From IGN.com

Godfather Goes GTA
EA promises free roaming world and human drama for movie to game conversion.
By Anoop Gantayat
January 14, 2005 - Electronic Arts' surprising plans to convert The Godfather to the videogame scene have remained shrouded in secrecy since the project's March unveiling, and even then not much was said. But someone managed to get the big scoop on the game. In what's sure to be a silly bit of game trivia years from now (or maybe one of the first signs of EA's intents on the Japanese market), Japan's most popular game magazine, Weekly Famitsu, got the first word on what we can expect of the title. We, of course, picked up the magazine and put our Japanese dictionaries through the paces to bring you a full report.


EA has entrusted senior producer Hunter Smith with this license -- sure to be one of the years most scrutinized movie to game conversions. Smith has worked on the 007 and Road Rash franchises, and in comments with the magazine, he promises a movie-to-game conversion of a flavor completely different from existing movie-to-game products (many of which are released by EA in the first place).
Smith isn't going at the game alone, of course. Currently, 120 people are working on the title, with EA expecting that number to rise to 200 leading up to the final development stages. Definitely the makings of a big game.

IGN hinted in initial reports that EA may take a GTA-style open world approach with The Godfather, and sure enough, that's turned out to be the case. The game takes place in New York's Little Italy during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Players move freely through a virtual re-creation of the movie's setting, taking on missions as they see fit.

As an original member of the Corleone family, your goal is to earn respect by successfully clearing missions, rising up in the family ranks. Your character is your own creation. Although EA hasn't revealed specifics, it's promising some revolutionary new way of character creation -- something that hasn't been been done before. We'll leave the speculation to you for now.

Missions feature the expected gun-and-car sequences. Gun sequences, where you exchange fire with enemies, can get tricky, as enemies will take hostages to keep you from shooting them. Get close to enemies, and you can strike them with your gun and even make use of sticks, in case bullets aren't your thing. Car chase scenes allow you to drive around Little Italy, firing as you navigate the roads.

EA had wanted to make an open-ended game for some time, Smith reveals. He acknowledges that open-ended crime-themed games are having big success in the market right now, but points out that they lack story. "We wanted to make a title with the same [style of] open world, but with a strong background, one where you build human relationships while creating your own story," comments Smith, revealing how Godfather may stand out from the current pack headed up by Grand Theft Auto.

Smith and his team plan to take the virtual world design one step further by adding memory to the world. The characters who appear in the game all have a past and a daily routine. As an example of character pasts, Smith explains: "If you fight with a character who appears during the game, the next time you meet that character, he'll act in accordance with the memory [of the fight]."

Although the game's story is your own creation, there will be plenty of ties to the movie. Smith cites the famous scene of Corleone getting shot. This scene will appear in the game somewhere. "Actually," Smith adds, "there will be a mission in the game which is related to this scene. It's constructed so that players will appear in the scene and will feel as if they are alive within it."

Just as it is for the movies, story is shaping up to be one of the main points of The Godfather on the small screen. EA states that "human drama" will be the main part of the game. Don't worry -- this doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be waiting through endless movies. Cinematic sequences allow for player interaction, examples involving your coercing people for information and bribing the law. Plus, once the human drama has come to an end, you'll take full control for action sequences without any pauses for loading. The transition to action-based gameplay is meant to be seamless.

The Godfather is still only 15% complete (even the name isn't finalized), but EA hopes to show more of it in February. That gives us plenty of time to watch the DVD box set to make sure we're fully familiar with the world we'll be playing in for EA's latest movie to game conversion.

Sounds cool, thanks for the info. Maybe in the character creation you can make your own bio varying
your relationship with the don and others. So it seems like its a game crossed between fable and gta, sounds good.

Wow, thanks man, this game sounds really cool. GTA gameplay set in the world of the Corleones-my ultimate wet dream lol!

This is sounding really great. It'd be cool if you could design what your character looks like.


I think everyone here is familiar enough.

It would be really cool, although highly unlikely, if you could actually be al neri or willie cicci for a mission to kill barzini or someone. or if you were michael and you had to kill mcklusky and the turk. or if, maybe in a later game, you could play as the young vito and kill fanucci. but they said that you are playing as your own character so you probably won't be doing any of that, but i am sure we will all get plenty of deja vu when playing this game.

Sounds cool, but I hope you aren't limited to JUST Little Italy. I mean, anyone whos ever been to Manhattan knows Little Italy isn't exactly that big of a place to explore. None the less, I am excited.

Yeah, I know what you mean-it would be really cool to be able to go to staten island, at the Corleone mall or in Jersey, where Paullie was killed.

Damn this game is actually starting to sound like its going to be fun! They're putting the player in the "Don is Shot" scene? What, is it going to be you that breaks down crying insted of Freddie?

This game is good in principle, but i just hope it does not dent the reputation of the game by bastardising its legend.

I understand where you're coming from but if this game sucks how will it change someones opinion about the movie or watching the movie-I know it won't change my views. But anyway, this game is gunna be great.

I don't know if any of you know this, so I'll pass the word. The upcoming issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly will feature the first hard details on The Godfather, as well as concept images for...get ready for it...the X-box 2 version! My copy of the mag should be coming in the mail in a couple days.

[img]http://www.1up.com/media?id=1436439[/img]
Issue 189 (March 2005)

The Godfather takes center stage -- and EGM has the first concept images of what the Xbox 2 version will look like! The March issue also includes best of 2004 awards and the EGM reviews of Resident Evil 4

I'm a huge EGM fan and I am actually featured in the magazine from about a year ago. I can't wait till' I get my copy but I have to wait about a week longer since I live in Canada.

So theres gunna be an xbox 2 version, what about regular xbox?

It's confirmed for PS2, X-Box, and X-box 2.

The game is also coming for PC I guess....or do they disappoint me again.

If it sells well on consoles (yea right, it's only The Godfather, who watches that any more? :p ), I'm pretty sure it'll come out for PC as well. Look at the GTA games.

Hey I found a site with summore screenshots
http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=4204

if you magnify you can see luca on one picture. The city really has that dark part 2 look to it.

Vito looks like he's got melonoma(sp)! Look at his hands! He also looks like he's been dragged through a pete bog. Hopefully they'll work on him a little more (the background looks great!). This seems to be one of the 3 times in your life where you wish you could read Japanese.

Yeah, I think if they want it to compare to GTA, they're going to have to make the map bigger than just Little Italy. I'm afraid of what the boundaries would be like if they did that.. invisible walls around the map? God, I would hate that.

I wonder if you will go in hiding in Sicily

Who is the character in the white shirt?

I dont know but it looks like the main charecter.Perhaps its Michael

Perhaps. I'd prefer otherwise though.

It's not Michael, Michael did one hit. I'm pretty sure its the main character but it said you can create your own.

Another thing they should consider when making this game is the elimination of load times between cities (assuming there will be more than one area.) San Andreas pulled it off, and now I think its something that a lot of the copy-cat games will have to try. But then again, GTA has been the only game of this kind to really have more than one city to go to. It'd be really cool if they made an entire virtual New York City. And as years go by, the cars change, there are slight differences on the buildings. I know in Mafia, when the year changed, the cars got more modernized. Who knows, the good thing is The Godfather video game will have a lot to go by with all the games already released. And they will also know what not to do. Let's hope EA knows what they're doing.

I am just so grateful that they got our beloved Marlon's voice for this game. Was one of those pic's of Tessio and one of Luca?

I got my latest issue of EGM, the one featuring the first hard details on The Godfather videogame. I haven't read the entire article yet, but they have actual gameplay screenshots, and all the screenshots in the story are representative of what The Godfather will look like on Xbox 2. And let me be the first to tell you, it looks absolutely incredible. The in-game graphics are better than most CGI cutscenes you see in videogames nowadays. I'll leave all the hard details in the article for all of you to read when you pick up your copy of the magazine. I just got mine in the mail today, so it probably won't be available on newstands for another week or so. Let me just say, you will all be in for a very pleasant surprise. The wait for this game has just gotten a whole lot more painful....

Would you be willing to scan the pages and post them here if at all possible? I don't think I can wait until the issue hits news stands.

The only thing that would suprise me is online play which is doubtful but one can dream lol.

Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner. Also, I don't know how legal that would be.