The Sopranos: Road To Respect

Mobsters and their too-cute nicknames, how can anyone who goes by the name Big Pussy call himself a tough guy?

You've obviously never watched The Sopranos, says Elizabeth Dahm, producer of the crime family's videogame debut, Road to Respect. Big Pussy was part of the innermost trusted circle of Tony Soprano's mob family until he turned rat and Tony had him whacked." The game picks up between seasons five and six and puts you into the role of Joey, the illegitimate son of season two victim Sal Big Pussy Bonpensiero, as you take on missions scripted around a feud between the Philly and Jersey crime families. Our goal is to capture the experience of working for the Sopranos," says Dahm.

In this line of business, of course, working is synonymous with beating the living crap out of people. But anyone who has watched the show will tell you that, aside from occasionally shocking bouts of violence, The Sopranos is mostly about people standing g around talking. How, exactly, do you get that across in a game? Matching the show's tone was extremely important, says Dahm. Road to Respect features an interactive dialogue system that allows the player to choose how to speak to various characters in game. Don't worry, though: Mob life and boring dialogue trees don't mix, so the game boils your conversational choices down to smooth" and tough. Different choices will result in different outcomes, says Dahm. Every effort was made to give language as strong a role in the game as it has on the show. Bada-bing.