The Godfather (video game)

If you dont know how much i love video games, you dont truly know my essence. i have been stuck without an xbox 360 for months now... everytime i try to seek out a box, there are none to be found in our area code. no bother, i smell big shipments coming in soon before the PS3 is released. its all part of a strategy, you see....

Now i will shamelessly plug one of the most awesome 1-person shooter games that just came out....The Godfather.


First i would like to throw in a personal story, then i will cut to the action. a good buddy of mine is some kind of assistant producer for EA and his project happened to be this wonderful video game concept. adapting the gangster shootem up classic original movie into an action-packed, explosive, addictive, no sleeping or eating for awhile, badass video game. while i was in LA for new years long ago, one of the Coppola hippy family members and my buddy talked business about the video game... thats when i knew it was legit. a year and change later, after seeing the video game previews in the movies all summer, this game was released for regular xbox this past tuesday.

The video game basically centers around you, a new up-and-coming hoodlum who grew up in 1940s Little Italy. After your father is murdered by the Tattaglias, you start to become a little bastard and your mother leaves you in the care of Don Corleone, your Godfather. He sets you up with Clemenza and Tessio and other capos for the family. The goal is to become the Don of New York.

I have to say the flow of the game is very similar to Grand Theft Auto games-- it just has that gangster twist to make you forget that and realize you are right in the middle of the movie. You see Luca Brasi assassinated, you see Fredo cowering in the corner, Michael guarding his father at the hospital. You talk to Tom Hagen to get your advice and missions, and you report to Don Corleone himself when the time is right.

You have a map of NYC circa 1940s and obviously there are little pockets of neighborhoods where all these mafia bosses live and operate. You extort businesses, shoot people, threaten people, negotiate deals, shoot more people, blow things up, bomb buildings, steal cars.... the more money and respect you make, the more skill your character has and the better youll do. You rise up the ranks and eventually take it all over.

Cool things that the Godfather has that GTA does not have:
- You get killed less quickly. you can build up your health so that one shotgun doesnt end your crime spree. longer lives mean longer playing before you get "iced" and yell FUCK at the top of your lungs to your tv set.
- Better plot and flow. In Grand Theft Auto, you tend to lose sight of the task at hand... suddenly youll have 4 stars and the FBI is chasing you and all you were trying to do was drop off a few cab fares. In Godfather, there are so many shops and stores and gangs and turf wars that you are always trying to extort without killing, or just go in guns blazing and take out every prostitute and bartender in your path.
- I think that badass things on television/movies should always become video games. Like 24 the video game should have sick features, helicopters, bomb disarming, explosions, interrogations, all that shit. i like how The Godfather kinda keeps it real with the standard pistols, shotguns, and maybe a tommy gun here and there.
- I love the execute feature in the game. There are like 30 different ways to execute a person, from splattering their brains on the barber shop wall, choking them to death with a wire, throwing them into a car, cracking their neck with the heel of your foot, etc... also the sound and effects from these actions looks so real and so nasty at the same time.
- The video game soundtrack has a lot of the original movie tunes, and i find myself whistling the godfather theme in my head while not playing for 6 hours at a time.

Things Godfather needs to have for the Xbox360 release:
- uhh... how about Xbox Live play? i think it would be cool to just have the map and leave it open to 1-5 players (families) if you want to enter a random game midway through, and there is a spot open on a map, you can. if you and 3 friends want to play together, you can invite them to join your map. you can go against the computer, each other, etc. there could be races involved, or just first to take over the most, or just continuous turf wars forever and ever.
- more cars would be nice, but i understand its supposed to be the 40s where people had either really boxy or kinda boxy cars. but vintage cars make GTA cool and stealing a badass car is cooler than stealing the same car over and over.
- Dynamic Turf Wars would be nice. if gangs dynamically took over each others businesses... so one day it might be Barsini, the next day its Tattaglia. i also liked in GTA that if someone attacked your hood you had time to go and defend yourself.
- Gang fights. it was also cool in GTA that you could bring a few thugs with you to a job.
========================
Overall, I give this game an 8.5 out of 10. its entertaining, it has a lot of shooting, the flow of the game keeps you playing for a long time, and oh ya.... ITS THE FUCKING GODFATHER, best movie ever. and now, i will sit and wait and watch my email bin.