Ghostbusters: The Videogame – no campaign co-op, exclusive DLC, screens, info galore

While Wii Fit and Grand Theft Auto IV vied for our attentions last week, Sierra Entertainment pulled a fast one and managed to drop a couple of bombshells of its own during its gaming-centric event, Sierra Spring Break 08. Aside from the new info springing forth for The Bourne Conspiracy, Prototype, and World of Conflict, we’ve also gathered tons of new details on the massively multiplatform Ghostbusters: The Videogame. The features, screens, and a little bit more can be had at the full story.

On Sierra Spring Break 08, developer Terminal Reality managed to show off what was great with its Infernal Engine and how it brought the popular proton-blasting heroes to new life in Ghostbusters: The Videogame. But most importantly, it was mentioned that the original cast of the previous Ghostbusters movies lent a helping hand to also revitalize the story and plot.

“[Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis] co-wrote the script for the videogame. They introduced a lot of stuff that we didnÂ’t think of,” said Terminal Reality president Mark Randel. He added that Ramis (Egon, Ghostbusters) added a heroine to the game, and introduced that virtual lady as a love interest for Peter Venkman (you know, the womanizing parapsychologist played by Bill Murray).

Aykroyd (Ray, Ghostbusters), who will begin recording his voice for the game this week, also listed all the equipment that the Ghostbusters use and put that into the mythos of the game.

In continuance to being faithful to the franchise, Terminal Reality will be including Stay Puf’t, the popular Ghostbuster mascot, in the game, and will even be using the original theme by Ray Parker Jr. for the soundtrack – completely un-remixed.

  

Unfortunately, in order to keep authenticity of the Ghostbusters’ “look and feel,” Terminal Reality will be clipping out online cooperative mode for the campaign of the game. They have multiplayer planned to kick off out-of-the-box, but it’s limited to either a competitive, ghoul catching romp, or a separate section for cooperative busting action against waves of ghosts. Terminal Reality studio director John O’Keefe said:

We want you to feel like youÂ’re a Ghostbuster, and so co-op with your friends playing the other Ghostbusters we wouldnÂ’t be able to control that comedic timing and delivery of lines. Even though co-op would be an interesting aspect we made a conscious decision because we wanted to capture the Ghostbusters experience, but there is an online component of the game that is cooperative but itÂ’s nothing to do with the story.

Apparently, Terminal Reality is putting truckloads of work into Ghostbusters: The Videogame, and the DS, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 versions will all have their own exclusive content and features. Or at least, that’s what head-honcho Randel said when asked how gamers would best reap the full Ghostbusters gaming experience.

“In a cross-platform game, itÂ’s a good idea to have a little bit of exclusive content for each system. It makes everybody happy,” he added. He iterates that no money was involved for exclusive content on any platform, even though the Ghostbusters franchise is currently a property of Sony Pictures.

He confirmed that for the PS3 and 360 versions, Terminal Reality has exclusive downloadable content ready. And while we’re on the topic of exclusives, Randel hinted that if Ghostbusters: The Videogame was PS3-only, it would have gone far. He explained:

WeÂ’re running the same game for both platforms but if we made a PS3-only game, for example, you could double the amount of objects on screen that youÂ’re seeing.

True enough, the Infernal Engine was tuned to be identical on both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Executive producer Brendan Goss, however, showed off the unique technology they have for the PS3 version, just to prove that the Infernal Engine was made for Sony’s next generation console.

At the Sierra Spring Break 08, the two versions were demonstrated side by side. Goss explained while a Ghostbuster walked down a cobbled street:

We’re demoing on both systems so you can see the game is fully running on both systems at the same performance level. Something unique for the PS3 is the displacement mapping.The ground you’re looking at is only two polygons, it’s a completely flat plane. We get the illusion of the 3D brick surface because of the relief map.

  

But the Infernal Engine does either platform justice in the graphics and physics department, as many would muse after Terminal Reality demonstrated the technology of their in-house engine. A level was shown where 1,000 in-level actors were individually simulated, while running amok in panic and bumping into other people and shoving them off.

Another demo with Stay Puff’t and 500 moving metal objects was shown, and exhibited absolutely no jitter when they plopped 1,000 more objects that bounced and rolled against the other dynamic objects in the scene.

Ghostbusters: The Videogame is planned for release this October.

Buy: [ Ghostbusters: The Videogame (Xbox 360), (PS3), (Wii), (PC), (DS) ]