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By mrmichaelt
#300377
Eurogamer.net did an interview with Creative Director David Williams and he spills the beans on a couple things.

Links

Page 1: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... -interview

Page 2: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... iew?page=2

Page 3: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... iew?page=3


1) The general story

"The general story is that there is a demon that's being resurrected in New York City and because of this process there are lots and lots of ghosts being drawn to New York from all over the world. This means that the original Ghostbusters team is pretty much overrun with work, so they've had to recruit these new rookies to help out.

The original team does take part in the game, but in the story sequences in-between the missions. They are there, but you don't get to play the original characters."

2) How the story unfolds

"The story is shown through comic sequences."

3) Game Structure

"The story is told through comic sequences. The script was written by Tom Waltz, who has written a load of Ghostbusters comic books, so he was very aware of the brand and did a fantastic job of capturing the personality of the characters - even giving the new characters really good personalities that kind of matched up with the original cast.

You have your story and then you have a top down-ish camera view of each of the environments. The story says there are loads of ghosts at the Sedgewick Hotel, which is a well-known location from the other games and the movies. You start off with your Neutrino Wand, which is the well-known weapon of the Ghostbusters, and clear off that location with new ghosts coming in all the time, playing in a very arcadey style.

As you progress through the levels, in the cut-scenes you have Egon inventing new technology for you and you have new weapons to use as you progress and meet new ghosts. One of the reasons for this is, Egon's discovered certain entities have specific coloured auras around them and they are weak to certain types of energy. So we have is specific coloured ghosts, and as you play through the game you can switch to different colours and that weapon is stronger against that type of ghost."

4) A 5th new character

"When we were doing the game design we were trying to figure out who wants to drive and who wants to shoot. Most of us just wanted to be on the back shooting. So we created another character called Jeff, who is the driver. He meets you at various points in the game to drive you around the city. In those driving sections you're all on the back of the car chasing and being chased by lots of different types of ghosts."

5) Hours of Gameplay

"About six."

6) Extras

"For replay the main thing is score. All the levels and the entire game have leaderboard support, so you can compare all your scores against anyone else who has the game or friends. There are special combo systems in the scoring so you can build up huge scores by gaining big combos in specific areas. Also there are hidden collectibles. As you search around the area, even though it's not an exploration game, there are hidden items to find, and obviously Achievements and Trophies."

7) The Villain

"The story references lots of Ghostbusters lore in itself. One of the rookies is related to Dr. Janosz Poha, who was in the second movie.

He's in this script for this game and ends up being the bad guy without knowing it, and then apologising."

8) Crossing the Streams

"It's been some time since you weren't allowed to cross the streams. Egon hasn't been sitting still with his technology advancements. Now it's an advantage to cross the streams. If you're playing in multiplayer and you're very close and aiming at the same ghosts, you can merge the streams, gain a power advantage, and it also causes splash damage, which affects the ghosts in the surrounding area as well."
#300483
Well that is interesting. Seems if Oscar is the son of Dana and a related of Janosz Poha that they sure are using Ghostbusters II to the fullest.

I think they should have addressed the new characters in the game more, as that has been bugging many of us. Who are the rookies really, and how did they pick them. Is Oscar in this game Dana's son? Seems they are holding back too much information to this. If we're going to play as them, we should know more about them.
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By Fritz
#300547
I guess it's time for my Complaining GBFans Poster moment, I'm less excited about this than I was before. What happened to the idea of being a new Franchise--did someone lie to us in the early infodumps? I thought it was a more interesting idea to have it take place somewhere besides New York, instead of the retreading of old ground--all the more so with, at bare minimum, crossreferences to a character from the movies.

Well, okay, there's no mention of Gozer yet, so I'll give them that. But if the big bad guy is a demon lumberjack named Horg...
It's been some time since you weren't allowed to cross the streams. Egon hasn't been sitting still with his technology advancements. Now it's an advantage to cross the streams. If you're playing in multiplayer and you're very close and aiming at the same ghosts, you can merge the streams, gain a power advantage, and it also causes splash damage, which affects the ghosts in the surrounding area as well.
It's probably just me, but I'm really hating the "It's okay to cross the streams now!" crap ever since it started sneaking in during "Displaced Aggression". I'd rather leave it as a dangerous thing to keep it from being used as a deus ex machina even more than it is.
#300564
Including Janosz is an interesting idea to me. So far I am not thrilled with what I have seen and heard about this game, but I am trying to keep an open mind.
Fritz wrote: I thought it was a more interesting idea to have it take place somewhere besides New York, instead of the retreading of old ground--all the more so with, at bare minimum, crossreferences to a character from the movies.
But then they couldn't reuse the environment art from the last game.
It's probably just me, but I'm really hating the "It's okay to cross the streams now!" crap ever since it started sneaking in during "Displaced Aggression". I'd rather leave it as a dangerous thing to keep it from being used as a deus ex machina even more than it is.
I agree. I know this game won't be canon, but nonetheless, as game designers who have been handed a beloved movie franchise to work with, they're playing a little fast and loose with well-established Ghostbusters lore here.
#300585
devilmanozzy wrote:Well that is interesting. Seems if Oscar is the son of Dana and a related of Janosz Poha that they sure are using Ghostbusters II to the fullest.

I think they should have addressed the new characters in the game more, as that has been bugging many of us. Who are the rookies really, and how did they pick them. Is Oscar in this game Dana's son? Seems they are holding back too much information to this. If we're going to play as them, we should know more about them.
I didn't follow the news as much when The Video Game was coming out. Comparatively, did The Video Game hand out more information that Sanctum of Slime has so far, in your opinion?

In the interview, Williams does briefly mention the four rookies and their personalities meshing. But yeah, I would have liked to have learned what year this takes place in; i.e. 1992 or 2010. Being canon is always a concern but with GB3 being made, the movie has the potential to squash a lot of canon. Fritz had the right idea of framing the franchise's timelines into different routes a la parallel universes.
Fritz wrote:I guess it's time for my Complaining GBFans Poster moment, I'm less excited about this than I was before. What happened to the idea of being a new Franchise--did someone lie to us in the early infodumps? I thought it was a more interesting idea to have it take place somewhere besides New York, instead of the retreading of old ground--all the more so with, at bare minimum, crossreferences to a character from the movies.
Seems like it, a lack of PR organization. It did sound like SoS was going to revolve around the Rookie and his franchise in not-New York.

In the Ghostbusters world, seems like a career in Art or History is just as dangerous as one in Paranormal Studies. Wonder what object Janosz activates or painting unveiled this time. A demon resurrected? Gozer seems like the only choice (but fingers crossed for a Torb). Right now, I don't feel comfortable with an IDW-created entity like Koza'Rai or that Con-Volution demon being the main antagonistic entity. But at the same time, if they 'resurrected' someone like Janna from that really old video game or Proteus or Tiamat from RGB...they did sneak in the Tiamat references in The Video Game and maybe it gets expanded on in SoS.
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By Fritz
#300604
I realize I probably sounded more annoyed about this than I really am--I'm not a video gamer, and probably won't ever play this (Good grief, I never played the earlier game either). So it's all theoretical to me, at best.

I look back over some of the earlier threads about the game, and I realize some of it may have just been miscommunication or misunderstanding on our part--since it sounded like Rookie Stu was in it, we assumed it took place somewhere else because he was sent away to start his own Franchise, so we assumed that was where it took place. So yeah, some PR breakdown and fan imagination getting ahead of itself, I guess.
A demon resurrected? Gozer seems like the only choice
Dear God no. Just no.
(but fingers crossed for a Torb). Right now, I don't feel comfortable with an IDW-created entity like Koza'Rai or that Con-Volution demon being the main antagonistic entity. But at the same time, if they 'resurrected' someone like Janna from that really old video game or Proteus or Tiamat from RGB...they did sneak in the Tiamat references in The Video Game and maybe it gets expanded on in SoS.
There's whole pantheons of mythological beings out there even if they never make one up themselves--Proteus and Tiamat, for example, actual figures from Greek and Babylonian mythology. Tiamat would be a good one, I admit, especially as you mention the "seeding" of the idea into GBVG.

Just no more sprocking Gozer, please.
#300608
Fritz wrote:
A demon resurrected? Gozer seems like the only choice
Dear God no. Just no.
(but fingers crossed for a Torb). Right now, I don't feel comfortable with an IDW-created entity like Koza'Rai or that Con-Volution demon being the main antagonistic entity. But at the same time, if they 'resurrected' someone like Janna from that really old video game or Proteus or Tiamat from RGB...they did sneak in the Tiamat references in The Video Game and maybe it gets expanded on in SoS.
There's whole pantheons of mythological beings out there even if they never make one up themselves--Proteus and Tiamat, for example, actual figures from Greek and Babylonian mythology. Tiamat would be a good one, I admit, especially as you mention the "seeding" of the idea into GBVG.

Just no more sprocking Gozer, please.
I must have misremembered but I thought I read it was a demon they fought before, hence why I thought Gozer was a choice. GBTVG does leave Gozer's status ambiguous but to me, it looked depleted and finished for good. So you're right, could be any demon; made up or from an actual pantheon of mythology.

But the story definitely sounds like a case of Janosz once again taking something out of storage that should have stayed in storage.
#300876
mrmichaelt wrote:I didn't follow the news as much when The Video Game was coming out. Comparatively, did The Video Game hand out more information that Sanctum of Slime has so far, in your opinion?

In the interview, Williams does briefly mention the four rookies and their personalities meshing. But yeah, I would have liked to have learned what year this takes place in; i.e. 1992 or 2010. Being canon is always a concern but with GB3 being made, the movie has the potential to squash a lot of canon. Fritz had the right idea of framing the franchise's timelines into different routes a la parallel universes.
Well first of all, the development time was a lot longer, and going through three companies before finally getting released, they all did promo stuff and pictures in progress. So yeah the first game did a lot more promoting.

I don't remember when the cat was out of the bag about the video game being in Thanksgiving 1991, but I do believe it was atleast months before it was released. While I can't expect them to give away much of the plot, it would be fair to at least say when this game is timeline wise, and where the new characters came from.
#301013
devilmanozzy wrote:I don't remember when the cat was out of the bag about the video game being in Thanksgiving 1991, but I do believe it was atleast months before it was released. While I can't expect them to give away much of the plot, it would be fair to at least say when this game is timeline wise, and where the new characters came from.
Come to think of, I recall the Thanksgiving 1991 bit was mentioned in that March 2009 press kit that gave a bunch of backstory on Ilyssa Selwyn. But anyway, yes, a rundown of the rookies' names and a quick blurb about them would be nice to see before the game releases.
#301218
ChexGuy331 wrote:I thought they already gave the rookie names?

But yeah, backstories are cool too.
Yes, they have but I'm a fan of full names. And they haven't officially matched name to face, that's speculation from fans only so far (well which one Bridget is would be fairly obvious).
#301864
Also, from a chronological point of view, it kind of makes sense that crossing the streams is now beneficial. It takes place quite a while after the first game, right? 1991? That's 7 years after the first movie, in which crossing them is a horrible idea. 7 years later, crossing the streams is still bad, but is nowhere near as dangerous. Give Egon and Ray some time, and they'll find a way to make i help.

And it must be a pain in the ass to keep them from crossing, they go all over the place in the movies.
By njukgb
#301869
ChexGuy331 wrote:And it must be a pain in the ass to keep them from crossing, they go all over the place in the movies.
This man speaketh some kick asseth truth!
#301893
ChexGuy331 wrote: And it must be a pain in the ass to keep them from crossing, they go all over the place in the movies.
I don't think keeping them from crossing would be that big of a problem, the proton stream's like charges would repel them from each other. So although the wiggling looks scary its not that big of a deal, the only problem would be if you continued to move your stream through someone else's. If you get them to close together, they will wiggle apart, but you keep pushing...Boom! Oh, and for the record I hate the crossing the streams to make them stronger, or safely crossing them at all. It seems like a kids idea, "OMG! lets put our beams together to make a SUPER BEAM!!!!11!!one!!1!!! ". I accept the streams safely crossing in Displaced Aggression, because of magic, and when the story was over things go back to normal so no harm, no foul. Besides its still just as dangerous in EGB to cross the streams, so changing it up now seams silly to me. I also would like to know the time frame of the game, and to know more about these new guys. But I am excited to play though, so I can't wait to check it out.
#303809
As Proton Charging pointed out, Behaviour Santiago Creative Director David Williams posted a dev blog on the U.S. Playstation page.

1) The four rookies are named:
Allan
Bridget
Samuel
Gabriel

No Oscar

2) The rookies use "prototype weapons that Egon has been designing over the past decade. Egon’s and Ray’s studies on paranormal entities have revealed that ectoplasm can be charged with different sub-atomic charges, making ghosts weaker to different energy frequencies."

3) "These new weapons, together with the enhanced Proton Stream, completely disintegrate minor entities so you don’t have to worry about tossing your trap every two minutes. However, when facing larger menaces, the trap will be your only surefire solution."

4) "Disintegrated ghosts will usually leave a small trail of ectoplasmic residue that can be absorbed by the team’s proton pack built-in Energy Syphon. In some situations, the energy left behind by the ghosts will be so powerful that they can power up some of the other energy consuming features of the Proton Pack, like the Ectoplasmic Shield, the Power Enhancer or Nano-massage Health Recovery system."

The Energy Syphon sounds really neat. Reminds me when ectoplasmic physics was addressed a few times on RGB like "Robo-Buster." But I'll admit "Nano-massage" sounds naughty.

EDIT: After some searching, apparently, the main villain of this game Dumazu is or a reference to an obscure Sumerian and Akkadian god, patron of vegetation and shepherds. A.K.A. Dumuzi, Damu, Tammuz. He was carried off to the underworld by demons. A bargain was struck and he was allowed to live 6 months on Earth and the other 6 in the underworld.

"Egon has been designing over the past decade" And SoS appears to take place at least 10 years later from TVG, so it seems 2001-ish.

EDIT 2: Atari Producer Jonathan Moses revealed Slimer will appear throughout the game and Stay Puft has a cameo. And there's 14, rather than 12, levels.
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