This week’s Zero Punctuation takes on Ghostbusters The Videogame. Yahtzee’s not afraid to take on games and films with a deeply devoted and sometime rabid fan base to task. It’s an ugly brawl and he manages to pull Star Trek and Dr. Who into the fray.

Although I may not always agree with his opinion, I always enjoy it. Yahtzee isn’t afraid to cut anyone down to size including himself.

You can view the Zero punctuation videogame review archives on The Escapist.

It’s that time of year again: The time when Electronic Arts begins releasing its yearly stable of sports games. Yeah, I know. Who cares, right? Every year I see at least one person write something about how EA will eventually tire of this schedule, or else how the gamers will eventually reject it. After at least a decade of this, it doesn’t seem likely that either of those outcomes are imminent.

However, many of us are making progress. It’s been two years since I bought a Madden game, ditto for NCAA Football. I don’t remember the last basketball title I purchased, and I’ve managed to avoid succumbing to the urge to pick up FIFA, NHL, or Fight Night titles as well.

Unfortunately, I still have one crippling weakness: Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Yes, I realize that golf isn’t the ‘hardcore’ gamer’s choice, but for some reason I just can’t stop myself. Case in point: I headed into GameStop yesterday to pick up my copy of Ghostbusters. While I was standing in line at the counter, I was overcome with the urge to grab Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. I fought valiantly, but lo and behold, once I arrived at the front of the line, the first words out of my mouth were those.

What is driving me to do this?

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Atari, Intel, and Sony are gearing up for the big Ghostbusters: the Videogame and movie come back this summer with a spellbinding promotion. You can show off you Ghostbusters pride with the new Ultimate Fan Widget. It’s compatible with most of the major social networks and your key to getting the latest updates hot off the press.

You can also join the Virtual Ghosthunt, a scavenger hunt application. You collect ghosts, finding them or leaving on your friends’ profiles to earn points towards a sweepstakes entry. Prizes include a custom gaming rig with Ghostbusters original decor and copies of the video game, of course.

Follow the jump for more details on how to capture your own Ghostbusters gadgets.

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The Sony press conference for E3 2009 is set to prepare gamers for the return of a juggernaut. Sony’s had a tough year for its PS3 console, but things are looking up. This is Sony’s year to make the most expensive console on the market profitable. With God of War III, Heavy Rain, Batman Arkham Asylum, Modern Warfare 2 and MAG on the horizon, this year’s E3 press conference promises to give gamers a reason to pick up a PS3. I’ll be blogging live as Sony wows gamers with 364 new PS3, PSP and PS2 titles. Check out the running commentary after the break.

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“… dogs and cats, living together… mass hysteria!!”

As I quote the fictitious, yet venerable, Dr. Peter Venkman, it seems Sony Entertainment is currently attempting a coup of sorts towards bringing the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game within its exclusive ranks. With just over a month until the game’s imminent release, this bit of news will come as a shock to many anticipating its release via the “other” platforms – namely the PC, Xbox 360, and Wii.

According to gamesindustry.biz, Sony acquired the game from Atari and has simultaneously revealed (as of today) that the game will launch on the Playstation 2 & 3 platforms exclusively with a PSP version to follow later. Officially, there is no word as to the fate of the other platform versions that were originally to be launched the same day. Speculation has it that Atari will still retain the rights to publish the game for the remaining platform versions, albeit, launching at a much later time.

Personally, I’m not sure what to think of this bit of news. The game has certainly changed hands (both developer and publisher) more than I can recall. The project would surely have died if Atari had not stepped in and secured the publishing rights last year. However, I can’t help but view this recent acquisition as anything but “dealing under the table”. When first hearing this news, I was given a strong visual of Sony and Atari representatives touting trench coats; both exchanging a briefcase full of cash in some dark alley late at night. Am I overreacting? Perhaps. But I sincerely doubt I’m alone here. It just seems so last minute given all the teasing we’ve had from trailers, demos, etc. added to the knowledge that it would be coming to our favorite platform very soon. The candy dangling in front of us has certainly been yanked away.

Nonetheless, I am still hopeful and looking forward to playing this game on PC. For now, it seems, I will be watching this game from the sidelines. My new multi-core Intel processor was also looking forward to crunching away at some neato physics calculations powered by the Velocity physics engine.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is still slated to hit shelves around June 19th. However, gamers will only see the box sitting in specific sections of «insert favorite game store here».

Update: It seems MCV has confirmed (from Atari) the game will be released for Xbox 360, DS and Wii “later this year”.

Update: Atari has just sent out a press release with clarification that Sony exclusivity is for PAL regions only. You can check it out after the break.

… and there was much rejoicing in the west.

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You can’t kill the metal. The metal will live on. Activision tried to kill the metal but they failed, as they were smite to the ground! HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!

After being kicked to the curb by Activision, it was rumored back in August that Electronic Arts would be publishing Tim Schafer’s upcoming action/adventure game Brutal Legend. Today, Electronic Arts confirmed those rumors by officially announcing that they have signed an exclusive publishing agreement with Double Fine.

Hooray! Looks like come Fall 2009 we will all finally be able to load in the game into our PS3 or Xbox 360 and step into the shoes of Eddie Riggs (Jack Black) as he sets forth on a quest to build an army of rockers with only a broad axe, a big block V8 and his faithful guitar in hand.

“This is awesome news!” stated Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions. “The quality and creativity of the games EA Partners has been involved with make it a perfect home for our baby, Brütal Legend. Some people were starting to wonder if the saga of Eddie Riggs would ever see the light of day, but now I think it’s clear that this game, like Metal itself, cannot be killed!”

Yes Tim, it is great news indeed that Brutal Legend will indeed be published by someone. Thank the gods of metal ye non-belivers, because our wish has come true!

Aside from layoffs and massive reorganizations, there is one other prevalent trend during an economic crisis: companies buying each other up. Atari has now announced that they have acquired Cryptic Studios, the developers behind the successful MMO, City of Heroes. Cryptic will bring with them three other MMO projects in the works, including Champions Online, Star Trek Online, and an undisclosed title. The deal apparently cost Atari a $26.7 million cash payment up front as well as a future earn-out or around $27.5 million made up of cash and company stock. Cryptic could also stand to earn performance bonuses if their games perform better than their anticipated targets.

Of all the news of publishers buying up developers, this is probably the least unsettling. Cryptic has a pretty good track record when it comes to the MMO market and two hotly anticipated games on the way, so I doubt Atari would do anything major to upset that right now. Of course, I said the same thing about Ghostbusters when Activision snatched up Sierra, so we’ll have to see.

Oh, that’s right; I’d forgotten there was a video game in the works based on the movie/never-ending sequel fest, Saw. That’s probably because it’s a game based on a series of films whose only real entertainment comes form the inventive traps, which wouldn’t require much action on the part of a player.

Anyway, with Brash Entertainment now gone, it looks like the Saw video game is facing cancellation unless it can find a new home. Apparently the game was almost finished and voice-over work was being recorded, so finding a publisher to pick up the game might not be too difficult. Several games, including Ghostbusters and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand had the same problem earlier this year, and now they’re both back on track for release. Of course those were two hotter properties than a film franchise that’s pretty much run its course, so we’ll have to see what happens.

We all knew that Ghostbusters: The Videogame would be hitting every gaming device known to man in June 2009 when the 25th anniversary edition of the movie is released, but when you watch the video posted above, you will wish that it was coming much sooner than June.

Of all the trailers I have seen over the past month or so, this one is the best. Granted, the Riddick trailer posted earlier today was way beyond cool, but this one is the winner hands down in my opinion.

You can view new screens of the game here.

Talk about a case of bad timing. On the eve of the big launch for the New Xbox Experience — which, remember, marks “a new dawn in home entertainment” — we’ve learned that Netflix streaming won’t have quite as many films available as we had been hoping. Joystiq learned earlier this evening that a number of films — including both Ghostbusters and Bad Boys — are now unavailable to be streamed to the Xbox 360. The common link between the suddenly unavailable flicks is that they are all from Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The films haven’t disappeared from Netflix altogether; they are still available to be played on PCs and on TVs through other devices, making this seem like a petty move on Sony’s part to try and take the wind out of Microsoft’s sails.

As it turns out, it seems like this is simply a matter of licensing. Given that Sony BMG music is available through the Zune Marketplace and other Sony Pictures Entertainment movies are still available for streaming through Netflix to the 360, this might not be the proverbial middle finger that some assume it is.

MTV Multiplayer contacted Netflix and received a reply from their VP of corporate communications, Steve Swasey. He confirmed that these movies “are still available to be watched on subscribers’ computers and on TVs via other partner devices, and we hope they?ll be licensed for Xbox 360 shortly.” While he wouldn’t comment on whether the timing is pure coincidence or if Sony put in a request to put this in motion, but he did say:

As watching instantly becomes a more prominent part of the Netflix service, our goal is to have all of our streaming content licensed for all of our partner devices. We’re doing well in this area, but it will take some time before we fully achieve that goal. Today, titles regularly come in and out of license and there is a natural ebb and flow to what we have on license at any given point in time.

We contacted Microsoft to see what their take was on the situation and, as you’d expect, they declined to provide any comment, saying that it wasn’t their comment to make.

What this all seems to comes down to are the intricacies of the licensing process to distribute streamable video.

What would be interesting to find out is what take those involved in the affected movies have on the situation. If this really is a simple petty quarrel between Sony and Microsoft, you can bet the cast and crews would be none too pleased. Should it really be a licensing problem, it’s nothing short of one hell of a big coincidence. Without any proof, we can’t go around pointing any fingers just yet. But if Sony happens to release PlayStation Home to the masses tomorrow, we might just have our answer.