Tag Archives: Hunter Smith

EA Redwood’s Hunter Smith has told CVG that the combat in its open-world game, Godfather II, is “the best in the genre.”

“I think our combat experience is the best in the genre,” said the Godfather II executive producer.

“It’s a very intuitive experience. To go hand-to-hand we moved from having to lock on to everybody just to interact with them and then stick mashing to right and left controls so you really feel that you’re tied into your avatar in terms of your right and left hands.

“We also added combos because we have the right and left experience,” he went on.

“Our shooting experience is completely free aim all the time. You can then lock on and move within the lock on window for headshots or knee shots or to shoot a weapon out of a guy’s hand.

“So we leveraged what we thought was best last time and then took it to the next level to tie you closer to the avatar, so you can still grab guys and swing them from side to side or throw them over a balcony,” concluded Smith.

Godfather II is released on February 27 for PC, 360 and PS3.

By Mike Bowden

According to this Videogamer.com piece, The Godfather II contains between 15 and 25 hours of gameplay.

“First time we were down this path we felt like that was an objective of ours, to have 50 to 80 hours of gameplay,” said exec producer Hunter Smith.

“We ended up just making s$!t up so we could fill that model. Now I think our range for the player will be somewhere in the 15 to 25 hour experience.”

Talking at a session with investors at the William Blair & Company’s 28th Annual Growth Stock Conference, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that EA’s Redwood Shores studio is at work on a sequel to The Godfather game.

“It’s a game that I think we’ll be talking a lot about this fall,” said Riccitiello.

“You can play this game both at the street level, much like a GTA-style game, but you can also play it top-down, almost like you’re in an RTS, controlling the strategy of the boroughs so you can see what’s going on.”

Riccitiello also added that EA’s Hunter Smith, who worked on two EA James Bond games will be executive producer on The Godfather II.

Thanks, Next-Gen.

By Mike Bowden