He also accepts the fact he'll always be remembered as the fourth Ghostbuster, although he had a much bigger part in the original script. "I was the guy who got slimed in the hotel, but I guess the studio felt they wanted more stuff for Bill Murray," Hudson reveals. "I was the guy who thought of the marshmallow man on the rooftop, but then it became Danny [Aykroyd]'s character." It was only after he won the part of Winston that the decision was made to reduce the character's role. "And they didn't do that till the day before we started shooting, so I didn't have time to adjust," Hudson says. "Yeah, when the part was cut there was some frustrating stuff associated with that. But it was what it was, and it is what it is. 24 years later, people still like the movie, and I'm glad."

Other tidbit bits include Bill Murray's reluctance to sign-off on a Ghostbuster sequel that would pass the proton packs off to some younger dudes.

Ghostbusters' Ernie Hudson [Eurogamer] [Pic]

"We nearly doubled our exhibition hall and added another 80,000 square feet of content overall, so the show is going to be pretty amazing this year," says Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo. "You should come. I think you would like it."

I've a feeling he could be right. This year's show takes place August 29th through the 31st in sunny Seattle Washington. Hit the jump for a full list of exhibitors. Be prepared to scroll.

PENNY ARCADE REVEALS PAX 2008 EXHIBITORS AND FIRST PROGRAMMING DETAILS

Headliners include Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision and Ubisoft

SEATTLE - June 26, 2008 - The organizers of the fifth annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) today announced key details of the upcoming gaming festival, to be held Aug. 29-31, 2008 at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle.

This year's exhibit floor will offer PAX attendees hands-on time with highly anticipated games and products from more exhibitors than ever, including Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision and Ubisoft (see below for a complete exhibitor list). In addition to seeing a massive number of pre-release games on its show floor, attendees can expect a bevy of panels, the Omegathon gaming competition, tournaments, and more. First details of PAX 2008 programming include:

- The ECTO-1, of Ghostbusters fame, will be on display for all three days of PAX

- The PAX 10 independent games showcase, to thrill and delight you

- Two nights of music that will almost certainly change your life

"We nearly doubled our exhibition hall and added another 80,000 square feet of content overall, so the show is going to be pretty amazing this year," says Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo. "You should come. I think you would like it."

Complete List of PAX 2008 Exhibitors:

- 1up.com
- 2K Games
- Activision
- Antec, Inc.
- Astro Gaming
-The Behemoth
- Bethesda
- Bioware
- Blizzard
- Brawndo
- Bungie
- CCP/Whitewolf
- CDV
- clubNAMCO.com
- Cogswell Polytechnical College
- Cryptic Studios
- D3P
- Destineer
- Dolby
- EA Mythic
- ECA (Entertainment Consumer's Association)
- Electronic Arts
- Fantasy Flight Games
- Flying Frog Productions
- Flying Lab Software
- Foundation 9 Entertainment
- Game Publishers Association
- Gamecock
- GameTrailers
- Garage Games
- Guildhall at SMU
- Harmonix
- Hothead Games
- Hudson
- Indiecade
- Intel
- ITT Tech
- Klei Entertainment
- Media-blasters NYC
- Mega64
- Meteor Games
- Microsoft XNA
- Microsoft
- Midway
- Namco Bandai
- NCsoft
- Nintendo
- Nokia
- Patriot Memory
- Pegasus Publishing
- Pink Godzilla
- Plantronics
- Privateer Press
- Razer
- Rockstar
- Roosterteeth.com
- Sierra/Vivendi
- Sony
- SouthPeak Games
- Stardock
- Sumo Lounge
- Telltale
- THQ
- Tinderbox Entertainment
- Tritton Technologies
- Turbine
- Ubisoft
- Udon Entertainment / Oni Press
- Upper Deck
- Vivox
- Wizards of the Coast
- Zenimax

[Pic]

He made so much money off of Honey I Shrunk The Kids that he retired. He just doesn’t want to work anymore.

Oh. Well. Good for you, Rick Moranis.

An Inside Look At The Making Of Ghostbusters [Das Gamer]

"What Zootfly did for us, inadvertently, is help sell the concept. When their footage came out, we were close to our green-light meeting, and when the executives saw the reaction from the fans, they immediately knew, 'Hey, Ghostbusters is going to be a big hit - we need to put this game into production.'"

Small consolation for the folks at ZootFly, but Ghostbusters fans around the world sure appreciate the help. Next time just make sure you're allowed to make the game before you make it!

Zootfly Ghostbusters footage helped sell concept [CVG]

Apparently it was Aykroyd who got all of the other cast members on board to do the voice-overs, and he was so enthusiastic about the game that he helped name and create specs for many of the game's weapons, to make sure they sounded and played like something that would have really been part of the franchise. In fact, Aykroyd is co-writing the entire script with fellow Ghostbusters writer Harold Ramis, so it's a game adaptation with what look to be strong ties to the original material.

The city of New York plays a major role here, too, and from what I saw and was told, the developers are aiming for a true-to-life NYC that echoes the environment in the films, from indoors to out - the city as a "character," as the reps said.

They told me they're aiming for a "seamless" transition between the game's indoor and outdoor environments. I also learned why you won't get to play as any of the four Ghostbusters.

In the game, you play a new recruit to the team whose primary role is to act as "guinea pig" for all of Egon's new weapons. You play as part of a team with the other Ghostbusters, and the reps told me they really want to capture the "comedic timing" of the interaction among the characters - with the player controlling one, it might interfere, as you can probably imagine.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is set in 1991, three years after the second film. The mayor has just been re-elected on a pro-Ghostbusters platform, and he's now funding the team's latest activities. However, it looks like the team will end up racking up more in city damages during the poltergeist fights than it earns in fees for eliminating the beasties.

In the scene I saw, the player and two teammates fought a ghost inside New York Public Library. That scene alone, the reps told me, had about 4,000 destructible objects inside it, and as items were destroyed, they got sucked into the ghost's body. Characters can be created out of physics objects in realtime, the reps explained.

And for every shelf, chair, book and lamp the team bashed up, a little running cash tally in the corner of the screen showed how much dollar damage the player had racked up. There's no penalty for this, the reps explained - it's intended as a fun sort of points system.

New weapons become available from Egon and they can be upgraded and customized using your earnings from successful ghost hunts. The way the weapons system works, you can see what's going on on the back of your equipment pack - for example, instead of an ammo system, you watch your heat cylinders and have to take a pause when you overheat. Keep an eye on it, though, and you can vent it manually.

In another scene, I watched the team battle the iconic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from inside a city building, escaping out onto the roof to trap little bits of him that had separated off and begun attacking. When you use your beam to lasso a ghost, the reps said, the teammate AI knows what you're up to and will provide a trap for you.

I also learned a little bit about how the multiplayer will work on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network - it's cooperative for up to four players who compete against each other for the leaderboards.

The team also said the PlayStation 3 was the game's "anchor platform," and built in Sixaxis controls for the beam weapons on that version. For the less-powered system, developer Red Fly is preparing a more stylized, cartoon version that's more mission-based for Wii and PS2, while the DS version is more focused on being a "throwback to the 90s." (We also hear the DS can connect up to the Wii and act as a PKE meter). Each version, I was told, is totally different, but they're all "by fans, for fans," as the reps said.

Ghostbusters script is 480 pages long, says actual Ghostbuster [VG247]

• There seem to be two levels of ghosts, those you can just blast and those who have to be corralled and trapped. Getting both out of the way looks like it can be repetitive — although since we see Mr. Stay-Puft in these sequences my bet is it's from an apocalyptic finale level.

• Couldn't hear dialogue, but the soundtrack — cut from the original Peter Elmer Bernstein score — sounds great and responsive to the in-game tempo. I can imagine giggling while taking down some specter in a slapstick manner, to a grandiose accompaniment from the horn section.

• Flynn testified to the depth of the game's engine and the massive number of objects it can manage at once, but the wall destruction at 2:17 looks kinda meh. Could be the poor quality of a YouTube vid though.

• The end of this video — that had better not be how you really finish off Stay-Puft. Maybe the game was being played on "dickless" level or something.

• Why didn't they cross the streams? It would be bad, I guess.

• The voice-over, who the hell is that. Marc Summers from Double Dare?

Ghostbusters — Playr TV [YouTube, thanks to reader Matt]

Interview: Terminal Reality? Ain't Afraid Of No Ghosts [Gamasutra]

"When we were doing the focus group testing, we asked people how they'd feel about a remix done by a current band. We got booed out of the place," Goss said. "People were really against it, going, 'You can't do that, there's only one song for Ghostbusters!' It was incredible. So we were like, okay, we won't mess with the Ray Parker Jr. song then."

No theme tune remix for Ghostbusters [Eurogamer]

The Bourne Conspiracy Impressions
Ghostbusters Impressions
Sierra Online's XBLA Offerings
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: Spyro Grows Up,
World in Conflict 360/PS3 Impressions
Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant Impressions
Prototype Impressions
50 Cent II Impressions

Soon we moved to an outside street scene where we observed some of the amazing crowd technology that will be employed in the game, particularly in a Thanksgiving Day parade that we unfortunately didn't get to see previewed. I will say though that the crowd technology in Ghostbusters is the best I have ever seen. With a camera perched high above an intersection, we were able to see fifteen hundred people at once, all moving with their own individual AI, moving aside if they bumped into each other and never passing through or getting stuck all jittery in a corner. We came down to ground level and were shown some crowd reactions which were also impressive. Some ran screaming into the night while others gave you a wide berth to do your ghostbusting and yet even others stayed around to watch.

After the engine demo we got to check out some of the actual gameplay, but it skipped around quite a bit, showing various stages and enemies including the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man who looked both awesome and terrifying as he peered through windows looking for a victim. Anyone who has seen the films will be familiar with the ghost catching mechanic employed in the game. The PK emitter is used to detect the ghosts and once you've detected them your handy dandy Proton Pack comes into play with its various powers such as Dark Energy, Freeze Beam, Shot Blast, Neutron Generator and the Slime Tether. Once the ghosts have had some of the fight taken out of them you can begin the process of grabbing them with your beam and capturing them in the ghost traps. Here was where the PS3s Sixxaxis controller came into play. Utilizing a mechanic similar to that of Folklore, you use the controller to capture to grab the ghosts and then by shaking the remote, slamming the ethereal enemies into the ground until they can finally be trapped. Some enemies require multiple Ghostbusters to bring them down and often your AI buddies will not only help you by throwing down the ghost traps for you but can also help by adding their steam to yours (don't cross them!). Just remember the three steps: Wrangle, Slam and capture.

Your fellow AI Ghostbusters aren't the only ones who can help you. You real life friends can join you as well with online co-op play and specific co-op missions and mini-games. Some competitive play missions will also be available for you ornery types. Each mission will of course yield you a fee which will allow you to then make improvements to your beam pack. For all of you who were hoping to tear up the streets of NYC in the ECTO 1, I'm afraid you are out of luck as the game will contain no driving levels although the infamous vehicle does make quite a few appearances. Since the build we saw was pretty early on, the voiceover recording hadn't been done yet, but we were assured that all the original cast members would be providing their voices for the game including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Annie Potts, Harold Ramis and the rest of the gang.

As a huge fan of the original Ghostbusters, I was quite taken and duly impressed by what I saw of the game and will be waiting rather impatiently (as I'm sure most of you will) for it to rear it's head later this year. Ghostbusters will be coming to the Wii (with no online play), PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, PC and DS this October and if the developers have their way, will come out right around Halloween. Perfect.

Full Gallery of Screens [Action Trip]

Free Overnight Shipping on Ghostbusters! [GameStop]

Ghostbusters Gameplay [G4TV.com]

According to Variety, the Ghostbusters game is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, courtesy of developer Terminal Reality, with more casual-aimed versions from Red Fly Studio coming to PlayStation 2, Wii and DS. The report has plenty of delicious details on the game's genesis and even includes a teeny, cropped screen shot.

Vivendi, Sony call 'Ghostbusters' [Variety]

We have the tools, we have the talent, let's just hope that we have the gameplay.

Game Informer's December Cover Revealed! [Game Informer]

Now, it appears that the game is indeed on, regardless of whether current developer Zootfly is at the helm. According to Dan Aykroyd (aka the Ghostbuster's Dr. Ray Stantz):

Universal purchased the rights from Sony for a game. I'm actually going to have to perform and do some motion capture for them. That will be next year.

Well, that about wraps that up. A Ghostbusters game is coming, but not before some time next year, if Aykroyd's dates are to be believed. Michael McWhertor

Dan all about blues & booze [Edmonton Sun]
Dan Aykroyd to appear in Ghostbusters game [Gamespot]

Well the good news is that developer ZootFly has confirmed with IGN that the Ghostbusters game footage that saw heavy circulation yesterday was in fact actual footage from an Xbox 360 game they are developing. Unfortunately the game is currently on hold due to licensing issues the company is actively working to resolve, so there is no projected release date for the game, or really any guarantee that it will see the light of day whatsoever.

I wouldn't be surprised if the leak itself were in fact manufactured in order to further the developer's cause. Would be a rather canny move on their part if it were. The response from the gaming community has been pretty overwhelming. Most of you want the game made. ZootFly wants the game made. Hell, I want the game made. The only obstacle remains Ghostbusters' legendarily complicated rights ownership...also one of the main reasons we haven't seen a Ghostbusters 3 yet. Michael Fahey

Ghostbusters Game Busted - [IGN - Thanks James!]