Vivendi announces Scarface game
"You know what capitalism is? Gettin' f***ed!"
Perhaps inspired by Electronic Arts' decision to mine the timeless Godfather movies for a few videogame-related dollars, Vivendi-Universal Games has now announced its intention to make a third-person shooter based on 80s epic Scarface, in which you get to play as Al Pacino's Tony Montana - and probably mumble, "Say hello to my little fwren!" whenever you pull the trigger. And now, the leg.
Developed by Radical Games (makers of The Hulk), Scarface will be released in autumn 2005 and aims to recreate 80s Miami right down to the political situation and news events of the day, as well as transporting the player to islands in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas and elsewhere. Columbia perhaps.
Fleshing out events in these locations will be screenwriter David McKenna, who has been commissioned to write an original event-driven storyline for the game, in which players can expect to negotiate business deals, smuggle contraband and avoid rivals and the DEA on a mission to build up a criminal empire.
Radical will certainly have some help in doing this of course - Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is more or less that game already, and even featured various locational and musical tributes to Scarface throughout, although the GTA game made no effort to touch on the authentic events of the day. It'll certainly be interesting to see how Radical treats the subject matter.
For its part, Vivendi reckons that the fact that Scarface has already inspired so much other media opens the door for the real thing. "Having the chance to now bring gamers the authentic experience is an opportunity and a challenge we are looking forward to," Universal Studios' Bill Kispert said alongside the announcement.
We do wonder though, in light of the recent Godfather and Scarface announcements, just what else we can expect to be playing in the future. We've already seen SCi buy up the rights to make a Reservoir Dogs title (presumably involving a deathmatch game where everybody only has one shot). Perhaps Full Metal Jacket - a Vietnam game with a training level longer than the actual tour of duty? Or Memento - a point-and-clicker with no save feature and a ten-minute reset? Ho hum.
We'll leave you to it.