THE GODFATHER - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/vgaastheclan/THE

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." We've all done it. We've all wondered what it would be like to be a mob boss. Money, power and respect. Every time you sit down in an Italian restaurant, you look around and pretend that someone has a hit out on you. You eat your veal picatta, sip your wine, you keep an eye open waiting for the hit. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a strange, shadowy fellow slowly standing up with a napkin draped over his hand. Slowly he makes his way towards you, while checking to make sure the coast is clear. You kick your table up to reveal your tommy gun, and you go to town on your would be assailant. "EAT LEAD" you scream over the hail of bullets. Of course, this is all just going through your head because we will never be in those situations as times have changed. But wouldn't it be great!? The danger! Excitement! Lucky for us Electronic Arts is churning out The Godfather: The Game, which will allow us all to live out our mob boss fantasies in one of the most visually realistic looking games I've seen to date.

New York 1945, you've just been accepted in the Corleone Family; one of the largest and most respected mob families in New York. However, you do not play as one of the famous Corleones. Rather as a mobster you create. The Create A Mobster feature is fairly limited. After all, women had very small and limited roles in the mob, and most guys wore suits. You pretty much create your own 1940's Sicilian "New Yorka!" And just like in any good mob family, you start at the bottom, the very bottom.

The Godfather is held in a "living world", very much like the Grand Theft Auto series or Spider-Man 2, so you go around and pick up little jobs to increase your rep on the street. The higher your reputation, the better jobs you're given. Jobs can have a lot of different dimensions to them. One of the first jobs in the game is to visit a local grocer, who is under the protection of the Corleone family. After visiting, the grocer gives you some information about a new cop, who needs some "attention", a butcher who needs to know how things are run in your town, and a new comer who's causing trouble with the locals. This is where some nifty features come in. You can go and bribe the cop to keep him away from anything wrong you may be doing. You then get to go visit your new butcher friend. He isn't exactly sure how things are run in the town, and you offer the protection of the Corleones. Of course the butcher will not be too keen on the idea, but you're Sicilian, and you're going to make him an offer he can't refuse. This is where the games Extort feature comes in. It works very much like The Punisher's interrogation feature, where by the push of a button you pressure your subject into doing your bidding.

When you begin your extortion, you are given the control to either apply more pressure on the subject, which usually means more force and violent behavior, or if you have a lot of respect you can ease off the subject. The respect comes into play and determines how people will view you. If you tend to use more brute force to get what you want, people will begin the view you as a monster and you may have to speak with the Don and be told to tone it down. If you tend to go lighter on people, especially opposing families then you'll be viewed as weak and walked all over. But either way, speaking with the Don would be one of the biggest treats of the game, as Marlon Brando returns to his immortal role for one of his last performances ever.

The voice-overs really add to the game as famous Godfather actors such as Robert Duvall, James Caan and Marlon Brando lent their voices and likenesses to the game. The sound will be top notch with not only the actors but also the original motion picture score by Godfather composer Nino Rota. The Godfather also delivers some of the most stunning and realistic visuals that I have personally ever seen in a game. The character models are so incredibly detailed from the way their hair is parted to their five o'clock shadow to the stitching on their clothing. The city itself is an amazing sight as every NPC has incredible detail; with drunks staggering into the street, paperboys shouting the top headlines, and steam from the manhole covers adding to the noir feel of the film.

EA put a lot of effort into the Godfather to make it a game not based on the movie, but a realistic experience as to what it would be like to be a part of the story. The Godfather will be a sight to see, and I'm hoping, will not disappoint.

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

Visitors: 00021

Page Updated Fri Aug 5, 2005 10:36pm EDT