and most recently just shot a short trailer with No Mercy Video called “Killer Game” which was definitely the most fun roles I have had to date! On the side I do some clothing and product modeling for companies like BusyGamer.com, J!NX clothing, Playstation and more. I’ve been really lucky that companies like these have look at my gaming history and thought of me when looking for people to promote their products.

CHIEF: Games such as Guitar Hero often are reproached for not offering creativity or variety in playing style. How would you respond to that?

StarSlay3r: Rhythm games are a special genre that really should only be compared to each other and not games from other genres. Games like Street Fighter for example do promote creativity and you notice everyone has their own play style which is great, but games like Guitar Hero are more about consistency, accuracy, and being able to perform well under pressure. I can, however, say this… while competitively playing Guitar Hero doesn’t really offer much creativity, the game does have the music creator feature which makes up for everything. Basically with the music studio users can create their own music by laying down their own bass, guitar, drum and keyboard track and this is the area where the user can show exactly how creative they are.

CHIEF: You’re into games, comics, anime … making you the dream girl of many gamers, but I read that some of your boyfriends actually complained that you were just too involved with games. Is that really true?

StarSlay3r: Yes, unfortunately. Trying to be a professional gamer and having some sort of relationship at the same time is something that is pretty hard to do. With all of the time I spent working then coming home and sitting in front of the tv for hours practicing Guitar Hero or rock band, competing in tournaments online and offline and leaving town for events… it puts a lot of stress on a relationship. There were many times when the question “want to go watch a movie?” was asked and I’d have to reply “I’m practicing for WCG” or “I’m studying star paths” would come out and it really just upset people who didn’t understand how important events like that are. I think as gaming becomes more mainstream it will be something that is more acceptable to people and more of an understandable excuse for not going out to a party or movie.

CHIEF: You’re interested in racing cars in real life too. Are you aiming for a professional career there as well?

StarSlay3r: Oh how I wish I could! I’ve learned a lot from racing cars for years at local speedways and drag strips but there’s a limit to how much experience I can get. I’ve wanted to be that person doing the stunts and professional racing in movies like “Fast and Furious” but unfortunately the classes that I’d have to take to be qualified to do that are about $2,500 for 3 days of training. While this is something I’d really love to pursue, it’s something that has sat on the back burner for a while now due to how expensive it is.

CHIEF: It seems the time is over players could just specialize in one game and keep at it. How do you feel about adapting to all different kinds of genres all the time to get to keep competing at different events?

StarSlay3r: I’m glad you asked this! I get asked the question “Why don’t you just stick to Guitar Hero if you’re so good at it?” a lot and I have to try to explain to people how games are like fads now that come and go. Basically games like StarCraft, Quake and DotA are what I call “safe” games… meaning if you play this game and you’re pro at it you don’t need to worry because these games are going to be around the competitive scene forever. Games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Street Fighter are “fad” games meaning you’ll find lots of tournaments for them now, but next year they will probably seem non existent in the competitive scene. I find that by playing all games I never run out of competitions to keep me busy. Guitar Hero tournaments are so hard to find these days and I find tournaments for Street Fighter everywhere along with Need for Speed: Shift and Tekken 6. By playing all games I’m ensuring I’m always at every tournament and every gaming event that comes up and always competing, not just watching people from the sidelines wishing I there was a tournament for MY game going on. I’m just not the type of person to sit at home practicing all year for one tournament… it’s just not my thing.

CHIEF: Could you tell about the type of charities you are involved with? In what way do you try to use gaming to make a difference?

StarSlay3r: I have helped charities like the Autism Society of America, breast cancer research, To Write Love On Her Arms and Starlight in the past. I have a soft spot for kids and hate to see them suffer so I spend a majority of my time helping charities that focus on helping terminally ill children such as Starlight and Child’s Play and I especially love those charities because they’re backed up by a lot of gamers and gaming companies which is where I fit in. I try to use my popularity in the gaming world to help increase awareness of these charities and help raise funds for them to get games in the hospitals for children to ease their suffering and make the trips to the hospital for surgery a bit less scary. My next charity event is called The Rock-A-Thon where I will team up with 11 other gamers and play Rock Band for 3 days straight in an attempt to raise money for Child’s Play while also setting a new world record at the same time. (therockathon.com)

CHIEF: Professional gaming events sometimes still carry the stigma of having some socially awkward players. How would you describe the atmosphere and the people you get to meet?

StarSlay3r: While I have met my fair share of socially awkward players I am noticing that this stigma is a lot less common today then it used to be. There’s a lot more players that are just the average girl/guy next door that just trains hard on games and went from competing at joe’s house on the weekends to entering events like MLG and not as many of the basement dwellers that never leave the house except to enter CPL or QuakeCon. One thing that I’ve noticed is that since the release of games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band people have learned to crawl out of their shell and have fun playing games and in front of huge crowds too, so this has helped to reduce peoples anxiety and helped gamers to become a lot more talkative and friendly at events and I have met some of the coolest people I’ve ever known while at gaming events.

CHIEF:  How often do you practice and isn’t it a somewhat lonesome, solitary experience to have to spend so much time on it?

StarSlay3r: I usually practice about 5-10 games at a time and put in a good 40-60 hours a week of practicing these games. Practicing rhythm games which depend on accuracy and consistancy is probably the only lonesome experience when it comes to gaming since all other games rely on me practicing with other players to get better, I can never be lonely. I used to spend all of my time practicing guitar hero while locked in my room with a video camera and star path print outs which was really bad for my social life and super stressful, but now that I’m back to practicing all games it’s a lot more fun. I spend a good 5-8 hours every week at a local arcade practicing Street Fighter 4, Tekken 6 and BlazBlue with the best players and I have formed some great friendships with these people as well. Also, ever since Ultimate Gamer came out my friends list is full and I get game requests daily from fans which keeps me busy at home with practice while meeting new people at the same time.


CHIEF: What kind of games are you practicing right now and what kind of events, tournament and promotions are you looking forward to?

StarSlay3r: Right now I’m practicing Street Fighter 4, Tekken 6, BlazBlue, a little bit of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and GH5, Rock Band 2, Need for Speed: Shift and Virtua Fighter 5. I’m looking forward to DJ Hero’s release (and of course I’ll be competing on this game as well!), Ultimate Gamer: Season 2, EVO 2010, and the event I’m most looking forward to is the Rock-A-Thon this November. I have never done an event quite like this and I’m looking forward to rocking out for a great cause.

In preparation for the Rock-a-thon which starts in less than 3 weeks I’ve been on a quest to catch up on all of the Rock Band songs that I’ve been missing while playing Guitar Hero, SF4 and Tekken. Last week I rented the Rock Band Beatles and made it a goal to 100% as many songs as possible (I was hoping for EVERY song) and on the first try. I also set the goal to gold star every song no matter what. In Guitar Hero gold starring a song is easy… you just have to hit 100% of the notes so it’s ok if you over strum or have a bad star path, you still get 5 gold stars. In Rock Band in order to get gold stars you must get a “very high score” while on expert, so it is possible to 100% a song and STILL not get 5 gold stars, which is a challenge that I like! The Rock Band Beatles gold star cutoff’s can be viewed here. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to research the cut off’s until AFTER I reterned the game so all of my scores are based on sight reading. (Activating Beatlemania when I thought it was appropriate not knowing what notes were coming up next)

My overall thoughts on The Beatles Rock Band… I didn’t really care for it. Now, I’m not a huge Beatles fan so I knew that this was a possability, but I actually liked a lot of the songs in the game… my complaints are mostly from the game design itself.

Positives:
-Good storyline. I like how the game follows their journey to stardom.
-Age progression. It’s a cool new feature that makes it feel more like you’re actually moving through time with them. (Metallica only had 80’s and today looks)
-All the hits. Yeah I’m not a huge fan, but all the songs that everyone loves are in that game.
-Song specific venues. Yellow submarine… that’s all I have to say. Pure awesomeness!
-Realistic achievements. The achievements are tough, but can be accomplished with a little practice. I also like how they require you to do things like hitting all HOPOs without strumming them which makes for great practice and a tough challenge.
-The ending… was epic. That was the first time I actually was happy with the ending cinematic in a rhythm game.

Negatives:
-Bad highway. It was pretty hard to see the notes especially when activating Beatlemania.
-Bright backgrounds. With the studio video backgrounds being the same colors as the fret buttons it made it extremely hard to see the notes thanks to semi transparent highway
-Distracting sequences. While I love yellow submarine I also hate it… too many things going on in the background sometimes broke my focus on the highway.
-Song length. The beginning of the game the songs were all too short, then toward the end it felt like they’d just never end. (Abbey Road Medley)
-Challenges. The challenges are simply playing every song in each chapter as a setlist. Where’s the creativity? I didn’t feel like playing the game all over again.
-Not enough hard songs on guitar. Bass seemed to be the hardest instrument as far as note tracking for the two instruments.
-1 set progression. You have to play the songs in the same order no matter which instrument you play which means sometimes you’ll play a super easy song followed by the hardest song in the game followed by another easy song. There is no instrument specific difficulty progression in the game.

I only played Guitar and Bass so I don’t have any opinions for Drums, vocals or backup vox. I also did not get the chance to play anyone online for Score Duel or Tug of War due to the fact that despite trying several times I kept getting a message like “unable to find anyone else that matched your search criteria” aka “no one else is playing this game but you”.

I beat the game in approximately 6 hours or so and that includes going back and re-doing songs if I missed just one note or if I didn’t gold star it on my first try. I gold starred EVERY song in the setlist and I got 100%ed all but 5 songs. 1 song I got 98% due to the lack of the number of notes (since I missed only 3) and the other 4 I missed just 1 note on and had an overstrum somewhere in one of those as well so I decided to just continue on with the -1. Here are pics of my scores! Next Rock Band challenge will be LEGO Rock Band if I can get my hands on a copy!

Well guys, this is what happens when you become a “known” gamer…

ORIGINAL BLOG POST 11/15 2:48PM
Yesterday while at the Triple Threat tournament it was brought to my attention that someone from the Street Fighter community was accused of trash talking me on the League Of Legends forums. Upon hearing that, of course, I had to investigate. Upon going to the forums I found out that it was actually worse than I was informed… my identity had been stolen and the person was posting a thread to upset the community.

The following names were registered without my knowledge: EMP StarSlay3r, StarSlay3r and lol StarSlay3r
The only name that is registered to me, and was created TODAY is: realStarSlay3r

I already don’t have enough time in a day to do everything that I want, but now do I REALLY need to dedicate time to going to EVERY games official website and registering my name before the trolls do? It’s also even worse if the person who did this did it for the pure amusement of knowing that people would fight about it for 3 days or just to get hits on thread postings. Why must MY name be used as a tool to drive traffic to YOUR website, blog, forum, etc.?

To anyone who was offended on what was posted on the LOL forum… I can’t say sorry because I didn’t say it, but just know it was just a random troll and brush it off. To anyone who gave me offers to join their team or gave me words of encouragement… thank you, but I don’t even play League of Legends.

UPDATE! 11/15 11:50PM:

I just received an email letting me know that Riot Games has resolved the issue! Not sure if he wants all of you knowing who he is so I deleted his name…

StarSlay3r,

My name is ****, and I am a community manager for Riot Games, the developers for League of Legends. I came across the post on your blog regarding people impersonating you on our forums, and I wanted to let you know that I have seen to the matter. I have returned the identity StarSlay3r to the account that you registered yourself, and I have also taken the liberty of reserving the name ‘StarSlay3r’ in our account creation system so that no further iterations of the name can be registered.

Oh, and should the uncouth ruffians who engineered this dastardly plot decide to post again, you will be pleased to know that they will henceforth be known as: WildStallion, PunchDrunkRhino, and GroggyKoala. Branding trolls with silly, embarrassing names is just another service that we provide here at Riot Games.



Best regards,

-****’

Thank you Riot Games! Issue… RESOLVED!

Today is practice day at Howie’s Game Shack in Mission Viejo. Players can go to the Mission Viejo location and pay $11 for an all day pass to practice on the very center stage that StarSlay3r will be at on November 21st taking on all competitors. Are you ready for the challenge? If not then head over to the Mission Viejo location today!

Hey everyone! Because of the fact that games like Guitar Hero have been stupidly easy to the point that people no longer feel the need to use them in tournaments anymore, I have decided to start picking up some random games from Video 94 and writing about them. Just because I’m a “rhythm gamer” doesn’t mean that’s all I play, it’s just what I specialize in and I really enjoy ALL games, so this is a chance for me to take a break from the competitive scene and enjoy some of the great games that I’ve been missing out on this year! I’ll keep these short, but real… basically no one is paying me $ to give this game or ANY game a good review so I’m going to be honest… if the game sucks, I tell you it sucks! If the game rocks, I’ll tell you why it’s a must have. IGN, Kotaku, 1up…. whatever… this is MY point of view.


The game: Ghostbusters!
System: Xbox 360
Publisher: Atari
Game Type: 3rd person shooter



Since a child I was always a hardcore fan of the Ghostbusters. I watched the movies, put up the posters, and collected everything Ghostbusters that I could from shirts to lanyards and the coveted ECTO-1 license plate. For this reason, and the fact that I had to wait FOREVER for this damn game to come out, I had HIGH expectations for the game.

I start the game and am immediately happy to hear the original Ghostbusters theme song, see the Ecto-1 and the Ghostbuster house looks just like in the movie. All characters have the voices I remember and of course Slimer is there to be a pain in the ass. After the opening cinematic I sat down and said… “this is going to be an awesome game”. I see I’m playing the role as “the rookie”, some random dude who is being trained by the Ghostbusters. I was actually pretty happy to see this is the route they took since I was wondering if I’d have to pick one of the Ghostbusters P.O.V.’s or something at first.

I start the training and find that this game is a lot different from your normal FPS. Instead of having a gun which fires a shot, you are now shooting a stream which means that instead of needing precision aim you can fire away and find the enemy then you’ll have a pretty easy time staying locked onto the target. The other weird part in the beginning was learning how to trap ghosts since you can’t just shoot them then bag them… you must first weaken the ghost with your normal stream, then wrangle it in with a capture stream, then throw the trap, then pull the ghost into the trap’s area forcing it in. All of that is hard enough to do but you’ve also got Walter Peck  on your  ass telling you not to cause too much damage while busting ghosts which makes the game that much more difficult if you actually care about trying to stick with keeping the cost low.

So… I’m running around, I’m scanning ghosts, I’m finding cursed artifacts, I’m mastering the proton pack… it’s all good with one exception. One of the things that bugged me about this game is that I’m having to use my PKE meter to coax ghosts out of their hiding spots A LOT. I spent a lot of time running around chasing ghosts and telling them to GTFO of this or that so I can bust their ass, which caused me to get a bit frustrated and lose interest at times. Every time I see a cinematic or I’m busting a ghost I’m as happy as can be, but when I spend 10 minutes wondering around with a PKE meter I tend to get a bit pissy. Hey, I can only look at a level in 5 shades of green for so long! In total, each level took me less than one hour to complete, and after each level I’m rewarded with an achievement… seems easy enough.

As the game goes on the level’s get progressively harder, the ghosts become more difficult to capture, the bosses more violent (and you have to start finding out their weaknesses in order to defeat them), and there are added puzzle type elements to the game. Sometimes You’ll have to use a specific beam to grab/ move something or capture something in order to continue your venture through the level which can add even more frustration if you’re not an “outside of the box” type of thinker. The story line progresses to tell you that the reason for all the trouble is that there are Nodes in the city which must be destroyed so that the ghost world and real world do not merge. It’s a pretty Ghostbuster-ish type plot which makes sense and gave me some good locations to go bust ghosts. I also like the fact that the bosses MADE SENSE! I mean, I’m in a library and I’m fighting a crazy librarian and her book monsters and in a museum fighting civil war ghosts… good stuff!

In total it took me about 6 hours to complete the game, although I know if I went through the game again I could beat it in about 4 since a lot of time was spent scratching my head and using my slime tether on objects trying to open doors and solve puzzles. Aside from the normal career mode there is also a multiplayer mode that I didn’t get to really check out.  This mode is seperate from the game and includes capturing as many ghosts in a limited period or attempting to defend ghost disruptors as they are charged up.  Players are rewarded an amount of career earnings for their performance but the earnings online do not carry over into the normal offline career.  If I get the game again I will try to go online and see if there are enough people still playing the game to get some rounds in and see how online multiplayer works.  The bad part, there is no local multiplayer mode for 360, so if you wanna bust ghosts with a friend you either have to do it online or man up, hand over the controller, and take turns locally.

Some things that made me all giddy and made me literally want to throw my hands up with glee…

• The cinematics made me feel like I was really a Ghostbuster, busting ghosts.
• I LOOOOVED that they got the original actors to do the voices in the game.
• The ECTO-1 … perfect!
• I got to fight Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man!  That dude is a Ghostbuster legend… he’s so cute too! I felt bad that we had to whoop his ass.
• When running around the Firehouse I saw the talking painting from the Ghostbuster movie, and yes, he actually TALKS too!
• Achievements for this game are easy… maybe TOO easy? I mean hell, you get one just for sliding down the fire pole or busting a ghost.
• This is a biggie… NO HUD!  Yeah, your health meter and proton pack heat level is all located on the proton pack itself so there’s nothing extra on the screen!
• Multiple difficulty levels so the casual players can play and have fun and the hardcore can get man handled by the ghosts. (It’s not fun, trust me)
• There’s a TON of funny lines/ parts in the game.

Some things that kind of bummed me out

• Why didn’t Slimer hang out more? I think maybe I was expecting some elements from the Ghostbusters TV show to be implemented. Oh well.
• No local multiplayer? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY???????
• Too much down time looking for ghosts
• An achievement for total damage cost <$100k I deemed impossible.  I racked up a total $220k damage being careful! Sheesh! Why should I have to pay for that stuff anyways?
• When I pushed the button to open the containment unit in the basement a bunch of lights and sirens went off but then it all went away and I couldn’t push the button again. WTF was that? Why didn’t all the ghosts come out of the unit? I was honestly expecting to have to re-catch all those ghosts and WANTED to!

Overall  I would give this game an 8 out of 10. If you’re a Ghostbusters fan I say this is a good buy since there’s good replay value and an online multiplayer mode, and if you’re not a huge Ghostbusters fan, I still say it’s at least worth a rental at your local video  store!

Well guys, I’ve been gaming pretty hardcore lately and I’ve acquired some new high scores, 100%s and FCs for both Bass and Guitar on Guitar Hero Smash Hits. I’ve been pumping it into overdrive on this version particularly for my upcoming Howie’s Game Shack StarSlay3r challenge where I will be taking on competitors in hopes of defending my undefeated title. Here are some screen shots of my new accomplishments!