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Ghostbusters Developers Unsell You Their Game

Added by Jeff Gerstmann on June 18, 2009

89 comments

We've probably abused every quotable bit from Ghostbusters in captions over the last year, so I'll spare you... this time.

In case you missed it, Ghostbusters: The Video Game was released this week across every major platform. The game wasn't in stores for 24 hours before all kinds of chatter jumped off about one version's superiority to another, and some of the developers that worked on the game have stepped forward to make the situation just a little bit worse.

The first point of contention was on the PC version of Ghostbusters, which unlike its console counterparts, doesn't have any online features. That's certainly not the first time that a PC version of a console release has been given short shrift, but the comment from Dan Irish of Threewave, the company that developed the game's multiplayer, doesn't exactly smooth things over for your PC owners out there:

Multiplayer for the PC version of Ghostbusters is something that Threewave and Terminal Reality always wanted to do. However, our focus was on making the console version the best that they could be - an experience that allows multiple players to re-live and re-fight many of the themes from the movies. When we looked at the resources necessary to pull off multiplayer on the consoles and the PC, it became a question of what could we do and still be excellent in our execution. We couldn't do all versions with multiplayer simultaneously with the resources that we had available - there was simply too much to do. Something would have to suffer. Therefore, we kept our focus on making the console versions deliver on the promise of being an integral player on the Ghostbusters team.

That quote comes from Big Download. And while the notion is not entirely without merit, framing it as "well, we wanted the console version to be good" probably isn't going to make any PC game players out there feel any better. At least the PC version is only $30.

As the PC multiplayer thing started to wane, another platform discrepancy sprung up to fill the void. This time, people started comparing the Xbox 360 version with the PlayStation 3 release and noticing that the PS3 version looked pretty crappy when placed side by side with the 360 release. Lo-res textures, a general blurriness... well, let's let this quote that Joystiq got from the developer, Terminal Reality, get specific:

For the record, the PS3 version [of Ghostbusters] is softer due to the 'quincunx' antialiasing filter and the fact we render at about 75% the resolution of the 360 version. So you cannot directly compare a screen shot of one to the other unless you scale them properly. The PS3 does have less available RAM than the 360 – but we managed to squeeze 3 out of 4 textures as full size on the PS3.

Interestingly, the developer is basically copping to the platform differences here. It's one part refreshing honesty and one part "oh snap, you just made the PS3 version sound like garbage even though the differences probably aren't quite that harsh!"

Actually, I'll withhold any judgment on the issue completely, as I haven't seen the PS3 version for myself yet, and I haven't heard if the multiplayer is good enough to even care about. I will say, though, that from watching Ryan play it over at his desk (full review coming soon), even the 360 version doesn't look all that great to me. Maybe the Wii version is the one to get?

Filed under : Ghostbusters: The Video Game

89 Comments

Seram
on June 18, 2009

Not sure what they were trying to accomplish there.

Dan64
on June 18, 2009

I find it funny how they consider online better on consoles, so they can't do anything for PC. Just seems like a copout to me.

Atomic_Tangerine
on June 18, 2009

Yeah, if this game didn't have Ghostbusters on the box, I probably wouldn't have bought it...

Claude
on June 18, 2009

Who you gonna call.

supercubedude
on June 18, 2009

@Claude said:

" Who you gonna call. "

Calling makes me feel good.

Hamz
on June 18, 2009

This is a prime example of why developers should stay within their job criteria and let the PR folks do the talking. Both quotes there do not shine a good light on the developer and if truth be told both quotes basically sound like they're shitting on the PC and PS3 even though I'm sure the general meaning and feeling behind them isn't mean't to be that.

Out_On_Bail
on June 18, 2009

@Hamz: Exactly. Isn't that why they hire PR people anyways? These guys just dug their own grave, they may as well make exclusives now for the 360 - for it seems that apparently they can't handle other platforms.

A copout is a good word to describe this situation.

NinjaSquirrel
on June 18, 2009

Looks like I'm gonna have to get three mortgages on m y house so I can buy every version!

ll_chilidogs
on June 18, 2009

I don't blame them... They're going to sell 4 copies of the PC version and 4 million copies of the console version. I'm sure it'll pull in pretty good numbers off the torrent sites though!

get2sammyb
on June 18, 2009

The multiplayer doesn't even work on PS3 for me. I join a match, it starts loading and I get an error. I've managed to play one match so far out of a potential 25.

No jokes.

I really, honestly thought we'd crossed the barrier on shitty PS3 ports lately. I mean, differences on multiplatforms have been unnoticable for a long time now. However, in saying that, I've played through the single-player and it certainly doesn't look bad. I can't speak of whether the XBOX 360 version, but, y'know, it looks fine to me. So it may just be a case of graphic whores and fanboys zooming in on paused gameplay to an un-natural degree.

I much more pissed about not being able to play online at the moment. The one match I did manage to play seemed like something I'd spend some time with.

Claude
on June 18, 2009

@supercubedude said:

"
@Claude said:
" Who you gonna call. "
Calling makes me feel good. "

Sounds like Jeff is calling the Wii version.

Jimbo is online
on June 18, 2009

I read that as "Fuck you, PC gamers, HAHAHAHA!"

The jokes on them though, because it will sell about 5 copies on PC and the mere existence of a PC version will undermine their console sales by thousands.

TheHBK
on June 18, 2009

Oh man, that PS3's crappy anti-aliasing abilities are really making games suffer. hence why the 360 port of FF13 will look just as good as the PS3 even though its not the lead platform. The same thing happened on GTA where the game was lower res. The only games that look super amazing are those made by sony because they know the hardware better. But seriously. This is where I just ask, what the fuck? This is the shit that made DC games look as good or better than PS2 games, sony did not include anti-aliasing in the hardware specs and had developers code it. Think they would have learned by now. This also came up when i bought lost planet for 10 bucks on the PS3, that game looked great on the 360, but on the PS3 it looks like a piece of shit.

Kraznor
on June 18, 2009

Well, I already purchased the 360 version. And aside from some horrible typos on the back of the box (its the Canadian box so your mileage may vary), I'm happy.

Ineedaname
on June 18, 2009

Is it that hard to integrate multiplayer, you could just make players the host, even if they just did it on LAN most people could get that online.

Subject2Change
on June 18, 2009

And thats why I learned to wait for reviews before buying games because this game will get a price drop almost instantly and then i'll consider purchasing it.

agentboolen
on June 18, 2009

He's comments for the PS3 version really make me laugh, that just proves that the PS3 isn't the most powerful machine when developers are too lazy to develop for it. Its been proven to be harder to code for it and this proves it to me, i'm sure if they wanted to they could have made it just as good as the Xbox 360, they just didn't want too.

RHCPfan24
on June 18, 2009

Damn, it looks like Terminal Reality and Threewave developers don't know how to send the right message across. I am sure they didn't mean what we are getting out of this but what is said, is said.

Black_Rose
on June 18, 2009

I don't know if you were joking with the last part of not, but the Wii version has been getting great reviews from sites and users.

xionpunk
on June 18, 2009

Ghostbusters game eh ? That's so interesZzZzZ z Zz zz.....

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