Nick Kyme

It’s been a day of mixed emotions on the consoles games front today.

On the one hand, I have preordered a copy of Ghostbusters: The Video Game after being overcome by a wave of nostalgia and in response to its sterling reviews on IGN.com.

This euphoric piece of impulse buying (man, I can’t wait to start throwing around my positron glider), was in part a reaction to the somewhat more negative and less exciting news that Batman: Arkham Asylum has been delayed. I am so keyed up for this game release that I can hardly stand to wait and knowing that the scheduled release of 19th June has been put back to 28th August was almost too much to bear. Still, at least it means the game’s developers are (hopefully) honing it to perfection. All early signs look very promising. No solid reviews as of yet, though…

So, yeah, basically I’ll have Ghostbusters to keep me occupied before Arkham Asylum rolls around – there are worse fates.

There is scope for further joy, however, in the form of Futurama. As mentioned in a previous post, the show is back with a vengeance but has now been confirmed as consisting of another 26 episodes, and not the 13 episodes as originally believed – that’s an entire season, baby!  This is seriously good news, as I totally love Futurama. The article lurks on IGN right here.

Oh, and just for the hell of it, here’s the trailer to Ghostbusters – hell yeah!

Well, E3 is all over for another year and I have to say it’s looking like a very exciting 2009/2010 is in prospect for all of us gaming fans.

I don’t wish to labour over the details again; you can check out my earlier posts to see what has interested me from this year’s con. Below, though, are some of my edited highlights…

* God of War III – Looks like it’s going to be THE game for the PS3 next year. The trailers look totally awesome. This could be the greatest installment yet. There’s a walkthrough with developer commentary here at GameTrailers.com. It’s in five parts and the guy playing even gets iced by a centaur mini-boss at one point (as he’s telling us that the centaur isn’t that tough to beat – oh, the irony…). One particular scene that stood out was the section in the Icarus vent. This is totally new to God of War III and looks like a lot of fun to play. Hail Zeus!

* Assassin’s Creed 2 – Even better than the first game, if the stunning trailer video and gameplay demo are anything to go by. Renaissance Venice offers a new flavour to the previous incarnation of the game during the Crusades, and there looks to be a lot of innovation and new material in terms of the game mechanics too. I’ll be watching this with great interest.

* Batman: Arkham Asylum – It’s released in under two weeks and I can’t wait. Fingers crossed that it’s awesome. It looks it. This could be the Batman game us Dark Knight fans have been waiting for. Needless to say, I have the special edition for the Ps3 on preorder.

* Ghostbusters - At the head of the Ghostbusters revival is the new video game, which simply looks cool. It’s a total retrofest and really pushes all of my buttons as far as 80’s nostalgia goes. Much like Arkham, I am really looking forward to the imminent release of this game and have fingers crossed that it’ll live up to all the hype.

* Darksiders – I love Devil May Cry and this looks like a game cut from a similar mould with a bit more juice in terms of action and spectacle. The trailers are stunning, the milieu and narrative appealing. Looks like the third person action/adventure genre is really getting a boost.

* Dante’s Inferno – Since I first saw the trailer, this looked like something special. Admittedly, it’s early days and no gameplay demos have been released yet to my knowledge, but the flavour and atmosphere in this game is enticing. I’m hoping for something that has echoes of God of War, but which also treads it’s own path. It looks like another third person action/adventure too. It’s my favourite gaming genre, so I’m happy.

* Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny – Mainly because it’s on the PSP and that it has Kratos, from God of War, as a playable character. I’ll totally be buying this game. I hope the Kingdom Hearts game for the PSP comes out soon, too. The only reason this console struggles is because the software isn’t up to scratch. It seems Sony are starting to realise that and are doing something about it. Fingers crossed.

* Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Ever since I saw it on the Nintendo NES, I’ve always been a fan of the Castlevania games. Here it is all next-genned and looking rather spiffy. There’s a swathe of voice talent for the trailer (have a look at that right here, folks) and more Devil May Cry-esque action looks in the offing. With so many third person action/adventure games coming to the fore, some are bound to be less than perfect. We’ll just have to wait and see which ones.

These are really just the few things that caught my eye in the excellent coverage provided by E3 Insider. As console king, I’m very happy with what I’m seeing. Now, I just need to make sure with all this gaming that’ll be going on that I leave enough time to write some books and short stories…

As a child of the 1980’s, there’s a certain nostalgia I attach to the movies of that era. And there’s none finer in my opinion than Ghostbusters.

The franchise is undergoing something a revival right now with talk rife about a third movie in the series finally gathering some credibility and feasibility (check out this article from the Chicago Sun-Times speculating about the casting). Then of course there’s the imminent release of the brand new computer game. This, in particular, looks awesome and appeals to fans of two (or three) different generations for totally different reasons.

The ‘Busters are so in vogue at the moment that the movie soundtrack is amongst iTunes’ ‘hot picks’ right now, plus there’s car and directory service ads celebrating (cashing in on?) the coolness of Ghostbusters.

I totally love it. Ghostbusters was the first movie I ever went to the cinema to watch, so it’s got a special place in my heart, irrespective of its quality. It was at the Cannon cinema in Grimsby. I remember the evening well, considering it was a good 20 something years ago. It was a family outing and we’d actually gone with the intention of seeing Back to the Future. It turned out when we arrived that the showing was sold out, so we decided to go and see Ghostbusters instead. Well here my love for Venkman, Stanz, Spengler and Zeddemore was born (in the plutonic sense, of course ). Even if I did cack my pants at that scene in the library when the nascent ‘Busters try and catch the librarian ghost (‘Get here, that was your plan? Get her…’ – classic), it made such an impression on me.

Fast forward a few years and one of my favourite ‘toons as a kid came along – The Real Ghostbusters (not sure what the prefix was all about – probably legal wranglings or something). This show had some classic episodes. I remember owning most of the cool toys (boy, I wish I still had some of those…).

Then of course there was Ghostbusters 2. Admittedly, this wasn’t quite as awesome as the original (despite it’s natty new logo), but then again it did come about in an era of film making when sequels were rarely as good, or better, than their progenitors.

It didn’t dampen my love for the Ghostbusters, a classic movie rammed to the hilt with great lines and top comedy performances. It’s just one of those films that’s eminently quotable and will get adults of a certain age waxing lyrical for long hours about their favourites. (One thing that almost always comes up in discussion is that infamous scene with Dan Aykroyd and that ghost that comes a calling when he’s tucked up in his jammies – one for the DVD only, I suspect; you won’t see that on too many tea-time reruns…)

My joy at the return of Ghostbusters is massive. I’ve even ordered a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man money bank and a die-cast Ecto-1 from online, such is my excitement. The game will follow, of course. My 360 is going to get a hammering that’s for sure (fingers crossed that it’s actually good). I’ve even noticed Ghostbusters Mini-Mates on the Forbidden Planet site – sign me up, please!

All this talk of a revival got me thinking about a potential third movie. I remember reading in an Empire retrospective issue that there is a script (or part) knocking around for Ghostbusters 3, and has been since 2. Dan Aykroyd was reported as saying it was based on a plot that revolved around multiple dimensions and the weakening between the ghost dimension and ours (thus lots of crossover danger in the offing). From what I’ve read about the game, this looks like the plot they’ve gone for there, so, who knows, it may be that a third movie takes a completely different tack.

(Myself and a friend of mine at BL have a few some theories about this – almost everyone chips now and then with something new – but I’m sworn to secrecy…)

Judd Apatow’s name keeps getting associated with the project, and I for one have no issue with that. I can definitely see a younger cast of new ‘Busters introduced in this movie, maybe heralding a whole new lease of life to the franchise (one can only hope). Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell spring to mind. You couldn’t have Ghostbusters and not have the original legends of course – Aykroyd, Murray, Ramis and Hudson must come back, they simply must. I can see them as mentors for the new ‘Busters. Maybe we’ll even get a new Ecto-1 (though, I confess, I always liked the old ambulance/hearse – it’s iconic, after all).

Suffice it to say, I am totally stoked about the Ghostbuster’s revival. I’ll keep my fingers firmly crossed that all the third movie talk manifests into a script and a release.

It’s like I’m a kid all over again… wait a minute…

(And wouldn’t you just know it, it’s on Channel 4 right now! Awesome!)