At the end of January, Electronic Arts senior producer Joel Wade gave us some insights into the process of adapting The Godfather from PlayStation 2 and Xbox to Nintendo's Wii. That new version is set to ship on March 20th alongside the Playstation 3 incarnation of The Godfather. So with the release of both titles nearly upon us, we reached out to EA once more to get the lowdown on how the PS3 edition makes use of the Sixaxis motion controller. Here's what John Calhoun, the game's designer, told us via e-mail:

When did development begin on Godfather PS3?

Our engineering team began work on the Godfather engine for PS3 early last summer, with the rest of the team jumping on board after we'd received our development kits in August. By that time, most of the design staff was pretty familiar with the PS3's features, particularly the Sixaxis controller, so we were ready to start prototyping new ideas the moment the dev kits were fired up. Our first glimpse of New York City could have passed for the movie "Tron": every skyscraper was rendered as brilliant blue grid lines, with little red cubes driving around the streets. It only took the engineers a couple more weeks to get The Godfather running in beautiful high-definition and 30 frames-per-second, so the wait was definitely worthwhile.

The BlackHand controls were an essential element of The Godfather on PS2 and Xbox. But unlike the Wii, where the essence of the controller is different, the Sixaxis controller allows you to have the game control identically to the PS2 version; use the motion control to replicate analog stick movements and button presses; or add new moves entirely. Which path did you choose and why? Were the additional combat moves and animations for the Wii also included on the PS3?

That's right--for the Wii version, we capitalized on the unique motion controllers by adding dozens of new fighting animations. All of these moves appear in The Godfather for PS3, but with a control scheme designed for the Sixaxis controller.

We went through a couple controller iterations before we were finally satisfied. At first, we tried to map many of the punches and jabs to physical gestures like we had on the Wii. Some team members found this awkward, since the Sixaxis controller is held with two hands. What we found, though, is that the attack moves that your avatar performs with two hands--such as grabs, pushes, and throws--felt very natural. So we decided to emphasize grab attacks as our means of bringing gesture-style combat to the PS3.

The final results are very cool. For instance, once you've grabbed an enemy mobster, you can slam him against a wall by pushing the controller forward, or swing him around by jerking the controller left and right. If you sneak up behind an opponent and grab him, you can even perform a brutal neck-snap by giving the controller a sharp twist. The experience is deeply immersive, and very satisfying.

What challenges were there in bringing this game from the traditional PS2 controller to the Sixaxis controller?

One of the biggest challenges was coping with the loss of rumble in the controller. The old PS2 Dual Shock controller gives you force-feedback, so you can literally feel the impact whenever your punches connect. One of the ways we used this in previous versions of the game was when the player strangles someone--you could feel a faint heartbeat thumping away as you squeeze your enemy's neck. But force-feedback is only one way to create a deep experience, and there's not much room to innovate in that area. I think the motion-sensing technology of the Sixaxis really let our team explore new ways to immerse the player in the Godfather world.

The best example I can give has to do with our attempts to bring some physicality to the fighting system. The lead gesture designer on our team is a pretty big guy, and a good athlete. Initially, all the throwing, pushing, and slamming gestures were calibrated to his movements; once he was satisfied with the results, he "checked in" his work so it could be shared with the rest of the team. But those of us who skipped gym class realized that those first pass values required a little too much force--slamming a mobster against a virtual wall required a ton of real-world strength! We learned that the Sixaxis controller has an impressive range of sensitivity, and through trial-and-error, we dialed down the settings to a more casual level. It's still a good work-out, though.

What did players from focus groups tell you about the Sixaxis controls early on, and how did you implement their feedback into the final controls? Did you consider using the Sixaxis controller works for driving?

Since most of our focus groups were held before the PS3 launch, the first thing we learned was how few people were even aware of the Sixaxis' motion-sensing features! This was a good challenge to us, because part of the game design process is designing in-game tutorials that are intuitive and fun--gamers don't like to read instruction manuals. So how do you communicate to a player that he needs to physically swing his controller up and down, when he may not even be aware that technology exists? The focus groups taught us that a simple animation of the gesture, playing inside a picture-in-picture window, was necessary to teach the basic controller moves. Once testers understood this new way of playing, the rest of the learning process was easy.

We also learned that our gesture recognition had to be very tolerant, since the amount of force and direction of each gesture differs wildly between players. We briefly considered using motion-sensing for driving, but couldn't realistically adapt it to the fast-paced action of The Godfather's chase sequences.

For the members of the development team who worked on previous iterations of The Godfather, how does using the Sixaxis motion controls change the feel of the game experience? How does it compare to playing The Godfather using the Wii remote and the nunchuk?

The motion controls definitely make playing The Godfather a more physical experience. It's not uncommon to see our designers stand up while playing, only because it's more natural and easier to get lost in the fighting experience. In a way, it's almost more fun playing this way because you're very self-conscious of your actions, and it's hard not to crack a smile while playing.

The PS3 and Wii versions definitely share the immersion factor. Playing The Godfather on Wii is an even more physical experience, because the separate controllers allowed us to use left and right hand gestures for hooks, jabs, and other attacks. But the Wii is also a simpler controller--the Sixaxis has more buttons and analog sticks, so in a way you can have a more complex interaction with the game, as well as a physical one.

How do you envision future games that you work on making use of the Sixaxis?

I'm excited to explore more subtle and nuanced gestures in future games. We already know that the Sixaxis controller can detect even the slightest vibrations, so it makes me wonder where we can take video games with this feature in mind. Maybe we can make games where the player's body language can be used to express communication?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I'd love to see a great flying or driving game that really capitalizes on the motion-sensing features of the Sixaxis and Wii controllers. There have been some good attempts in the last few months, but I think we're just starting to figure out the possibilities and I'm sure we're due for some fantastic new innovations!