In Third Person

Before I invested in an XBOX 360, I was starved for core games as a Wii-only owner. I was going through a drought in games to play, and the Wii version of The Godfather was starting to pick up buzz. I had never watched a Godfather movie or played a Grand Theft Auto game before, the promise of being able to point my Wii remote as a gun or beat thugs down with swinging fist motions seemed really cool. Also, when you don't have that many options to choose from, you're more willing to step outside your comfort zone for some satisfaction.

I picked this up on day one, not quite knowing what to expect really. I had read the reviews and seen this trailer, but not having played this style of game before didn't give me any real context to base my own opinions from.

If you haven't played this, or have played the non-Wii versions of the game, you're probably wondering how the controls perform. While they are not perfect, I thought they were very satisfying, especially in combat. I loved the ability to aim the gun with my hand and beating guys down by actually throwing punches did add to the experience. In particular, I liked all the things you could do when you grabbed a guy. Most famously among my high school friends, I grabbed a prostitute in the game and threw her off a balcony. Yeah, that wasn't the most gentlemanly thing of me to do.

At the time, I thought the game was really fun. I can't really speak on how closely the story followed the movie, but there weren't any missions that stood out to me as annoying, boring or bad. I liked the side stuff where you could shake down local store owners to take control away from rival gangs. This process was kind of repetitive, but I enjoyed it enough to shake down every store and bar owner in New York. Having played a number of GTA games since then, I thought The Godfather: Blackhand Edition stacks up fairly well. It's ultimately not as good, but if you're looking for more open-world goodness, it was a good game to check out.

The only glaring flaw I remember clearly about the game were its visuals. Unfortunately, the graphics aren't the greatest, especially when playing on an LCD or plasma TV. One weird thing though is that I found the game to look just fine on a CRTV. Regardless of what TV you have, the art style does not cover up the technical deficiencies put on the system due to the large open-world.

If you're still looking for core games to play on the Wii, I recommend you check out The Godfather: Blackhand Edition. I'm sure you can pick this one up for dirt cheap used.

In April of 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV captured my imagination with a great story and fun open-world gameplay. Prior to GTA IV, my only open-world gaming experience was with The Godfather on the Wii. While many may have grown accustomed to (or weary of) the Grand Theft Auto formula by this point, I was completely caught up in the life of Niko Bellic, trying to find my way in Liberty City.

Almost two years removed from that experience (and almost one year since the release of The Lost and Damned), I have begun playing Episodes From Liberty City, which I received as a Christmas present from my girlfriend. Will this GTA IV add-on experience grab me like GTA IV did? Will it stand out on its own terms? Does the GTA IV style of play hold up even after I've played other fantastic open-world style games like Assassin's Creed II and Borderlands?

Before I get into this, I must preface my writing by saying that I've only played The Lost and Damned so far and that I'm not very far into it. I'm definitely in no position to pass any sort of final judgment on the game. I just wanted to take a bit of time to write about my initial feelings towards this episode.


Right off the bat, the tone of this game is very different from IV. Rockstar did a great job of re-purposing the world of Liberty City to better tell the story of Johnny and The Lost biker gang. All of the graphics have this gritty filter over it, which does make the world look and feel different from the Liberty City of old even though its the same place. New music, radio stations and television shows have been added to spice up the media content lineup. Motorcycle handling was one of the things I hated about GTA IV, but it feels a lot better in this one.

What stands out to me the most though so far is the story. The tale of a brotherhood biker gang taking on a rival gang while facing internal strife feels really well done. The tension between Johnny and Billy is palpable and believable. I'm very interested in seeing where this goes. Even in game, the brotherhood aspect of the story matters. You have meters that monitor your relationships with other members of your gang. The longer they stay alive, the better they will perform when you're out on missions with them. If certain members die, others will fill their place, but their meters will be reset.

The one thing that has really hampered the experience for me so far are the controls. Historically, the GTA series has been known for not having the most intuitive control setups. When I first jumped into IV, I had nothing else to base it on, so the transition wasn't that painful. After playing a number of other games since then, it has been tough getting re-accustomed to the controls and how the game responds to my commands. I most recently played the mission where you travel with Niko and Playboy X to the drug deal, and a combination of the controls and the game logic lead me to die about a dozen times before I finally beat it.

Maybe I'll be able to get comfortable with or overcome the controls. There's still a lot of motivation on my end to play it, so we'll see how the rest of The Lost and Damned plays out.