Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

Today I have tried two demos, Ghostbusters The Game and Fuel, both on the Playstation 3.

Ghostbusters the Game is Playstation exclusive until the end of the summer when it will be released on other formats aswell decided by Atari and Sony as they thought it was a great way to expand the market. I’m not sure about it but it did upset many in Europe since the 360 version is finished and released in the US. The game puts you in control of one of the Ghostbusters and lets you explore the library and use different Ghostbusters gadgets. I am personally not a giant Ghostbusters fan and haven’t seen the movies on maybe ten years so I don’t know the name on all their tools and gadgets for this text.

You explore the library using your PKE gauge to look for ghost traces or to see where they are hiding. It took a little while until I understood how it worked but when I got I ran around with it on most of the time looking for traces.

The game looks good with graphic that does it job but maybe not much more. First thing I noticed was a lion statue outside the library that didn’t look as good as it could have done but the graphics is never something you think about when playing, not the demo at least. The ghosts look good and a bit scary when getting a chance to examine them and the effects from weapons and the ghost catcher beams looks great with a nice glow to them.

The control feels a bit stiff and it has a certain float feeling to it that makes you, the player, feel a bit unconnected to the character. The game uses every button on the controller but I don’t think I used them all during my play thru. It was first overwhelming when I watched the control layout before I begun playing but that is the case in most games today, no games uses two or three buttons today, at least not full price titles.

From what I have played Ghostbusters the Game should be a good game and well invested money if you are a Ghostbusters fan. I found the title interesting and would think of buying the game if I hadn’t bought Anno Create a new World yesterday.

Fuel then, Fuel is a free roaming racing game which has made a big deal of its big world and extreme weather effects such as tornados and more. You can choose to drive different vehicles but in the demo I only drove a motorbike and that is probably the only option you have in the demo. The demo lets you drive one race and one challenge and also explore the world in free ride, but then only a limited part of the world.

The first thing I felt when I started the game was its Motorstorm vibes that rushed over me when I reached the menu. It feels like they have taken the concept from Motorstorm with off-road racing and placed in a huge world that from what I have seen both in game and in screenshots are deserts or close to desert environments. No tropical or snowy mountain areas but mostly brown ground and a few spruces, either looking grey or being on fire.

The graphic engine can handle the big open areas with no slowdowns that I can speak of, the game has a day and night cycle that makes the sun go down and the environment turn dark. Overall the game looks okay but it feels a bit empty.

What I thought was a big problem was the GPS in the game, it doesn’t only show you in which direction you should go but also what track you should take which doesn’t make the game a lot of free roaming. Sure you can go off the suggested route but as it kind of present the best way it isn’t always necessary to do so. I think they should have done what Motocross Madness 2 made around year 2000, put a large arrow over the player which points to the next checkpoint and let the player find his own route to the place. That gives the game a challenge and not only to follow a trail of arrows, I should mention that it is possible to turn of the GPS but then I turn all possible things of such as the compass and also the marker on where the next checkpoint can be found I think.

In the end, Fuel is nothing I would buy from what I have played so far. There is other and better racing games out there like Midnight Club LA, Motorstorm and Burnout Paradise. The concept of Fuel isn’t bad; it’s the end result that isn’t what it could have been.

Now I’m thinking of ordering a pizza and open a beer and enjoy the evening.