Games of November - Part 2

The more I look at November, the more I realise there's WAY more games coming out than I previously thought. Partly thanks to games being delayed, others I've totally forgotten about. I can already hear my wallet beginning to strain..

GHOSTBUSTERS (Xbox 360)

Attention Australian Ghostbusters fans! Remember this? Yes, the PS3 and PS2 versions have been on shelves since July and now you can play it on your 360! Thanks to Sony exclusively distributing the game outside the US, it basically meant that Sony threw a bunch of money around to deny 360 owners from playing the game until the week before Modern Warfare 2 is released, when nobody will buy it. But I will.

I played the demo recently,

(http://preparations4birth.blogspot.com/2009/10/ghostbusters-early-impressions.html)

and it was pretty damn good. Granted, I won't buy it until later in the year but I'll manage to bust some ghosts before too long.

Release date: November 6.

.

TEKKEN 6 (Xbox 360, PS3, PSP)

Hey! It's the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6! Yep, Namco Bandai are still making Tekken games and this one is based on the arcade...that was first released in Japan in 2007. This home version is based on an updated build of the arcade game called Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, with new stages and characters. And from what I've seen of it...it's Tekken alright. One point in particular - the animation of a character arching his back in pain when he is knocked down is still in there. I remember that being in Tekken four games ago! That said, Hwoarang is still wearing leather chaps so there is something to be said for stagnant irrelevance. Burn on you, Namco Bandai!

Release date: November 5.

.

ASSASSIN'S CREED 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)

Despite my previous reservations about the first game (snore!), I'm actually really excited for this sequel. The ability to swim, two blades, a wrist gun, Da Vinci supplying you weapons, stabbing dudes...actually stabbing dudes is the thing that's going to bring me back to the Assassin's Creed franchise. Ubisoft have apparently taken all the criticisms of the first game to heart and made this one more awesome. Hopefully, it pans out and I won't be collecting flags all over again.

Release date: November 19.

.

LEFT 4 DEAD 2 (Xbox 360)

The Australian version is the censored, gimped, made-for-toddlers, government-approved version. Don't play into the hands of the Office of Film and Literature Classification, but instead import your copy from an online overseas retailer. Unless you want to be someone who is on the same level as Nazi sympathiser in terms of evilness, don't buy the Australian version. Rumour has it that the developers, Valve, might patch all the awesomeness back into the Aussie version after launch but don't count on it. Oh, apparently the game is about zombies or something...

.

Release date: November 17.

.

.

So there's November for you. Plenty of incredible games to go out and buy. So get to it!

Early impressions of...Ghostbusters.

Thanks to Sony and their mountains made of cash money, Australia is only now approaching a release date for Ghostbusters: The Video Game on the Xbox 360. November 6 to be exact is the time when you'll be busting them ghosts but fortunately, a demo of the game is already up and running on Xbox Live. I downloaded it the other day and checked it out.

I think I've actually been to that spot in New York.

The demo shows you a significant chunk of the game's mechanics, including firing the proton packs, using the PKE meter and checking out data in Tobin's Spirit Guide. All of these things are naturally inherent to the Ghostbusters experience and they meld into the game experience pretty smoothly. (I totally thought Tobin's Spirit Guide was real when I saw the movie in 1984 and wanted to find a copy because it sounded cool).

Playing as 'the rookie', a new Ghostbuster, you're at the New York Public Library with Ray, Egon and Winston (Venkman is nowhere to be seen) waving at the crowd in the street after performing some unspecified ghost-busting task. Of course, things aren't that easy and a couple of stray ghosts appear just begging for you to mop them up. The GB boys and yourself run inside the library and you eventually blast those pesky poltergeists and throw them in a trap.

Burn you fucking books! Ha ha! Wait...

Voice acting is prominent all the way through and is pretty solid. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis do a good job as their characters, with Aykroyd spouting off all that 'it's a class-five full-roaming vapour' type stuff pretty often. One of the weird aspects of this section is that you come across the librarian ghost which featured in the first moments of the movie and she is constantly referred to as 'The Grey Lady'. Like that's her name or something. It's strange that the characters (and indeed all the marketing for the game) have suddenly named this iconic ghost and now we're all supposed to say 'Oh, okay The Grey Lady'. I don't want her to have a name or backstory, I just want her to be 'librarian ghost'. What kind of latter-day retcon shit is that?

Anyway, the controls are sweet. Running around third-person Dead Space-style is the order of the day here and it works fine. Firing the proton pack with the right trigger is fun but the real joy comes from a 'reload' function that has been created for the game. Fire a proton beam for too long and the pack gets overheated. Tapping the right bumper button vents the pack, which ostensibly acts as a reload. Call it a contrivance for the sake of a video game, but it makes catching ghosts a lot more enjoyable and involved.

Ernie Hudson is a standout. As Winston Zeddmore, he really nails the urgency in his voice over work. True, he hardly says anything but when he does it's like actually running alongside Winston. Which is awesome.

Mr Awesome.

All the Ghostbusters music you could want is here. The cool understated score from the movie accompanies you throughout the game and Ray Parker Jnr's legendary song fills up the load screens.

It looks like the Ghostbusters game that you could hope for and probably the only decent one that's ever going to be made so I'm pretty sure I'll be picking it up when it drops in November. 

"Mother pus bucket!"

Back in mid-June of this year, Ghostbusters The Video Game was released on all platforms to generally positive reviews. 

But only in North America. Thanks to a questionable exclusivity deal between Sony and publisher Atari, the European and Australian Xbox 360 versions of the game were delayed until October 23. Effectively giving Sony the edge when it came to sales with its PS3 and PS2 versions of the game.

Now it's been delayed again. To November 6.

Pictured: Australia.

No official reason has been given for the second delay of the Xbox 360 version in PAL territories. Just because, punks. 

But since the US version of the game isn't region-locked, you can import to your heart's content. Which you should probably try and do sooner rather than later if you want to play it. Because let's face it, a November release date has pretty much put a bullet in the 360 version outside of North America. Why? Because it's only five days before this fucking juggernaut drops worldwide...

  If someone asks Modern Warfare 2 if it's a god, it will say yes.