The Hobbit cannot be properly judged until the game is played with more mature code. The games code has already greatly improved since 1.01 was released last week.
I thought the Hobbit was boring and slow until I finally played it on location last week and then when I saw the video below with the game running the latest code. The Hobbit is going to turn out to be a great game. My opinion of it has changed 180 degrees since I played it over a year ago. The amount of rules, audio effects and original music being put into the game is incredible and we really haven't seen anything yet.
Also, during the hour or so that some friends and I played the game on location (running .80x code at the time) we didn't encounter any issues with the left ramp divertor (worked perfectly) or with stuck balls at the pop ups. Keith Johnson did add a fix to the 1.01 code update that resolved stuck balls at the pop ups.
What surprised me the most about The Hobbit video below is all of the unique and cool gameplay elements Keith is programming into the game. The ball save mini game where you use the lockdown bar button is cool as is the ability to control how much power goes to the kickback along side a cool animation on the screen.
I'm now planning on buying both games after giving The Hobbit another chance.
If there's one knock against Ghosbusters its that their LE offering pales in comparison to The Hobbit LE and the Smaug SE edition. JJP is offering high quality hammered powder coated armor on the LE / SE model and invisiglass glass is included as well. The green paint job on GB LE is just that...green paint, it's not even a high quality metallic green powder coat that pops sadly.
Overall I think both GB and TH are going to be incredible games and I can't wait to get both.