Thanks for the offer, R Reed!

Fortunately, though, I've succeeded in taking over those Tattaglia pimps. You were right, though. My attributes were nowhere near as high as they should have been. Now they're upgraded to my satisfaction, and I have the "Dillinger" machine gun, so I'm cutting guys down left to right.

BTW everybody. I've finished all the main story missions. I only received the "Underboss" ending, because I still have 3 more family compounds to take down before I become the Don.

I won't spoil anything, but I will say this: The final mission is incredible!

But now I must address a few complaints I have concerning the story: (SPOILER ALERT!!! READ AT OWN DISCRETION!)
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For anyone playing this game that has never actually seen the film (and trust me, there will be a lot of them), they will be a bit thrown off by the story. For one, they won't know why Sonny was ambushed on the causeway. There is no funeral for the Don. One mission, he's alive. Then all of a sudden, he's dead. They won't know what caused Don Vito's death. That clever twist in the film where we find out Tessio is the traitor is non-existent. You're just told one mission that he was setting up Michael, and he has to be whacked. In short, and I hate saying this, but you will not be getting that full Godfather experience.

But then again, maybe this is all a ploy by EA to make gamers want to see the film. Maybe they knew that if they left certain parts out, that the gamer would be wondering "why this happened" or "why that happened", and so they'd immediately go out and purchase the film. Who knows!

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Now here's what I'm loving. I've completed the story missions, and yet I still have so much left to do. EA could have very easily skimped on the extortion bits of the game, but they made it really fun to do. So far, I've extorted over 45 business, and 25 rackets, and I'm still not bored with it. It doesn't feel monotanous.

Also, driving around the city is fun, too. Now I've played a lot of games that have tried to emulate that "living, breathing world" schtick that the GTA games have pulled off, and most of them have failed miserably. Let's take Mafia, for example. Sure, they give you a "free-roam" when you beat the game, but you have absolutely no incentive to drive around the city. There is absolutely nothing to do. In short, it doesn't feel like a "living, breathing world."

What most people seem to overlook is the extreme importance of providing the player with that aformentioned "world", in this type of game. If they're gonna be devoting 40+ hours of their lives to a game, then the world in which they are exploring ABSOLUTELY HAS TO FEEL ALIVE!

The Godfather pulls this feeling off extremely well. There's plenty of traffic, you hear the city-folk going on about their lives and what not, you've got a ton of business and rackets to take over. It's an incredible feeling. Another little touch I like is how you have newspapers being blown around by cars that are driving by. How the birds fly in formation, and how when one bird swoops down, they all follow it's lead. It's little touches like that that make you feel absolutely immersed in this world.

And as I mentioned in a previous post, I actually feel like I'm in "1940's New York." I don't think it's important to have a "brick-by-brick" reproduction of New York from that era. As long as it "feels" like it, that's what matters.

I've heard a few complaints on how the "Godfather Love Theme" is overused in the game. Well I for one never got tired of it. It just adds to the game, IMO. And because it's such a great piece of music, I didn't mind hearing it all the time.

I love using the "BlackHand" fighting techniques to take down my enemies. I'll usually shoot em in the kneecaps to put em down, and then I'll run up to em and either pull off a "quick execution", beat the snot out of em, or stangle em to death. I also like sneaking up behind the enemies and garroting them.

I'm also a sadist in this game. I'll walk up to random innocent people and just toss em into the street.

Here's some advice for when you wanna get ready to take over a warehouse or (especially) a compound. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE PLENTY OF AMMO, YOU'VE UPGRADED YOUR STATS A GREAT DEAL, AND THAT YOU HAVE AT LEAST ONE LEVEL 2 OR LEVEL 3 WEAPON! AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE 2 BOMBS, AND A FULL SUPPLY OF DYNAMITE AND MOLOTOVS! If you have all of those, things should go rather smoothly.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll come back and add things I forgot to mention. For those who braved this long ass review, thanks for reading! And enjoy the game!

Final rating: 9/10