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Set in 1991, two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2, this title finds the boys in gray moving onto the next chapter in the world of paranormal investigations and eliminations — namely, expanding the team. You’ll join the squad as an experimental weapons technician with the sole purpose of testing Egon’s latest Proton Pack modifications. Within moments of showing up on the job, a strange wave of ghostly energy emanates from a museum packing a Gozer exhibit and spreads across New York City. The spiritual spike gets every ghoul in the five boroughs riled up, the boys get to work and a devious master plan is set in motion.

This game is meant to be the third movie in the franchise, and with that in mind, we have to talk about presentation right off the bat. The game opens detailing the ghostly explosion in a beautiful cutscene — all the computer-generated movies look great with lots of detail and animations — and we’re launched into the Ghostbusters theme just like when the Gray Lady scared the librarian in the first movie and when Dana caught up to Oscar’s carriage in the second film. These nifty scenes will continue along with the soundtrack from the original movie throughout the game and setup the tale. There are dips in this presentation value — which I’ll get to in a bit — but these touches are pulled right from the movie and drop you into this third-person shooter with a specific story to tell (i.e. don’t expect to choose your next job GTA-style).

To immerse you in the experience, your noob Ghostbuster character doesn’t speak and isn’t given a name other than “rookie.” In the game, it’s explained that this nameless move is to keep the core four from getting attached in case a device goes haywire and puts the whippersnapper out of commission, but in reality, it’s so you can just sit back and play your part as the real Ghostbusters banter with each other in the tech-heavy dialogue and comedic one-liners you’d expect.

For me, this works quite well. If you haven’t been paying attention, the four original Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson) are back to lend their voices along with the team’s receptionist (Annie Potts) and the dickless wonder known as Walter Peck (William Atherton) so you really don’t need some new guy getting in the way of the dialogue, which was penned in part by the films’ original writers Aykroyd and Ramis. I’m sure many would want to create their own character, but when you see some of the facial animations in the CG cutscenes and how the experience plays as a whole, I think you’ll forgive the omission.

OK. So, the game feels a lot like a movie — we’ve even got a new love interest for Venkman in Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn, who is voiced by Alyssa Milano — but you’re probably more concerned with how it plays. A third-person shooter, your Ghostbusters experience is told from the behind-the-back perspective. Rather than have the screen littered with health bars and HUDs (the screen will get red as you take damage and display a running damage total as you blast objects in an environment), your Proton Pack will serve as your hub of in-game information. By monitoring the meter on the right side of the device, you can see how close to overheating you are; yes, to give you some restraints, liberties were taken with the device so that you now have to vent the pack to keep it from overheating and taking you out of the game for an extended period of time.

The pack is also your visual representation for which weapon mode you are in. Rather than limit you to just a proton stream, Egon will have outfitted you pack with a total of four firing modes by the time all is said and done. The first mode is the classic Proton Pack from the movies but packs a Boson Dart (a ball of condensed energy that explodes on impact) as a secondary fire. By tapping left on your D-pad, you’ll switch to your dark matter functions, which causes some blue lights and gizmos to pop out of the pack. These dark blue attacks include the shotgun-like Shock Blast and Stasis Stream that slows enemies to a crawl. The Meson Collider is assigned to Right on the D-Pad — which causes an antenna crackling with electricity to come out of the pack — and tags a ghoul with a tracker and then rapidly fires particles at the enemy. Finally, the Slime Blower is down on the D-Pad and can be used to coat enemies and objects in positively charged goo or as a Slime Tether that draws two objects together. This beaut turns the four red lights green and causes a slime reservoir to rise out of the pack.

Now whats great about this game, other then most other Movie to Video Game attempts, is that it actually is fun to be a Ghostbuster. In between your missions you can run around the firehouse and do various thing that have nothing to do with the story line of the game. Play with slime, the firepole and listen to Janine’s phone callls, all in a hard days work as a Ghostbuster.

The only downside noticed to the game were the random issues with maps. Occassionally you’ll get stuck on metal spikes and other wall objects, but overall it’s not to big of an issue. The most annoying issue, though, is when you will have to wait for your other 3 Ghostbusters to catch up to you if you’ve run to far. This can become a problem when trying to run through a level, and your waiting for one Ghostbuster to get there so you can advance.

A huge upside to having the other 3 Ghostbusters with you is that you can be revived, as well as being able to revive them. Between the cool weapons and different upgrades, the gameplay really is fantastic for being based on such an amazing duo of movies.

Online gameplay is pretty cool as well. You can logon and play with 3 other online Ghostbusters and fight your spirits and beasts together. The online mode is based on 20 levels which you will advance through as you gain experience points (player cash) from catching ghouls and ghosts.

Overall, great game but has it’s flaws. In between cut scenes are lacking graphically but unless your a die-hard over-the-top fanboy most people don’t really pay attention to it. Also, the character graphics are a little sketchy, with obvious texture flaws and bad hair designs.

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Here you are boys and girls, some password cheats and a list of all the unlockable achievements in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some other hints, cheats, and tricks for the game.

Thank you GameSpot for the great article!

Passwords to be entered at the “Input Code” screen

Complete these achievements

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Don’t be alarmed Rock Band fans, there isn’t much change in the new Rock Band 2. The interface and menu that your so familiar with hasn’t changed at all, but the game itself, just took a huge step forward to make your Rock Band experience that much better.



In the new version your now looking at 80+ songs/artists to choose from; the developers truely stepped it up in making Rock Band 2 not as repetitiveness a game as it was becoming. Beyond that, when it comes to your song choice collection, you will also have a the ability to import songs (for a $5 fee) from your mp3 player/computer and play them.



As for game play, you won’t be needing to go out and purchase all new equipment, the guitars from Guitar Hero 2 & 3 will still be compatible, as well as previous Rock Band equipment. One great new feature is the drum trainer, where you can learn basic skills and rhythm without having to hear like crap on stage. Still, once you’ve learned the basics, the best way to get better is to just play some songs and suck, just not as bad. Along with the drum trainer is the fill trainer, which will teach you useful skills to spice up your filler parts so you don’t just sound like some off rhythm idiot for those 5 to 10 seconds. That feature is rather useful because it never hurts to actually sound good.



Of course you will still be able to play solo, or with your friends, but now you won’t have to worry about failing the same song over and over because your buddy can’t pick up the guitar rhythm. There is now a fail off feature where you can continue to sound awful for as long as you want, and not get kicked off stage.

As for the previous Rock Band songs, 55 of them can be easily integrated into Rock Band 2 by paying the $5 fee, and burning/ripping them all at once. Any other songs you made have downloaded are also able to be added to the new game. You will also have the option of picking up a 20 song bonus list, so overall you can have the option of playing 100s of songs, just as long as you have the hard drive space. All of these songs you will be able to play during World Tour mode.



Yes, everyone’s favorite, the World Tour mode. Well, not much has changed, except for a few things that will actually improve your game play. No longer will your character be specialized in one instrument, you now have the ability to change equipment at any time. You also won’t have to bump up the difficulty rating to increase your fan base. Of course it helps, and you’ll gain more fans faster, but playing at a low difficulty will not pause your progress. As your on tour you will be playing different types of sets, be able to hire and fire different personnel and overall have more control over your tour. While you are touring, you will also be challenged to score-based rock competitions to prove your skill over the rest of the planet.



The coolest new feature to the World Tour mode is being able to go on tour with your friends, and other groups, and tour together. A very nice new feature so that you and friends can team up online and tour the world together rocking, it’s not so fun though if your playing with some random individual who keeps selecting songs you hate. Either way, great new feature that everyone should enjoy.

Overall Rock Band 2 isn’t a bad game, it’s just the same, which isn’t a bad thing considering they worked on previous features that needed to be toggled a bit, so they did a good job. The amount of songs your able to play is ridiculous, and in the end you can play whatever you want. The new additions to World Tour mode are great, and should really improve an already fantastic mode. Is it worth picking up? Yeah, I’d say so.

8/10

Here it is, the new set list for Rock Band 2…

AC/DC–Let There Be Rock
AFI–Girl’s Gone Grey
Alanis Morissette–You Oughta Know
Alice in Chains–Man in the Box
Allman Brothers–Ramblin’ Man
Avenged Sevenfold–Almost Easy
Bad Company–Shooting Star
Beastie Boys–So Whatcha Want
Beck–E-Pro
Bikini Kill–Rebel Girl
Billy Idol–White Wedding Pt. I
Blondie–One Way or Another
Bob Dylan–Tangled Up in Blue
Bon Jovi–Livin’ on a Prayer
Cheap Trick–Hello There
Devo–Uncontrollable Urge
Dinosaur Jr.–Feel the Pain
Disturbed–Down with the Sickness
Dream Theater–Panic Attack
Duran Duran–Hungry Like the Wolf
Elvis Costello–Pump It Up
Fleetwood Mac–Go Your Own Way
Foo Fighters–Everlong
Guns N’ Roses–Shackler’s Revenge
Interpol–PDA
Jane’s Addiction–Mountain Song
Jethro Tull–Aqualung
Jimmy Eat World–The Middle
Joan Jett–Bad Reputation
Journey–Anyway You Want It
Judas Priest–Painkiller
Kansas–Carry On Wayward Son
L7–Pretend We’re Dead
Lacuna Coil–Our Truth
Linkin Park–One Step Closer
Lit–My Own Worst Enemy
Lush–De-Luxe
Mastodon–Colony of Birchmen
Megadeth–Peace Sells
Metallica–Battery
Mighty Mighty Bosstones–Where’d You Go
Modest Mouse–Float On
Motorhead–Ace of Spades
Nirvana–Drain You
Norman Greenbaum–Spirit in the Sky
Panic at the Disco–Nine in the Afternoon
Paramore–That’s What You Get
Pearl Jam–Alive
Presidents of the USA–Lump
Rage Against the Machine–Testify
Ratt–Round & Round
Red Hot Chili Peppers–Give it Away
Rise Against–Give it All
Rush–The Trees
Silversun Pickups–Lazy Eye
Smashing Pumpkins–Today
Social Distortion–I Was Wrong
Sonic Youth–Teenage Riot
Soundgarden–Spoonman
Squeeze–Cool for Cats
Steely Dan–Bodhitsattva
Steve Miller Band–Rock’n Me
Survivor–Eye of the Tiger
System of a Down–Chop Suey
Talking Heads–Psycho Killer
Tenacious D–Master Exploder
Testament–Souls of Black
The Donnas–New Kid in School
The Go-Go’s–We Got the Beat
The Grateful Dead–Alabama Getaway
The Guess Who–American Woman
The Muffs–Kids in America
The Offspring–Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated
The Replacements–Alex Chilton
The Who–Pinball Wizard

Bonus Tracks
Abnormality–Visions
Anarchy Club–Get Clean
Bang Camaro–Night Lies
Breaking Wheel–Shoulder to the Plow
The Libyans–Neighborhood
The Main Drag–A Jagged Gorgeous Winter
Speck–Conventional Lover
The Sterns–Supreme Girl
That Handsome Devil–Rob the Prez-O-Dent

Thanks for the info Game Spot

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Alright all you 2k series fans, prepare yourself for the 2k Insider, because he’s going to have a lot to do with this next release. The 2k Inside, who is an employed individual by the 2k Series, has the job of realistically updating player attributes as the season goes on. This will work with the “Living Rosters” idea, which is similar to the DNA attribute in NBA Live 09. The “Living Rosters” will involve all rosters and players being updated throughout the season. That way, if a player isn’t playing so hot in real life, he won’t be stepping his game up on the game either. This is a wonderful feature because it will prevent players with good ratings whom are having busted years from playing like All-Stars in the game, when their season is below par. Now, the difference between Live and 2k9 is the “human touch” factor. Considering the 2k Insider is a real-life human being, instead of the PC controlled DNA feature in Live 09, the new 2k9 release will have a much more realistic feel because the players will be as good as we think they are, not how good a computer does.



Don’t be expecting everyday roster updates though. Rather then having updates every day, they will be released when warranted. Of course when there is a big time injury or trade the updates will be made immediately, but don’t think after King James has a few bad games there going to immediately update the roster. The changes will be made when they will have an effect on the gaming experience.



The 2k Insider comes into play when your able to read his online blog, as well as view the new updates to players he gives on a regular basic. Another cool feature of the 2k Insider is his ability to add new animations to players who are excelling throughout the year. For instance, if O.J. Mayo begins to dominate during the season, NBA 2k9 Development Workers will work on new animations for him for the game. That’s right, you won’t be unlocking new animations, you’ll be downloading brand spanking new ones. In the case that O.J. Mayo reveals his NBA signature move, you’ll be downloading it in a roster update during the season.



Besides the addition of the 2k Insider, the biggest change will be a remodeled version of the Franchise Mode, dubbed Association 2.0. This new Franchise Mode will mimic the NBA.com design with a front page full of NBA news. From big trades, to injuries, and even news that is true to real life, and true to your personal league. Overall, it will be filled with tons of new content, and viewed upon as a giant NBA.com blog spot. A big new addition to Franchise mode will be the Ambition player attribute. This will measure 3 things: financial security, loyalty and player for winner. These 3 factors will create the level of ambition a certain player has. For instance, a younger player will probably be more concerned about money then winning games. A veteran, on the other hand, will be much more concerned with winning a championship.



The player ambitions will be an important aspect of the game because it will relate to how they handle free agency. In past versions, you were able to re-sign any of your players at any time. In the case of the new game, you will only be able to sign players who have been with you for 3-straight seasons, otherwise you will be competing with every other team and let the player decide which team/option is best for them. This really adds to the realism factor of the game that the 2k series Developers have been working on.



My favorite new feature to the game is the 5 on 5 online play, which every avid XBOX Live player has been waiting for. The Oklahoma City Thunder will also be renamed from the original Seattle Supersonics (to be Seattle fans — you had your chance). Along with this will come smaller changes involving new crowd animations and a much cleaner, less confusing, player profiles and menu interfaces.



Overall, NBA 2k9 seems to be the future for console basketball games by introducing brand new, never before seen features, and a new, slick menu interface. Look for NBA 2k9 to hit stores October 7, 2008.

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A look into 12-17 year olds reveals that 99% of boys and 94% of girls play video games.

Every year, the Entertainment Software Association updates its industry facts and figures to underline just how widespread gaming is in the United States. According to this year’s update, 65 percent of American households play games.

That number will likely skyrocket in the coming years if a newly released Pew Internet Project report is anything to go by. Researchers recently surveyed 1,102 teenagers and found that 97 percent of those aged 12-17 played video games in some form, with 99 percent of boys responding affirmatively, compared to 94 percent of girls. There are a lot of frequent players as well, as half of the respondents said they’d played games in the past day.

As one might expect, the tastes of those 97 percent of teens who game are wide-ranging. Racing games had the most widespread popularity of any genre, with 74 percent of teens admitting to playing them. The puzzle genre was close behind with 72 percent, followed by sports (68 percent), action (67 percent), and adventure (66 percent).

Interestingly, Rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band were played by just 61 percent of respondents, only slightly higher than the strategy genre, which includes hardcore gaming staples like Starcraft and Command and Conquer. However, when asked for three favorite titles, the most commonly responded titles were (in order) Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire, and Dance Dance Revolution.

The least popular genres listed were survival horror (32 percent), massively multiplayer online games (21 percent), and virtual worlds like Second Life or Habbo Hotel (10 percent).

Pew also surveyed parents of teens to gauge their attitudes toward gaming, and found that most parents were actually ambivalent on gaming’s impact on their kids. Some 62 percent of respondents said games didn’t affect their kids, with 19 percent believing them to be a positive influence, and 13 percent considering them a negative influence. Just 5 percent of parents said gaming could be either positive or negative, depending on the game in question.

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Here is a list of Unlockables for NHL 09. All Unlockables must be done using your NHL 09 Profile. Many Unlockables also deal with Online Play.

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Alright all you collegiate basketball lovers out there, EA is making a name change from the tenured “March Madness” title, to the new and improved “NCAA Basketball 2009″. The reasoning for this name change comes in part by the fact that there is much more to the college basketball season then just March Madness. It takes a lot more hard work through a long, physical, as well as academic, season to reach the Big Dance. The goal of the new game, which is to be released in the late fall, is to promote the rivalries, home-court advantage, loud arenas, mascots and overall setting for collegiate basketball games.



EA has announced that the cover design for this years release will include UCLA Alum, and Timberwolves Rookie Forward, Kevin Love. Love, who led the Bruins to a Final Four birth, along with being crowned Pac-10’s Player of the Year, will be the spokesperson and celebrity promoter for the release.

The new game will offer some much improved tweaks to the only college basketball game being released this year, including improved ball-physics, 1,000+ new sequences and animations, accompanied by Division I Coach advice.

The game will be running on the same engine being used for NBA Live 09, which will allow for smoother body movements and sequences, better ball physics, and an overall improvement to the rhythm and feel of the game. A new “tempo setter” feature will also be included. At the beginning of the game you will choose the type of “tempo” you want your team to run at. Whether it be half-court balanced, up and down offense, or a slow, low energy game, you choose how you want your team to play the game. The feature will allow you to play “your schools” tempo of basketball, which will lead to more strategic game plans, and overall enjoyment with victory.

Along with the tempo feature comes something never before seen in any NCAA game release: coach advice. During the game you will have the option to take coaching advice from your sideline instructor. From improvements on your sloppy play, to taking advantage of opportunities, coach’s will chime in and give you their 2cents on how you should improve.

Of course the commentating will be handled by none other then Brad Nessler and Dick Vitale, leading you through your exciting and “sensational” season. As for Online play, you probably won’t see it until 2010, when “more then 2 player” online play will be guaranteed. Sorry all you XBOX Live fans, you’ll have to wait one more season.

Look for the Canadian EA Developer Team to ship to the US in late Fall, 2008.

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed may possibly be the best Star Wars game in years, but is still full of imperfections graphically, and narratively. The game opens up with a small level tutorial that is sure to impress any gamer, and this greatness goes on into the first couple levels. That’s the problem though, the first few levels are amazing, but afterwards, tend to drift off a little bit and go downhill.



Story wise, this game was more well written then the second trilogy. It is a very powerful story, both in the science-fiction state, as well as telling the story of the classic good versus evil dilemma.

After completing the tutorial level, you begin the game as Starkiller, Darth Vaders apprentice, whom orders you to whipe out the rest of the Jedis. Vader comes up at plenty of points in the game, but most of the time will be spent with an android named PROXY and your female pilot Juno Eclipse (I love that name).



When it comes down to fighting, you’ll probably enjoy being a Dark Jedi because of the amount of fun you’ll have throwing Storm Troopers into Wookies. In the game, you can literally pick up any object and throw it. The physics are great, and very life like (if you could pick up objects with your mind), which will lead to hours of enjoyment just tossing things into one and other. Using the lightsabre is also a great time, because from battling a huge group of Wookies, to incinerating an innocent Storm Trooper, you hear the “woom” with every swing, which is pretty cool.



A big problem with the game is that the physics are just to good, and the level design wasn’t good enough. In claustrophobic areas it becomes very easy to pick up the wrong object, and throw it at the wrong target. You may just end up picking up an explosive barrel and blowing yourself up on accident. The physics also cause problems when trying to target enemies. It gets a little tricky, frustrating, and overall just a pain in the ass when you throw the wrong object at the enemy.



The LucasArts group came up with a very good story, and a semi-par game that offers a great story and moments, but it’s over before you know it. The most challenging part of the game is the Boss’s, which offer a great set of battles that won’t frustrate you. With each boss you’ll need to use a different set of attacks, and pay attention to the patterns and which are most effective. The only portion of the boss fights that may became frustrating is that on the 360 and PS3 models, occasionally the health bar for the boss will disappear, requiring a restart of the console because you’ll never be able to defeat it.



Overall the art design truly is rich and beautiful, and has one of the best stories ever told through a video game. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a game where the story becomes better then the game play, and that after your 8-hours of pummeling bosses is over, you’ll want to hear more of the story.

7.5/10

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When creating an RPG based console game, it’s very important to keep a good balance between the game play and accompanied narrative. If either is flawed, then the game itself will be unbalanced showing it’s imperfections from either a lack of game play or lack of narrative. In the case of Infinite Undiscovery it is the game play and design that is flawed, which otherwise could have produced a fantastic RPG.





From a narrative perspective, the developers and writers were on point with a compelling story and well defined characters. The game takes place in a world that is controlled by a Moon G-d, whom blesses all humans born under it with magic. These individuals born under the Moon have the ability to cast spells. The basis for the game is that the Moon G-d has been reversed by a group called the Order of Chain, who has shackled the Moon to the Earth, disrupting the normal flow of power from the Moon G-d. It is up to Sigmund the Liberator, a human with the ability to cut through chains, to restore order for the planet.





All the characters are given solid backgrounds, which you learn about through side-stories and interaction with each character. By the end of the game, you will end up playing with 15 - 20 characters, all of whom have their own story. Parts of the narrative are a little light in depth, but overall, the writers offer a compelling, solid story with a mediocre game world.


When it comes down to fighting enemies, all the battles are real-time and action oriented. There is no auto-attack, and you must target your enemies manually. While fighting in a party, you must use the D pad to send your AI party members into battle. This can be frustrating because some spell casts take longer then others, so you will continuously have to move around to gain hit points on your enemies. One great feature through battle is your ability to bind attacks using the A and B buttons. This greatly helps when your building up your combo-attacks against enemies, because it makes it much easier for you to land hit after hit. Another cool feature is the flute that your character (Capelle) plays to give orders to allies, and your AI characters. This helps when your trying to solve dungeon puzzles, and also gives you a better shot at combo attacks.





There are some downfalls though, and most of it deals with the camera angles zooming in. If your in a corner, it’s going to be tough to see the whole field of play, so try to stay out in open spaces, because the camera has a tendency to zoom in so close that you can’t even see your party members. Another downfall is that when your character dies, so does ALL your game play. While dead, you can’t access the menu, make orders, or do anything, you simply have to wait for an AI member to cast a resurrection spell, which can take some time.





Visually, there are some solid points of design, but overall, many of the dungeons and game world is repetitive and looks alike. The characters are well designed with very detailed armor, and have moments where they show some life-like facial expressions. The special attacks are well done and offer some explosive visual enjoyment, but this also leads to the occasional hick up because the graphics is so high.


Infinite Undiscovery has the base for a great adventure, but the points of the game that lack greatly flaw the overall experience. Living in a game world that at times seems to be empty, combined with a repetitive scenery, does not land the game in the higher rankings of console RPG games. Great narrative, but disappointing game play, so if your more into the story then pushing buttons, you just may enjoy this one.


6/10

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