The original Godfather game was fun. It was a great crime sim where you took over businesses and ranked up in the Corleone family. It was a pretty lengthy game too, both in the missions and the side quests. Though something was missing.

You never really did stuff with other family members. Sure, there was a mission where you took over a warehouse with Sonny, or beat up college kids with Monk. But where was the backup when you were taking over a safehouse? Or going after a different business?

In Godfather II, this is something that has really been addressed. You are the don from the very beginning, and you start out by controlling a few guys. You have your close family, and your regular family. Your close family are the guys you will command around, and have the strength of 20 regular guys. The regular family are just guards that protect your businesses.

The guys you can choose from have special skills, ranging from specialties like Arsen and Safecracking to being a master of Shotguns or Tommyguns. So lets say you want to hire a guy named Johnny Fatface, and he is a medic who is good with a magnum. He'll be able to revive dead members, and he'll be able to blow guys heads off. Protip: Reserving the game gets you a guy that has multiple specialties, something no one else in the game has.

You can also choose what weapons they have, or how they're dressed. So Johnny can be in a black tuxedo outfit, or have some crazy Hawaiin getup.

As your playing the game, taking over businesses and attacking other mob families, those other families are doing the same. They're going after your businesses, defending they're own, and attacking eachother, or sending out hits. Think of it as a strategy game and a third person shooter. Because thats what it is. Except theres no zerg rushing here (I don't think, anyways).

Now, the multiplayer is where the game adds in the final exclamation mark. You choose one of your gangmembers, like Johnny Fatface, into the matches. So your using your Magnum Medic to heal your teammates while blowing guys into kingdom come. If you win the game, Johnny will level up in the singleplayer and take whatever cash he earned with him. ****ing awesome.

Now, the best sounding game mode; Don Control. One player from each side will be the don, and basically, they're in an overhead view, commanding the other players around with waypoints and the like. Its a mode I can see myself playing for months, depending on there not being annoying 12 year olds in the game.

And for those text wall haters. Just watch this video.

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/953335/the-godfather-sequel/videos/godfather2_trl_031809.html

I just jizzed in my pants, literally.

There was a review of Playr. I don't know about this game. I'm not buying it.

I've got it. It's great, a lot like GTA on the 3rd person side, just better. The don view is awesome. Basically, you go to shops, beat up the guards, pressure the owner until they snap and give you protection money. You then own that shop, go to the don view and put as many guards you want there. They all cost though, so you have to look at your finances carefully. You do the same for other big businesses such as drug smuggling, weapon smuggling and prostitution. They're a bit harder to ge to though. You need to buy people you meet and like into your "crew". There are medics, demolition men, safe crackers/lock pickers, your big hands-on guy and a couple others. You need some of them to do certain jobs like blow up these businesses if they can't be taken over, or pick the safe lock and rob them. Each time you take over one you get a benefit like a bulletproof vest or brass knuckles. If the enemy takes over one, you lose it though. You can also send over one of your family members (better than the crew) to defend it. It's brilliant.

Just thought I'd post my first impressions :)

Was hoping for the way it was before, the (you just control yourself and blow shit up) old way.

that's exactly what it is. You only use the don view to

a)look at what you own, and what the enemy owns.
b)look at your daily income/spending.
c)look at how many guards your places/their places have.
d)look at your family tree/crew members.

Everything else is done in the game. You even recruit people in the old way (walk up to them, talk, recruit). The don view is sort of like the GTA map with detail about finances, family, business and crew members/strength. I would say about 80% or more of the game will be played like in the original.

The graphics are great, there's loads of violence (i.e. when you click execute you smash someone's face in completely to the point where they're nearly dead and then palm their nose and they fall to the floor with a bloody mess of a face), good storyline and gameplay is good.

Gta: 1948

(Gta: 1948)^((Gta: 1948) x better))

Wat? No, I'm saying the gameplay from the Godfather, at least the first game, was essentially like a Grand Theft Auto set in 1948.

Think this game will be available for the PC?

Quote from Ampersand

Wat? No, I'm saying the gameplay from the Godfather, at least the first game, was essentially like a Grand Theft Auto set in 1948.

Oh the first game, sure. The only similarity with the second is that you can go around randomly beating the shit out of people. But even that's better than in GTA due to the grabs, interrogations and executions (favourite of which is pummeling the persons face repeatedly).

Quote from Vincent

Think this game will be available for the PC?

Well that's what the loading screen says in front of me ;P

Quote from Ampersand

Wat? No, I'm saying the gameplay from the Godfather, at least the first game, was essentially like a Grand Theft Auto set in 1948.

People bitch at any open world game being a GTA clone, and then when the a game tries something new, they bitch at it for NOT being a GTA clone?

Dear god.

You can run around and beat the game without ever having to do anything thats not "Run and shoot everything"

You don't have to use the RTS-like Dons View

You don't have to recruit members to your family or hire bodyguards

You don't have to do anything that you don't want to

But if you want to, its there

Get over it

Actually you do have to do those things to progress, but I guess you meant you could just run around and stay on mission 1.

I don't have a problem with the Don view. It did look awesome.

I was just hoping it was going to still be like the way it was before, which is pretty kick ass too seeing as it is. Game looks awesome.

Also, you have to get things right. Like if you take over 3 diamond smuggling compounds, they're the ones that will be targeted because you'll have a full crime ring. So you'll have to place more guards there. If they do attack it you can send your crew down or go down with them to protect it. You have to think tactically as well, like "which rackets do I want, and why? Where should I go? How should I deal with this?". It requires you to think a lot, but most of this is kept outside the don view. The only time I use it is to hire guards and see where I'm going!