Eight Months of Gaming

Q3 Werewolves and Ghosts

In a world full of first person shooters, developers often need to shake things up a bit to make their game stand out among the crowd. We saw this successfully done with Bioshock last year, as well as Team Fortress 2, both of which scored high in the gaming community due to their uniqueness and originality. So, where does one go from here? How about a modern day shooter with werewolves and giant flying gryphons -- and maybe throw in a few ghosts and demons for good measure? It's the kind of thing you'd expect to see after the opening of Pandora's Box, which is what the game's story line is based upon.

Originally titled Legendary: The Box, the game centers around the actions of art thief Charles Deckerd who believes that he is taking on a routine smash-and-grab job when he obtains the infamous Pandora's Box. While further details of the game's story are being kept under wraps, we do know that he opens it at some point and thus somehow becomes the only person that can close it. Legendary is being developed by Spark Unlimited who brought us the award winning Call of Duty: Finest Hour. While this is a nice accolade, Spark is also responsible for polluting the FPS genre with its lackluster 2008 title, Turning Point: Fall of Liberty. One can only hope that the developers have learned from their mistakes, and judging by how the game looks in action, they may just be on the road to recovery. As an FPS buff, I'll definitely be keeping a watchful eye when Legendary opens the box later this year. Expect a full review.

It's been twenty-four years since Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson teamed up to rid New York City of its pesky paranormal pests in the popular film, Ghostbusters. [Ed: And 19 years since the bastard stepchild Ghostbusters II.] Late this year, we will once more be able to ask the question: "Who ya gonna call?" No word yet on whether or not we'll get a "catchy" new jingle, but the original cast of the film is reuniting to lend their voices and likenesses to Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

In a story written by stars of the film Aykroyd and Ramis, you play as a new recruit who joins Ghostbusters International, a franchise of the original Ghostbusters establishment. No sooner do you get your foot in the door than the city becomes infested with ghostly activity. Prepare to get slimed! While the extent of the actors' involvement in the game is not yet known, already released media assures us that a boss battle with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is confirmed. Even after two decades, there are fans of the original movies, and technology may finally be at the level where we can truly get a great ghost-busting game. We'll see if there's any substance to this game or if it's just a bunch of fluff from Mr. Stay Puft -- presumably just in time for Halloween.