PSP - The Godfather Reviewed

Speak to almost any bloke and they will be able to give you numerous quotes from the Godfather trilogy. Simply a classic, one of the masterpieces of the movies. The plots, the camera work - the lines - the struggle over the generations, revenge - classic. Lines like "leave the gun, take the canoli", "Bonarseta, what have I done to insult you", "one day, and that day may never come, I may call upon you to do a service for me" add to these the famous theme music and you have a great package.
To fully appreciate all the characters and whats going on in the trilogy you need to watch it 3 or 4 times.

Given that the Godfather is so loved and respected EA games were treading on dangerous ground in making a game on the movie.

Having played the game on the Playstation portable I must say EA pulled it off. The game it faithful to the movie whilst allowing free play as well. They pulled this off by having you play two story lines in the games - one follows the original movie and the other allows you to build an empire in New York.

In the movie plot you are a new young punk brought into the family slowly increasing your rank as you complete missions for the family - like beating up the thugs who tried to rape Boneseta's daughter, wacking paulie. Along with these events you have other tasks to complete like getting protection money from shop keepers and back room illegals like brothels and gambling dens. Smashing up the shop - rather than the shop keeper is the best way to achieve this goal. If you go overboard then you will fail - the idea is to intimidate, rather than exterminate - leave that for your rival gangs.

As you get money you can buy weapons upgrades and move from pistols, automatics to the street sweeper shot gun and the formidable Tommy gun - allowing you to mow down scores of your enemies. To remove really stubborn opposition you sometimes plant a bomb with big results - just make sure you can get to the exit quick enough all you will go up with the bomb - i.e. RUN!

Most of the controls are easy to use. The difficulty the PSP has with aiming (i.e. not having a mouse like a PC) is removed by having an auto aim feature for your firearms which is activated on a new target by pushing the R button. This is easy to use - but with numerous enemies trying to kill you - you will want to take them down as quick as possible.

The only difficulty I had with the controls was when you had to throw someone over a ledge, which can be tricky - first you have to get them to the ledge, lift them and then toss them - read the instruction guide for advice on how to best do this.

The voices and the characters are true to the movie - all except Michael who looks and sounds nothing like the actor. As for the rest - the Godfather, Sonny, etc they are true to the movie.

The game took me a day to polish off and the re playablity is low - once your seen the storyline - you've seen it - and hitting other gangs head quarters gets repetitive - i.e. bombing two houses - identical in each gang's headquarters - the programmers could have made each one different design to make the game more interesting.

On the whole the game was worth the $25 I paid for it. It is certainly not a kids games and has an MA 15+ rating. The game is very violent like the movie, in fact even more violent than the movie.

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PSP - Medal of Honor HEROES

The medal of honor series is a legend among world war two action simulators. I've loved playing it on the PC. The original MOH - and the expansions - spearhead and breakthrough have given me many hours of fun - hell weeks of fun if I'm going to be honest. Using a mouse and the keyboard on the PC was easy to use.

I was worried that converting the game to the PSP would be a tough ask. Medal of Honor HEROES for the PSP is graphically nice but I found the interface very hard to use. Aiming is difficult and I had to enter the options and change the way the controllers are set up to play the game. I found it was easiest to use the thumb controller to aim the gun site. That said once your used to the controls you can have a good game.

Though personally I don't think it comes close to the experience on the PC. The game loses some of that being their feel on the small screen - whereas a PC with a large screen and surround sound with the sub woofer blasting out the shoots and explosions really immerse you into the game.

That said, if you a fan of the series and want more the PSP game gives a new series of missions to complete in Italy, Holland and Belgium - some of the more forgotten battles and arenas of the war.

On the PSP the game is very fast paced and the battle areas seem smaller than the on the PC. As the game is no longer a new release you can pick it up in a store like Big W for $25 AUD - which is about as cheap as PSP games get unless you pick up a bargain bid on ebay.

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World Series of Poker - Tournament of Champions

Watching the world series of poker one wonders how you might do yourself playing against the best poker players in the world. Whilst this is unlikely for most of us, we can get a taste of the fun and excitement thanks to Activision game for the Playstation Portable.

The game is very easy to play. You are mentored in the world poker tour by Chris Ferguson who gives you advice on how to approach the game and particular individuals styles and talents. Going "ALL IN" will back off a lot of computer opponents, but some of the pros will take you on, on a frightening regular basis which if you don't have the best hand you will lose your stack very quickly. I find the best way to play is to play tight at first until you have a good chip lead and then use that lead to dominate the other players - going all in on a regular basis with a good hand. The computer players are a lot more hesitant to call you if they know they are going to go out with a lost. If you want to win some tourneys, your either going have to play very well or save often.

The game has lots of information available - statistics like pot odds, outs, hand odds give you an added edge when making tough decisions.


World poker series has increased the popularity of poker to super star levels. The huge wins - in the millions of dollars and the personalities on the tour - Chris Ferguson, the Unibomber - Phil Laak, Joe Hachen and others add to the interest.

If you like watching it on T.V. - you'll enjoy playing the game on the PSP. There are a number of "collector" chips to get as well as expanding that bankroll to keep your interest.


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Disney Pixar CARS for the PSP reviewed.

I've been reviewing PC games in this blog, but now my 7 year old son has a Sony PSP (sony playstation portable) I thought I should add some reviews of PSP games so here goes.

Cars is a movie my two year old just loves and forces me to watch it over and over again with him. If that wasn't bad enough my sons PSP has a new cars game so now that I'm swamped by CARS I thought I would reviewed the game for you.

It's a great racing game, in a cartoon feel with jumps, boost, tight turns, ramps and hidden passages, as well as a bunch of tracks mainly inspired from the film.

You are encouraged to complete the game by unlocking new tracks and cars. It can be quite a challenge and in the later tracks you are unlikely to win unless you get use to the layout of the bends, corners and shortcuts, which can take some practice on the more complex tracks.

The tracks are as follows:-
Figure 8
Radiator Springs
Desert Canyon Dash
Radiator Cap Run
DJ Boss Race
Mesa Ravine
Turbine Canyon
Frank's Field
Snot Rod Boss Race
Ironhorse Junction
Torquetown
Interstate
Wingo Boss Race
Diesel Forest
Wheel Well
Crankshaft mine
Boost Boss Race
Chick Boss Battle

The Cars are as follows:-

Cars with good cornering and acceleration but low top end speed
DJ, Wingo, Sally (184MPH)

Cars with a good top speed but less cornering and acceleration
Lightning McQueen, Flo, Chick, Boost, Snot Rod, Ramone (197MPH)

Cars with great top speed but poor cornering and acceleration
Mater, Doc Hudson, Sheriff (210MPH)

There are three other cars that can be unlocked but only in Multiplayer mode by beating other players and winning postcards.

The top left button allows you to jump, but the right top button is the most important on later tracks with tight corners as it lets you power slide through the corners.

On the whole I rate this game highly. Great 50's music, good engine sounds, great graphics and high re playability.

You have options of story mode, postcard mode, time trials and 4 track cups.

Now that this is a PSP Platinum game meaning its great value and cheap - I suggest add it to your collection. Add two if you have two Sony PSP machines as I'd imagine it would be great fun racing against your mates and doing a Chick special of crashing them out.

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