By: Monty Phan

For the record, the upcoming "Sopranos" video game will have no virtual therapy sessions - unless you count beating up enemies and other sordid acts as "therapy." Because there'll be plenty of that. Just nothing involving Dr. Melfi.

In fact, the show's female characters - save for the Bada Bing girls - will be curiously absent from the game, which would seem to satisfy those fans who bemoaned the lack of mob-related "action" last season. Rest assured, The Sopranos: Road to Respect will be all about the figurative family, not the literal one.

On the Queens, N.Y., set of the Nuovo Vesuvio (Artie Bucco's restaurant on the show), series creator David Chase outlined to me what to expect from the game, due out from publisher THQ in the fall for the PlayStation 2. Players take on the role of Joey LaRocca, the illegitimate son of Big Pussy, as he makes his way up the ranks of Tony's crew during a war with the Philadelphia mob.

Chase, who grew up in New Jersey, said that when HBO approached him about a game, he remembered once wanting to make a movie about how a kid with no mafia contacts would go about becoming a member of the mob. Instead, he decided to adapt it into the context of "The Sopranos," with voices provided by James Gandolfini (Tony), Michael Imperioli (Christopher), Tony Sirico (Paulie), Steve Van Zandt (Sylvio) and Robert Iler (A.J.). Vincent Pastore will voice the ghost of Big Pussy, and actor Christian Maelen voices Joey.

"Paulie is kind of his captain," Chase says of Joey. "He sends him out to collect money, lean on people, go bring an envelope from here to there. Of course, there are people who want to stop him. There's a conflict with the mob from Philadelphia. And so he has to get through all these things and navigate his way through these problems, which would be very recognizable for people who have seen the show. It's really just sort of an urban mob story, the kinds of jobs you've seen Christopher do from the beginning, as he made his way up through made guy and then to captain. And the action stems from the fact this is a mob show, and there's violent confrontations."

However, fans of the show shouldn't get their hopes up thinking that they'll get to chase the Russian around the Pine Barrens as one of the game's missions. While that may be one of Chase's favorite episodes, he said the game's plot would in no way bleed over into the show's storylines, so don't expect Joey to tie up any loose ends from the series.

What you can expect is a game tailored to the show's hard-core fan base. Chase, who oversaw the story and has seen parts of the game, contributed no dialogue, leaving it up to writer Allen Rucker, author of official companion books to the series, to ensure the game is true to the show's tone.

"It's about going through a day with the people you see from TV," Chase said. "While there is action and fists are flying and there's the possibility of gunplay and all that, it's really aimed toward the hard-core 'Sopranos' fan, more than the hard-core gamer."

Chase said that when HBO approached him about a game, he offered no resistance. His feeling was that HBO put so much funding and support in the show that it should have any opportunity to make its money back. But he did have limits: He was pitched an idea about putting Maelen on the show or having the Joey LaRocca character join Tony's crew, but he said no.

It's unknown whether there'll be any online component, but even if there is, don't expect to play against Chase.

"When my daughter was younger, I tried playing Super Mario, and I was really bad at it," he said. "My hand-eye coordination is lousy. She could beat me when she was 3 or 4."