Ghostbusters (The 2009 Video Game)

How the movies should have continued.

Set directly after the Ghostbusters II (1989) movie you are put into the shoes of a rookie who joins the Ghostbusting team on their next adventure. Dubbed the "Experimental Equipment Technician" you can use the funds collected from captured ghosts and collected cursed artifacts to upgrade the performance of your proton pack, expanding your weapon array to match the growing resistances of your foes; provided you still have funds after damaging public property.

Watch your aim, rookie.

Everything about this game is absolutely top notch, capturing a good balance of comedy and horror and having cool segments of working with the other Ghostbusters as well as segments where you are solo. The maps are beautiful, graphics are good, the voice acting, story and game play are superb. Indeed, the only thing I can possibly fault this on is the initial long loading time.

Other than that, I highly recommend this game not just to fans of the original movies, but to all gamers. I give it 5 ghost traps out of 5.

Sacred: Underworld

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

Some days later, I was summoned back to the ancestral forge by lady Vilya who was having nightmares and in despair about her lost love Valor. The wise wizard was there too, and I think he was trying to resurrect the dead prince but all he managed to do was open a portal to the underworld which promptly made a big, spiny demon show up which automatically killed the wizard - grabbed Vilya and retreated back to its realm.

With no time to assemble my previous knight team (who I guess were training with the dragon in Drakenden anyway), I jumped into the portal in pursuit. Once there I found Prince Valor's ghost waiting for me, instructing me to save Vilya. Seriously!? He's still bossing me around after he's dead?

Where are these guys when I need them?

Anyway, if this is the underworld it looks a lot like the normal world. Just full of giant bugs and worms which are easily enough ran past. I also come across a mushroom village with odd looking commoners called Haduk who still trade in gold and have the normal problems to be solved as before. Asking about the kidnapper demon they direct me towards a mine to find it, and one even offers to guide me there though halfway decides he's had enough and leaves me anyway.

I don't know what happened at this point in game design terms. This was the start of huge areas to traverse with not really much content, just endless swarms of enemies, which for me was a severe drop in quality.