Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ozymandias]

Who has played the demo, which magnificently showcases what a waste GTA's insistence in being more modern has been?

[KvP]

I was going to get this demo but I got distracted by OH SHIT NEW WORMS.

Anyway, there's a demo? I didn't think they had those anymore.

[Ozymandias]

Yep, on 360, PS3, and Steam. It's not especially long, but it shows off the game well enough and includes 5 classic Playboy centerfolds to find and collect which I was probably way more excited about finding out in the game than I reasonably should've been.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

I wasn't all that impressed with the demo, but I'm probably gonna give it another shot when I'm more up to it. It was waaay too hot this weekend to play video games, so I gave up after I died a couple of times.

Also:
My buddy, who is kind of an idiot and never ever finishes games (unrelated qualities), has never stopped raving about the original Mafia and how awesome "the story" is, which is extremely annoying because, frankly, I'm not sure he would know a good story if it bit him in the ass and also...how can you compare it's story when you've never even experienced another story all the way through?

Anyway, for the last couple years he's been on and on about how excited he is for Mafia 2, so naturally I'm completely fucking sick of hearing about it.

This may have colored my judgement of the demo just a bit. The shooting wasn't really all that great either. I'll be damned if it doesn't look pretty amazing though.

[KvP]

Everyone I know who's played Mafia has told me it's a really amazing action game, but I was never able to beat it since the VA kind of threw me and the first hours were kind of slow.

[ackblom12]

Well, played the demo and liked it. Not sure if I liked it enough to ever purchase it but I could see a bit of extra time with the full game could change my mind. The shotgun feels fucking amazing though.

[Ozymandias]

The shooting wasn't really all that great either.

I'm confused as to what exactly you want from shooting. You point your virtual gun at something, you press a button to emerge from cover/aim your shot, you press a button, you shoot. It's a pretty workable mechanic. And in the game, it's pretty viscerally satisfying. Dudes seem to take realistic damage from bullets and react appropriately(read: dying).

[David_Dovey]

OH SHIT NEW WORMS.

OH SHIT LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS

(Actually Mafia 2 looks pretty amazing, Penny Arcade linked to a Youtube about the graphics/physics/destructible environments which was very tasty indeed)

[Scandanavian War Machine]

The shooting wasn't really all that great either.

I'm confused as to what exactly you want from shooting. You point your virtual gun at something, you press a button to emerge from cover/aim your shot, you press a button, you shoot. It's a pretty workable mechanic. And in the game, it's pretty viscerally satisfying. Dudes seem to take realistic damage from bullets and react appropriately(read: dying).

I have no idea. Getting shot was great; it was pretty easy to die, which is more realistic and I like that. But in the ten or so minutes I spent with the demo, the actual shooting just didn't feel quite right to me. I couldn't tell you why.

I've only given the demo a quick once-over though and I wasn't really giving it my all, so we'll see how I feel about it when I try it again.

[JD]

Try fucking around a bit before going straight into the mission.

I bought a trenchcoat and went through the mission using only my fists the second time round.

[Boro_Bandito]

Okay so after messing around in the demo for a good few hours and really exploring every inch of it I went into the store the other day and pre-ordered it and paid it off (had some extra money on my card from a previous trade-in) So yeah I'm going to go and pick it up tomorrow morning at 10 on the dot, barring I'm able to wake up before noon in which case I'll go in and pick it up 1-ish after I throw myself out of bed and take a shower. One way or the other I'm getting it.

Something about it was just catching me, maybe it was when I walked into a bar, took a few shots, then pulled out my pistol and shot the bar owner. I then hopped over the counter, grabbed his shotgun and a couple more shots from the bar and shot the other two patrons cowering in the corner. Then I called the police using the phone at the bar and bribed them, then robbed the cash register.I then walked out of the bar and hopped into a beautiful red convertible, drove down to the gunstore and kicked the door in, blasting the gun store owner into the back wall and stole all of the weapons and ammo he had lying around. I got into a minor altercation with another fellow who decided it would be a good time to loot the store, by slamming his head into the counter. All this and then I made it to the checkpoint on time.

[variable_star]

I'm a fan of the original Mafia game, and the demo impressed me enough that I pre-ordered it immediately after playing. I opted for the PS3 version because of the free arcade-style "Betrayal of Jimmy" DLC. I assume they did that to soften the blow of the PS3 version being technically "inferior" to the other platforms from a graphics perspective. Still, you'd never know it playing the game, the slight details that are missing are really quite inconsequential. The game still looks stunning.

Five hours into it, I can say it's definitely a suitable follow-up to the original, though most of what the critics complain about is quite true (even if they are a bit too hard on it). Almost all agree that the game is too short (10-12 hours) and that for a sandbox-style environment the game is too linear and even the gameworld itself is less than immersive.

It seems they were expecting Rockstar-esque sandbox features such as mini-games and side missions (like GTA's gang wars, parachuting challenges, etc.). There's no doubt Mafia II could've benefited from something along those lines, and I do think it would be very cool to play a game of pool at Freddy's or something like that, but I respect a title that's devoted entirely to weaving a compelling narrative.

Best of all are the over 120 licensed tracks from the forties and fifties. Many times already I've stopped my car just before reaching a checkpoint so a song could finish. They even have a few tracks from the original game. The collectible in-game Playboy centerfolds that Ozymandias mentioned is a great touch as well. Amazingly, some critics even whined about that: the Destructoid reviewer said he didn't see an incentive to collect them because he was an "adult" and "had seen a naked woman before".

Christ, wouldn't you like that guy to plan your bachelor party?

[KvP]

It's not an Eastern European game if it doesn't pointlessly feature naked tits.

[variable_star]

Hear hear! I'm damned near tempted to make that a sig quote. 

[LTK]

I've given the demo mission a try as well, and the shooty bits were definitely not bad. Like Ozy said, you shoot, they die; you get shot, you die. At some points I wasn't playing attention and got gunned down pretty quickly, so I can't say it's too easy. But simply moving around was a bit more bothersome. When I want to open a door, I'd like it to be the one the camera is pointing at, and not the one Vido is looking at. I also drive like a drunk Parkinson patient and had to deal with the police three times before reaching the checkpoint. They're already accusing me of 'hit and run' after I crash and don't even get the chance to drive away! Man, I hate driving with WASD.

Anyway, I'm going to give it another run to see what else there is to do.

[Boro_Bandito]

Driving in the Xbox version isn't so bad, plus there's the speed inhibitor so you can drive at normal speeds when you don't feel like having a balls out high speed chase with the cops every time you hop in a car. Also I'm actually surprised how hard the game is even on normal, the cops don't just let you steamroll through like in GTA, from the missions I've played anyway, haven't had too much time with the game yet since first week of classes and all, but I'll have a more complete idea when the weekend rolls around.

[LTK]

Oh yes, I found the speed inhibitor the second time I played, so I was able to drive along traffic like a boring person. I can't believe waiting for a red light is so much more tedious in a video game than it is in real life. Then I shot a cop, stole his car and drove it like I was in a street race, and accidentally hit the sidewalk so it flipped over and slid another 100 metres on its roof. Much better!

[Boro_Bandito]

Cops won't actually arrest you for speeding and red lights, I never wait for lights, I just very carefully drive in the wrong lane while dodging oncoming traffic.

[TheFuriousWombat]

why bother with sequels when the original is one of the best 3rd person shooters ever?? It'll run on a crappy PC and if you get an older (i.e. not pre-patched) version you can use a shortcut/cheat to beat the only bad part about the whole game (that god awful race level). In fact, I'm off to try and find my copy right now!

[october1983]

Yeah, inspired by the release of the sequel, I have been playing the original on my crappy netbook - it runs surprisingly well. It's also fucking hard in places.

[Nodaisho]

It's not an Eastern European game if it doesn't pointlessly feature naked tits.

I want to know where you found your version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Unless the naked tits are on the mutants.

Or Sidorovich.