Made Man

Microsoft may well be giving themselves a nice pat on the back for canning this game for the Xbox and 360 after critics overseas have almost uniformly lambasted it. It was also in production for the GameCube, but for obvious reasons it won’t be appearing there either. Who’s left to bear this action-adventure Extinction Level Event? Batten down your hatches, PC gamers and PS2ers.

You’ll take control of Joey Verola as he operates as a member of the New York mafia, doing what those blasted media-Mafia types do best - killin’, cheatin’, lyin’, stealin’. Well, mostly killin’, actually. The Vietnam veteran blasts his way toward greatness; no questions here, it’s all shoot first. And the word is that those he’s shooting at make themselves rather less than interesting targets.

There is a story, but it’s supposed to be poorly presented and Made Man plays out like any other third-person shooter. Despite the opportunities presented by producing a game that deals with such an interesting American institution, it doesn’t look like the developers have taken any of them.

In any case, we can’t say for sure of Made Man’s ups and downs until it hits Aotearoa and we can get our teeth into it. It shouldn’t be long now before all you up and coming gang prospects are wishing organized crime was this flashy down under.