Construed

A couple of pieces that has caught my imagination, during the past week:

• Capcom Refutes Resident Evil 5 DLC Controversy – Is the DLC Versus code on the disc or not? Do we care? – Variety thinks not. I’ll be covering both Versus & Mercenaries Modes in a game diary post soon. Have you been enjoying these modes & do you care how you get them?

• EA sends illegal weapons to press, wants them back – knuckle sandwich, anyone? Where there’s a DLC PR story, like the one above, which can help sales of a title then sometimes you get a PR stunt that doesn’t always look as effective – as with the EA one for Godfather II. No, I wasn’t one to receive a set.

DM∞

Say hello to ma little friend!*

In Godfather II the city of New York does feel just that – little! It leads me to the conclusion that it has been placed this way as a means to introduce the player to action. An tutorial of sorts but I would have preferred New York not to have had this as a it’s primary focus. A better deal, possibly, would have been to limit access to all of New York at the start of the campaign – sending you back there later in the game to finish what you had started.

Although I am enjoying Godfather II with the coming together of RTS & live action gameplay – I feel that with a little more time spent working out how to blend the two together, as there are some rough edges, the outcome would have been a much stronger hybrid.

Florida is up next to control & with that, I’ll be discussing the Don’s View in more depth over the coming game diary posts.

DM∞

*yes I know the reference is not a Godfather quote!

Being swamped with ideas, products to review, job opportunities to sift, interviews requested all have gone to make this week one of my busiest of the year, so far.

So I thought to give you all a quick insight into what you can expect to see on Construed & other sites that bare a connection, very soon:

Pete from Dragonchasers hit me with a MEME. I appreciate the words of encouragement in describing my writing:

…his infectious enthusiasm from both games and (sometimes more importantly) other pop culture. It’s good to be reminded that there’s more to life than computer games: there’s comics and movies!

I know who to approach & who not to approach, once I send this MEME on it’s merry way but I feel a word of caution should also be noted when deciding what personal information to put out there, for all to see. Be careful, guys & girls.

I’ll be adding my own flavour to this MEME, later in the week.

The two sites I write for, Caught in the Crossfire & Comic Domain, have both been busy promoting themselves online. Crossfire can now be followed on Twitter while Comic Domain have set up a WordPress blog for comic book news & reviews, so expect to see my future Comic Book Reviews posted there also.

I’ve had to re-arrange the interview with Kate VanDevender, due to both our schedules & we now have a date set for 12th April. The interview itself will be conducted via Google Chat & I have a number of leading questions already worked out. I’d also like to open this out to my readers – so if you have anything you’d like to ask Kate, then feel free to leave a comment here or email me.

Cat from Carocat has asked me to take part in her Twitter based interview series, #TwitLight. I’ll be working through the questions over the next day or two – the current interviewee is @MelissaBianco, Senior Game Designer on City of Heroes. Great idea for a post series, Cat. I hope it takes off!

Game reviews, that you should see me attempting, have begun to pile up. One to add to the list is Godfather II – I recieved the review code in the post today, alongside Spawn#190 & 100 Bullets#99 comic books.

As there’s an online reviews embargo on Godfather II, until 10am on the 7th April, I’ll be posting my thoughts in the Game diary after that time with a review to follow.

How’s your week been?

DM∞

Aaron, over at Anyway Games, recently ran a interview with Wes Culver(Associate Producer – Godfather II) which at the time, I only casually read through – as I hadn’t played the first Godfather title & didn’t feel I was missing much.

Since my return to Liberty City, I began to think about how a sandbox style action videogame would play with more RPG elements added to it. The Godfather II title, after a proper read of Aaron’s interview & watching the mountain of gameplay videos at Gametrailers, may just be the thing I have been looking for:

On the eve of the Cuban revolution, a major mob meeting in Havana takes a bloody turn. The Don of your family is killed, and you must take the reigns and lead your battered organization.

Success breeds opportunity, so when Michael Corleone comes under investigation by a Senate Committee on Organized Crime, the Corleone Family calls upon you to reestablish its operation in New York and expand into a new territory—Miami.

Build up your arsenal, build alliances, and make whatever deals you need to as you fight off attacks and strike back at your rivals. There’ll be a price on your head and a target on your back, but don’t take it personally. After all, it’s only business.
Key features
Build Your Family

Recruit, develop, and promote members of your crime family.

Command a Crew

Bring up to three crew members along on jobs, including an arsonist, demolitions expert, safecracker, and more. Command their actions in battle and unleash their specialties on your enemies.

The Don’s View

Be a true Don as you coordinate all the action using a 3D world map: survey your turf, place defenses on businesses, analyse crime patterns, identify new illicit racket monopolies, and choose the target of your next attack.

Blackhand Brutality

Act like a mobster to command respect, intimidating and extorting
business owners and rival families with devastating new attacks and executions.

Bring Your Family Online

Recruit your friends to join your family and take them into battle
online to find out who is the Don of Dons.

‘Its Only Business’

Relive the greatest moments from The Godfather II in an open-world
action experience inspired by the movie.[1]

The single most interesting element, for me, is the Don’s View. This is where the player can micro-manage his crime family & as highlighted in Aaron’s interview with Wes Culver, this view will not be in real-time, effectively pausing the action while you make your next decisions:

I have also been impressed by how the action elements of the game have been handled, there seems plenty of scope in increasing the stats of the individual members of your crime family which makes them more effective in their actions:

My hopes that Godfather II is the title to bring a refreshing mix of action & RPG gameplay to my table, look to be sustained for the time being. I just hope the storyline hasn’t been forgotten along the way.

Godfather II is out on the 10th April in the EU on PS3, XBOX360 & PC. Our US cousins get it a little earlier on the 7th April.

DM∞

After trading in my PS3 version of GTA IV, I waived over my decision to try the game again on the XBOX 360.

Thankfully, I made the right decision, by picking up a 360 copy it has breathed new life into the game & I seem to be enjoying it more than I did on the PS3. Nothing against the PS3 version but I now tend to favour the 360 version of most games these days & that goes mainly down to the small details – I prefer the 360 controller & the way Microsoft have set out its online presence, that includes multiplayer & Achievements.

I know from talking to a few other gamers, via their sites, email & twitter, that GTA IV didn’t give them what they wanted from the experience & some mention has been made that Saints Row II felt more akin to the spirit of the original GTA.

I agree with Aaron, that EA’s April release of Godfather II is looking to be a very good mix of RPG & action ala GTA which if successful, may give Rockstar something to think about when they develop the next in the GTA franchise.

Back to GTA IV, the game…

By completing the Uncle Vlad mission, Niko gets to rid Liberty City of this low-time criminal but it also means a replacement will be needed within the crime organisation that Vlad worked for & you guessed it Niko again fits the profile, looking also to help his cousin, Roman out of another jam, in the process.

Am enjoying the lead that the main mission play is taking & I haven’t been distracted away from it yet. Exploration of the city, away from the main storyline, is something that I will start to look at very soon.

I think until the Godfather II is released in a months time, GTA IV will give me plenty of criminal activity to be getting on with.

DM∞