Kotaku is reporting that Electronic Arts contacted game writers around the US on Friday concerning the return of brass knuckles they shipped out as a promotion for Godfather II.

The EA Rep that contaced Kotaku told them that the company wanted to make sure the brass knuckles were "properly disposed of" or perhaps that they "sleep wit da fishes". Apparently EA declined to comment further than that statement.

Ironically enough brass knuckles are illegal in many US states that they were shipped out to, not to rub it in but they're also illegal out in California....where EA's home base is. Ohhhh sick burn.

But hey I mean when the Godfather is concerned how much legal is there really? At least EA didn't have people sneak into the game columnists' houses and leave a decapitated horse head in their bed. Talk about a promotion you'd never forget....but maaaan PETA would be MAD!

Ahem....ANYWAYS on to what you really opened this article for, my RAGE review of Wanted:Weapons of Fate for the XBOX 360. Now, I must say that if any of you are familiar with the way I write reviews then you know I'm rude, crude, and an awesome dude. For those of you who didn't know....Now you do. Continue on those who are brave.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a video game developed by GRIN and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment based on the film Wanted. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

GRIN is a studio based around great third person shooters as they were the developers of both Tom Clancy's GRAW and GRAW2 and the upcoming Bionic Commando relauch coming out in the later part of next month. Warner Bros is known to have published such polished gems as F.E.A.R. 2, Condemned 2, LEGO Batman, and of course the lovely world of Matrix Online. However this is also the same publisher who has turned out polished turds in the like of 300:March to Glory, Guinness World Records: The VIDEO GAME, and the last two Looney Tune projects.

No matter how you slice it this game could have gone either way. It has the backing of a good developer and a publisher so full of money they'll throw it at a crapfest as long as it has a good Intellectual Property name attached to it.

Now before I start in on the bashing and the praising allow me to first start off by saying that I was not a fan of the movie due to being a huge fan of the comic book BUT somethign primordeal deep down inside me can't say know to completely rediculous over the top action scenes with bullets smashing into bullets while explosions rain down from the heavens with awesomeness and fireworks spell out the word AWESOME.

Also I believe more movies should incorporate slow motion scenes of people getting hit in the face with a keyboard while letters fly off and spell out stuff like you used to do with alphabet soup.

Ahem, sorry. The reason I gave you that long speil was to give you this one. If you've seen or are a fan of the movie you will straight up love this game. The story follows about 5 hours after where the film ends. Wesley Gibson continues his transformation into a full-fledged assassin and heir to a legacy of a secret fraternity of assassins. He continues his quest with a new mission to seek out the French chapter of The Fraternity, hunt down The Immortal and finally discover the truth about his family.

Wait, I get to shoot things AND I get an Origin story? Shit yes! Throughout the game, there are several flashbacks to reveal Cross' (your dad) story from the beggining as told by Pekwarsky (the armorment guy who provides all the fraternaties with weapons and ammo). Which is really cool because not only do you get to play Assassin in training you get to play as the James Frickin Bond of Assassins.

How cool is Cross you ask? The man kills everyone on a plane while causing it to lose cabin pressure and plumet towards the ground while escaping by driving a Dodge Viper out of the drop door of the plane before it crashes into a mountain and EXPLODES. But I suppose thats a little redundant...But did I mention you get to play through that part?

Enough with the story, lets move on to the action. This game is what a movie based game SHOULD BE. It's enetertaining enough that I care enough to watch the cut scenes, the dialog is fun and witty, but on top of everything it's long enough to be perfect but short enough to be replayed! It also sports a number of fun modes you can unlock including close combat and headshot mode where you play through the game and must amass a certain number of close combat or headshot kills to move on to the next level. Challenging and Fun. I fucking love it.

Also on the movie check list, do I get to curve bullets? Yes. Does it have fun slow-mo action squences where I shoot bullets out of the air? Yes. Bullet Time? Check. Movie Actors doing voice overs? Got'em. Original and Fun characters? Yes. Does it have Monks and Priests with SHOTGUNS? Shit Yes it does.

I can't get over the fact that I loved this game enough to play through it 3 times. I never EVER play through a game more than once generally. Let alone a thrid person shooter. I suppose this is the part where I stop bragging on the game and move on to picking its functionality apart and picking at it.

GAMEPLAY: One of the biggest struggles in third person shooters is the balance of cover versus free for all balls to the wall shoot'em up. Wanted:WoF comes in smoothly for the most part handling very well in its system for transistioning from place to place while being shot at and of course offering you the always handy bullet time option as you run from cover to cover.

As you progress each level you will gain a special ability to be used with your "Adrenaline". These abilities include curving bullets to nail bad guys around corners, bullet time runs, and using the "Fire Breather" machine guns to launch a curved GROUP of bullets that when land explode into a flaming ball of death and doom for your opposition. The way you gain adrenaline is by either shooting your opponents to gain one adrenaline bubble or by going close combat kills (which only have a couple animations but are still my favoirte choice by far) and gaining two adrenaline bubbles.

The concept of cover is heavily used in this game and will come in handy as the first 7 levels are pretty much a breeze to run through however the last couple levels have a very steep learning curve that will have you really struggling to get through them so if you're easily frustrated you're gonna be chucking your controller in nostalgia of Contra. But I must say that the ends justify the means because the last standoff where you climb up a bell tower is incredibly satisfying.

This game also brings something back to the table that I don't usually see in newer games that are released and thats BOSS BATTLES. Sure you can say that all games have boss battles but Wanted:WoF brings back the old school repedative Boss does this, you use this specific learned skill or tactic to hit them, kill enemies, wash and repeat. I can't tell you how much fun I had with that and it had me wanting to play the battles over and over again.

All and all I must say that Wanted:WoF is a great game with very few glitches, however when a glitch hits (i.e. - you can't take cover or don't get prompted for something) it definitely maks you frustrated. The collectable and Achievement points are both easy to find and to get allowing you an easy 780 points to nab AT LEAST.

I give Wanted:WoF for the XBOX 360 an 85% leaving it at a B on my grading scale. Now would I suggest you run otu and buy a copy of this game? No. I will definitely suggest it as a great rental to take up a boring weekend or a rainy day and in a couple of months if you find a cheapo used copy of it then grab it as it will add a nice fun inbetween game for your collection.

-RJ Out