Atari

Atari has had some rough times during 2008, with their delisting by NASDAQ and a less than stellar fiscal performance. Salvation seems to have come from a late year acquisition by Infogames, who made Atari a wholly owned subsidiary. For now, Atari is continuing with business as usual and their booth featured a demo of the new Ghostbusters game being developed by Terminal Reality. Somewhat of a blast from the past, Ghostbusters brings the original four title actors from the 1987 film back together and is a sequel to Ghostbusters II.


We got some hands-on time with the 360 version of Ghostbusters and were given the opportunity to play through the high rise level seen in promotional videos released last year. You can play as any of your favorite 'Busters, and the character model likeness’ are pretty much spot-on. The particle effects from the proton packs look really good in action, while controls were smooth and responsive. There are a few new tricks up the Ghostbusters sleeve this time around, including the ability to fire a concussive proton blast that overheats your pack for a short time. You have to repeatedly hit a ghost to wear down a life bar before you can snag him in your beam, all while dodging pieces of the landscape thrown in your direction of the dastardly ghouls.




Graphically, special effects are looking pretty good and the environment takes a lot of impressive damage, although only certain objects are destructible such as air conditioners and room service carts. Your proton pack scars the walls when you miss, as the does the arm of the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. Once you have damaged a ghost enough times to trap him in your beam, you have to maneuver him to a trap set by yourself or comrades, which will then capture him, similar to the movie. So far, Ghostbusters is looking like a neat throwback to 80’s nostalgia and we look forward to its release on June 19th. Ghostbusters is being developed for the PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3.