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Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
Tiny Diggers Delivers Learning With Construction Trucks For Kids on the …

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Home » First Thirty, PS3

First Thirty: Ghostbusters (PS3)

Submitted by Mike Koss on June 21, 2009 – 11:41 pm4 Comments

Everyone who knows me knows I love Ghostbusters, so picking this title up as a day one release was a no brainer. This game has featured an enormous amount of hype and expectations. Can the first thirty break down these walls and provide a solid experience? So far my play through has been a mixed bag. Initially my excitement is generated by being greeted by music from the original movie. This sets a tone that Terminal Reality really wanted to capture that feeling and roll it into an engaging title. The game starts off with a scene from the museum showing off a new Gozer exhibit, and something ‘evil’ going down. This is then followed by a scene back at the fire house with Egon and Ray going over some new modifications to the standard proton pack and introducing you, Rookie. After some beautiful in-game rendered videos, you’re quickly thrust into the action of the game: busting ghosts.

The act of ghost busting consists of firing your weapon, which happens to start as the standard issue proton pack, at said apparitions until their health meter is low enough to be able to grapple them and pull them into a trap. All in all its pretty much standard third-person over-the-shoulder rodeo action with stronger enemies that take more than a shot or two to take down. Remember, you will be busting ghosts. Lots of them. Over and over again. Hence the name of the game. If that turns you off, you may not want to don the brown jumpsuit.

Home, Sweet Home

So far the graphics have been pretty, to say the least. Unfortunately there looks to be some shenanigans with quality when compared to the 306. What happened to the PS3 being “the platform” the game was developed for? Either way, it still looks good. One area that has been lacking is variance in the levels. The first level is in the Sedgewick Hotel, and all of the corridors in the hotel look pretty much the same. It is a hotel, so the architecture is expected to be pretty much cookie-cutter but hopefully I’ll see some more things here and there. Continuing with the environment is the ability to interact with objects. In the firehouse, you can ‘play’ the arcade games. Well you don’t really play them, but ‘interact’ with them and you character pretends to play the game for all of 3 to 5 seconds. Also, since you are firing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator, you’re bound to perform some damage to the environment, and boy can it show. These are just some of those nice things to see where the the developer, Terminal Reality, put a little extra effort into the game to make you feel like you really are in the world.

Someone got messy with the proton stream

From a “gotta catch’em all” mentality, the PKE meter gets plenty of use. Throughout the game, the PKE meter is used to find ghosts, catalog/scan ghosts, and find artifacts. The latter of which provides more money for in-game equipment upgrades. Collecting all of the items will provide for a few trophies, so there looks to be some decent replay built-in as well.

While not quite a constant audio ecstasy, there have been audio orgasmic moments. The designers did an excellent job with placing loud, sudden noises per standard spooky film standards throughout to keep you on that constant edge. While the dialogue has been pretty up to par with the original 1984 movie, it will unfortunately take a few years before everyone and their brother can spout of all off the quotes at will.

Now if you excuse my, Janine is yelling and it’s time to go a-bustin’. Who you gonna call? Me.

Tags: 3rd person, ghostbusters, over-the-shoulder, PS3, terminal reality

http://www.ps3home.co.uk/ Playstation3

I am very much interested in this game and I am a usual player of this game.
JoeFourhman

I'm also 30-60 minutes into the game… it does look great, the character models are nice, and I like the voice work. And you get at least six Trophies right off the bat for barely doing anything.

But I will say that I am disappointed in how closely the game wants to mimic the first movie… I mean, you end up going right back to the hotel where the boys first bagged Slimer (back before he became a marketable “thing”) and the exact same events play out. Venkman gets slimed, the hotel guy gets pissy, the Busters threaten to let the ghosts out. And then ten minutes later the Stay Puft man returns. I'd almost rather they just would have made a new game adaptation of the two movies (think LEGO Ghostbusters) if all that's going to happen in the “new” game is a shot-for-shot rehash.

In counterpoint to that, not far into the Slimer adventure, you have to chase down an angry fisherman ghost who turns the hotel into a spectral underwater cave. I'd like about a ton more of THAT, being an all new experience, than have to listen to the guys makes quips like “Boy, I got slimed AGAIN!”

I'm also a little concerned with the way the game starts you out, with a low-power proton pack. Because I am spending a lot of time on my ass, getting knocked down by ghosts, only to stand up and get knocked down again. I hope that as I upgrade my weapon, this happens less and less.

There's also a bizarre mechanic where your teammates can revive you if you run out of lives… but only if they manage to run over to you in time without getting killed themselves. It is frustrating to be lying there dead at the mercy of an AI character who does not seem to hustling. I needed four takes at the Times Square opera battle thanks to that nonsense.

But other than that I like it. I hope the game steps it up.
http://www.ps3home.co.uk/ Playstation3

I am very much interested in this game and I am a usual player of this game.
http://www.fourhman.com Joe Fourhman

I'm also 30-60 minutes into the game… it does look great, the character models are nice, and I like the voice work. And you get at least six Trophies right off the bat for barely doing anything.

But I will say that I am disappointed in how closely the game wants to mimic the first movie… I mean, you end up going right back to the hotel where the boys first bagged Slimer (back before he became a marketable “thing”) and the exact same events play out. Venkman gets slimed, the hotel guy gets pissy, the Busters threaten to let the ghosts out. And then ten minutes later the Stay Puft man returns. I'd almost rather they just would have made a new game adaptation of the two movies (think LEGO Ghostbusters) if all that's going to happen in the “new” game is a shot-for-shot rehash.

In counterpoint to that, not far into the Slimer adventure, you have to chase down an angry fisherman ghost who turns the hotel into a spectral underwater cave. I'd like about a ton more of THAT, being an all new experience, than have to listen to the guys makes quips like “Boy, I got slimed AGAIN!”

I'm also a little concerned with the way the game starts you out, with a low-power proton pack. Because I am spending a lot of time on my ass, getting knocked down by ghosts, only to stand up and get knocked down again. I hope that as I upgrade my weapon, this happens less and less.

There's also a bizarre mechanic where your teammates can revive you if you run out of lives… but only if they manage to run over to you in time without getting killed themselves. It is frustrating to be lying there dead at the mercy of an AI character who does not seem to hustling. I needed four takes at the Times Square opera battle thanks to that nonsense.

But other than that I like it. I hope the game steps it up.