The Godfather

Few movie-to-game adaptations have garnered as much attention and speculation as EA's take on The Godfather, which finally hits stores later this month. Casting players as a random wiseguy in the Corleone crime family, it combines free-form, Grand Theft Auto-style gameplay with a plot that follows the epic Mafia film from behind the scenes. We've spent some hard time with this gangland simulation, and we can say that the driving feels great, the violence is intense, the story is riveting and » Read Full The Godfather preview

So you're aiming for a promotion. Normally that would mean working hard and meeting the objectives as agreed in your annual performance review. Unsurprisingly, in The Godfather your objectives are more about smashing people's heads against gravestones and taking a baseball bat to a butcher than developing your interpersonal skills. We've been climbing the Cosa Nostra career ladder in a playable version of The Godfather, and reassuring ourselves that 'it's only business'. Because this » Read Full The Godfather preview

While it's ostensibly a crime movie, The Godfather seems a weird choice for a video-game adaptation. There's violence, sure, but it's far outweighed in screen time by ruminations on familial responsibility, weddings, funerals, grouchy conversations in poorly lit rooms and boiling pots of pasta. That's probably why EA chose to make its version of The Godfather about the Mafia's foot soldiers instead of its stuffy, slow-moving generals. Opening in 1945, the Godfather game follows the plot of the » Read Full The Godfather preview