Comic Con Wrap Up Part 1

So I got back from the New York Comic Con and it was a blast. There was a strong showing of video games and a playable demo of my most anticipated title; Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I’ll start with that demo because I am dying to talk about it. The first thing that I did on Saturday (after waiting in an hour long line to get in) was run to the Atari booth. When I got there I saw this.

The booth had a four sided “locker” type set up with the PS3 version on one side, the 360 version on the other, and the Wii version on the third side. The last side simply had the Ghostbusters logo. On top of each of the sides was a nametag for one of the 4 Ghostbusters: Zeddemore was above the 360 version, Venkman was above the PS3 version, Spengler was above the Wii version, and Stantz was above the side with the Ghostbusters logo. I waited behind some guy to play the demo and I watched the whole demo being played through. I was nervous when he finally handed the controller off to me and I pressed “Start Demo.” The demo began with Ray telling me to stay close and that there was “more fun up ahead” As I moved down the hallway a chair came crashing through a window to my left and I looked over to see a ghost flying away. So I pressed “Y” to pull down the Ecto Goggles and to get out my PKE. The interface on the Goggles was the first change that I noticed. There now was a more involved display. I followed the traces of ectoplasm through a door into a new room. I looked around and moved towards a spike in PK energy. I looked up at the ceiling and all of a sudden marshmallow monsters came crashing out of the ceiling and attacked. I began blasting them and they blew up into marshmallow goo. As I went on I noticed that the marshmallow actually built up on my face and on Ray’s face as we were fighting, a little detail that made the game feel so much more involved. As I shot the monsters they through fireballs at me that I had to dodge, I had to revive Ray a couple of times and the boson dart (the alt fire on the proton stream, a wad of energy goes down the stream and blows up like a grenade) was useful to instantly toast all of the monsters (pun intended) when they were swarming.

As I was playing I was treated to bits of dialogue from Dan Aykroyd that sounded great, you can really tell that he was extremely energetic and excited about this project. After defeating all of the monsters some more popped out of a door and as I went through it I saw windows to the outside of the building. I then saw Stay Puft walking by the windows and the glass shattered and the building shook as he went by. Some more monsters attacked as Ray called Peter saying that we needed assistance, Bill Murray’s voice came out loud and he delivered a great line about the marshmallow monsters that have blocked his path (they’re disgusting and they’re unhealthy) Ray then persuades him by telling him there is a lady in distress and Peter says “I’ll be right there.” Ray kicked open the door and I heard a woman screaming and I saw a bit of the wall torn out. Stay Puft was looking into the room and Ray said “no sudden movements” but Stay Puft grabbed at the lady and we let him have it, I fired a boson dart at his face and he backed off shooting some of his minions at us before leaving. After dispatching with them Ray and I left the room to follow after the lady and she was there with Venkman. At this point a cut scene would have taken place but to keep the demo moving it was removed and we went straight to the rooftop where we finally got to trap some ghosts. The ghosts of construction workers bursted out of the roof and attacked, these ghosts were animators and they could possess objects and hurl them at me. They went into air conditioning units and flew straight at me. I had to use “B” to get out of the way and then I fired with the right trigger to start to wear them down. There was a green circle that formed around the crosshairs when I was shooting at the ghost and the bars making up the circle disappeared the longer I shot, eventually they turned red and I captured the ghost in my stream. It was now a matter of pressing “X” to toss out a trap and then holding the left trigger to slam the ghost into objects to weaken them. Once I felt I had softened them up enough I guided them over the trap and the funnel opened up to suck in the ghost. But the battle wasn’t over, the ghost began to try to get out of the funnel so I had to compensate to keep him in the funnel long enough for the trap to close on him. The mechanic is so fluid, it has a great feel to it, it isn’t too easy or too hard. Trapping the ghosts was so satisfying that I never wanted it to stop. But after about 5 ghosts were in the can Egon came on the radio saying that he had “lost sight of Stay Puft.” I moved towards the ledge with Peter and Ray and the building began to shake. Finally Stay Puft popped up and roared in our faces which, to a person who didn’t know it was coming, was pretty frightening and funny at the same time. Then the demo ended on that cliffhanger.
This level appeared on PlayrTV a few months back and you can still see it on youtube. However the level has improved a lot since the earlier build, with the graphics being much more clean, the gameplay mechanic being tweaked, and the Ecto Goggle interface being updated. The VO work was fantastic, there was a bit of concern after the trailer that Bill Murray sounded lackluster in his performance but that wasn’t true at all, he was so dynamic that I couldn’t help but laugh every time I heard the same line because he delivers it perfectly. The booth had a large backdrop that featured art of Stay Puft, the librarian ghost, and slimer among other new ghosts. There was also an ice sculpture of slimer that was real "cool."

There was also a TV playing the game trailers in a continuous loop. The booth was buzzing all day both days but I was lucky enough to play the demo a total of 7 times. I met Glenn Gamble, the lead artist on the game, and he said that he had researched and designed the game pack which looks fantastic. He was buzzing around all day both days to answer questions (or at least the few that he could) He did say that there was a lot of secret content in the game that they want to keep away from the public until release. Atari hired some guys to appear in Ghostbusters costumes and their stuff was quite impressive. They handed out game stickers and I grabbed a few. I also got to talk to another Atari rep (whose name I did not catch) and he asked me for feedback on the game, it was fun to talk to someone from the game and to let him know what I thought. After watching many people play the demo and talking to several passersby I can safely say that the game was well received, I asked about a demo and was told that most likely it would come to Xbox live and PSN 1-2 weeks before release, so early June. The game was so incredible that I couldn’t believe it, I loved it so much that I spent more time at that booth than at any other place in the convention. This report is going to be long so I’ll break it up and post part 2 tomorrow, I’ll talk about my experiences with Prototype and The Chronicles of Riddick.