Xbox

The Godfather is generally considered to be a better movie than a book, The Dead Zone is better served as a television show than any previous versions, and even though Battlefield Earth is one of the worst films ever made, it's still better than the novel it's derived from. What I'm getting at, in a rather roundabout way is that, perhaps for the first time ever, a videogame is actually better than the book or film that preceded it. That game? The Da Vinci Code.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Violence

Game Description: The Da Vinci Code is based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel and Ron Howard's film. A strange murder at Paris' famous museum, the Louvre, leads two investigators to a great secret hidden in the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci. Explore massive conspiracies and shadowy groups—while solving mysteries and puzzles that go beyond anything you have seen or read. Elude danger and stay one step ahead of enemies that will stop at nothing to protect their secret.

One of the first things I learned about reviewing videogames was the importance of always reviewing the game I played, rather than the game I would have liked to have played. Every now and then, this is harder to do than it sounds. Sometimes a game is very close to being good, close enough that it almost seems like a tragedy that the developers didn't go the extra mile to make the game just a little bit better—in those cases it becomes nearly impossible to judge the game on its own terms.

According to the ever popular Internet Movie Database The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola is the best movie of all time—debatable I guess, but a very good movie nevertheless that spawned an entire sub-genre of epic Mafia dramas. It is the blueprint for all following tales of immigration and integration, the pursuit of happiness, morale and honour, filth and fury, us versus them, inside versus outside, the family versus the rest of the world.

Game Description: Europe is at its knees, Germans have reached the English Channel forcing the allies to evacuate. A new force is needed to take the fight back to the enemy. On Churchill's order a new breed of super solider is born. Their objective: to conduct strategic missions, disrupting German operations in advance of the main allied assault force. Commandos: Strike Force takes you right into the heart of the action, as you fight to win the Second World War. You'll take control of the three members of the "Strike Force" unit, each with their own abilities. Use your stealth skills to strike at the heart of the enemy.

According to ESRB this game contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language and Suggestive Themes.

For a good few hours in single-player, and more generally in short multiplayer bursts, the game is entertaining and addictive, but I'm afraid it needed to be damn near perfect to fully justify its simplicity, live up to its heritage and make a lasting dent on the market.