"Forget about it Don, I was just busting your balls!"

"Nobody busts my balls. And that gift, the one you received off me when you first joined our side. Well, I have another gift for you."

"Please Don, I'm sorry - don't shoot me, I'll prove myself, I'll work for free, I swear boss."

The Godfather hands a box over to demoralised, soon to be demoted, possibly soon to be sleeping with the fishes gang member. He accepts his second gift, almost reluctant to open it; he slowly lifts the lid of this mysterious box.

"Godfather, thank you!"

Was it money? No. Was it keys to a new car? Not even close. A new gun - a new pair of threads? Nope, none of those.

"This is my second gift to you, and I expect respect in return. Capiche?"

In actual fact, it wasn't a gun, or keys to a new car, it was something bigger. Something that made this guy's initial joke quite ironic actually. It was a copy of The Godfather for the Xbox 360 - and the phrase "forget about it" was the irony - how can we forget about The Godfather, with the game released on a further two formats - the 360 and the PSP? You can't get away from the brilliance of this game, not yet at least! Still - we're in the olden times and Xbox 360 didn't exist back then. Our mobster, who's now thinking he got off lightly with another gift, is actually in for a nasty surprise. He does get a new pair of threads - a sack over the head - and he goes get a new car - a hearse to take him to the funeral parlour - and he even gets money, money spent on the police, so they can look the other way while one of the Don's hitmen can give him his last gift - a new gun, with a bullet shot straight to the heart. The copy of Godfather for the Xbox 360 is taken back, never to be spoken of again - until today.

I've never been a graphics over gameplay guy. I've always stood by my gameplay morals and I'm looking forward to sampling some gameplay delights from the Nintendo Wii this Christmas. But The Godfather for Xbox 360 looks and plays so good that I want to weep with tears of joy. I hope the other guys don't whack me for saying that, but it's the truth. The main reason why I've continued to play this game, and why I've invested a lot more time into this version than that of the Xbox counterpart, why I've taken my time, delivering this review a little later than I would have liked - it's all because this game is almost picture perfect.

Authentic is a word that rarely makes it into a game review. Authentic doesn't appear much in real life either - maybe on the back of a pair of Levi Jeans - but rarely have I said, wow, this looks or feels authentic. The Godfather is authentic. Quite a statement, considering I've never been back to those times, never visited Little Italy or Hells Kitchen, or never been a part of the mafia. [Oh, you've really missed out! Time-Travelling-Ed]. But the feeling of authenticity doesn't come from something you remember now replicated; the game does an excellent job of immersing you in something that feels so right. The story, which runs along side The Godfather films in such a clever way, actually gives you the right to say that you have been part of the Mafia. Even if you haven't seen the film, you still feel glad to be working for the Don - his power, his influence on the family, portrayed through businesses that fear him, portrayed through family members that look up to him and warn you not to cross him, portrayed though full motion videos of his nice side, and his not so nice side, they all contribute to the bigger picture - to the feeling of authenticity.

The cities that you drive around feel so dated. Dead end streets that you'd never get in the twenty-first century, and while these dead end streets often frustrate, the rest of the city, the working class rushing around, the police all uniformed up on every street corner, the middle of the road markets, the businesses that grace the boulevard, businesses that nowadays you'd class as niche - Tobacco Shops, Bakeries, Butchers, Tailors - it all adds to this big authentic buzz that I'm talking about. You couldn't have the same feeling in recent times; supermarkets cover almost every individual business in this game, apart from maybe the hairdressers, but it won't surprise me when you see chains of Toni & Guy in corners of Tesco and Wal Mart, next to the fish counter!

The character design is so realistic, everybody dressed as you'd expect - and you can go to the tailor and get fitted up with some really nice threads too, threads that stand out a little. Spend some of that stolen cash on a sports jacket and a new pair of brown shoes, be respected, be feared, be seen - be taken away in old-fashioned fashion! Alright, I probably sound like a gameplay over graphics man by now, but what if The Godfather has both? It has the graphics, in full High Definition I might add, which just adds another dimension to everything I've mentioned above, but it has the gameplay too. It's so fun to pick up and spend a few hours on. More fun than, dare I say, Grand Theft Auto. But we shouldn't compare the two - even though they both offer freedom, they are different in many ways.

The Godfather is more linear in some respects. Yes, you have freedom, and I spent many hours ignoring the messages that said I should go meet up with a family member and to whack some guy - but the story is heavily immersed into the gameplay you can't help but play it. Quite right too - if you have a story this good, you're going to want to tell it. So good that you do want to play it through, too good that you're worried it might end, so exceptionally good that working for benefits such as promotion come naturally and you don't have to force yourself to play through for them. But why? Why is this story so good? Maybe it's just me - I've grown up watching gangster films, following every episode of The Sopranos, but I think even if you don't care for the films, you will enjoy the well-integrated story.

Let me give you an example. You meet a friend who gives you a mission, you watch a cut scene, you then play a little bit, accomplish a goal, then you might get back into the car, watch another cut scene, after that, you may be faced with a car chase, once accomplished, another cut scene, followed by a goal to kill somebody. Missions span quite a large time slot and most missions allow you to take your time, so if you want to sneak around and strangle people, so be it. But it's the fact that all your goals and missions cleverly tie into the story - even the mini-missions have some impact on the script - and most of the time you're not killing people without a good reason. The Mafia may have gang wars, innocents may die, but to get your revenge on somebody that almost killed the Don gives you a motive to carry on, whereas games like Saints Row with little purpose for murder, apart from being a means to an end, don't inspire me at all.

It boils down to the combat system though. A good story is nothing without good gameplay to back that story up, but thankfully The Godfather delivers on all fronts. As with the original version, the combat system is very unusual; to hit people, you target with a trigger button and then actually use a thumbstick to throw punches, kicks or use melee weapons. By pulling back on the stick and then quickly pushing it forward, you throw a more powerful blow - but there's also a lot to be said for tapping towards your opponent quickly, or diagonally in both left and right directions, if you really want them to feel your wrath from both angles! You can mix the combat up even further by grabbing your foe and using the thumbstick to issue kicks to the groin or headbutts to the face, or by clicking in both thumbsticks while you're grabbing, you can strangle them to death - or to the near brink of it! While grabbing, you can throw your target around and then onto the floor in any direction. Pick them back up again, drag them towards a wall and you can then use your thumbstick to slam them against it. Drag them to a broken window, a rooftop wall, or an oven for example, and you can hang them over, or even throw them over for maximum satisfaction. The melee system is so deep and dynamic that it will take you a good few hours to figure out all the possibilities, while the thumbstick punches give you more control on how often you throw them, where you throw them and how hard you throw them.

And I thought I was a lover, not a fighter!

But it gets better when you get guns, because you have control over your weapons too. A pistol can be as lethal as the person using it. When you target a foe (maybe from behind a wall, because you can push yourself up against almost anything and peek around corners) or just face to face, you get a target within the target. This mini target on your foe denotes where you'll shoot him. If you can carefully, but quickly, move this little target to the heart or head area, expect to take them down quickly. Suddenly, what was a low, cheap, crappy weapon is now the deadliest pistol in town, because it's in your hand! The same goes for all the weapons, although a shotgun doesn't quite require the precision that a pistol might - a Molotov doesn't either, or a stick of dynamite!

Dynamite is a lovely thing. It can be used to blow up cars, it can be used to take out mobsters, from afar even - just light it and throw it. But it can also be used to make large amounts of cash, quickly. Go into a bank, or even a shop, and blow open that safe. In five seconds the safe is wide open and you're on your way to a better life. Make sure the cops get a cut though - pay them up front with a nice bribe by just walking up to one of the officers on the street, giving them some money (each cop has their price, but the more you pay, the more time you get) and then they look the other way for a certain amount of time. If you bribe a chief then you receive maximum bribe time and the police may even help you out of the street, should a rival gang member attack you. It's always nice to have the police on your side!

You could be a little more subtle in your enterprises though and not bother with robberies at all. You could instead choose to take over businesses and extort them. This is easy enough and it's very gratifying too. Walk in, deal with any protection they may already have and then go to the owner. Talk to him, scare him and watch your custom created character slapping him around in HD. Most business owners won't give into nasty talk, so you have to push them to their limits - look at the pressure bar, remember what their limits are and then make them see why they need your protection in the first place. Destroy their shop, throw them about, punch them, threaten them with a gun by moving your mini target to their head - and by process of elimination you find their weak spot; this Tobacco Shop owner might not enjoy the sight of his cigars being destroyed, so after a few seconds of that, his pressure bar fills up, along with his weekly cut to you and your family. Don't be greedy though - pushing a shop owner too far may result in losing any potential deal. However, if you do things right, you can get a nice cut from them and they'll be happy to pay after you've finished with them, too!

Crappy businesses may have back doors that are unlocked once you control them. Through the backdoor might be little rackets, like poker casinos or mini smuggling operations. Visit the racket leader and offer him some cash - he might cut you in. If he won't cut you in, do the same to him as you did to the guy downstairs - slap some sense into him! He'll be happy to cut you in then, for free! Still, if you want even bigger money, target the trucks that supply the rackets. Look out for trucks - if you see one, hold it up, get out your big guns and shoot the truck until the mobsters and the driver get out. Deal with the rival gang members and then make the driver hand over his keys, again, make him see sense, but don't kill him! Grab his keys, take the truck back to your depot, and take a nice juicy truckload of cash home!

Promotion? You deserve one! And with promotions comes the ability to hire anybody in the family equal to your rank. So now you have a second man who shoots who you shoot and offers you his utmost protection! Respect? You are respected. And with respect come level-ups. Just like an RPG, you level up after you've gained a certain amount of respect. Each level-up gives you a point to spend in certain categories; health, fighting and shooting to mention a few, and you can upgrade these skills many times, so if you want to be gangster number one, expect to be earning respect for a long time!

Amongst all the robbing, bribing, shooting, combat, extortion, hijacking, cut scenes and story comes a soundtrack to die for. The old style music only adds to that authenticity I was talking about earlier. There are upbeat tracks for everything from fights and chasing people to when you're being chased yourself, tracks that relax you when just walking down the street, or entering a family-owned bar, even tracks to accompany the character creation menus that welcome you into the game nicely. Everything sounds like you'd imagine it should too - every citizen has a voice, a few lines to say if you approach them… every shopkeeper, rival gang and lap dancer! The gun effects sound perfect, police sirens and police whistles blare and the noise of your car as it speeds down the freeway makes you glad that we're in an age of quiet engines. This all makes for a perfect compliment to a perfect looking, perfectly playable game.

Although I don't have many complaints about Godfather, there is one I must get off my chest. There are freeways between cities and towns that are miles long! So long that you may be put off if it means travelling back and forth for some of the missions. These freeways on the current-gen consoles clearly were here to disguise loading times, which is clever - but the 360 doesn't seem as if it's loading along the freeway, thus making these overly long drives a waste of time. If we could have shortened these drives for the Xbox 360 version, I would have been an even happier man. Still, it doesn't really take much away from the gameplay - this is still one of the most playable games on the 360 at the moment.

See all this? See my enthusiasm for this game? Can you see all the things you can do - even when you're not on a mission you can hold up trucks, extort, rob, start wars, and I bet I've missed some things out as well - I hope I have, as I'd like to invite you to the family, to discover a few of our trade secrets yourself. I hope EA realises the potential of the authentic engine they've created here and maybe puts it to even more good use. How cool would it be to use this for Batman? Similar era, but instead, you could go around Gotham City, drive around in your batmobile, use batarangs, oh - that'd be superb! There are hundreds of ways I could end this review. If you don't buy this, I'll break your arm - if you're not convinced I'll threaten you until you see sense and buy it - I could use gangster terms, or I might just whack you. But, I don't have time to think up clever endings, because I want to get back to completing this game 100% - and I haven't felt this way since I first played GTA III. If you have an HDTV and you want a great looking, great playing gangster romp, you must go down to Paulies Game Emporium and "purchase" this game! Oh, and apparently, if you see Tony at Paulies Game Emporium he'll sell you some Microsoft Points to pay for new content downloads for this game, supposedly coming in November. Now ged outta here!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).