Jeffery Scalf, who says his grandmother was Dillinger's half sister (I know, I know), has threatened EA with a lawsuit unless they pay him "millions of dollars" for the use of his alleged ancestor's name on the weapons.

He's made the threat under the assumption he has control over all aspects of the late Dillinger's estate, including any and all depictions of his likeness and/or name. Best of all, it's not the first time he's tried it; in 2007 he tried to stop a local festival in Arizona from calling itself "Dillinger Days".

To protect themselves from Scalf's tactics, EA have filed a request with a judge in San Francisco to dismiss the case, and to grant them permission to use the name "Dillinger" whenever and however they like, claiming the games' status as "works of artistic expression" cover them under the First Amendment.

EA vs Dillinger llc [US District Court of California, via GamePolitics]

"We're not going to do another one," Gibeau, adding that no Godfather games are in the company's production schedule, which falls under the next three years.

Paramount, the Hollywood company that produced the film, didn't seem to be aware of these plans. "Plans for the next Godfather game have not been decided," a Paramount rep stated. And when EA was asked to clarify Gibeau's statement, this was offered from a company spokesperson: "We do not currently have a Godfather game in development. Nothing has been decided as to future sequels. Paramount is a great partner."

EA seems to have become less interested in game adaptations, previously dumping licenses like James Bond and The Lord of the Rings. Whether this quote from Gibeau was merely a gaff or a fact, it's not yet know. What is known is that while we're not sure if we want to play The Godfather III, we're definitely not interesting in watching The Godfather III.

Company Town: Breaking industry news and scoops [Los Angeles Times]

In the video game version of The Godfather II, players once again work their way up the ranks of the Corleone family, this time in three locations: Havana, New York, and Miami. The sequel to The Godfather: The Game also adds some strategy to the third-person shooting mix with "The Don's View" a top-down crime management option, for hands-off organized crime control.

The Godfather II is hailed as the greatest sequel of all time. Yet in a medium so overdone with second, third, and multiple acts, can its game adaptation even come close? Or is it, like Fredo Corleone, destined to break even the coldest don's heart?

Loved:
Original Tunes: The game's original instrumental soundtrack, composed by Christopher Lennertz, is truly an achievement and period-perfect. It captures the lounge-era metamorphosis of big band instruments and real-cool beats. Artistically, it's the only thing pulling its weight in this game.

Majestic Maps: These are the most beautifully rendered maps of any game I've ever played. The Don's View displays your city like it's the map room from Raiders of the Lost Ark. In building interiors, your HUD map is three dimensional and accurately directs you to doors and exits. Bravo.

Hated:
The Don's View: Note I said I loved the map, not the reasons for using it. You'll love the Don's View if you like having a major, prolonged action sequence repeatedly interrupted by quasi-real time strategy errands. And, by the way, none of the RTS stuff really made any sense to me. You can max out a mob front with guards and when you get attacked, you'll still have to send in a made man or two just to keep the place from being overrun. The map's greatest utility is just finding and flagging the joint you want to attack next so you know how to drive to it. Sure you can send your capos to bomb a franchise, depriving your opposition of the perk it gets for controlling the entire ring. This would be useful if you were playing against a human. But the firefights are never tough enough to justify taking a racket out of commission, making you wait a week to take it over - which you're obligated to do and which can't be feasibly done by dispatching henchmen alone.

Easy Does It: Only when the cops waded into the middle of a shootout did I get outgunned. Not that I had much help from my stooges in the first place. Still, the medic revives you to full strength if you go down in a fight. But your health already regenerates at a supra-Wolverine rate, faster still if you buy the upgrade. And guess what, your don is a doctor, too - you can insta-revive your soldiers as well. The designers probably ratcheted down the difficulty because the game requires you to take over every business to get to the end of the story (it was optional in The Godfather: The Game). A sure way to make repetitive gameplay even more of a chore is to make it less of a challenge. And mandatory.

Who cares? About halfway through Godfather II I began to feel like the people who made this had run out of give-a-damn. I sensed it early on in spots, for example, when the game had me smash up a business I already owned as a favor to a complete stranger. Instead of figuring out a way for that to be, you know, not ludicrous, someone just took a shortcut. The "favors" process also feels thrown together at the last minute. Your Don literally solicits people on the street - "You look like you need some help." - because they, lo and behold, have information how to kill rival families' made men. But by the time I got to Cuba I knew this game had been given up on, because it fed me the obligatory stealth kill mission. And that's level design shorthand for "I am now phoning it in." None of this even begins to address the clipping issues you'll frequently encounter, the slipshod dialogue map you navigate in some conversations, plus the fact you can walk off some unbounded rooftops and stroll harmlessly to the ground.

No sense of place: As a next-gen game, Godfather II is woefully underserved by its visuals. They create zero immersion in what should be the ring-a-ding period of late 1950s-early 1960s Americana. Instead, you get hamfisted expository details that try to delude you into believing it's sometime between 1959 and 1967. The throwaway sign-o-the-times commentary was jarringly bad, none more insulting to your intelligence than hearing a passer-by proffer, "I like that King guy, I dig what he's sayin'." You'll hear this kind of stuff said in the same two voices the entire game. The cars - the same barebones fleet and physics as the original game - are only minimally skinned for the period. The pretend-rock-and-roll tunes you hear on their radios and in clubs have generic vocal numbers which sound like they came from the worst Steve Winwood cover act that ever played Reno. These carry the additional penalty of boring their way into your skull worse than a rickroll.

Lack of character: The game wants you to get involved with your crew, who have unique names and a smattering of personality. And you can customize their looks, and your own as well. I actually spent a good 45 minutes on this, creating guys I thought looked like a don - balding, slightly paunchy, some nice clothes - and his men. Then the game slapped a ninja turtle costume on everyone. That's because I picked up the "bulletproof vests" defense perk, which apparently can't be imparted invisibly. Granted, what they did to the original story is hard to respect, but any hope of taking its cut scenes seriously is lost when you watch Fredo talk to a guy wearing a barrel.

Mini-Multiplayer: Word has spread on this game; so you have several multiplayer options, but very few, if any, players online to try them. What little I did play felt slapped-on and also showed some severe weapon imbalances, notably in rate of fire for the higher class arms - which, by the way, you can't use without winning a bunch of multiplayer games. There is a Don's View that allows you to play in an omniscient role, looking at the map and calling out intel to your team. But you can't switch between it and action, so it's like being dungeon master to the Rat Pack.

You really have to go out of your way to get any enjoyment out of this, but that's not to say it doesn't have its moments. Those who never played The Godfather: The Game, and who can look past some of this version's more ridiculous contrivances might feel a little differently about this. But if you're playing it to advance the story, you will be disappointed, because you'll be spending a lot of time at very repetitive gameplay for an unsatisfying narrative that trivializes all of the original film's major components.

Would it have been so difficult to run the favors system through the Don's View? You know, someone comes to your consigliere off-camera, and he brings the matter to your attention? Why must you peddle your influence to strangers on the street to enable that part of the game? Why do you, as the don, fight all the battles and do all the favors yourself? Is that how a mafia don behaves? You can play your made men in multiplayer, why not in single-player? Because, for believability's sake, wouldn't it be best to be the omniscient don when you're in map and planning mode, and a hands-on henchman when you're up close doing the dirty work? Such a separation of roles would definitely make me more interested in the guys I recruit and upgrade.

But it's apparent that doing anything much more than re-skinning an existing game and repurposing as much of its content as possible was going to cost money, and Electronic Arts had already given a bucket of blood to Paramount. It looks like they spent all the money and time they had for new code on The Don's View, and barely integrated it - meaningfully anyway - with the story and purpose of the rest of the game. The Godfather II could have been a novel, even cerebral, strategy and action game. Instead, EA chose to run a numbers racket.

The Godfather II, developed by EA Redwood Shores, published by EA, released April 7 for $60. Available on PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360, reviewed on Xbox 360, played singleplayer story mode to completion and played online.

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All of the hard work that the player did in The Godfather: The Game is undone in its sequel. The first game's main character, Aldo Trapani, is dead, and players assume the role of Dominic, a once lowly soldier in the Corleone family who suddenly finds himself in the role of Don. Don Dom must then expand and defend operations in New York, Miami, and Havana as he strives to become the most powerful Don in America. It's a third-person, squad-based free-roaming shooter and a resource management sim rolled into one, with the addition of online multiplayer for those inclined to reach out and gut someone.

Who dares critique the new Don of the Corleone family?

Eurogamer
Making a better sequel shouldn't have been that difficult for a studio with the resources and experience of EA Redwood Shores. All it really needed was a tighter structure and more memorable and more challenging missions. But while the follow-up undoubtedly has a far better structure, the feeling that you're essentially playing a series of disconnected side-quests persists. It's a game strangely lacking in soul, and consistently fails to make you care about what you're doing and why. From start to finish you'll play on autopilot, shooting all the nasty men unquestioningly in what amounts to the ultimate pissing contest.

Game Informer
Electronic Arts' interpretation of Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar winning film, The Godfather: Part II, draws more comparisons to the raunchy teen film Porky's than the masterful gangster story that moviegoers and critics alike herald as one of the greatest sequels of all time. For every shot gangster, a pretty girl is hit on with groan-inducing lines like "Has anyone ever told you that you look like an angel?" Topless women are everywhere; I even saw a few walking down the side of the street. To top it off, a car ride isn't complete without your cronies telling you that you should pull over to pick up a gal. Of course, like Porky's, no matter how much you try to impress the ladies, you'll never reel one in.

TeamXbox
...even the portrayal of the late '50s set story-about newly crowned head of the family, Michael, and the Corleone's association with Hyman Roth and a burgeoning deal in pre-revolution Havana-is flawed beyond repair. You're supposed to be the Don of your own family now, but still an underling to Michael Corleone, yet you still look like just another goombah roaming the streets with a gang of toughs. The look seems wrong, too, with anachronistic cars and other poorly researched art. Havana looks cool, but the levels just feel like toy sets you're running around on with little resemblance to the locations or eras they are supposed to represent.

Extreme Gamer
At the end of it all, you likely hit up a few team deathmatches online, but don't expect miracles in this area. The Godfather II online is nothing special, even though it tries. Online is supported for 16 players and hosts four modes where you can play as one of the members from your campaign's crew, or enter the game as a Don. In an interesting twist you can earn honour points online that allow you to upgrade your weapon licenses for your crew. As the Don you will control a camera that flies above the map allowing you to help out your team by dropping perks down to them. It's not too much fun, and you can't even zoom down to the action. Being the Don is not fun at all online and was a good stab at something that doesn't work. Online the Godfather II isn't going to hold your attention for too long, expect to be disappointed.

GamePro
It was bound to happen eventually. Grand Theft Auto's success gave birth to so many imitators that it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to out-Rockstar Rockstar. That's exactly what EA has accomplished with Godfather II - it improves upon the 'crime boss' aspect of GTA and becomes the experience by which other crime games must be judged. It isn't the best open-world game out there but it does a sublime job of capturing what it feels like to be the head of a virtual crime family. Not going to add anything, in fear that it will earn me a dirt nap.

EA's PlayStation Home space for The Godfather II arrives tomorrow, well before the highly anticipated EA Sports Complex launches later this spring. Where there are mobsters there's bound to be gambling going on, so EA has included a Texas Hold 'Em table amongst the leather furniture and undoubtedly smoky-smelling carpet, giving PlayStation Home visitors yet another interactive thing to do in the increasingly interactive service.

To celebrate, Sony is holding their first Celebrity Poker Tournament tomorrow night, urging Homies (term coined!) to show up dressed a generic approximation of their favorite celebrity. The tourney kicks off at 5pm pacific, and ends when the rival mob kicks in the doors, spraying the crowd with bullets...or whenever people stop playing.

If gangsters aren't your thing, be sure to check out Capcom's newly refreshed Resident Evil 5 space, where a new mini-game quest and a souvenir shop with character costumes awaits the wary traveler. Do Chris and Sheva count as celebrities?

PlayStation Home News: EA Unveils The Godfather II Space, Capcom Refreshes RE5 + Special Events! [PlayStation.blog]

The Don Control mode lets one player on each side act as the Don, taking a bird's-eye view of the action as it unfolds. As you can see from these screens, it's essentially spectator mode with benefits. The Don gets to assign waypoints and keep track of who is doing your dirty work and who is lagging behind the pack.

An interesting addition to the game, though perhaps not interesting enough to see me laying out cash once the game drops on April 7th.

Available for download upon the game's release on April 7th, Don Control allows players to challenge each other to 16-player battles, with their single player money on the line. One player on each side takes on the role of the Don, recruiting players to their side for a cut of the profits. The Don controls the action from a bird's eye view, commanding their troops about the map much like in S2's PC real-time strategy action game Savage. If your Don wins, you split your winnings with your family. If you lose, the money you wagered is gone from your single player stash forever.

It sounds like a rather novel take on console multiplayer, and free is always good. One cannot help but wonder why the mode didn't make it into the retail release, but I've learned never to look a severed gift horse's head in the mouth.

Why? EA's John Riccitiello says that its moving to Q1 of the company's 2010 fiscal year, which runs April to June, to give The Godfather II "a better launch window and more time for longer lead marketing."

More specifically, Riccitiello voiced his concerns during today's conference call that the game would be launching into a "a very cluttered, price reduced, excess inventory channel both in North America and Europe in a heavily competitive environment."

He wants consumers to have the opportunity to get more "excited" about the title.

John and company are probably right, considering The Godfather II was, until today, planned to hit stores within spitting distance of Killzone 2, Halo Wars, Street Fighter IV and Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned.

Extortion is the act of unlawfully taking money from someone using coercion - threatening psychical violence, destroying property, or setting pets on fire are a few of the more popular forms in my mind. In The Godfather II, extortion is a game mechanic, which nets you more money to hire more crew members in order to extort more money...it's sort of a vicious cycle, really. Thank goodness this sort of thing never happens in real life. Would be a pity if anything were to happen to all your nice stuff.

The class-based options sound clever alright, but we're not sure that this is enough to get us fired up for another Godfather adventure. After all, I think some of us were keeping an eye on the original Godfather game just to see what a horrible disaster it would be.

Shame that EA let us down. Now we're expecting this one to be good, what with that vicious back-stabbing and those flamboyant shirt collars. Oh, the shirt collars!

Clearly, a lot of tender loving care went into the shirt collar modeling in The Godfather II, hopefully hinting at a collar popping mini-game in the Wii version.

For starters, Luscious Entertainment has added the all new Don View. This creates a strategy element in the mobster life where instead of just running around as your custom-made mob man, smashing shit up and collecting racket money, you can pull back into a city-wide view and take in the positions and movements of the rival families. With this bird’s eye view, you can make decisions about who you want to hit and how – which businesses you want in your pocket and what men you want in your crew. Playing the strategy element of GFII makes you think like a Don, while still letting you act like a mobster.

Like the first Godfather game, you serve the Corleone family, with big dreams of being head of your own family if you do Michael Corleone the favor of acting as Don while he sorts out business with the FBI. You recruit a crew to start with – made men with their own personalities, backgrounds, and specialties. The specialties are crucial because they’ll determine your mob war strategy. Got a demolitions guy? Blow up the strip joint. Got an engineer who can knock out power grids? Sneak in the back of the auto shop and knock out their power so you can get the drop on their hired goons. And you can always spend money to level these “skills” up.

Collecting a complete racket gives your family a monopoly – allowing you to cash in on bonuses that each racket offers. If you own all the strip joints, for example, you can knock 50% off the cost of guards (because presumably, you’re paying the other half in sweet, sweet hooker flesh). Having more means having more to guard, however, so as you move up in the city’s mob food chain, you start to attract more attention – the wrong kind, that is. Hiring goons of your own and recruiting more men for your crew only goes so far; the other families have more of the same and putting a hit out on their soldiers doesn’t take them out of play completely. You’ve got to dig around, do a few favors for the right people (district attorney is always a good place to start), and find out what your enemies’ weaknesses are. Because once you know how to hit them, you’ll be taking them out for good, leaving your family free to snatch up the emptied parts of the underbelly.

Godfather will feature Florida, New York, and Cuba as the main settings of the game. If you did your homework (you know – read the book, saw the movie), you’ll be pleased to see that this fits in with the actual story of the The Godfather: Part II, although you’re missing out on most of what Michael Corleone is up to. Tom Hagen’s still around, though, and Robert Duvall was enough of a sport to come back for the second game as voice talent. Robert Di Nero, on the other hand, you probably won’t see (or hear) because unlike the movie, Godfather II the game has zero Old Italy flashbacks to the childhood of Vito Corleone and the founding of the Corleone family.

What I saw at that posh Godfather II event was a bare bones, pre-alpha model of what the game could look like when it comes out next year. I say “could” because it was obvious both from the visuals and from the bizarre tabletop game they had us play to grasp the abstract concept of Don strategy that key parts of how the game will work are still up in the air. For example, the production people copped to the fact that you could play through the game without using the Don’s View feature. It would make it unbalanced, but it could be done; and that won’t look good for Godfather if it’s trying to break away from the GTA model of mindless violence = money = king of town.

Also – and this is a total nit-picking comment – they keep insisting that you are a Don from the beginning of the game; which doesn’t make much sense because Michael Corleone is never not the Don in Godfather II (and would he really appoint someone who’s not blood-related as a replacement? Come on!)

The game could go either way at the point (much like all games in pre-alpha stages), but it’s obvious EA is going the extra mile to make Godfather II into more than just a sequel. I want to say if Francis Ford Coppola can do it, then surely they can – but that guy is magic. Even his own daughter can’t match him, so where does EA hope to get off?

One minute, you’re scrounging around on the bottommost rung of the seedy underbelly of the rancid back alley of a crime syndicate. The next, you’re hobnobbing and canoodling with the big shots in the upper echelons of the elite of the cream of the crop – drinking Cristal and playing blackjack while a small army of cocktail waitresses fetches you drinks and fried ravioli.

The Godfather II first look event was definitely a step up for yours truly. That’s not to say I haven’t gone to half a dozen press events, drunk myself silly and seen great games; but this is the first time I’ve done it for Kotaku as their new San Francisco correspondent.

Which means I got a look at Godfather II without having to fight a pack of raging hooligans for the privilege.

I also got my very own bottle of Cristal.

This classy event featured a roundtrip tour of the San Francisco bay on a luxury boat, complete with a viewing deck that I was too chicken to go on while said boat was moving. Along with the standard perks of video game parties (open bar, amazing hors d’oeuvres), we also got a first look at the Godfather II on screen and in a weird, abstract tabletop game where the even the DM wasn’t too clear on the rules. There was also a masseuse and blackjack tables and no, absolutely no, cement shoes.

I can’t tell you too much about Godfather II just yet (check back on Friday), but I can tell you from personal experience that it’s no easy thing to get to the top – of anything. The mob, video game journalism, you name it. You’ve got to be willing to whack a few people, to shake things up. The path to the top involves a lot of muscle work, a lot of man power, and more than a little strategizing. And Dramamine, if you’re going to be on a boat.