Apologies for taking a few hours to catch up with my story in today's Daily Variety, but I figured you'd all still want more details on EA's "Godfather II"...

EA execs have dropped a few hints about its "Godfather" sequel in the past year. But today we've finally got tons of details about "The Godfather II," which comes out in February. Much of it is fresh news, though thanks to a British magazine that apparently came out today (d'oh!), I guess they're not all completely new I've also got some cool screenshots thoughout this post that you can also see in a photo gallery.

First I'll just summarize the key details about the game. Then below are excerpts from my interview with EA Games' GM and Paramount's top videogame exec talking about what's new in "Godfather Part II," why the first "Godfather" felt like two unintegrated games on one disc, why they still can't get along with Francis Ford Coppola, and more.

-"Godfather II" comes out in February for PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 (more platforms probably coming later). It's being developed at EA Redwood Shores.

-The original "Godfather" game sold over 4 million units worldwide, a solid if not quite epic performance.

-Players once again control and up-and-comer in the Corleone crime family. This time it's someone who worked for the fictional protagonist in the original "Godfather" game. The story weaves in and out of "The Godfather: Part II" film, but only the stuff that takes place in the '60s, not the parts with Vito Corleone's early life that starred Robert DeNiro.

-Features Robert Duvall's voice as Tom Hagen, who is a key advisor to the player. John Cazale (Fred), Lee Strasberg (Hyman Roth), Michael V. Gazzo (Petangeli) and G.D. Spradin (Senator Geary) all provide their likeness. As in the first game, there's no deal with Al Pacino to play Michael. Since Pacino did provide likeness rights for the "Scarface" game, I'd wager this is a matter of simple money -- Pacino wanting more of it than EA would pay.

-It takes place in New York, Miami and Havana, all of which are open worlds, but are smaller than New York was in the first game.

-Gameplay includes third-person action, the first game's signature "black hand" intimidation, and driving. There's also, as previously reported, the "Don's view" (pictured right) that lets players control the resources of their crime family from a high level, though the developers insist it's not truly an RTS.

-There is multi-player, which will feature organized crime families doing battle with each other. I don't have all the details, but I undersand it will be more of a family vs. family (vs. family, etc.) kind of thing where players make alliances and try to take control of a city, rather than a "Halo" or "Gears" type battle.

Now here's excerpts from my interview with Nick Earl, senior VP and GM of the EA Games label:

Was it always your intention to follow up the "Godfather" game with a sequel? Or were you not sure until you saw how the first one performed?

The original vision was definitely a long-term approach. That being said, if the first game had not met a certain level in terms of learning and critical and commercial success, we probably would have rethought the plan.

As it happened, we did well enough with the first and had some amazing learning in terms of doing an open world game that we felt it was absolutely the right thing to do "Godfather II."

What exactly do you feel you learned in making the first "Godfather." Both in terms of things you did right and things you want to improve upon?

It was the first open world game we've done at Redwood Shores and I think across EA's worldwide studios. It was a huge learning in terms of the technology, tools and pipeline we put in place.

We feel we did great work in the second-to-second action. The "blackhand" in particular, where you could grab people and throw them off rooftops or through windows, punch them while threatening or just pretend to punch. The driving and simulation of the world were strong. Also the way we derived our missions from the movie. We stuck very closely to the movie, moreso than we are doing on "Godfather II."

One key learning in retrospect is that we look at "Godfather" 1 as two games that shipped together on the same DVD. One is a linear mission-based story and the other is an open-world sandbox where you go around and infiltrate businesses. They were distinct worlds that didn't have much of a connection. In "Godfather II" we've realized we need to integrate it all into one holistic experience. That's one area that I think is far better. It's a much tighter product.

Does this game take the same approach as the first one and weave in and out of the story of the film's story?

"Godfather II" takes place in the key environments of the movie "Godfather: Part II": Miami, Havana and New York. We're expanding outside of New York, where we were "Godfather" 1. We're hitting all the major touchpoints of the film, like the meeting with Hyman Roth in Cuba and driving Senator Geary.

What about the parts of the "Godfather: Part II" movie that are flashbacks to Vito Corleone's early life that starred DeNiro? Are those in the game?

We talked about this a lot and where we ended up is focusing on the '60s, the present day of the movie. We don't do the flashback component. The flashbacks that are so great as a film experience don't really work for a game.

In the first game the main character was a new guy in the Corleone family. Is it the same protagonist in the sequel? Or a new character?

The main character is someone who was part of the crew of your character in the first game. In similar fashion to the first, he becomes a right hand man to Michael and works his way up from being a junior streety guy to a captain and ultimately Godfather.

Your character is someone you create like in "Godfather 1." You build him up, take on a crew and become more powerful.

What about the RTS (real time strategy) elements of the game that we've already heard some hints about?

It has a top-down view that we call the "Don's view." At any moment in the experience you can hit a button and it pulls out so you can see the world from a purely strategic view as if you were a Godfather running the city. It gives you a sense of what's going on from a high level: There's a break-in over there, a fire here, a major fight there. You can move your soldiers around from place to place. It's not quite as free-flowing as an RTS but it has a little bit of that feel.

We think it's distinctive and gives a new view into the game. But we still think about this as an action game. This is a whole new view that's really accessible even for action gamers.

So it's still primarily an action game with the same controls as the first "Godfather?"

It's third-person action for the majority of the game with an over-the-shoulder camera. You're mostly running around streets, hopping in an out of cars, going into buildings and on rooftops. There's a lot of "blackhand" intimidation.

We've updated the controls a bit, especially the locomotion and the blackhand. It will feel natural to somebody who played the first one. We looked at some of the other production on the market, taken what's best out there, and put our own spin on it.

Are you using the same technology you developed for "Godfather" 1?

A lot of the components came from "Godfather" 1. But this is also being built [in Redwood Shores] right on top of "Dead Space." It's actually the same basic technology we developed and used for "The Simpsons," even though that was a very different game.

So you have three cities now instead of one. Does that mean the game world is three times as big?

New York is slightly smaller this time. We had a philosophical change where we decided to go with a slightly smaller footprint, but denser gameplay. One of our learnings from the first game was there was a little too much driving across town. It could take four-to-six minutes to drive from one side of New York to the other. Driving was a nice mechanic but that could become monotonous.

We we have smaller footprints in our three different cities, which all have a distinct look and feel. There's more density to the buildings, interactions and feature sets.

What actors from the movie are in the game this time? Were you able to get Pacino, who wasn't in the first "Godfather?"

Tom Hagan [played by Robert Duvall] is crucial in the game. He's your guide who helps you through the experience. It's the perfect way to deliver instructions. We also have Hyman Roth, Fredo, Senator Geary, and others.

Pacino passed on both the last game and this one.

Is it tough to make the game authentic if Michael Corleone, the main character of the movie, looks and sounds different?

It's not crucial because your character is an analogue to Michael. He plays a small role in the game.

What about Francis Ford Coppola? He publicly complained about the first "Godfather" game. Have you gotten him involved at all?

We' ve had no contact with him. There's really no need to. But if he's ever interested in seeing the game or reaching out, we'd love that.

And now some excerpts from Sandi Isaacs, senior VP of interactive and mobile at Paramount, which of course made the "Godfather" movies and licensed the rights to EA.

When you made your deal with EA for the first game was it your hope and intention to see a sequel?

From the beginning of our relationship with EA, we had always looked at it as building a franchise within the gaming industry. So many movie-based games are just one-offs, so to create a franchise, especially off a property from the 1970s, is pretty phenomenal.

What do you think is new, interesting, maybe better in the second game?

With "Godfather" 1, we had hoped to see certain gameplay mechanics that weren't able to get in there that we're now able to see in "Godfather II." It's definitely about deeper long-term thinking and more strategy elements that add to the drama and character development. You control and manage the destiny of your family as well as your own character.

Will there be any integration with a DVD re-release or anything like that?

We're working closely with our home entertainment and pay TV groups, talking about a lot of fun marketing tie-ins.

Working at the studio, you obviously play a big role in getting film talent to cooperate on your games. What happened with Francis Ford Coppola?

We would love to have him involved in any way, shape or form that he'd like to be involved. At this point we haven't seen that interest.

How did Paramount feel about the performance of the first game? Were you always sure EA would agree to do a sequel?

There was a staggered release [across different consoles] so it wasn't like we knew right away from the launch period. But we were all happy with the performance across all the platforms happy that we took the time to make it polished. If we had held to the initial release date [the first game was pushed back from holiday 2005 to March of 2006], we might have seen a sequel.

We're really happy that we made that decision with EA to hold it. It's a definite advantage of not having to tie into a new movie release. You can take the time to make the game that you want to make.