EA selling in-game money for Godfather 360

Electronic Arts has released its first wave of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version of The Godfather, and gamers are likely to find the offer at hand a little more refusable than the ones that normally come from Don Corleone.

Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb details the new slate of downloads on his blog, and a couple of items stand out from the pack. First of all, the $50,000, $100,000, and $250,000 in-game money packs each increase the player's bankroll at the cost of 40 Microsoft points ($0.50), 75 Microsoft points ($0.94), and 150 ($1.88) Microsoft points, respectively. Each pack can only be downloaded once. Virtually impoverished gamers may be drawn to download the packs, as the Xbox 360 version of The Godfather apparently lacks the cheat code for free money that can be found in the PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PlayStation Portable versions of the game.

Player who need something to spend their downloaded money on can then pick up five different weapon packs for 100 points ($1.25) a pop that each open up the ability for the player to purchase one high-powered weapon from a specific in-game arms dealer. That power comes at a price, however, as the most expensive of the weapons, the level 4 Tommy Gun, will set players back $750,000 in-game. For 250 Microsoft points ($3.13), gamers can add the hired assassin to their list of employable crew members. However, the assassin still has to be paid $10,000 in-game to join up.

Other downloadable Godfather content released today includes a free MobFace apparel bundle available for a limited time that includes two hats, two glasses, and a leather jacket. There's also a Favor Pack for 250 points ($3.13) that adds three favor missions to the game, provided the player has fulfilled in-game prerequisites.

Finally, gamers interested in the whole cannoli can download The Don Collection for 800 points ($10) and get all of the released content at a discount of 465 points ($5.81). A Level 4 Weapons Bundle-which includes all five of the weapon downloads--is also available for 400 points ($5).