This might be short notice, but Frontier Developments just announced that, as of September 6, 2024, the Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters DLC will be delisted from storefronts. The DLC first came out in 2019. As it is licensed c??ontent from the movie, its days were always numbered, and it looks like those days amounted to (a bit over) five years. Still, a little more notice would have been appreciated.

The Ghostbusters DLC features decorations and rides based on the film franchise. The Ghostbusters Experience ride also includes a sort of interactive mini-game. There’s also a “narrative�campaign featuring the voice of Dan Aykroyd and William Atherton (Who? Oh, Peck!). It was praised as being a fairly robust expansion, whereas other lic?ensed DLC for the game were more cos??metic.

I didn’t get it at release. I just bought it upon hearing the news because I love Ghostbusters (not the new movies; I didn’t watch them). I’m not quite as keen on Planet Coaster,?? but there’s always the chance I’ll find the spark that gets me into them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine game for what it is, but I like more challenge from my management games. 

I’ve played Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo, but I find that it’s way too easy to make money, and then the challenge of it disappears. I get that some people play these games to make their dream parks, but that sounds more like level design to me. I prefer Roller Coaster Tycoon where there’s some challenge ?to balancing the books.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the Ghostbusters DLC is g??etting marked down before it’s delisted. With the short notice, I wonder if it hit Frontier rather abruptly. They are saying that if you were subscribed to their subscription pass, they’ll add the DLC to your account for free so that if you built something using the items, you won’t lose access. Wait a minute�you could just subscribe to that for a?? month and get the DLC for a fraction of the price. Crap.

As a reminder, Planet Coaster 2 has been announced f?or this Fall. I’ll probably play that, too, and will likely be reminded once more that these just aren’t the types of games I’m looking for. I never learn.

The post Heads up: the Ghostbusters DLC for?? Planet Coaster is about to be delisted appeared first on Destructoid.

There's something strange going on in the Destiny 2 neighborhood. Bungie announced on Twitter that an in-game Ghostbusters collab heads to Destiny 2 next week. It certainly isn't the first time Guardians have seen worlds collide in-game, and it seems that the practice is steadily?? picking up pace.

Destiny 2 has seen plenty of crossover content in the last couple of years. Collaborations kicked off in earnest during 2022, with crossover cosmetic gear from Fortnite and Assassin's Creed. The following year, partnerships intensified, with a PlayStation crossover bringing in Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Horizon, and The Last of Us cosmetics. Before the end of 2023, players would also see a crossover with The Witcher. Only a few months into 2024, we already saw Mass Effect cosmetics in Destiny 2, with this latest Ghostbusters collab following soon after.

What's part of the Destiny 2 Ghostbusters collaboration? 

The crossover between Destiny 2 and Ghostbusters appears less in-depth than the Mass Effect and Witcher collabs before it. Bungie didn't show off any Class-specific armor sets designed around Ghostbusters, just equipment. That said, Bungie did show off the cosmetics up for grabs, and at least a couple are sure ??to entice fans.

The crossover ship and Ghost shell seem like they'll be instant favorites for Ghostbusters fans. The Ghost Shell is Slimer-themed, essentially transforming a player's ghost into the little green ghoul. On the other hand, the ship is styled after the iconic Ecto-1, complete with sirens and all. There's also a new Sparrow, but this seems like it'll be less coveted, given the recent introduction of Skimmer hoverboards and because it resembles the new villain from the upcoming Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire film.

Following the track record of these kinds of collaborations, the Ghostbusters content will likely be available exclusively through the Eververse Store. Guardians c??an get to busting on March 19, when the crossover and weekly reset go live.

The post Destiny 2 is getting a Ghostbusters crossover appeared first on Destructoid.

We’ve got the tools, we’ve got the talent

A group of plucky modders have taken to expanding the 1990 Genesis/Mega Drive version of Ghostbusters to correct a longstanding problem with the game: Winston Zeddemore wasn’t in it. The Ghostbusters: Special Edition hack adds the fourth ??‘buster. Beyond that, it also implements a slate of other? improvements.

Developed in 1990 by Compile, Ghostbusters on Genesis/Mega Drive is a pretty unique title. It was released after Ghostbusters 2, but it is neither based on that title nor does it pull from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series. Instead, it presents a different kind of sequel to the original game. It’s a side-scroller where you delve into various locations to purge them of ghosts. While this commits the sin of having a Ghostbusters game where you just? blast away ghosts, there are sequences where you trap boss enemies.

//youtu.be/LnsBy1vFn9A

The weird thing about this title, however, is that it had the likeness of Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Bill Murray, but completely omitted Ernie Hudson’s Win??ston Zeddemore. I’m not sure why. He was left out of a lot of promotional m??edia at the time and even some of the other video game adaptations of the franchise. Actually, I have a pretty solid hunch as to why Winston was often left out.

Not worth 11.5 a year

Beyond restoring the full crew, Ghostbusters: Special Edition also includes the ability to change the color of your flight suit and a “Nightmare�difficulty mode. Artist Pedro Soares also made this re??ally awesome Mega Drive clamshell cover to go with it.

[caption id="attachment_376797" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Pedro Soares[/caption]

I’m not a huge fan of the Genesis/Mega Drive Ghostbusters game. It was kind of�weird. I also preferred New Ghostbusters II on the NES. That game already included Winston (and Rick Moranis as Louis Tully) out of the box. Still, Ghostbusters: Special Edition is a tempting off?er. I sho?uld probably have an Everdrive so I can play these homebrew projects on the original hardware.

You can find the Ghostbusters: Special Edition patch right over here. The link includes?? credits for the team involved in the mod.

The post Play as Zeddemore in Genesis/Mega Drive Ghostbusters: S?pecial Edition mod appeared first on Destructoid.

Some bustin' will make you feel better

IllFonic is getting prepped to drop the first free expansion to Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the asymmetrical? multi-player ghost-trapping game. Today's update fattens the game’s meat up with an extra stage, customization options, and a few quality-of-life improvements.

The biggest addition here is the new map, “The Facility.�Whenever I hear anything with that moniker, I always think of the classic Goldeneye map. There are no chemical tanks here, however, as the facility seemed to be set up for medical reasons, featuring all manner of sinister apparatus. Its haunted nature has proven to be something of a bugbear for the construction workers you’ll need to keep calm. The ghosts are keepi??ng their renovations behind schedule, and when that happens, who ya gonna call?

In terms of customization, the great news here is that a feature is getting checked off my personal wishlist: options from the cartoon series, The Real Ghostbusters, are being added. This includes the classic blue proton pack and the boxy PKE meter. They’ve been given a battle-damage makeover to help them fit into the game’s aesthetic, but there’s no mistaking where they’re from. There are some smaller customization additions, but having gear from the other Ghostbusters series is a fun win for fans.

[caption id="attachment_360414" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via IllFonic[/caption]

Have you or your family ever seen a spook, specter, or ghost?

Finally, there’s a new spirit class being unleashed: the Muncher. This cuddly Class 5 first appeared in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and, according to IllFonic, is “the most requested Ghost IllFonic has received.�You know what ghost I think should be added? Fearsome Flush. On top of these additions?, there have been improvements to match?making and bot behavior.

I still fire up Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed occasionally and have been ready to see what IllFonic adds to it. I still have a laundry list ??of items I want to see added and am happy to start checking t??hose off.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is currently available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Stor?e. This first DLC ?drop is available for free starting today.

The post G??hostbusters: Spirits Unleashed gets real with first free DLC drop appeared first on Destructoid.

Don't look directly into the trap

I’ve said it before, but I’m a massive fan of Ghostbusters. However, I don’t think you get the whole picture. Back in my teen years, I was an active part of the Ghostbusters fan community on the internet. This was back in �1 to maybe �4. I made my own costume, discussed the movies and the gear within, and speculated on a possible Ghostbusters 3. I don’t really have any stories of anything bad happening, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth. It’s like, “Ew. I existed when I was a teenager. How horrid!�/p>

It was a different time on the internet, that’s for certain. The dotcom bubble burst, Web 2.0 was starting to swing, and we were about to see the short boom of Livejournal and MySpace before Facebook and Twitter would arrive to homogenize the internet cesspit. Want a taste? This is the website for Ghostbusters Doom 2. That is the good stuff, right there.

It was still a few years before Ghostbusters: The Video Game gave the fandom what we craved. We’d argue what the best game was based on our holy scripture, but the consensus was always that none were particularly great. Meanwhile, Stephen “Scooba Steve�Browning and his group of modders were at work transforming Doom 2 into something wonderful. Then they stopped.

What did you do, Ray?

To be fair, Ghostbusters is a horrible license to try and move into Doom. How are you supposed to render 22 flights of stairs when the engine can’t even do room-over-room? Moreover, the Ghostbusters didn’t just blast ghosts; they lassoed them with science and stuffed them into boxes. It was such a key fact of the universe that the negative impact of destroying ghosts was covered in both The Real Ghostbusters cartoon and IDW’s comic book adaptation.

Despite this glaring inaccuracy (that the team probably knew about), what was finished of Ghostbusters Doom 2 shows a total reverence to the source material, perhaps to the point of b?eing misguided. To wit, the first level has you walk through the New York Public Library to find a single ghost. Accurate? Yes. Fun? Sort of.

Where do these stairs go?

It sometimes feels like Ghostbusters Doom 2 was less about creating an entertaining experience and more about representing scenes from the movies within the confines of the Doom engine. The best level found within is a translation of the courthouse scene from Ghostbusters 2 where you battle against the Scoleri Brothers (of which only one of them has a custom sprite)?.

The developers really pushed hard to recreate the scene. Most strikingly, there are a lot of invisible objects in the environment that, when hit, turn to flame. This means that as you spray your proton juice around the place, it looks like actual damage is being done. This left such an impression on me as a teen that my biggest wish for Terminal Reality’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game was destructible environments, and they deliver?ed.

If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say

As I mentioned before, however, the team never finished Ghostbusters Doom 2. I think part of this is because they aimed to make a “total conversion�mod, which is to say that they intended to replace every level in Doom 2. That’s a lot of proton juice to try and get out of two movies tha?t weren’t really? action flicks, to begin with.

Browsing through the levels in the last build shows a bit of straining for content. Levels like the Mayor’s Office and the Statue of Liberty were considered and left in the early stages of development. There’s a level where you drive Ecto-1 through th?e streets of New York, and the only goal is to drive to the Sedgewick Hotel, find that there’s no parking, and then travel to ?a parking garage.

However, wi??th that said, it still seems as though they were in the process of figuring out what worked and what didn’t. Had devel?opment continued, I can easily imagine a cohesive finished product, but they weren’t quite near it yet.

The tools and the talent

What we’re left with, however, is a series of disjointed and unfinished levels. You need the level skip cheat to actually see what’s available, as most of them don’t have proper endings. Some of the levels are quite impressive, such as the rooftop battle against Mr. Staypuft, the aforementioned courtro??om scene, and even the all-too-frequent trips to the firehouse. You can easily?? tell the art that is closer to being finished in comparison to the placeholders. The Ghostbusters are especially fun to see in the game’s art style. You could even rope in other players for co-op.

Then there was the soundtrack. While much of it is still incomplete or drawn from other games, the renditions that were moved over to MIDI sounds showed promis??e.

The real shame here is that the talent and passion the group brought were visibly on display. Even comparing old screenshots to the “fi?nal�product reveals improvements made along the way. It’s entirely possible t?hat they would have eventually met their ambitious goal.

You're really handy, I can tell

Ghostbusters Doom 2 has occupied a space in my mind ever since I first played it. It was at a time when not much was happening with the franchise. Even new merchandise, while plentiful now, was scarce at the time. Every fan’s passion project was looked into and lifted up. Ghostbusters Doom 2 was something to rally around a??nd get exc??ited about.

As it sits, Ghostbusters Doom 2 is mostly a curio. Scuba Steve would move on to find success with Action Doom, and is still a member of the modding community. Newer source ports allow for more to be done with the Doom’s well-aged engine, so the experiments done by the development team are a bit ??quaint by today’s standards. They were doing things the hard way.

But whenever I find myself playing a game on Id Software’s engine, my mind usually strays back to this ambitious mod. It then also strays to The Battle of Helm’s Deep level, which is still completely rad. Then, usually, it goes to Chex Quest. My ??point is: I can’t name a fan modification that has left a more lasting impact than this one. I’ll probably be showing it off?? for decades to come.

For other retro titles you may have missed, c??lick right here!

The post Ghostbuste??rs Doom 2 is an unforgettably unfinished mod appeared first on Destructoid.

I feel so funky

I’ve been a massive fan of Ghostbusters for almost as long as I can remember. That means I’m insufferably picky. I haven’t even watched the 2016 reboot or Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It’s already been proven you can’t top the majesty of the original film. Video games are similar. Most games made off the license are okay at best and abysmal at worst.

When Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed was announced, I was skeptical. I’m not typically drawn to multi-player-focused games, and anyone who touches my beloved had better have immaculate hands. This time, it’s Illfonic, makers of the Friday the 13th game. They’ve proven themselves before, even if it was sort of overshadowed by Dead by Daylight. So, as I fastened up my positron collider, I kept a st??ance of cautiously optimistic mixed w?ith immovably scrutinous.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: IllFonic
Publisher: IllFonic
Released: October 18, 2022
MSRP: $39.99

The background to Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed has Ray and Winston (and maybe Peter, but he doesn’t appear) re-openi??ng the Ghostbusters back in the old firehouse. Since the business only seemed profitable during major, apocalyptic disruptions and real estate in Manhattan is probably even more expensive than it was in the 1980s, this seems like a bad move. Even worse, they’ve hired a bunch of new 'buster??s to sit around and eat Twinkies.

Okay, so apparently, there are still a lot of ghosts running around New York, which means we’re more in cartoon territory here. While there’s a storyline that runs as you level up, it’s not terribly interesting. It makes the same mistake that a lot of new Ghostbusters narratives do and brings in previously mentio?ned subjects and puts the spotlight on them. Of course, that’s hardly the draw here.

We’re really here to kick in the doors and be “totally discrete.�You and three other '?busters are dropped into one of the game's five environments with the goal of catching the ghost running rampant. The ghost h??as three opportunities to respawn through rifts hidden in the environment. Ghostbusters can close these rifts either by catching the ghost and forcing it to respawn or by locating a haunted object in the environment and using their proton stream to shut it. If all the rifts are closed, and the ghost finds itself in a trap, the 'busters win.

[embed]//youtu.be/SvU0NnTCxXM[/embed]

No human being would stack books this way

The asymmetrical part of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed has one player take the role of the ghost. Their goal is to creep up the place by scaring civilians and haunting objects. It’s largely a matter of survival, as rif?ts can be protected, moved, and re-concealed. If you’re feeling really sassy, you can sabotage or outright attack the 'busters. You can’t fully eliminate the Ghostbus?ters, but you can delay them and frustrate their attempts to undo your work.

Haunting is actually a lot of fun, but unfortunately, I didn’t have much chance to try it in the lead-up to this review. Often, I was playing with the same groups of streamers and press in the pre-release period, which you’d think ??would mean I’d frequently be rotated into the role. But it rarely happened, even if I joined from the spirit realm. It’s likely that with more players running, there will be more opportunities, but I didn’t get all that much time to experiment.

The franchise rights alone will make us rich

The first time I played Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, it didn’t click. It was chaotic and confusing, and everyone else seemed to be having the same trouble. When I went back to it, I quickly found myself getting invested. From the moment when the team splits up to seek out the rifts to the final minutes where they group together to wrangle ?the ghost, there’s a lot of dynamic fun to be had. Many of the game’s mechanics have smaller nuances, to the point where strategies take ?form over repeated plays.

Busting along can be difficult, which is something that has often been stressed across multiple versions of the universe. In Extreme Ghostbusters, Egon even remarks that going alone is breaking the first rule of ghostbustin?g. You can’t maintain a tether and throw a trap out at the same time, and a ghost that slips your stream can disappear quite quickly. It’s better if someone supports the person with the primary tether. Throw out a tra??????????????????????????p, open it, then help guide the ghost in. Better yet, if you can bullseye the trap under the ghost.

The whole experience feels rather polished and balanced. It may need some fine-tuning, but I had plenty of battles against talented ghosts who were one miscalculation away from seeing the inside of a trap. Spirits Unleashes feels like it has a lot of passion behind it. More than just a licens?ed multi-player game, the development team put some visible thought into how to adapt the subject matter into a compelling multiplayer experience.

Are you a god?

There’s a decent amount of customization available, which I’ll admit is very important to me. There are multiple skins for each ghost type and the equipment can be tuned with some very universe-appropriate upgrades that graduall??y get unlocked, but more key is the ability to deck out your 'buster. You’re mostly forced into the uniform, but there’s a wide selection of ways to wear it, as well as colors to choose from. This means that while you can go wild with your creations, no one looks fully out of place.

Between jobs, you can also wander around the firehouse, check out your various collections and side tasks, and even interact with some of the equipment. While the narrative is a bit bust, it takes the time to actually be a Ghostbusters game. Ernie Hudson and Dan Aykroyd are both here to voice their characters, with both Winston an?d Ray being lovingly animate??d.

Light is green; trap is clean

As a Ghostbusters fan, I’m left wanting more. I wish the humor were more in line with the original movies, but instead, it sounds more like it’s ripped from Extreme Ghostbusters. Being able to do something with Ecto-1 would have been nice, but something tells me Illfonic probably did some thinking on how to include it, but it fell out of scope. Frankly, while I wish for more levels and more? customization, the price they’re asking for what’s there seems more than fair.

When the multiplayer was dropped from the remaster of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, I was rather disappointed. It was somewhat tacked on to tick a box that the publisher probably wanted, but it was kind of fun all the same. I’m not big on multiplayer, but busting makes me feel good. There’s been a drill-sized hole in my heart waiting to be filled, I just wasn’t expecting Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed to fill it so well.

And, as I sit here writing this, I can’t wait to zip up my flight suit and step back into my combat boots to bust some more. A lot of love was poured into Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, and it speaks to me. I can onl??y hope that Illf??onic is able to support it for months or even years to come because I can definitely see myself returning to it again and again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an unlicensed nuclear accelerator to strap to my back.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed appeared first on Destructoid.

Lemme tell you something

I often opine that video games have not been very good to Ghostbusters. I would think that the entrepreneurial attitude of the original movie depicting a very chaotic and game-like profession would be ripe for translation, but most titles that approach the subject matter fumble it. Sometimes they fumble it catastrophically. Ghostbusters on the NES is?? among the worst games I’ve ever played.

The go-to answer for a Ghostbusters game done right is Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and it’s absolutely a decent effort. H??owever, despite getting together the original cast and? sticking pretty faithfully to the license, the narrative felt tonally off, and the gameplay was merely middling.

If you want the game that really deserves to be considered the best title wearing the tan flightsuit, it’s New Ghostbusters II on the NES. You may have played Ghostbusters II back in the day and thought it was kind of butt, but I’m talking New Ghostbusters II.?????????????????????????? It was HAL Laboratories' crack at the license, and they definitely nailed it.

It's a river of slime

If you need a reminder, Ghostbusters II was the movie where they wore the sequel’s logo on their uniform. It wasn’t the masterpiece that the original film was, being a bit more dopey, commercial, and family-friendly (even though a couple of scenes traumatized me as a child). However, it still had a fun pace, good humor, and the same great cast. It’s definitely still worth watching, but being compared to the original Ghostbusters film is never going to end well for anybody.

While Activision had the rights to cash in on the film’s image in North America, HAL Laboratories got it for Japan, and the very next year in the United Kingdom. This meant that their version never landed on this side of the pond, but a similar game by them, Ghostbusters II on the Game Boy did while being published? by Activision.

Hot and ready to pop

While Activision’s efforts are the kind of quality you’d typically expect from a licensed NES game, New Ghostbusters II is a joyful representation of the film. The whole experience is represented as a chibi-styled, top-d??own af?fair. You choose two of your favorite busters from a selection of five. Rick Moranis�character, accountant Louis Tully, is also available. There’s no difference between any of them, so it’s all a matter of preference.

One of your chosen characters takes the lead with the proton pack, ensnaring? ghosts and holding them into place. The other follows behind with the trap, throwing it out and capturing the entities. It’s all rather quick and snappy. It follows the concepts laid out in the film but manages to avoid making them a chore. It also boils down the gameplay to two buttons. Everything is done with the trap and proton pack. Nothing new is added throughout the game, but it gets a lot of mileage out of the basic mechanic.

The one downside this has is that your partner is AI controlled. They don’t exactly match your footsteps, instead wandering slightly. While this is definitely a more dynamic way to play t?he game, it does allow for rare instances where your trapper gets stuck somewhere. There was one boss encounter in particular where I snared my prey, only to notice that Egon wasn’t even on screen. I died as a result, and when I respawned, he was still AWOL. I had to search ??for him, discovering that he was stuck in the bathroom. Happens to the best of us.

The Titanic just arrived

The levels roughly follow the flow of the film. There are no cutscenes, so it’s up to you to remember how it all goes together. The whole game can be completed in under 45 minutes, but there are limited continues that threaten to push you back to the start. It’s not the hardest game, but it isn’t the easiest by a longshot. The third level in the apartments, for example, is a lot longer than the other stages and can be a test of endurance. New Ghostbusters II also has a habit of trying to surprise you, and since one hit ca??n cost you a life, it’s easy to start shedding your extra busters.

While 45 minutes may sound rather brief �and it is �it means that the gameplay doesn’t have a chance to go stale. As much as the core concept is well-executed, n??ot a lot is done with it. There are no power-ups, no alternate weapons like the slime blower, and no mechanics beyond enemy disposal that make use of it.

That’s unfortunate because a lot could be done with it. Not just through the implementation of proton-powered door locks, but through a wider foundation. Once again, I’m wishing for some sort of managerial meta for a Ghostbusters game. It’s too bad that New Ghostbusters II wasn’t some resounding success that begged the development of New Ghostbusters II 2. The cor??e mechanics are gr??eat. Someone just needed to take them and run.

Did you catch the number of that train?

What’s there is a tonne of fun, though. While games like Ghostbusters on the Sega Genesis feel like they try twist the core concepts of ghostbusting to fit into a pre-existing formula, New Ghostbusters II is more like asking how the movie can be made interacti?ve. The biggest issue here isn’t a shortage of execution, it’s a lack of ambitio??n.

Yet, I still recommend New Ghostbusters II to any fan of the films. From the soundtrack to the core gameplay, there’s a lot of love in the final product. Considering some of the ??bombs that have been thrown to fans throughout the franchise’s entire lifespan, a competent game from the past is a breath of fresh air.

I mentioned that there was another HAL Laboratories creation released around the same time, Ghostbusters II on the Game Boy. While a lot of the concepts cross over ??to the platform, it’s not the same game. It’s significantly scaled down. Maybe still worth a look, but?? not as impressive as its NES equivalent.

For other retro titles you may have misse??d, click right her??e!

The post New Ghostbusters II on NES will mak??e you feel good appeared first on Destructoid.

It's never too early to map out your month-long Halloween media schedule

We haven't heard a ton about Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed lately, but the new slime-shooting, trap-laying multiplayer game will be released on October 18, 2?022.

Pre-orders are opening up at retailers like Amazon �how much is it? $40 for the standard edition on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S, and $70 for the collector's. The game will launch on the Epic Games Store for PC, and it will als??o be playable o??n PS4 and Xbox One.

In case you missed it, this is the latest asymmetric multiplayer title from IllFonic, the folks behind Friday the 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds (which is back in the spotlight, if only for a bit, thanks to the new curiosity-grabbing movie Prey).

Expect more info shortly

The developers will have more to share during a live play session on August 18 at 11:15 a.m. Pacific on the IllFonic Twitch channel. For now, here's an older video showcasing the Ectoplast ghost type, including the Pokey, Winky, Brainy, and Slimer variants.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idu-39hR070

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a solo or team-oriented game depending on if you're a ghost or a Ghostbuster, and like any of these sorts of games, it will be best played with a group of friends rather than leaving your fate to chance. That's just the way. Of course, it's not always easy to rally everyone, and all but the best asymmetric games tend to have a short shelf life. We'll see how far the Ghostbusters name can go in gaming in 2022.

I will say, this one's got a far more family-friendly vibe than, say, Dead by Daylight or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which could be enough of an opening to succeed.

Other games in this genre can be so high-stakes. Something about possessing objects and haunting NPCs as a ghost seems less... stressful. Although it's unlikely to be the ideal way to play, it's good to know that IllFonic will offer an offline "solo experience." In the future, when the Spirits Unleashed population inevitably dwindl??es, that'll come in handy.

Players have been ?burned before, so I get any skepticism ??that might come up. Until we see more, it's safe to be guarded. October's the right month for the launch, at any rate.

The post Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed locks in October 18 rele??ase appeared first on Destructoid.

Because calling it Haunting Grounds would have been too obvious

There are a lot of IPs out there originating in comics, television, and films that have a surprisingly difficult time translating over to video games. I think we’ve all played a game or two based on a movie or TV show that we love only to be disappointed by the end result, left wondering how it all went wrong. And there is perhaps no better example of this than Ghostbusters. Despite being a pretty good candida??te for the interactive medium, the franchise has struggled to really cement itself as a gaming experience. In recent years, it’s only managed to hit middling ??highs with Ghostbusters: The Video Game while sinking to new lows in 2016’s Ghostbusters. Nobody has managed to crack the code just yet, but that may change soon enough with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.

From developer IllFonic, the team behind Friday the 13th: The Game and Predator: Hunting Grounds, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a new 4v1 asymmetrical online experience that, unlike the two aforementioned tit?les, is designed to be fun f??or the whole family.

The game is a continuation of the original Ghostbusters universe, taking place after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. With the original firehouse restored, you create your own buster–complete with a variety of character races, genders, and body types?? to choose from–and join up with Winston Zeddemore’s new crew, going on missions to bust some ghosts. Ernie Hudson is reprising his role as Winston and he is not alone. Dan Aykroyd is back as Ray Stantz, running Ray’s Occult Books. His bookstore is how one player will take up the role of a ghost for each mission.

Last week, I was given a glimpse of the game in action with its museum stage, showing off how Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed works from the point of view of the Ghostbusters and the target ghost. As a ?Ghostbuster, your job is simply to bust that ghost. Using your PKE Meter, you can track ??????????????????????????down and stun the ghost before trying to rope it with your Proton Pack into the Ghost Trap. All of your core gear can be upgraded and customized as you unlock new ranks. And don’t worry about avoiding crossing streams. Doing so will only make your beam more powerful.

When playing as the ghost, your main goal is to totally haunt the stage, which is to say, scare all the NPCs into fleeing the building. For the demonstration, I got a look at a gnarly little purple ghost, which will be one of the g??hosts available when the game ships. As a ghost, you’re able to possess various items in each stage, using them both as a means of hiding from the Ghostbusters and as a way to terrify the people populating each stage. Unlike the Ghostbusters, which is played in the first-person, playing as the ghost is done in the third-person, giving you a greater look at your surroundings. 

Ghosts have an ectoplasm meter they need to keep track of and the different objects you possess will act in different ways. For example, possessing a large item may be very loud, possibly giving the Ghostbusters a clue to your location. While the ghost can see through walls with Ectovision, its greate?st tool is its Ghost Rift.

Because catching a ghost just one time would be too easy and quick for an asymmetrical game, IllFonic has devised Ghost Rifts as a way to extend each round to its target seven-to-ten-minute duration. Ghost Rifts act as a get-out-of-jail-free card for the ghost. When it’s captured, it will automatically spawn at one of these rifts. Ghost Rifts can be moved and hidden by the ghost, but just know they can also be destroyed by the Ghostbusters. There are three rifts available in the museum stage, but the dev?elopers said the total number?? of rifts will depend on the stage.

Seeing it in action, I can’t help but think how perfect the Ghostbusters formula is for an asymmetrical experience. It just fits, and without the death and blood found in some of IllFonic’s other game?s, it’s one that has the potential to reach a lot more players, especially those younger on??es.

It’s also a game that has the potential to reach players who don’t really care about going online to play with strangers and friends. The developer said its AI programming has improved since Predator: Hunting Grounds and it’s ??working to make sure people who want to play this game by themselves will be able to do so offl?ine with the AI/CPU.

Of course, the fun of a game like this is playing with your friends. Voice Over IP is coming back to Spirits Unleashed and players will rotate into the ghost position s??o everyone gets a chance to be on both sides of the battle. While there will be some canon ghosts in the game, the developers stated that most of the playable ghosts will be original characters and you sh?ouldn’t expect humanoid ghosts, like the Grey Lady, to show up in the game. I have no idea what the purple ghost was supposed to be before it died, much like Slimer, but I’ve been told IllFonic is working with Ghost Corps in the creation of this game and storyline.

I’m pretty excited to see more of what this game will have to offer when it releases later this year. I’m not a big Ghostbusters fan. I’m also not a big a??symmetrical multiplayer fan. But somehow, putting those two things together has got me very interested in seeing where this thing goes.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is scheduled for Q4 2022 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S,?? and PC as an Epic Games Store exclusiv??e.

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Who are we calling this time?

I almost can't believe that Ghostbusters, as a franchise, has lasted nearly 40 years. From the insane original concept from Dan Aykroyd, to the sequel, to multiple cartoons, to video games, people have been singing the heavily litigated theme for decades. And given that it's still relevant yet again following the mostly fine response to the alright Afterlife film, it's probably time for another Ghostbusters game. Ernie Hudson thinks so too.

So earlier this year we got word that Friday the 13th developers IllFonic were probably working on a Ghostbusters game. But thanks to Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore in the films), we have a second confirmation. Hudson revealed the news at the Celebrity Fan Fest event this past week.

Here's what he had to say on the topic:

"I just got an e-mail, because we’re doing another video game. They’re scheduling it now to do the recording, and I’m not too sure who going to do it, I know me and Danny (Dan Aykroyd), I think. I’m not sure about Billy (Bill Murray) will do anything on it. So, there will be another video game. When they’ll bring it out, I don’t know, but it’s definitely happening.�/p>

Ghostbusters, as a whole, is what I'd call a disorganized franchise. Even from the very start things were a little foggy in terms of who was the steward of the characters, and now we're bouncing around from Terminal Reality to IllFonic. But given that the latter generally puts out serviceable games, I have hope that it'll be playable, at least.

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Suck in the guts, boys...

Ghostbusters may be the latest in a long line of classic movie franchises pre?paring to get a ne??w digital facelift. According to new whispers that emerged this weekend, developer IllFonic has begun work on a brand new video game featuring the spook-chasing scientists.

The "leak" �as such as it can be called �came about during an episode of the Questlove Supreme podcast, where IllFonic co-founder Raphael Saadiq casually dropped the news in response to a question about the studio's wares to date, noting that their studio was "working on Ghostbusters right now".

IllFonic is no stranger to Hollywood, having previously developed games based on Friday the 13th and Predator. One wonders whether the studio will also be applying its typical, multiplayer-heavy approach to its take on Ghostbusters. Given the asymmetrical nature of the aforementioned releases, it's easy to picture Ill??Fonic devising a PvP/PvE adventure where one group of players controls Ghostbusters, with others taking up the role of various ghoulies. We shall see.

Ghostbusters as a brand has explored gaming for decades. Classic home release Ghostbusters: The Computer Game (1984), Activision's Ghostbusters 2 (1989), Data East arcade The Real Ghostbusters (1987), and Atari's Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009) represent just a small selection of a huge slew of releases centered around the antics of our hapless heroes. While IllFonic's new project is little more than a hastily spoken sentence right now, there is a brand new movie on the horizon, and th??us we'll no doubt be receiving more information on this curious new pro??ject very soon.

We're ready to believe you.

//twitter.com/NextGenPlayer/st??atus/1444306??795665707012?s=20

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Maybe Blair Witchin' makes you feel good too, weirdo

It's time for the weekly Epic Games Store freebies, and, as we told you last week, the new crop is all about tho?se Halloween vibes. 

On the docket this week is the divisive Blair Witch from Bloober Team and the well-regarded Ghostbusters game. Ghostbusters is a remaster of the ??2009 game that was fan-servicey as? all hell. You should definitely check it out.

Next week is Red Dragon but not the Hannibal movie I wish it was. (Seriously, I just watched Red Dragon on Netflix two weeks ago. That shit is still excellent.) It's Wargame: Red Dragon, an RTS where western troops take on the Communist forces in the Pacific theater. Only one next-week game has been announced thus far, but? you know Epic's gonna come swinging in with another.

F?or now, two movie-based games and one more that should be movie-ba?sed. Hannibal would probably call us rubes for playing video games.

Blair Witch, Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered [Epic Games Store]

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I LOVE THIS TOWN!

Sony and Saber Interactive have released a new trailer for the upcoming remaster of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The short video features fans of the 2009 release reminiscing about some of th?eir favourite moments from the star-studded adventure.

Although some players found Ghostbusters: The Video Game a little repetitive on release, the third-person adventure is considered something of a small treasure among the dedicated Ghostbusters community. Due to the game's efforts to reunite so many original cast members, and the implementation of an original storyline that maintains several ties to the movie lore, some fans regard the release an unofficial pseudo-sequel to 1989's Ghostbusters II.

In Ghostbusters: The Video Game, the player takes up the role of a fifth team member, who helps Venkman, Stantz, Zeddmore and Spengler investigate strange behaviour around? the city, which seems to be heralding the return of Gozer the Destructor. All four Ghostbusters returned to reprise their roles from the films, as did Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz), William Atherton (Walter Peck) and Max von Sydow (Vigo the Carpathian). Alyssa Milano also stars as new female lead Dr. Ilyssa Selwin.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered launc?hes Octobe??r 4 on PS4, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

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You know who to call

Come October, you'll be bustin' like it's 2009. The remaster of the vaunted Ghostbusters: The Video Game is nearly ready to haunt this mortal plane.

Fittingly, Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered will launch during the spooky month. It's set to release on October 4 on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Strap on your Proton ??Packs, don't cross the streams, don't d??isregard any strange piles of slime.

Alongside the launch date, we're also treated to the first slice of gussied-up gameplay. The video that's embedded above shows how the new battle against the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man looks. All we're missing is a very larg??e graham cracker and ?a ton of chocolate.

@PlayGBremaster [Twitter]

The post The?? Ghostbust??ers remaster breaks containment in October appeared first on Destructoid.

We're Ready To Believe You

Following on from its unofficial reveal at the hands of the Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee, the PlayStation Europe channel has dropped a trailer for a remastered edition of 2009's Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

The remaster is being handled by Saber Interactive - who recently found success with multiplayer shooter World War Z - and Mad Dog Games, who are responsible for Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn. Though the trailer is PlayStation branded, the remaster h??as been confirmed for PS4, PC, Xbox One?? and Switch.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game sees players in the role of a new recruit, who takes to the streets of New York with Ray, Peter, Egon and Winston to take on ghoulies, poltergeists, apparitions, and that guy in the painting who tried to become a baby. The third-person adventure saw the return of many original c?ast members including Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Harold Ramis, Annie Potts, Dan Ackroyd and even William Atherton as EPA asshole Walter Peck.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered will launch later in 2019.

The post Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered confirmed with ?new trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

It has a story and everything

There's nothing like a fan-favorite crossover to boost an aging game into the headlines. Ghostbusters is back, and not just in movie form. The theme park management sim Planet Coaster has recruited Dan Aykroyd and William Atherton to reprise their roles as Raymond Stantz and Walter Peck, respectively.

Along with those returning characters, the Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters content pack will?? also include appearances f??rom Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and "a few" extra surprises.

Frontier Developments has called this Planet Coaster's "most ambitious content pack" so far, with not only new rides like a slimed-out kiddie coaster and an interactive dark ride with Parti?cle Throwers, but also a voice-acted story-driven campaign to leave a more lasting impression. Ray Stantz will mentor players as they "build their park and take care of the ghostly issues that besiege their rides."

Curiously, there's no precise release date, but the DLC will be available?? "soon."

In other Ghostbusters news, Aykroyd told the Canadian Press he's penned a prequel called Ghostbusters High that's set in Jersey in 1969. "We're looking to do that as probably a glorified feature or pilot w??ithin the next maybe five years. [...] And it would lead to a television project and I thought of [director Jason Reitman] immediately for that. It's on his desk but that's years away from the current project."

"We have at least one or two other concepts for the Ghostbusters," he said, "and ??then we'll look at doing the prequel, which will be a perfect button on all we've done u?p to that point."

I'm not sure about all of that, but yeah, story-based DLC for Planet Coaster seems cool enough. I wonder what other collaborations the ??studio might have in mind.

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Who is it that you are going to ring?

The Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee are at it again, after last week's mysterious revelation of a new Under Night In-Birth entry, the board has dropped a listing for an Xbox One release titled Ghostbusters The Video Game Remastered.

While there is no real info on this out-of-the-blue release, many will obviously assume that we're loo??king at an upgrade of the 2009 title of the same name, which famously saw original cast members Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis return ?to voice the famous ghostbustin' quartet, alongside William Atherton, Annie Potts and even Max Von Sydow.

Ghostbusters The Video Game Remastered is listed as being published by Mad Dog Games of NBA Playgrounds and Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn fame. There is also a website link available, though playghostbusters.com still appears under construction. Of course, we'll let you know should more information be forthcoming. In the meantime, slow down... chew your food.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered [Taiwan Ratings Board]

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There's a cat fighting ghosts why isn't this in every game

This contest is one to purr over: Win a Steam copy of Cattails.

If you visit this here websi??te a lot, you might have noti??ced that I have something of a similar setup in my contest posts. I like to start with an intro, give some game info, and then end with stuff about the game. I'm going to shake things up a little for this one, though, because today I've got a game where you can fight ghosts as a cat.

Come win a copy of Cattails and show those damned ghosts who's boss.

So, you're a cat and you do a bunch of ??cat things, like po??unce on frogs and do puzzles and get married. Also, there are a bunch of ghosts and you use your cat claws to swipe at them and defeat them. Because they are ghosts and up to no good and you're a cat and also up to no good, but you'd like to be doing your no-good deeds without the presence of ghosts. Makes sense, right?

Also you have to like maybe survive and worry about relationships and eating. But honestly, I saw that cat fighting a ??bunch of dumbass ghosts and knew instantly that I had to have this game.

This is not a drill, dear readers. Those are ghosts and you are a cat, and you must defeat them using your claws. If this doesn't make you want the game, then I'm afraid we can no l?onger be friends.

To enter for your chance to win, tell us below why you, a cat, must defeat them, some ghosts.  I, as cats are wont to do, was plotting a way to ruin a human's favorite piece of furniture when those ghosts showed up. They wanted to haunt the furniture, which of course is impossible to do if the furniture is rendered useless by a cat. Which is what I am. Hence, I scratched them a bunch of times and now they're dead. Again. Deader? Yeah,? deader.

We have ?five Steam keys to give away. Winners will be drawn on Friday, November 2. Make sure you comment using a Dtoid account that has your current email address on file.

Cattails is available now for Steam. Also, good news! It's coming to Switch on November 29, 2018. So, you know, you can fight ghosts while on the go. It's?? perfect.

The post Contest: Win a Steam copy of Cattails appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm not laughing

Last month, The Happytime Murders opened to a pretty tepid response, both critically and financially. Having a budget of $40 million, not including advertising, so far the movie has only made half of that back and it's been out for well over three weeks. To make matters even worse, one of those weekends was Labor Day weekend, which usually means an extra day or two for improved box office totals since most people are off work. It placed eighth for the overall weekend. For perspective, Mission Impossible: Fallout, a mo??vie released at the en?d of July, placed in third. 

Why did The Happytime Murders bomb? And let's not mince words here, the movie is a catastrophic bomb. Why couldn't it get more audiences into theatres? I??f I was to hazard a guess, the reason is two-fold. One, the reviews destroyed any chance of an average person going to see it. It currently holds a 23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and while I personally think the movie isn't that bad, Rotten Tomatoes does hold a lot of weight for some people when deciding on what movie to see. The other reason, and the one that is more interesting to look at, is that the comedies studios are putting into theatres just aren't funny at all.

Comedy is one of the most, if not the most, subjective forms of entertainment I can think of. If you tell two people the same joke at the same time an?d place, one of them might piss themselves laughing but the other might just let out a chuckle cause they're being polite. What we find funny is entirely determined by our upbringing, culture, and the people we interact with on a daily basis, and that's just naming a few factors. However, it seems alarming that most of the movies that labeled themselves as "comedies" this year miss the mark completely. Why is that? Well first, what do Americans find funny? And yes, I'm saying Americans because Hollywood comedies are made for Americans and American sensibilities. So how are American jokes structured?

American humor is actually very different from humor in other parts of the world. Look at the differences between comedies in the U.S. and the U.K. Both are English speaking countries, but British humor is more focused on having normal people placed in bizarre situations. Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy, which consists of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End all feature Simon Pegg as an average guy that has to deal with crazy circumstances. Whether it's an alien invasion or a zombie apocalypse, it never seems like it's too out of place in his world. The biggest dilemma he faces in Shaun of the Dead is deciding which records to throw at the zombies that want to eat his brai??ns. He wants to live, but he couldn't possibly throw away "Hip Hop Be-Bop." That's funny.

American humor is usually the opposite. Yes, characters usually have to deal with unnatural events, but the humor is more focused on the characters than the setting. The characters are the source of the jokes and constantly react to the escalating circumstances. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy isn't funny because Ron is navigating the insane world of San Diego's mass media empire, it's because Ron and his friends are over-the-top man babies that get into gang wars and break out into Accapella solos. There are a few exceptions, but typically the characte?rs are the source of the comedy in American movies and TV. 

American studios also tend to cast good comedians as the central characters in their comedies. Say what you will about the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, but the casting choices were not the reason the movie failed. The majority of the cast were Saturday Night Live members and all of them were funny in their own ways. Kate McKinnon is hilarious on SNL, same as Leslie Jones, and while I think that Kristen Wiig has more misses than hits, her time on SNL was good to her. Celebrities like Will Ferrel, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Chris Farley, Jon Belushi, and Maya Rudolph all had great careers after getting their start on SNL simply because they played funny people and had good d?elivery. 

But here's the kicker. You can have a fantastic cast and have a great lead actor, but if your script is terrible, then your movie is going to suffer. Writing a good joke takes time and effort. You need to know how to tell it properly, how much setup you should have, when to get to the punchline, and how long you should hold before continuing. It's all in the moment. You can ask any performer how they were able to get an audience to laugh at a joke and the best they can do is ??shrug their shoulders and admit they don't know how they got people to laugh, they just did. It's an art, not a science. 

But when making a Hollywood movie, you have all of the opportunities to perfect a joke. You can tell a single joke in multiple takes. You can? deliver the joke in a variety of ways. You can edit it to hell and back after production is done. You can even film multiple versions of the joke and test screen it with different audiences to see how they react to it. But if the joke isn't funny to begin with, none of it will matter in the slightest. 

And so, as is often the case with comedy, let's talk about Adam Sandl?er. 

Look... I get why people like Adam Sandler. He's a funny comic and has some classic bits that still hold up today. His "Hanukkah" song is phenomenal and some of his movies like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and 50 First Dates hold up extremely well today. However, most of his modern movies range from being passable to outright trash. Jack and Jill, That's My Boy, The Ridiculous Six, The Do-Over, and Pixels are all terrible movies that are bad movies for a variety of reasons, but the biggest complaint i??s usually that they're poorly written. Basic joke structures are overlooked and substituted by Adam Sandler doing a funny voice, or maybe he's yelling, or maybe there's a piss joke?? in there. The joke lies in the gimmick that Adam Sandler is telling a joke and not because it's actually funny.

And you can really make the case that a lot of the bad comedies that come out today over-rely on gimmicks. Funny comics may be cast in your movie, but they're not given a chance to be funny because the movie they're in is based on an unfunny gimmick. Uncle Drew is a mo?vie about old basketball players showing that they can still play basketball. All of those old basketball players are played by former NBA stars, but what's the joke? That the old people are actually NBA players in age makeup? Yeah... so? Why is that funny? Is it because old people shouldn't physically be able to play basketball, but they're able to do so in the movie? Yeah, that's th??e gimmick, but what does the movie do with it besides acknowledging it?

The same goes for The Happytime Murders. It's a detective noir with puppets. Cool! Sounds fun! But what does the movie actually do with?? it? Short answer, nothing. A few jokes are structured around the gimmick that most of the cast are puppets, but the majority of jokes could have easily been done if the puppets were humans. The joke is the premise, and if you don't like the premise, then your movie sinks. Even then, if you have only one central gag in your entire movie, then it's going to?? run out of steam by the end. 

But badly written comedies are nothing new. Hell, they've been a constant for as long as movies have existed. No matter what year or decade it is, bad comedies will always find a way to wiggle their ways into theatres and underwhelm audiences. It's sad to say this, but fantastic comedies have, and always will be, rare. For every Zoolander or Blazing Saddles, we'll have a hundred Bio-Domes or Alvin and the Chipmunks. Those bad comedies are still built on terrible writing, usually catering t?o pop culture trends that date the movie as soon as they're released. We've thankfully steered away from movies whose humor relied solely on pop culture references, but ho-hum comedies still seem expected today.

So where have all of the good comedies gone? They've never left! Good comedies still exist, but they're more focused on making a point and getting a message across than ever before. Nearly all of the best comedies today have an ax to grind against someone or something and by God, they're going to make you laugh and face those issues directly. Both Sorry to Bother You and Eighth Grade are labeled and advertised as comedi?es, and in truth, they're some of the funniest movies I've seen all yea??r as well as some of the most thought-provoking. 

But if you think that those movies are too "niche" or that tho?se are movies that only film snobs and critics go to see, then just look at the MCU. While its movies aren't labeled as straight-up comedies, every Marvel movie features a healthy amount of jokes and levity. People have criticized Marvel for its brand of humor, but the jokes are still there. It's just the humor isn't as big of a priority as the action or the continuity. 

Most movies that market themselves today as comedies aren't that great. I think it's ??going to be a while until we have another all-time comedy classic hit theatres that everyone falls in love with. Writers are much more prone to copping out with gimmicks than actually develop scripts and jokes that stand the test of time. If you've been jonesing for laughs, then go check out Netflix. Most successful stand-up comics have exclusive deals with Netflix to stream their comedy specials and Netflix has an undeniable stranglehold on the market. Comics like Dave Chappelle, Bo Burnam, Ali Wong, and Hannah ??Gadsby all have fantastic Netflix specials that have some of the funniest jokes I've seen in years and I saw them all on my laptop. Not in theatres. 

The talent is there. There will always be amazing comics ready to tell jokes and make people laugh one way or another. What Hollywood needs to do is let these talents tell their own jokes and not just improv their way through clumsy joke after clumsy joke. Don't let 13 writers come together to write a funny script. Trust the comedians to be funny. That's wh?at they've spent most of their life doing. Don't rely on gimmicks to get audiences into theatres. If a movie is funny, people will hear about it and want to go see it. Word of mouth has worked wonders for the stand-up comedy specials on Netflix, so let it work for big budgeted movies.

Don't play it safe. Be a little risky. Comedies don't need to have a multi-million dollar budget. Keep it small, keep it insular, and ??keep it focuse??d. If you do all of that, I can guarantee that people will start paying more attention when comedies make their way to the big screen. 

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What if they still made movie tie-in games?

I'll be the first to admit it, this story's a little strange. I'm pretty sure we've never posted anything from HalloweenCostumes.com before.

Movies and TV shows tend not to have full console releases anymore, as the tie-in games we see today seem to have shifted to mobile, where it's easier and faster to develop a title. So it's an interesting "what if" exercise to think? about what some game boxes might look like if the SNES were still the dominant console, still receiving licensed movie and television tie-in games. 

Some of these are better done than others, but one thing that particularly impressed me was the attention given to each fake SNES game's publisher. Interplay is a great choice for the Game of Thrones game, since that publisher was known for adapting story-heavy intellectual properties and TV shows like Star Trek. Similarly, it's logical that Capcom would've published the Deadpool game back ??in the '90s, even though Activision was actually publisher for the 2013 ?game. 

Furthermore, it makes perfect sense that Sony Pictures would have tapped Sony Imagesoft to promote its tie-in of the rebooted Ghostbusters.

And for better or worse, JVC was the publisher for the three Super Star Wars games that were released on the SNES, making this box for the upcoming Rogue One anachronistically accurate.

If the titles on display here piqued your interest, there are several more boxes at the HalloweenCostumes website, including Captain America: Civil War, Better Call Saul, and Suicide Squad. In all, 16 titles were boxified, one for each of the Super Ninte?ndo's 16 bits.

Super ?16: 2016 Movies and TV shows as Super Nin?tendo games [HalloweenCostumes.com]

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Shut it off, I'm warning you

For the past week, I've been playing Ghostbusters for one hour each day. I'm technically capable of spending more time with it, but I'm not that strong-willed. After my one hour, I treat myself for my commitment to this job. One day I got ice cream. Another time I played a better game. Once, I just went to bed. Really, anything is a reward after an hour with Ghostbusters.

This Ghostbusters title is a lot like going to the gym and running on the treadmill. Beforehand, there's a voice in your head that says "Here's a better idea: Let's just not do it!" During, it's unpleasant, tedious, and you don't eventually end up getting anywhere. The analog falls apart when you consider the aftermath. At least there's a sense of accomplishment after running on a treadmill; investing time in Ghostbusters is nothing more than an unfulfilling waste.

Ghostbusters (PC, PS4, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: FireForge Games
Publisher: Activision
Released: July 12, 2016 
MSRP: $49.99

As far as licensed cash-ins go, Ghostbusters is among the most egregious. It's so uninspired that it's actually hard to offer sincere critique. This is a game that tries to do nothing well and succeeds in its commitment to that effort. At least other bad licensed titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manh?attan manage to come up short. With those games, you can point to the problems and say "this is why it doesn't work." That's not the case with Ghostbusters. Here, you just have to accept that whoever was in charge didn't want to make a video game?? that was even remotely interesting. It's offensive how phoned-in this is.

It's amusing that Ghostbusters turned out so offensively bad because it tries so hard to be as inoffensive as possible. Obviously aiming to shirk any of the sociopolitical blowback from the movie, the cast is made up of two men and two women. Everyone speaks only in uninspired one-liners. No one has even a modicum of personalit?y. It's all so shallow and safe, and it's immediately clear that this is not a ?game that will make you think.

Actually, Ghostbusters doesn't want you to think. That much is evident by the few design decisions it took to make this. Every level of this cooperative top-down twin-stick shoot??er is mostly similar -- winding labyrinths that sometimes branch off for optional rewards. Along the way, there are waves of ghosts to shoot. Choice ghosts r??equire lassoing and trapping after their health is whittled away. It's far less exciting than it sounds, though; it's just positioning a thumbstick and mashing a button.

After completing the introductory level, you've seen all that Ghostbusters has to offer. Everything after that is just a retread of the exact same process. Stages stretch on far longer than you'd expect, often weighing in right around the 45-minute mark. Never do they feel as if they progress, however. It's just section after section of the same mundane gameplay, all in areas that look the same as wh?ere you just were.

Ghostbusters sports two systems th??at are mildly better than the rest of the game. One is a post-level skill tree where accrued points can be spent improving weapon damage, movement s?peed, health, etc. It falls mostly flat because well-leveled characters don't feel significantly more powerful. The other is a P.K.E. meter that's used to uncover hidden symbols on the ground and leads the way to collectibles that are off the main path. This would be a good concept if it didn't unmercifully slow the pace to a crawl.

Those two ideas that come with gigantic BUTs attached to them are the kindest things I can muster about Ghostbusters. The rest is a vapid, hackneyed slog that feels incredibly long despite being rather short. Ghostbusters does the bare minimum required, and it's apparent that this is a proje?ct that nobody cared about. It's ironic that a game so entrenched in specters and spooks is so completely lacking in spirit.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Who's Harmonix gonna call?

Most every video game goes through some degree of turmoil en route to becoming a finished product. Creative changes, financial woes, conflict with the publisher -- these are all examples of common issues that might cause strain on the development cycle. When getting down to precious months left before Rock Band 4's r??elease, Harmonix was put in a tough position by an unexpected source: 2016's summer b??lockbuster movie.

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of the event. Harmonix was moving from its long-time Cambridge location to Boston's financial district. There were fewer than three months left before Rock Band 4's release, and even less time before the studio had to submit the game to Sony and Microsoft for certif?ication. It was one o??f those situations where every working hour matters tremendously.

Even though it was moving offices, Harmonix had a plan in place to minimize downtime. As Rock Band 4 product manager Daniel Sussman tells us, the idea was that at the end of the day on Friday, everyone would unplug all their equipment. Then, the movers would load everything up and take it to the new place. Come Monday morning, the staff would all show up to work, plug their stuff in at their new desks, and get ??right back to it. Easy peasy, hardly any time lost.

Unfortunately, that's not how it went down. As it turns out, Ghostbusters was filming in downtown Boston that week. This meant that streets were blocked off and, most importantly to this story?, the movers didn't have the parki??ng access they needed to actually move the studio. Predictably, the movers didn't seem to care much; they just kind of said "Eh, we can't do it."

Harmonix, however, did care. A lot. Sussman says that the team was thrown into a panic. This monkey wrench possibly threatened the on-time delivery of Rock Band 4??. Maybe it's hyperbolic to assert that the loss of one day could've caused the game to delay. But, then again, maybe not. As another Harmonix representative put it "The closer you get to submiss??ion, the less gracefully you can handle any net down time." Everyone involved obviously agreed that time was definitely of the essence.

Desperate to turn the situation around, one of the studio's executives started calling people. Harmonix has a lot of contacts in entertainment; t??hat's bound to happen when you've been working with music publishing rights for as long as it has. Through a convoluted "He knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy" chain of contacts, the request eventually ended up getting to the movie crew. Sussman points out that the crew was "very accommodating" and Harmonix got the parking permit it needed to complete an as-scheduled move.

A full year later -- and after the timely release of Rock Band 4 -- it's easy for Sussman to laugh about how it all went down. It could've easily been a very different story. Now, when Harmonix employees go to see Ghostbusters, they don't have to harbor a twing??e of resentment toward the movie.

The post How the new Ghostbusters movie almost poss?ibly delayed Rock Band 4 appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm so excited for this game and movie!

The highly anticipated Ghostbusters reboot is releasing just three days after a new game for Xbox One, PS4, and PC! From the looks of it, it's a multiplayer twin-stick shooter that tasks players with bustin' ghosts and feelin' good as..??. well, I'm not quite sure who those characters are. At first glance, I thought they?? were the characters from the new film, but unless Melissa McCarthy grew a beard recently, then that isn't the case.

The new Ghostbusters game releases July 12. I'll giv?e it a play for sure, but I'll be wishing I was Krist?en Wiig the whole time. Like in real life.

The post Bustin’ makes you feel good in the new Ghostbusters game appeared first on Destructoid.

Let's change it up in here

2009's Ghostbusters: The Video Game was a pleasant return to the ghoul-infested New York City, and it sounds like we'll have another chance to get bustin' this year. What remains unclear is whether it'll feature the cast of women in the upcoming 2016 movi??e.

In a report on Retail Merchandiser via IGN, Mark Caplan, senior vice president of Sony’s Global Consumer Products, mentions that "The positive reception to 2009’s 'Ghostbusters: The Video Game,' voiced by the original cast and featuring a story written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, renewed Sony’s interest in the property." In addition to the recent tie-in content in Lego Dimensions, a new "new full-fledged Ghostbusters video game from Activision will releas?e alongside the ?movie on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4."

I hope it's the new cast. As much as I enjoyed hearing the original cast in 2009, I'd be excited to hear Kristen Wiig, Meli??ssa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon trade sarcastic quips as they avoid crossing the streams.

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With multi-mission campaigns

Every so often we cover board games here at Destructoid, mostly from our tabletop expert Darren Nakamura. But when the opportunity presented itself to check out the brand new Ghostbusters game, I sprang at the chance.

Hailed as one of the biggest board game Kickstarters of all time, Ghostbusters raked in over $1.5 million in funding with just a $250,000 goal. I'm no??t sure it can? live up to that kind of hype, but my time with it has been pretty enjoyable so far.

The basic gist is that players can take control of any one of the four Ghostbusters, and either go on pre-ordained campaigns solo, or with up to three other friends by way of co-op. Instead of setting up each round and heading home, players will instead keep track of experience levels on ?separate character cards, which in turn unlock new abilities as time goes on. The coolest part of this design is that you can obviously just jot down your current progress, and pick back up where you left off another day.

You can tell the creators really enjoy the lore, as they painstakingly crafted a whole comic style intro story in the giant full color manual, which will sufficiently put you in the mood to bust some ghosts. There are three campaigns of varying difficulty to choose from after that -- Slimer, Idulnas, and Stay Puft -- all of which have four missions of their own, along with three other "advance??d" objectives. As you can clearly see, there's a lot of variety here, and it's not going to be the same experience every time.

Players get a certain amount of actions per turn, which can be used for movement across individual spaces, attacks, or abilities like cleaning slime off of a partner, and the Ecto 1 can be used for movement as well. While it took me about 20 minutes or so to learn the rules properly, they weren't all that tough to execute. For the most part the objectives in each scenario are very clear, and setup is dictated by said scenario cards, from enemy placement to the actual board itself (which is comprised of multiple tiles). Attacks are executed by way of dice rolls, which makes everything easier since you don't ?really have to micromanage statlines, just overarching abilities when leveling up, like "+1 Action." 

The way sessions are designed is essentially around 30-minute missions, so playing a scenario can be done over the course of multiple days, or in a one-shot two-hour play period. As is the case with most co-op games with multiple components, house r??ules are easy to implement. When coupled with the basic gameplay flow, it's much more enticing for family members or friends who don't normally p??lay games like this to jump in.

In terms of quality, the board is fairly detailed, and the figures, while provided with plain single-tone colors, are quality. It's easy to tell Egon apart from Peter, for instance, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figure is gloriou?sly huge. It also captures the spirit of the new comic book pretty well, while maintaining the classic feel of the film series.

I don't think I like Ghostbusters: The Board Game as much as some of my other favorite co-op board games (Pandemic, Arkham Horror), but I do appreciate that it has concessions for solo play, and it's far easier to pick up, set up, and play than a lot of its competition. If you're really into Ghostbusters and feel li??ke learning a new game, it's worth the investment -- even if $8?5 is a bit pricey for people going at it alone.

_{[This board game was provided by the publisher.]}

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Wait, this isn't Puzzle Fighter

I was in the middle of dinner, eating some mashed potatoes, and someone texted me "hey, there's a new Puzzle Fighter coming out from Capcom." Holy shit! You're telling me that Ca??pcom is resurre??cting one of my favorite puzzle franchises ever? My heart skipped a beat. Then sunk into my chest after I actually read what it was.

It's called Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter, but it's on iOS and looks like a Bejeweled/Candy Crush ripoff. I mean, just look at it. Really Capcom? I mean, maybe it'll be good when it drops in June, I'm always willing to give something a shot, but you can't just namedrop Puzzle Fighter like that.

It hurts.

Announcing Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter for iOS [Capcom Unity]

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Studio behind Ghostbusters and BloodRayne has closed

2013 hasn't b??een to kind to struggling game studios, and it appears we've got another casualty be?fore this rock?y year in gaming closes out. It is now reported that the Texas-based game studio, Terminal Reality, has shut down.

In a new report from Gamasutra, Jason Sosa, a former employee of the studio spoke out on his Facebook page and said that the developer "seems to have finally shut down." Other developers from the studio chimed in and talked about the situation, whiling lamenting the loss. Stationed in Austin, the studio has created such titles as Ghostbusters: The Video Game, BloodRayne, Kinect Star Wars, and most recently, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.

It's a shame to se??e another developer close its doors. We at Dtoid wish those affected by this th??e best of luck.

Rep?ort: Independent st?udio Terminal Reality has shut down [Gamasutra]

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Death is but a warp pipe, time is but a magic painting

I appreciate Flash animators with quick turnaround between projects. Just a couple months ago, James Farr was able to deliver Super Mario Busters, a kick-ass mashup of Super Mario and Ghostbusters, and already he's hammered out a seq?uel. He's not a man, he's a machine!

Taking cues from Ghostbusters 2, the latest short expands the busting crew to include Yoshi, Sonic the Hedgehog, and a Slimer Yoshi. Then you've got Bowser as Vigo and a giant Samus Aran as the Statue of Liberty, and of course they have to square off in a titanic Smash Bros. s?howdown. The references and sight gags fly by so quickly that you may have to re-watch t??he video several times to catch them all!

The New Super Mario Busters 2 - A Ghostbusters 2? / Super Mario Bros. M??ashup [YouTube]

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Who you gonna call? Mario Busters!

Alright, so I thought this was going to be extremely cheesy but this Super ??Mario meets Ghostbusters crossover is actually kind of cute. A ton of references, nice animations, and that Kirby battle at the end made for an enjoyabl??e video spoof. 

The post Gho?stbusters and Super Mario Bros. cro?ss the streams appeared first on Destructoid.