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Full Version: Pizzaturdell's Review of:  The Godfather "Blackhand Edition"
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Story:
You begin as your avatar's father who is brutally killed in an alley in 1930's New York. Don Corleone promises your day will come to avenge the death of your father once you are grown. 9 years come to pass and your mother asks The Don that he takes you under his wing. Luca Brasi seeks you out and you begin in the world of the Mafia as an underling taking over rackets and working your way through the ranks of 1946 Little Italy.

I haven't made it very far yet being that I underwent surgery yesterday so have gone a few missions deep. The story so far has been escalating to wicked bar fights and high speed car chases fighting of rival families. I can only see this game getting better with each passing mission.

In my opinion this game tops the GTA titles.

Gameplay:
After the prologue sequence is complete, you create your avatar to fit your likeness. Maybe because I am an American-Italian, the resemblance between myself and the avatar is uncanny.

The first couple of missions are simply training lessons to become familiar with the games controls, which are very easily learned and all the motions of gameplay are extremely natural and fluid. To lock onto a target you simply hold down the Z button and swing either the nunchuk or the Wii remote to throw punches, to focus power and throw heavy hits, you simply press the Down button before swinging. The C button accesses your weapon screen, your weapon is chosen in the same fashion that you pick your tools in Trauma Center. Tapping the C button quickdraws and conceals your chosen weapon, if any are in inventory. Before I forget, when you have an enemy targeted with Z, if you hold down B simultaneously you grab the enemy, depending on the how you swing the nunchuk and remote determines whether you are head butting, strangling, wall smashing, or bashing their faces into tables. This function is also used to pull someone up from their knees to their feet by raising the controls upward.

Vehicle controls take just a little bit getting used to. Being so accustomed to GTA on PS2, using my thumbs to haul ass in a car has conditioned me to want to always press A to reverse, when it actually causes you to Enter/Exit a car. The way EA has setup vehicle operations is that you use the B button to accelerate, and Z to reverse, giving A a quick push when moving at a good speed simply activates the brakes. As stated before when stopped or at a slow rolling speed, A causes you to exit the car.

So aside from this awesome control system, which I could spend weeks upon weeks swooning over, you are left in a New York to extort, intimidate, and kill your way to the top of The Corleone Family business.

Graphics:

For this being a title ported from last gen over, the graphics are great. They are better than the visuals on the PS2 without a doubt, but obviously nowhere near the high poly count of the PS3's version. However, gameplay makes up for this one hundred fold. With the understanding that the Wii is still in its first six months of infancy the graphics are pretty are appeasing to the eye. There have been a couple times while playing I had to would make a double take because my avatar looks too much like me that it's scary.

Sound:

The soundscape built for this game is also extremely authentic to its environment. The music brings that morose nostalgic feeling that The Godfather has always brought its fans. And now that we have the ability to strangle and physically beat our rivals to these tunes, it makes the whole experience even better. Aside from music, the ambient noise is great to. You can talk to everyone on the street as though you were in any RPG, and everyone who you pass by on the street is always making some sort of comment which is either praising your actions, threatening you, or just saying something that's somewhat humorous. There are a lot of other intricacies in the sound design of the environment which really make this world seem authentically convincing.

Story: 10 Very great story which immerses you in the world of The Godfather.
Gameplay: 9.5 (loses .5 for the vehicle control adjustment) Very smooth and the actions don't get mixed up when fighting.
Graphics: 8.0 Could be a little better, but are a great utilization of how far the Wii's capabilities have been developed thus far.
Sound: 10.0 Very convincing sound design.
Overall: 9.3 GREAT GAME. For any Wii owner this is a must have title, the controls alone make it worth the investment.
yo nice review ill prolly get this when i have money
Looks good.

If you want to know my opinion on your review then Post and ask for it in the: "Official Hinst and Tips for your Reviews Thread!".

Big Grin
Ok since you asked for my opinion here it is. Please remember that this may sound critical simply because I'm trying to help. I don't think this review is bad. Not at all it's quite well done. But to give the best advice I'm going to have to be critical.

Ok first things first. A smart thing to do is not label your sections, it's always nice to just let them flow along. Or you could simply insert a picture when you switch topics. This is what I do and adds some visual omph to your review.

It was pretty long which is a good thing. It's good to see that you had different sections, BUT, you should not label them as I have said. Simply have the ratings in the end. If the reader wants to know about why you like something to a certain extent then make them read your entire review to find out!

I have to say you were being quite generous in your rating. Perhaps it is that great, but when playing the game you really need to divulge into it to get out the best rating. But I'm not saying you should base your score off other reviews. But this may have been a little to generous as you haven't even beaten it.

Which brings me to the largest factor; you haven't beaten it. You should never review a game before you beat it. As I've played games were in the beginning it rocked! But come to the later levels it started to well...Suck. You could since you aren't getting paid or anything (Don't you wish we got paid? Toungue), simply complete most of the game. But for not completing the game you've done a good job.

There were a few spelling issues, but they were VERY little so that doesn't matter. You used a very nice range of words. It simply was enjoyable to read! Good job.

So to wrap it all up.
-Get rid of headings.
-Add some screenshots. One or two can even be enough!
-Careful on how you rate the review. You don't want to be TOO generous, or not generous enough.
-Remember BEAT the game, or come close. You had a very good reason though. Toungue

So thanks for contributing to WiiLoadeds Review Section by posting this lovely review and I hope that we'll be seeing more of these reviews in the future!

-alex51011
Your points are valid Alex. I must say though, in terms of headings, I feel that for ease of the reader that having them is necessary only because it allows them to single out areas of the game that either interest/disinterest them.

In regards to the rating, I stand by what I gave it. As a gamer it satisfies things I look for in a title like this. And the funny thing is I finally read IGN's review on it today (I wanted to stay away from published reviews to avoid a bias and only bought the title based on the gameplay video released a while back.) If you look at the user ratings, it seems to be inching it's way to what I gave it (currently at a 8.8).

The rest I agree with you on. Normally I wouldn't want to review something unless I beat it, but with so many people left at the edge of their seats wondering what the controls for this game are like I felt jumping the gun in this case was all too necessary this round. Big Grin

Thanks for your views and opinions Alex, I'll definitely be sure to use your suggestions and apply them in the future (And maybe even tweak this post a bit with some screens).
I'm glad you think it helped. I'm not saying your scrore is off or something as I haven't reviewed it and can't really saw what I think a good score is. But that wouldn't be right because this is your opinion not mie! Big Grin

I know where your coming from with the headings but check out a lot of professional reviews and there's none. I find it just makes it flow better. But you make valid points as well.

Happy gaming and reviewing to you! Good job!
Good review.
Just do as Alex says and you to may become a Review Master! Big Grin
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