It was like watching a long-lost "Ghostbusters" sequel.

"Our intent was to combine the action of 'Gears of War' and the comedy [of the films]," Brendan Gross, development director at Terminal Reality, at a Sierra demo earlier this wee. "We tried to have something funny or scary every 15 feet."

Gross told me that his studio is trying to take greater care making a movie game than gamers would normally expect. "We're really moving more down that direction, especially with the generation three platforms," he said. For "Ghostbusters" specifically, he said it helped to have the development time frame that they had (they've been developing the game for over two years). And having worked on the "Aeon Flux" movie game, the development studio knows the pitfalls of trying to to have a product released in tandem with a licensed film.

"What we wanted to show with 'Ghostbusters' was that you can be successful with a movie game," he said. He thinks that the future of the games industry will be game studios and movie studios becoming more and more collaborative with titles coming out as "a continuation of the story and an extension to the IP" rather than a product that simply mirrors the movie's plot.

It helps to have so much of the movies' talent on board, of course. "Ghostbusters" stars Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis are writing the game's storyline and doing voice work, as are the movies' other two Ghostbusters, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson.

Look for more movie-based games to take place in between the movies they're tied into, Gross told me. "We're beginning to see more integration with movie studios where the game arrives in the middle, between movies, and is a part of story," he explained. One other example that comes to mind is this Fall's multi-platform title "Star Wars: Force Unleashed," which takes places between the new and old "Star Wars" movie trilogies.

Whatever the future holds, Gross is extremely pleased with the studio's work on "Ghostbusters." He said with licensed games in general, they can either be "successful or crucified."

With "Ghostbusters," you can certainly bet everybody's hoping for the former.