Scarface: The World Is Yours

If you thought Grand Theft Auto had a monopoly on the crime genre, think again. Al Pacino and Scarface have a few things to teach GTA fans about what it means to be a real gangster.

Radical, the developers behind Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and The Simpsons Hit and Run, are working on their last current-generation game: Scarface: The World is Yours.

"First You Get the Money..."
They're also taking their sweet time in finishing it. Scarface has officially been delayed by a full year; the current expected release date is fall of 2006. But according to the developers at Radical, this isn't an indication that they or Vivendi have lost faith in the game's progress. Radical told us that for the last year of Scarface's development, the design team has doubled in size, going from a team of 40-45 developers to a "double-sized team" of 82. And until recently, the Scarface team was comprised of over 100 people.

The huge size of the Scarface development team -- positively enormous by PS2 or Xbox standards -- was evident in the level of detail we saw in the latest build of the game. With the extra year of development time, Radical is working on fine-tuning details to give the player more immersion in the sun-drenched world of Miami circa the early 1980s. Each pedestrian now has eight or more lines of dialogue, so Tony can taunt and intimidate them to get a variety of responses. Pedestrians now exhibit more realistic behaviors, like sitting on benches, making phone calls, and even bending over to tie their shoes.

The sense of detail extended to the way the vehicles handled; the Simpsons Hit and Run programmers added extra vehicle code to Scarface. When we got some hands-on time with the driving segments, we noticed that the Jeep handled very differently then van. The final game will include well over a hundred different vehicles.

"...Then You Get the Power..."
The graphics we saw were still very early in development, but the game looked far better than it did at E3 2005. Radical has just completed re-texturing the entire game, and even on the PS2 version, the environment textures looked crisp and detailed. We were also impressed by the dynamic real-time shadows that could cast over multiple objects; that's no easy feat on the somewhat limited PS2 hardware, but Radical pulled it off.

Though the pre-alpha build we saw had some noticeable pop-up and draw, the developers said that they haven't even begun to optimize the rendering engine; the final version should have virtually no pop up and will run at or close to 30 frames per second. Better yet, the PS2 version will support 480p, while the Xbox will handle both 480p and 720p. Nice! Radical also noted that they were working with Microsoft to get the Xbox version of Scarface playable on the Xbox 360 using backward compatibility.

Though there wasn't much news on the music front, the game will use the official soundtrack from the film Scarface. And in a nod to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a variety of 80's pop tunes will permeate the game. Better yet, you'll be able to buy music, arrange custom mix tapes, and listen to music outside of your car. The final version will include some "big names" in terms of modern artists, but these modern-era tunes will be hidden in various parts of the levels. That's good news if want to keep the music 80s-authentic.

"...Then You Get the Women"
A few other interesting gameplay facets came out of our experience with Scarface. For starters, Radical has carefully re-though the game's targeting system. The end result was inspired by Mercenaries and the SOCOM games, meaning that players will have the ability to make precise headshots, but they're a limited auto-aim system to help out less experienced players.

Another tantalizing tidbit revolved around the concept of Tony Montana's moral code, which has the potential to be a controversial gameplay element. Just as in the films, Tony isn't interested in attacking non-combatants; in Scarface, you can't shoot innocent bystanders like you can in the Grand Theft Auto games. This order was handed down from Al Pacino himself, whose likeness adorns the game. Pacino felt that Tony Montana's clear-cut moral code was his defining characteristic in the film and, ultimately, the cause of his downfall. To get out your most violent tendencies, you'll be able to hire an assassin (to go on killing sprees), a driver (for take-no-prisoners vehicular assaults), and an enforcer (to lay the beat down on hapless civilians). You can also use your ill-gotten gains to buy posh digs, a personal trainer, and some seriously pimped-out cars.

The future looks bright for Scarface...or at least, a lot brighter than it did a year ago. The final version will be available for the PS2, Xbox, and PC; next-gen versions are not in the works.

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hameedullah

gotta love the game and the movie was also really good and this looks like gta but a little better so i will try to get it. now gta 4 is here so this is really great.

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