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jp's Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PSP)
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| [November 15, 2011 02:25:53 PM]
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Wow, the annoying parts of this game are really annoying. To an extent that, if not for the rather unexplainable fact that I'm enjoying the story and the environments, the game is an almost unplayable mess! (I had to restart a level because I was supposed to charge a battery from an electrified ghost, I couldn't find the ghost anywhere though!).
I was able to overlook most of the technical and gameplay issues (wonky aiming, clipping, clipping with the camera, etc.) because, they didn't get in the way THAT much. Although I was playing on the medium difficulty setting, the game does a good job of making you feel like it's a good idea to have other Ghostbusters around. When you get knocked out they revive you! Also, they're useful for drawing enemy fire although you have to periodically jump in to revive them. Actually, if there is more than one Ghostbuster, they pretty much take care of themselves which is nice! I guess of all the things that could have gone wrong, friendly AI wasn't one of them, and it helps hold the experience together quite a bit. It also helps that, especially towards the end, you have a variety of proton-pack "mods" to use, and, since you're the only one with them, you have to take care of some of the nasties directly yourself. In this sense, the rest of the team become backups to your "primary" role. While this may seem weird, it's explained in the game's narrative by highlighting the fact that you're carrying around experimental equipment that is unstable and highly dangerous. In other words, you're the one taking the risk (exploding and dying) that the other 'busters don't want to deal with. You're the rookie, suck it up.
I should probably watch the original movie again, but I was thinking about the game's wonky aiming. In a nutshell, it's really hard to aim properly (not only does the camera move around, but the proton streams seem to land anywhere BUT there the cross-hairs are. Initially, I found this quite troubling, but as I played more I realized that it doesn't really matter that much and, perhaps more importantly, it actually makes sense in the context of the game's setting. I don't think this was intentional. The proton streams are shown in the movie as being incredibly "chaotic", hard to control, and also hard to aim. This usually results in the destruction of lots of private (and public) property, which is part of the fun in the game. According to the narrative, the Ghostbusters essentially have carte blanche to lock up ghosts and then have the mayor's office foot the bill for damages. Whenever you break something, a tally is kept of how much (monetary) damage you're causing and you're rated at the end of each level. What's weird is that damaging items in other dimensions is ALSO recorded and, you should break stuff because sometimes they might contain pages from Tobin's spirit guide (which you're supposed to collect).
I'm not actually sure what the point of tallying the monetary damage is (there seem to be no gameplay effects or results), and I'm not sure if the game wants to encourage MORE destruction or LESS. I guess I'll have to look it up on an FAQ somewhere... I don't actually plan on replaying the game though... it was fun, the ending was sort of neat, and that's the end of that!
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| [November 10, 2011 05:29:42 AM]
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Ok, I was curious and checked:
According to Gamesradar.com:
"It's not the most exciting approach, but with scripting assistance and voice acting from the original Ghostbusters writers and actors (including Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson), the game boasts enough of the films' flavor to carry the sometimes-monotonous action for series aficionados."
Wow. Sorry Bill Murray, I guess you didn't quite sound like yourself? Oops. Reminds me of the (apocryphal?) story of Groucho Marx entering a Groucho Mark lookalike contest and not winning...
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| [November 10, 2011 05:25:43 AM]
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I didn't get off to an auspicious start with this one. After 20 minutes of playing the game froze and the PSP shut off. Later, and this has since happened 2-3 more times, I'll get a "disc-read" error when loading a new level. It's possible that the disc is dirty or something, but... how do you clean a PSP disc? I just blow on it and hope for the best (it's worked so far!)...
Anyways, technically I should be hating this game. Or at least be bored by it...but I'm not and I guess I have to justify myself a lot in order for that to make sense. I'm not sure I've quite figured out why I'm enjoying the game other than the fact that it's Ghostbusters, the voice actors sound like the original actors (with the exception on Venkman who's pretty close), and it's funny. I always did like the Ghostbusters...and this game seems to acknowledge a lot of things from the movies (primarily the 1st one, but there are hints from the second in as much as I can remember what that one was about). Am I being too nostalgic about a hit movie from the 80's? Probably...
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jp's Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PSP)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Friday 4 November, 2011
GameLog closed on: Tuesday 15 November, 2011 |
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This is the only GameLog for Ghostbusters: The Video Game. |
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