Occasionally, EA hosts “Community Days”, where they invite select members of the media and fly them to one of their major branch locations to check out a new game before its launch, all expenses included. Past events took place at their LA and Vancouver centers for their Goldeneye and NFS: Most Wanted community days, respectively. An invitation was extended to me to visit EA’s Redwood City, CA headquarters for an exclusive sneak peek at Godfather: The Game including access to the team and plenty of hands-on time. A game based on an iconic movie like The Godfather is intriguing to say the least, and I happily accepted the invitation. We will post a comprehensive review shortly but for now, read on and enjoy!
Arrival…Thursday, March 9th, 2006…12:30 pm
After a thankfully uneventful six-hour flight (an eventful flight is never a good thing) from JFK Airport in New York, I arrived in not-so-sunny California, at the San Francisco Int’l Airport. I expected to see hilly streets that San Fran is famous for, but instead was greeted with palm trees and sparse, open spaces, a far cry from the bustling streets of Manhattan. As was later explained to me, the SFA Airport is actually located thirty minutes south of the city of San Francisco as the city is too small to house a large airport like SFA.
A driver greeted me at the baggage claim with my name on a piece of paper and directed me to the limo. As I stepped outside, I noticed the weather was similar to New York with mild-to-chilly temperatures in the 40’s. The limo was extra luxurious; a new Lincoln Town Car with a supple black leather interior and both driver seats drawn close to the front, leaving a ridiculous amount of room in the back seat. The driver was amiable and chatty, explaining that he works for a small, specialized limo service that focuses on serving VIP clients like CEOs and other corporate bigwigs. He indicated that he drove Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner somewhere recently. EA sure knows how to make someone feel special.
Approximately thirty minutes later we arrived at our destination: the Sofitel Hotel located just a block away from EA’s campus. I found the French chain to be rather plush, with French accents to be found throughout the hotel from paintings in the bathrooms to the moldings on the ceilings.
My digs at the plush French hotel chain Sofitel
All of the hotel employees spoke with a thick French accent, providing a subtle reminder as to the origin of the hotel.
I checked in and was escorted to my room on the 7th floor. I carried my laptop and the bellhop insisted on carrying my one measly bag. The room had a comfortable, soft vibe with cream-colored walls, beige carpeting, and plenty of space. My roommate, Rusty Zavachen of dreamstation.cc, had not yet arrived so I chose a bed and plopped my bag on it. I called the concierge and located the banquet room where playing stations were set up for all of the guests to get their grubby hands on Godfather.
Upon reaching Salon 1, a large black sign featuring the Godfather himself with the logo for Godfather: The Game stood near the entrance.
Marlon Brando's timeless pose
Once inside, I was welcomed by EA’s Beth Anne Longnecker, a Product Manager and one of the folks that arranged the event, and thanked her for helping me with my travel arrangements. The rectangular room contained 10 flat-screen Toshiba TVs spread over 3 separate tables with red tablecloths draped over the tables. Each TV contained a pair of heavy-duty headphones and was connected to a PS2 or Xbox debug unit, running the game set to the opening scene. Beth Anne handed me my Godfather ID badge and a goody bag filled with all sorts of satisfying junk good; a considerate gesture from EA, especially since I was ravished after the foodless six-hour flight. The bag also contained an itinerary of the next few days and notified us of a special contest with prizes going to whoever got the highest respect level, completes the most execution styles, and completes the most hits.
I’m partial to the Dual Shock controller so I chose a PS2 station over an Xbox station, even though the Xbox version clearly looked better with richer textures and less jaggies. I sat down, put on my headphones, and immersed myself in the virtual mafia world, munching on Wheat Thins and sipping my Diet Coke. I envisioned that this might be what heaven is like.
Our demo stations in the hotel upon arrival
My first impressions were positive; I was digging the Black Hand feature where you’re able to intimidate characters to get what you want by grabbing them and smashing them into basically anything in the room. Just like in real life, every character has their limits and weaknesses and once you push them past their breaking point, you get nothing. If you manage to find their weak point, you’ll be able to extort more money from them. The baker apparently was deathly afraid of her oven while another shop owner caved when I killed his wife who was standing nearby. Yes, that’s awful, I know.
Fighting is accomplished by swinging the right analog stick in different directions, not unlike Fight Night. The free roaming world was fun to drive around and the particle effects really impressed me. Driving over a lamppost resulted in a shower of bright sparks that streaked down from the air and smashing through a crate sent wood shrapnel flying and dozens of individual pieces of paper twirled in mid-air, slowly falling to the ground. I had never seen anything like it on the PS2 and it looked almost next-gen. Equally impressive was the noticeably absent loading times, no small feat considering the sheer size of Godfather.
The aiming system is simple to pick up, yet requires some skill for best results. Pressing one button will auto-target an enemy’s chest but if they are wearing a bulletproof vest then it will take multiple shots to take them down. You can use the left analog stick to adjust your aim slightly and take him out with a single headshot.
The Godfather is not an easy game. I died many times trying to break into stores and rackets run by rival families because of goons that were guarding the place. To successfully extort from these stores and then take over the illegal rackets inside you will need to use strategy. Make sure you have plenty of ammo on hand and kill the guards from a distance, and behind cover if possible. The map will display which families run which shops so if you pick on one of them you will start a mob war in which they will try to bomb your shops. The only ways to end a mob war is to bomb one of their stores or bribe an FBI agent.
I took a short break to help myself to the deli platter and chatted with Beth Anne and some of the guys that were currently in the room. Over the course of the next few hours, the room slowly started to fill up and I met my roommate Rusty who came in from Cleveland, Ohio. There were ten guests in all, everyone affiliated to a gaming site or The Godfather in some respect. Two guys were frequent posters on EA’s Godfather forums, one of them coming in from as far as Naples, Italy. Everyone was friendly and we spent the rest of the evening alternating between talking with each other and enjoying the game. Gary Treangen, Community Manager, joined us and was helpful in pointing out the finer points of the game and answered any questions we had.
Soon it was time for a screening of The Godfather movie so we all walked one block to EA’s theatre located in their campus. The theatre was fairly large in size with elevated seating similar to a regular movie theatre; only this was a bit smaller. The room is usually utilized for staff meetings where unique accomplishments are displayed on the big screen; so being in here for a movie was a real treat.
Togos deli subs, chips and guac, and giant cookies greeted us at the door so we promptly dug in. We took our seats, the lights dimmed, and the movie started. Out of the group of guests, only one had never seen The Godfather but all of us enjoyed it, as you can never see this movie too many times. I peered over my shoulder behind me to look for a projection booth but I found none of the sort, leading me to believe that a rear-projection technology powered the screen. The state-of-the-art digital surround sound system brought the sounds of Godfather to life.
After the credits started to roll and the light came back on, we were escorted back to the Sofitel hotel. Gary offered us the choice of retiring to our rooms or playing more Godfather and most of us chose to play some more. Playing the game right after seeing the movie injected some timely adrenaline into us. We took our standard places, put on our headphones, and once again lost ourselves in this mafia world from the 1940’s. After a few hours, the long day had started to take its toll on me so I excused myself and headed up to my room at a little after midnight. A few of the guys kept playing right into the wee hours of the morning until the room closed at 2 am, determined to rack up respect points and win the prizes. By that time, I was well into my second mafia-flavored dream featuring Sonny and Michael Corleone. You snooze you lose.
Those beds sure were mighty comfy
The Big Day…Friday, March 10th, 2006…7 am
The itinerary called for everyone to assemble in the lobby at 9:15 am, but my excitement caused me to pop out of bed at 7.
The err, bustling Redwood City, CA area
It seemed Rusty felt the same way, as he was already fully dressed when I came out of the bathroom. He had the idea of walking over to the EA building and snapping some pictures before the tour started so I agreed to go with him.
It was a cloudy, chilly morning and the ground was wet from an overnight rain. Rusty and I snapped some pictures of the hotel, then made our way to the EA building, avoiding large puddles that collected on the sidewalks. Rusty, oblivious to the chilly weather, was wearing just a t-shirt while I had a warm, long sleeve zip-up and a layer underneath. Cold weather didn’t bother him as he was used to a cold climate and being from the Northeast myself, I’m no stranger to the cold either but I preferred to stay warm.
We arrived at EA about five minutes later and snapped some pictures of the main building.
This is where all the magic happens
I observed the diverse workforce that EA employs ranging from a woman in a conservative suit to a punk-rocker look-alike sporting a Mohawk and earrings and was impressed. We hung around for a few minutes before returning to the hotel to meet everyone in the lobby.
I'm like a kid in a candy store
EA's grounds are beautiful
Promptly at 9:15, Gary escorted us to the EA campus. Our jaws dropped when we entered the main building and saw a gigantic screen proudly displaying footage of Fight Night Round 3 and Madden 2006 for the Xbox 360. The lobby was dimly lit with plasma screens all over the place, several game stations, and colored strobe lights beaming down on the floor.
EA's lobby prominently displayed Fight Night
Behind a partition near the front door lay several dome-like chairs with PS2 controllers located in the armrests and popular EA games like Tiger Woods and James Bond were running on flat-screen panels directly across from the chairs.
Cool game pods let employees play EA games
We checked in and headed up a steel staircase for breakfast in a room called the Winners Circle. As I climbed to the top of the stairs I surveyed the giant, indoor courtyard with large banners of prominent EA franchises hung on the opposite wall, the tall glass wall that separated us from the outdoors, and the cafeteria tables below with indoor palm trees adorning the ground floor. The extravagance of the building reminded me of the tech bubble that never burst.
A multitude of cover banners fly high
Bagels, cream cheese, fresh fruit, and Starbucks coffee (yes!) was laid out for us in the Winners Circle room and we soon took our places on the circular table. Dave Rosen, Product Manager, took a seat on a table in the center of the room and told us about The Godfather from his viewpoint and fielded questions from the group.
Product Manager Dave Rosen shares his insight
Dave mentioned that James Caan and Robert Duvall had a great time doing the voice-overs for Santino ‘Sonny’ Corleone and Tom Hagen respectively and after 30 years they slipped back into those roles naturally. Al Pacino’s agent didn’t allow him to lay the voice tracks for Michael Corleone so they had to find a replacement actor. Marlon Brando lent his voice talents to the game before he passed away so most of the acting you hear from the Don is coming from Mr. Brando, but they had to use another actor to fill in certain holes.
A question was posed to Dave regarding the recent focus on violence and sex in videogames and if he feared a backlash from The Godfather game, to which he replied that the game should be true to the movie and if someone was shot in the eye in the movie then that would appear in the game. The language in the game is strong but not gratuitous. He pointed out that the main target audience for videogames is 25-40 years of age so the mature content should be well received. When the names of game-bashers like Jack Thompson and Hillary Clinton were brought up he said that EA didn’t hear anything from them, yet. The comment about Francis Ford Coppola disapproving of the game was brought up and Dave explained it as a misunderstanding. EA brought Coppola in to look at an early version of the game and apparently he thought it was almost complete. Now, nearly two years later with the game nearing its release, Mr. Coppola seemed a little upset he didn’t have more involvement with the project.
After breakfast, we met up with Julie Wynn for a tour of the EA campus.
The aliens have landed
We started things off be visiting the EA store and each of us got $50 to spend on anything in the store. I picked up a green EA branded sweater and an EA t-shirt for my brother-in-law. We received their employee discount so every game in the store- including 360 titles- was $20. The discounted price was too good to resist so I picked up a few 360 titles that I had missed.
Any game here is just $20
Julie took us down a long hall with frames containing games that earned gold and platinum awards for selling millions of copies. Surprisingly, Need For Speed: Underground 2 sold the most copies- an astounding 9 million- with Madden 2006 coming in a close second with 6 million copies sold. Another hallway was completely covered with the box art of every EA game published, with plenty of room for future titles.
Platinum selling titles adorn the hallways
There were several displays that covered the origin of EA, starting from when it was created in 1982 by Trip Hawkins when it was originally called Amazin’ Software.
The bike used for the creation of Road Rash
Each display covered five years and contained a collage of old box art, game shots, achievements, and advertisements. I felt really old when I saw a picture of One on One: Dr. J. vs. Larry Bird (released in 1983 for the Atari 800) and proclaimed that I remember playing it. Of course, EA Sports had its own display with the first Madden game front and center. It’s obvious that EA has a lot to be proud for, and they aren’t bashful about showing it.
The timeline of EA Sports on display
Julie then led us to various buildings around the campus, pointing out where their studio is for recording the voices heard in EA games as well as the quality control building where they work on eliminating bugs.
Follow the grey brick road- our tour on campus
We got a glimpse at EA’s huge soccer field and then headed indoors to check out their regulation-size basketball court where we shot around for a few minutes.
A full sized basketball court, sweet!
The one thing that every building had in common was there were games everywhere. Arcade games, console game stations, pool tables, ping-pong tables, you name it. It makes you ponder how awesome it would be to work there.
Game rooms are common, for research of course
After the tour wrapped up, we were handed off to Producer Joel Wade for a tour of the Godfather development team floor. As we entered the large room we were told to holster our cameras, as there were work-in-progress items that they didn’t want us snapping pictures of. I noticed food delivery signs with arrows on them, directing deliverymen through the maze of cubicles to a destination. No doubt, that route was utilized many-a-time to energize hungry workers through late night marathon stretches.
We all piled into the cubicles of several key developers and they gracefully explained their part in the making of Godfather. One woman explained how she got assets from the movie studio to help her accurately form how the characters would look like in the game. An eerie image of one of the characters faces was displayed- only it was laid flat without eyes or a bone structure; like a Mack truck ran over the face and it was plastered to the street. This skin that consists of detailed textures is wrapped around a polygonal face to create a believable character, much like a skin mask is slipped over one’s head.
We visited an audio engineer and watched how he was able to move the lips on a computerized head by pulling certain facial muscles to match lines of dialogue. His role was to make the IGCs (in-game-cinemas) look more accurate with characters that move their lips realistically when speaking. Another developer explained the painstaking process of having the characters animate fluidly as they walk and simultaneously point their gun in all different directions with their head following. One designer was responsible for authentic-looking backgrounds so he spoke with an actual city planner and used old books and movies to recreate the streets of New York City in the 1940’s. We met the developer responsible for putting all the pieces together and creating spawn points for enemy foes. He explained how he set up goons in certain locations to ambush you if you walk through a particular door, but if you use another entrance then the location of the spawning goons changes instantly.
We were shown a target video of an extortion scene running on Maya- a graphics program- and it looked incredible with beads of sweat rolling down the side of the butcher’s face and a spray of blood that attached to his apron as he sliced into his meat. I was told that it is very likely that the Xbox 360 will look like the target video and if so, we are in for a real treat. Interestingly enough, there was a diagram drawn on someone’s blackboard with PS3 and Xbox 360 boxes in it, leading me to believe that EA has already started working on the PS3 version.
Joel took us over to their “concepts” wall. There was a large picture of the Don in the middle with the word “Respect” underneath and a branch of arrows all pointing to respect, representing the different gameplay aspects in the game. He pointed out that the wall is great for introducing new team members to the game as you can see the scope just by looking at everything. Joel commented that the three-month delay allowed the team to add more concepts to the wall. Some of the activities displayed included extortion, Black Hand, freelancing, rackets, story line, mob wars, and more.
After the whirlwind tour while tons of information was still sloshing around our brains, we were escorted back to the Winners Circle for time with Creative Directors Mike Olsen and Mike Perry, along with PC Producer Rawson Stovall. They told us that Godfather is EA’s biggest and most ambitious game yet, taking over 55 hours to become Don—and that’s for someone who already is experienced. When I asked if Grand Theft Auto provided inspiration for creating Godfather, Mike O. answered ‘absolutely’, along with Gangland, World of Warcraft, and text-based Mafia games for an understanding of the Mafia language. Movies and TV also played an important role in inspiring Godfather including Reservoir Dogs, Heat, Sopranos, and Goodfellas. We tried to glean some information about the next-gen versions of Godfather, due in the summer, but they were tight lipped. I can understand that, being that EA is keeping their plans under wraps and they don’t want to steal the thunder from current-gen versions.
Mike Olsen was credited for creating the analog stick mechanism in the Tiger Woods Golf franchise and designed an awesome feature that allows you to grab someone by their neck and holding the left and right shoulder buttons and choke them by pushing the L3 and R3 buttons in. Gripping the controller firmly this way makes for a visceral experience, which is only heightened when you feel the rumbling of the hearbeat ebb.
After the Q&A session we watched some film of Robert Duvall and James Caan talking about their experiences doing the voice acting for the game. These guys aged dramatically, as you’d expect after 30 years, but they still sound great. The footage will be released at an unspecified time, probably in the form of a collector’s edition game.
We headed down to a room set up just like the Banquet room in the hotel; with TVs and debug units all ready to go for more hands-on time.
Hard at work testing Godfather
We were served pizza and before long, wave after wave of designers, developers, and engineers came into the room in spurts, giving everyone an opportunity for one-on-one time. I divided my time between playing the game and walking around and talking to everyone I could. To refresh us, they brought in more Starbucks coffee and amazingly fresh Tiramisu.
Here we got to talk with various team leaders
I talked to Jeff Kuipers, Senior VFX Artist, about the impressive particle effects and he noted the particle system evolved from the Lord of the Ring games to what they are today. There was a lot of effort put into the fire effects to make them look like a living, self-sustaining entity rather than the collection of colored polygons found on most other games. When I brought up the issue of canned animations that plagues most games he noted the animations in Godfather are not canned. Particles will fall and disperse differently every time to avoid repetition. We expect to see even greater variety on the next-gen version of Godfather as the Xbox 360 is powerful enough to incorporate physics into the effects to produce many more outcomes and varied animations. The fire effects for the 360 will look better as well as each fire will run its own code.
Jeff felt confident that he pushed the current-gen system to their max with the Godfather. He stated that the Xbox is equipped with more memory so the texture quality is richer while the PS2 is better at handling “overdraw” or multiple layers of objects in front of one another. The idea of having bullet holes in the walls was scrapped when they realized that the current-gen systems couldn’t meld special effects with geometry so the bullet holes wouldn’t match up with how they were shot. Expect to see that effect in the 360 version.
Next up was Ken Felton, Audio Director, who enlightened me on the process of making Godfather sound just right. The original actors’ voices were used whenever possible and over 20 original actors contributed to the game which didn’t come cheap; EA had to pay each actor to use their likeness in a game. The downside is that they are now 30 years older and many developed a raspy quality to their voice that comes with age. Ken said they didn’t have a magic button to turn off the raspy quality but they have tricks to distract the ears to make it less noticeable. Sure, they could have used new actors versus the original actors to avoid that problem but when you hear Robert Duvall’s voice, you immediately connect to the Consigliere.
All of the gun effects were taken from samples of the actual guns being fired, but they were enhanced to make them more dramatic sounding and fun. There is over 100 minutes of music in Godfather which is able to last over 50+ hours of gameplay by avoiding what Ken calls “wall to wall” music, or tracks that play from beginning to end in any circumstance. Instead, music will come in, leave, then come back depending on the context. The three original scores from the movie including the title screen, the waltz, and the love theme, were re-recorded at a higher fidelity to improve the sound quality.
Ken said that the biggest issue for him was the lack of RAM, especially for the PS2 version. What that means to him is that he has to take all of these voices, sounds, and effects, and compress them a great deal to fit on the system. With the Xbox 360, he can upgrade the sound quality and even and more sounds to create a richer environment. For example, instead of one standard footstep sound, he can use several different sounds. Pedestrians on the street could have more things to say when you bump into them. As for Ken’s purposes, the 360 has 20 times more RAM than current-gen systems.
In summary, what I learned from talking to all the designers, developers, and engineers, is there is a pull and push dynamic that goes on between the design team and the development team. The design team wants to cram as many creative and cool concepts into the game as they can, while the development team has to implement these ideas and is limited by the memory constraints of each console. Time plays in important factor as well as the developers need to finish all of their work and then extensively test for bugs before the scheduled ship date. The one way that designers have a sure-fire way of getting an idea implemented is if the concept adds a new gameplay element. I mentioned that it would be cool if I could kick the flaming barrels over and use that as a weapon, possibly rolling a barrel into a gathering of enemies and then shooting it, causing it to explode and kill all of them. They felt an idea like that has a good shot of getting in because it adds a visual effect of smoke trailing and twirling through the air from this rolling barrel, as well as a gameplay effect of using the environment as a weapon.
At about 6 pm, a limo service brought us into the city for a fitting Italian dinner at Kuelto’s with the team. The food was tasty and it was cool to get to know everyone and hear their personal experiences working at EA. All Godfathered out, we discussed popular TV shows and what it would be like to play a curling game with the Revolution’s motion sensor controller. Gary revealed at the dinner that the three prizes for the contest were Xbox 360 consoles. As sweet as winning one of those consoles would’ve been, I was content spending more time interviewing than playing the game solo.
Dave Rosen got up and thanked all of us for coming and displayed a framed artwork of The Godfather signed by the whole team and announced that each guest would get one. I was ecstatic, what a great way to end an already fantastic trip. Not surprisingly, the cannoli was the popular desert of the night.
Artwork signed by the dev team
The limo returned us to the hotel around 9 and we said our goodbyes to our new EA friends. We hung around in the bar, ordering drinks and chatting about our respective websites. Exhausted from the long day, I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed up for one last night in that indulgent cloud-like bed.
Departure…Saturday, March 11th, 2006…5:30 am
The phone rang with a deafening volume, waking me up with a jolt and snapping me out of my dream and into reality. I looked over at my clock- 5:30- the wakeup call was right on time. I groggily washed up in the bathroom and got dressed. I had packed the previous night so I was already prepared but I still got that feeling that I forgot something that happens every time I leave a hotel.
Rusty and I has similar flight times so we boarded the 6 am shuttle together and headed for the San Francisco International Airport 20 minutes away. I got to my terminal at American Airlines with plenty of time to spare. The airport was nearly empty so I made my way through security in just minutes and had time to grab some breakfast. I learned my lesson to grab something before the flight rather than go hungry on the plane.
While waiting to board the plane, I chatted with a nice French woman (coincidence?) that was traveling to Brussels to spend time with her family. I boarded soon after and hunkered down for the long flight back to New York. As I slipped my headphones on I couldn’t help but hear the Godfather theme in my head as my thoughts drifted to cannolis and the upcoming season of the Sopranos.
I’d like to thank everyone at EA for their time and hospitality, especially Beth Anne Longnecker and Jonathan Long for arranging this wonderful and informative trip, and Gary Treangen for supporting all of our needs.
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