THE GODFATHER. Publisher: Electronic Arts. Formats: PS2, Xbox, PC, PSP. Price: from £29.99. Family friendly? No.

HAVING thoroughly exploited most current movie franchises, video games creators are now thumbing through the Hollywood back catalogue. We've already had Rocky and Jaws, now it is the turn of one of the most culturally significant American movies of the last century, The Godfather.

Winner of the best picture and best actor Oscars, The Godfather changed the way audiences looked at organised crime by daring to suggest there was very little difference between the mob and any other large multi-national profit making organisation.

It also pushed the envelope of what was acceptable in terms of on-screen violence by bringing a balletic beauty to scenes of unimaginable brutality.

Francis Ford Coppola was a faltering movie-maker - he was, in fact, a student of B-movie maestro Roger Corman - when he set out to make The Godfather. But he was blessed with serendipity that brought together some of the greatest actors ever to grace the big screen headed, of course, by Marlon Brando.

Everyone remembers Brando but let's not forget James Caan, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton and Robert Duvall.

These superstars rubbed shoulders with an unusually talented array of character actors led by Sterling Hayden and Coppola's real-life sister Talia Shire (who would find lasting fame as Adrian Balboa in the Rocky movies).

To be honest, I was dreading the arrival of The Godfather. It's one thing bringing to life a feel-good action-er like Rocky but how on earth do you do justice to such a classic movie as The Godfather three decades on? Especially when so many of the gamers who will buy it probably won't have a clue about the film it is based on.

It's no surprise to discover that the gaming template has been taken from GTA. After all, that series owes a big debt to films like The Godfather wherein a career in the mob isn't so very different from being a businessman or a politician.

The translation is also helped immeasurably by reuniting as many of the original cast as possible to provide their vocal talents. Brando chipped in with a fair number of voice samples for Don Vito Corleone. So did James Caan and Robert Duvall, although Al Pacino probably wanted nothing to do with the project (his character, Michael Corleone, looks very different in the game and his voice isn't used).

You join the action during the 1945-1955 period when the Corleone family is fighting for control of New York.

After an apprenticeship of small-time jobs you get your big break when the family accepts you as one of their own. Now you must do the Don's bidding, earning respect (and lots of money) if you hope one day to become the head of America's most successful criminal organisation.

When not taking part in a mission you'll be helping boost the family's coffers by extorting money from shopkeepers by signing them up to a protection racket. The game gives you a choice on how to do this: walk in and smash the place up, threaten the owner with harsh words, or beat him up. Every frightened businessman has a limit, though. If you push them too far, they might just fight back. Sometimes it is better to just point a gun at someone rather than pull the trigger.

To start with you don't have anything more threatening than your fists. The combat system used is similar to the one in EA's boxing title Fight Night. You use the analogue stick to mete out punishment as well as duck out of the way should a "mark" be stupid enough to get rough.

When the missions get tougher your character can tool up with more firepower. The aiming system used allows for precise placement of your shots. It's up to you to decide whether to go for a head shot or nick someone in the arm if they will be worth more alive.

Just as with GTA, you can roam around New York on foot or take a car. Transport is essential in the later missions when the mob has you racing around the city from hit to hit.

The cut scenes are faithful to the movie and the plot doesn't jettison the script for the sake of interactive entertainment. All the big moments you'll remember are present and correct (including the horse head in the bed shocker).

Movie fans will already know that the sequel to The Godfather was even better than the original. If EA goes to work on a follow-up to this game (and I'm prepared to bet this is the start of a whole new gaming franchise) it will have to go a long way to improve on this promising beginning.

Virus Watch

SPAMMERS - those nefarious senders of unsolicited email - will do anything to get you to read their missives. That includes ripping off the text from a classic Russian novel in an attempt to evade anti-spam software.

Experts at Sophos have discovered email containing passages from Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, considered one of the greatest Russian novels of the 20th century, as part of the text.

But anyone who opens the email will find among the classic prose a graphic promoting websites which sell goods to enhance sexual performance.

Today's spammers include news stories, jokes and even text from novels in an attempt to fool anti-spam software into thinking the email is legitimate.

"Whether or not Mikhail Bulgakov anticipated the level of success that his novel would eventually meet is uncertain, but it's a safe bet that he didn't anticipate it being used to flog sexual enhancement drugs," says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

Published: 04/04/2006