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Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Impressive Visuals

Visually Terminal Reality's own Infernal Engine does the job admirably. Granted, the texture quality varies quite a bit, most likely due to memory limitations set by the console versions. Still, the most important bits like the main characters and major set pieces are textured in admirable detail. There has been plenty of mumbles about the quality differences between PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game and PC suffers no such issues. It looks better than either of them simply because you can play it at a far higher resolution and has no need to run at a reduced texture resolution - unless you set the textures to "low" on purpose.

Characters and equipment are extremely detailed and true to the movies.

At maximum settings you get very good lighting and shadow effects.

Remarkably the PC version of Ghostbusters lists a set of very realistic system requirements. The publisher's minimum is slightly on the low side but it is quite realistic if you play at a low resolution. The publisher's recommended is, probably for the very first time, higher than what we recommend for the game. In any case, a dual core system with a reasonable Shader Model 3.0 compatible videocard will run the game, but for good performance you need a fairly modern system. You have the option of locking the framerate to a 30fps or 60fps cap. 30fps is equal to what the consoles do and the YouGamers recommended system can pull that off at 1920x1200. Toss in a bit beefier video card and you can hit the 60fps at almost everywhere and get a game that is superior to the consoles in every way.

Low mode is comparable to the console version without any shadows.

When everything is switched to High you get proper shadows and higher resolution textures.

Visually the difference between "low" and "high" settings across the board are minor - you lose the shadows and get a lower resolution texture set and some minor losses with the particle effects, but otherwise the game looks quite good even at the lowest settings.

As the console versions are meant to be played on widescreen displays, the PC version is also at it's best on widescreen monitors. On 4:3 displays you get letterboxing in pre-rendered cutscenes and the goggle and the PKE meter graphics in scanning mode are stretched to fill the screen - otherwise the game renders the action in fullscreen on 4:3 monitors. Not quite perfect, but an acceptable solution as 4:3 aspect ratio displays are slowly fading into history.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Performance, VisualsPage 4: Summary, Scores

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