Gno Schitt

Taking a lead from Kyro, I figured we needed someone to review games who would be willing to review Xbox360 games. So I'm going to start with some reviews. That said, my first review is a cross-platform game, but one I think many Schittheads will enjoy:

GHOSTBUSTERS!

Total Time: 6-10 hours. Harder for me to lock down, as I restarted once.
Played on: Xbox360, available for PS3, Wii.

Verdict:
If you like Ghostbusters, this game is a must play. The story is a typical Ghostbusters story. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, who wrote the movies, helped with the script. Dan Aykroyd is quoted as saying "It is essentially the third movie". It helps immensely that you know the plot of the two movies, as it takes place 2 years after Ghostbusters 2, and involves elements from the previous movies. Also, most of the cast contributed voice acting, making all the characters sound like you want them too. They also keep a lot of the humourous banter that makes Ghostbusters entertaining.

You play as "Rookie", a character who never talks, and never gets named, as they don't want to become too attached to him. At first I was upset at this, because I wanted to be a "real Ghostbuster" but I quickly changed my tune. They did such a good job of capturing the personalities of the Ghostbusters, I enjoyed being the 5th wheel. If I was, say, playing as Peter, I wouldn't have been so set on impressing the female character. I much preferred leaving the AI to being him while I wrangled me some ghosts.

That is where Ghostbusters shines. Trapping ghosts. You start with your Proton Pack and they nailed how it should feel to use it. You blast the ghost to weaken him, then it automatically switches to capture mode where you struggle to move the ghost where you want him. Usually this is where I realize I neglected to throw my trap down. Release him, throw trap, and quickly re-capture. First ghosts are easy. Then you fight a couple at a time. Then they add possessed people, who you have to slime to knock the ghost out of the body, then capture. Possessed items which you can just destroy. They did a really good job of making a lot of variety while maintaining the same weaken then capture gameplay. They give you a couple other weapons too, your slime blower, Shock blaster, and Hadron Collider, that are better on some enemies for weakening them, and add some puzzle elements. I found I spent a lot of time using my good old reliable proton stream though. Which will cause explosions if you cross streams for too long though.

You can trash almost everything. Infact, that's half the fun. Fighting Slimer in a pirate themed bar? I broke so many bottles of liquor, set chairs on fire, blasted art work off the walls. They actually tally how much property damage you do. It's also very satifying to pick up your hot trap with the ghost you just wrangled, and survey the smashed, burning wreck of a "room" you left behind.

The difficulty of the game was perfect. It was challenging, but not frustrating. Typically the boss fights took a second to figure out what you had to do, then it was just a matter of doing it right. Usually your Ghostbuster teammates will shout out tips, or hints. So if you are stumped, you can just try to stay alive until hints make it more obvious. Once I got to the last level, it was dark, and confusing to navigate, but it was a maze, so that was it's intent. If you just follow your teammates, often they will lead you to the next key area, but I'm not very good at that. The last boss was epic, and a beautiful environment to fight in, but easier than the couple ghost attacks just before him.

Downsides to the game?

First annoying thing is the save system. It's all autosaves, which is fine, but they used very confusing messages when you launch the game. Also, there was no way to turn off autosaves, resulting in me over writting my first play through as I was showing a friend the cool intro video, and first boss. (Seriously, the first boss you fight is Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, how awesome is that!)

Second peeve, the Multiplayer portion. It's a lot of fun, but has bad network code, resulting in a lot of lag. Also, it was written by a different company, giving a very disjointed feel to getting to the multiplayer. Gameplay-wise it is very similar to single player, but with less intelligent AI.

They made a big deal about the face animations of the characters, and how amazing it was they lined up with what they were saying, but I really didn't think it was impressive. Or even close a lot of the time. Compared to other titles coming out, it wasn't a feature they should have promoted.

Some of the Achievements / trophies. I don't really care about the points, but I dislike things that are impossible to figure out without a guide. They have things that involve cooking a ham in 1 specific level. I didn't even notice the ham when I played the game. It was smaller than a plate, in a banquet hall.

I've also heard reports that they rendered the PS3 version with lower quality textures, a move that seems stupid to me, but I can't confirm that.

The credits. When you finish the game, it starts the Ghostbuster theme, which is awesome! Then it interrupts it to go to a less exciting tune, after about 20 seconds. Then the credits go on for 10 minutes. It's a bit understandable, as it's a big title, and they had a lot of companies involved, but honestly, does Dan Aykroyd's legal representative's personal assistant's secretary really need a mention? This is a peeve of mine for a lot of blockbuster games lately though.

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing it. If you like Ghostbusters, it's a must play. However, due to it's length, and limited replay value, I'd say you can rent it, and finish it one weekend. (Or if you own a xbox360, borrow my copy for a weekend)