Sid Meier, a legendary game developer and creator of titles such as F-15 Strike Eagle, Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon and Civilisation, amongst many, many others, knows a thing or two about game design, so when he speaks or writes on the subject, game developers aught to listen. And when Sid Meier starts talking about mistakes he’s made while developing a game, leading to valuable lessons from which future game designers can learn, those selfsame game developers have to listen.

Case in point: in an article appearing in Game Developer Magazine in January this year (2009), Meier speaks about a mistake he made on a game called Covert Action, in which he tried to cram two disparate and separate games (essentially two types of games) into one product, as Meier says:

“The mistake I made was actually having two games competing with each other… Individually, each part could have been a good game. Together, they fought with each other… Covert Action integrated a story and action poorly because the action was actually too intense - you’d spend ten minutes or so of real time in a mission, and by the time you got out, you had no idea of what was going on in the world.”

This resulted in what Meier calls the ‘Covert Action Rule,’ referencing this mistake he made in Covert Action. This blunder led to a diluted, confusing experience for players, which is a severe problem and definitely not what game developers want to deliver.

When a game contains two disparate, separate games, like Covert Action, but both of those game types fail to live up to the depth and quality of each genre’s respective peers, and the overall tone of the combined products brings words such as ‘lifeless’ and ‘joyless’ to mind, there are going to be even more severe problems. This is unfortunately the case with The Godfather II.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of The Godfather II for PS3.

EA and Paramount Digital Entertainment have revealed that premium upgrade packs will be released for The Godfather II.

The upgrade packs will provide players with level-four weapons, an extra crew member equipped with four unique specialties as well as two new multiplayer maps and will help players take the advanced crew members online.

The premium upgrade packs will be available two weeks after The Godfather II launches on Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store on the 23rd of April.

The complete list of upgrade packs follows after the jump:

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Good news from EA today, The Godfather II has gone gold and will be available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on the 10th of April in South Africa and Europe.

As a Don in the Corleone family, you will run your own organised crime family, learning how to manage their business and even target corrupt officials through the Don’s View. The Don’s View is a 3D representation of the player’s criminal empire, which allows players to co-ordinate their family strategy and plan hits on rival men before launching attacks on enemies.

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New screenshots have arrived for the sequel to EA’s original crime underworld game, The Godfather II.

Players begin the game as the Don of New York, head cheese and master puppeteer behind all of the comings and goings. As the Don, you will be able to expand your influence to new cities and build up your wonderfully dysfunctional mafia family, while extorting businesses, monopolizing illegal crime rings and destroying other families that get in your way.

Players will be able to go on missions on their own in the third-person, or hire thugs with specialised abilities and send them out to do the job for you, all the while keeping an eye on events in a strategic view of the city.

The Godfather II has a release date of March 3rd in the US and March 6th in the UK and Europe, on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Check out the rest of the screenshots below:

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