By John Walker on August 10th, 2010 at 11:53 am.
Have you heard of Steam? It’s apparently a sort of electronic shop, from which you can buy games without even leaving your house! Via this frankly terrifying-sounding system it has become apparent that one can download a demo for Mafia II. It’s just over a GB, and will let you get a decent glimpse of the 1940s/50s open city.
10/08/2010 at 12:01 mlaskus says:
Without leaving your house? What kind of devilish trickery is this?
10/08/2010 at 12:03 Navagon says:
Yay!
10/08/2010 at 12:03 Lukasz says:
Doesn’t work
Physx SDK doesn’t want to install :(
10/08/2010 at 16:17 Eggy says:
You’ve got an Nvidia card? If so, go to nvidia.com and download the latest drivers, remove the display drivers you have installed at the moment, reboot, install new drivers, try running Mafia 2 again.
10/08/2010 at 12:08 Mac says:
10 min demo – you can either just dick around or do the 1st mission …
10/08/2010 at 12:51 Heliosicle says:
is there an actual timelimit? If so I’m sure theres a way around it.
10/08/2010 at 13:11 Sobric says:
There’s a 10min timer once you leave your house in which to fuck around. Once you enter the mission there’s no timer (except for escaping I think?).
Really, I did all the fucking around I needed within the 10mins.
10/08/2010 at 13:46 Sam says:
You can restart the demo and the timer starts again from 10 minutes. Seems pretty pointless because of that.
10/08/2010 at 15:49 ShiroGamer says:
or you can use this
http://forum.4pforen.4players.de/viewtopic.php?p=2522407&sid=c0d05f321427caace420da814c3d483f#2522407
10/08/2010 at 16:19 Eggy says:
You’ve got to be careful with editing game files on steam releases.
10/08/2010 at 12:12 WTF says:
Worked fine for me.
Gotta say, this game is stunning looking and runs very well. 35-50FPS at all times on max details, 1600×1200. Good cut scenes with impressive acting. Nice feeling gun play. Can’t really judge the driving as I was on keyboard but even then it was more than acceptable.
The engine seems a little shaky (I had hardware Physics disabled as I think it just doesn’t add enough to counter the FPS hit) in places as the physics kept going nuts. Dead bodies would flap around like they were being electrocuted, their limbs apparently enough to move cars around (a good distance, not just a few inches) and I kept getting bodies stuck in floors, doors and elevators.
These aside though its pretty damned tasty. Only real complain is that the demo is less than 10 minutes long =(
10/08/2010 at 12:30 The Colonel says:
Ahhh… but can you play it without leaving your own house? It’s all a gimmick I say!
10/08/2010 at 12:31 LewieP says:
Elements of the 2 demo are very impressive. I knocked a rubbish bin, and all sorts of rubbish came flying out. Driving fast across the large bridge on the way to the mission feels fantastic.
I think I have to be less reckless though, I died in car crashes twice.
10/08/2010 at 12:32 Jerricho says:
Is that 66.5 Peggles then?
10/08/2010 at 12:34 Quark says:
You can get your shoes shined in the park by a guy that sounds just like Gilbert Gottfried.
Pity the publisher is price gouging Steam users in Australia yet again, I really wanted to buy this game.
10/08/2010 at 17:13 Zerotonine says:
You can still buy from real stores ya know, I know of some relatively cheaper ones in Melbourne like Adrenalan which is selling it for $60 AUD, five bucks off for cash. Postage of course costs extra if you don’t live near Melbourne’s CBD. But it’s better than the $80 alternative available on Steam.
http://www.zoneadrenalan.com.au
There is also Dungeon Crawl just around the corner from it, another independent retailer: http://www.dungeoncrawl.com.au
While I wholeheartedly agree that digital distribution is a great move forward, people should take the time to check out the few independent retailers still out there offering some great deals. I still get excited when I buy a game during my lunch break and look forward to installing as I flick through (admittedly smaller than previously) manual.
Back on topic, based on the impressions it appears that it’s shaping up to be a nice game, the original was ace, except for that racing level. I don’t think I’m even going to try the demo and just go straight to purchasing on release!
10/08/2010 at 12:48 lhzr says:
here’s a patch for freezing the timer. you need to apply it to your mafia 2 executable.
http://filebeam.com/16c96e23916bdc64067360d199dcc3c5
haven’t tested it myself yet, but it’s supposed to work.
10/08/2010 at 13:05 Antlia says:
For those who are about to click that link – don’t.
Like it wasn’t obvious
10/08/2010 at 13:13 lhzr says:
it modifies the game’s executable. your antivir is prolly giving you a generic/heuristic warning.
here’s what other antivir tools have to say about it:
http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=ee4cdd0594fa63bb6a9ba0b1585c04ff014edf50c9ef9b434452c320642f3bab-1281438278
10/08/2010 at 13:33 Kakrafoon says:
I don’t know, it worked fine for me. It just stopped the timer at 9:59, Antivir didn’t say anything about it and I could explore that small slice of Empire Bay as long as I wanted.
10/08/2010 at 13:35 lhzr says:
you can do this by yourself, without the patch, by getting a hex editor and going to line 000F5380. overthere look for D9 56 4C, and change it to 90 90 90.
as seen here: http://imgur.com/pnjWv.png
10/08/2010 at 13:41 Navagon says:
Cracking Steam games = not a good idea. It could result in bad things happening to your account.
10/08/2010 at 13:48 lhzr says:
bad stuff can happen if you play online a modified game(i.e. cheat). afaik, this is a single player demo.
10/08/2010 at 15:44 Xercies says:
“Threat Has been detected”
10/08/2010 at 16:24 ScubaMonster says:
While I’m not doubting this could be a false positive, I’m wary of just bypassing my antivirus and running it anyway. Tried that with bit torrent once. List of people commenting on the file at pirate bay saying the file was clean. Ran the file, sure enough, virus infected my PC.
10/08/2010 at 17:52 DrGonzo says:
Almost every crack ever gets detected as a malicious file because it is! It’s altering files to make a game work.
10/08/2010 at 12:50 stone says:
Well, I gotta do SOMEthing while I’m waiting for a playable version of Grim Dawn, so .. where’s that bridge I can drive recklessly over ?
10/08/2010 at 12:57 Sidorovich says:
Do you get a Tommy gun? I’m only downloading it if I can get a Tommy gun.
10/08/2010 at 13:03 Sobric says:
You can pick one up off a dead guy. You also get an MG42.
10/08/2010 at 13:32 Dyst says:
and a shotgun which can break pillars.
10/08/2010 at 15:27 Kommissar Nicko says:
Hate to say it but MG42 > Tommy Gun. Hands down.
10/08/2010 at 15:40 Xercies says:
It may be a better gun at killing people…but does it look cool? No i don’t think so.
10/08/2010 at 13:02 Sobric says:
Good fun. The shooting is surprisingly solid, and the cover system works well (as in, it’s necessary but not annoying). Nice voice acting/writing although it’s hard to judge from such a short sequence.
The cars handled a bit weird, especially once I’d tuned one up, but I guess that’s part and parcel of the era anyway. Also, head on collisions at speed will kill you dead.
I think the thing that sells it to me, however, is the style. It oozes ’40s American charm in a way that appeals to me much more than the setting of the GTAs.
Now, question is, do I preorder or wait for inevitable sales?
10/08/2010 at 13:15 Sidorovich says:
It’s all about price inelasticity ain’t it?. If this turns out to be any good vendors will be ‘doin’ a Starcraf’ , slappin’ a 35 quid price tag on it and refusing to discount anytime soon.
10/08/2010 at 13:33 Dyst says:
Well it’s going to be £40 on Steam once it comes out, I think, but shopto has a preorder available at £26. http://www.shopto.net/PC/VIDEO%20GAMES/PCMA13-Mafia%20II%202.html
10/08/2010 at 13:41 Freud says:
D2D.co.uk has it for £30, which makes it cheaper than the €50 Steam, d2d.eu unless you have some really messed up currency rates.
10/08/2010 at 13:27 oceanclub says:
“I think the thing that sells it to me, however, is the style.”
Yes; I hadn’t been paying that much attention to this game ’til I saw this trailer – love it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llhKOefMF-Q
P.
11/08/2010 at 14:59 sfury says:
Wow, that’s an awesomely directed trailer indeed!
10/08/2010 at 13:32 Alexander Norris says:
They got rid of the “reload dumps a whole magazine” feature. I am sadface. :(
10/08/2010 at 14:16 Schmitzkater says:
Yes I noticed that too. Now you can reload after every shot and not lose a single bullet.
Also whenever you get out of a car now, it automatically turns the motor off. In Mafia 1 you could either press the exit button to let the car run (and get away faster in case something happens) or hold the button to shut it off.
Still, minor gripes.
10/08/2010 at 14:38 Alexander Norris says:
Hopefully it’s a difficulty thing and the uppermost difficulty will be called “Realistic,” have proper reloading and the car engine stuff, and not half a health bar and regenerating health. I doubt it will, but one can hope. :(
At the very least, I hope they provide modding tools so these things can be modded in, perhaps even with a more realistic wounding system.
10/08/2010 at 16:11 Schmitzkater says:
Oh yes, PLEASE let this game be moddable, at least as far as those small tweaks go.
10/08/2010 at 13:35 Freud says:
Having already pre-ordered, I think I’ll avoid the demo. I want to experience it all with virgin eyes.
10/08/2010 at 13:53 Curry says:
First thing I see is the magazine, I pick it up and I’m greeted with pornographic pictures. That was something I certainly was expecting from Mafia 2.
10/08/2010 at 13:53 Risingson says:
Again: this is the game with the most gorgeous male 3d models ever made.
And. Those. Noses.
10/08/2010 at 13:56 stone says:
@oceanclub: now there’s a nice piece of trailer. Think I’ll put on some Sinatra for the demo..
10/08/2010 at 14:10 Isometric says:
It’s bloody marvelous. Everything feels so right from the shooting to the driving to the amazing attention to detail. I went into a bar and held up the casier only to be shot point blank with a shotgun. Didn’t expect that!
10/08/2010 at 14:20 Supraliminal says:
Oh nOes, really.
That’s what I’d call bumbing down
10/08/2010 at 14:22 Supraliminal says:
Bloody ‘ell typo AND reply fail.
Dat was for Alexander Norris
10/08/2010 at 14:43 Rick says:
20fps average with lowest settings on my brand new laptop (its not a gaming one). Not brilliant performance, but still surprisingly smooth to play. Seems that they learnt from Rockstar’s mistake with GTA4: this game’s been properly optimised. Plus, even the lowest graphic settings look great (though I’m glad I didn’t get into a big firefight with the building coming down, that would have crippled my processor) and the gameplay is great.
10/08/2010 at 15:16 Nero says:
Although my rather old computer can’t really handle it (froze two times, many graphical glitches) I could still enjoy it. Shooting sections flew better than the driving and since I loved Mafia 1 I would be all over this if I had a better computer. Will buy it at a later upgrade certainly.
10/08/2010 at 15:17 Jeffrey says:
It’s a console port. Say goodbye to my 50 bucks.
10/08/2010 at 15:22 Rinox says:
…
Troll?
Didn’t play like a console port at all.
10/08/2010 at 15:40 neems says:
Early reports suggest that the console demos have some severe performance / visual / tearing issues, while the pc demo plays like a dream and looks lovely. It also supports steering wheels as well as controllers (and will probably be moddable).
Otherwise I dare say it is much the same game.
10/08/2010 at 19:27 DrGonzo says:
Yeah I would say this isn’t a console port at all. I don’t come anywhere near the reccomended specs but can play the game maxed out smoothly, I only get 40fps but that appears to be smooth as butter. Also, I have the PhysX turned off.
Really really happy with this now. I had convinced my self I wouldn’t be able to play it because I would need a quad core but this is a really well optimised game.
10/08/2010 at 15:27 Dozer says:
Will it run on my Pentium III?
I really liked the ‘reload loses what’s left in the clip’ and ‘get out with the engine running’ features in Mafia. It made the game different from – well, every other drivey-shooty game. Along with the other things that made it different, to be fair, but I’d miss those features.
If I had any chance of playing the game at all, which I don’t.
10/08/2010 at 15:41 Mechazawa says:
So, you can collect vintage Playboy playmates in the game.
Count me in.
(Felt quite solid, and pretty, too ! I’m pumped for it now)
10/08/2010 at 15:45 Davian says:
I kept trying to order Vito to jump out of the car while driving at full speed, having been spoiled by GTA4, but he just wouldn’t do it :( Does anyone know if you can shoot from inside the car?
10/08/2010 at 16:50 Sam says:
Yeah I wanted to do this too.
10/08/2010 at 16:00 Koozer says:
“GTA: The Past” is what I couldn’t stop thinking. I got bored fast with GTA IV’s plot, I missed my flamethrowers and tanks from GTA 2.
Apart from that, the floaty mouse on the menus is very annoying, cars drive like bricks covered in soap and not flying out of the windscreen when I collide with something is disappointing.
Apart from that, it’s all right.
10/08/2010 at 19:28 DrGonzo says:
I got a floaty mouse too. Then I turned the graphics up and ran the benchmark and now it’s gone which is very weird. If that doesn’t work try switching off v-sync. That is usually the culprit for floaty mouse controls.
10/08/2010 at 16:33 BobbleHat says:
25 quid off play.com. Not sure if it’ll still be that price after release though.
10/08/2010 at 16:59 Al3xand3r says:
I approve of their toilet rendering techniques.
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3807/mafia22010081018032195.jpg
Well hello there…
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/8679/mafia22010081018055853.jpg
*stalks*
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1924/mafia22010081018060506.jpg
Such a nice engine and art style. The overall result is miles beyond GTAIV. More importantly, the animations and controls are excellent. The shooting reminds me of Max Payne but there’s a cover system instead of stunts. It all works really well together. I suppose there are some restrictions with the engine though, I couldn’t get in water at the shoreline and all the pools in the city seem empty. But that’s a minor drawback and the game’s more story driven than something like GTA so they’ve done plenty for that type of game. So, yeah, Mafia II is awesome, and runs so smooth (without physx).
11/08/2010 at 00:59 ulix says:
Have to disagree somewhat. While the engine runs very nicely, and the shooting feels very good too, and while I like the art style, I do actually feel like this city is much blander than Liberty City (many more “copy & paste” buildings, less detail beside the roads and houses), and the animations (or body physics) are (thanks to GTA4′s Euphoria) definitely much worse. They are still good, but GTA4 still has by far the best animations I’ve ever seen (with Red Dead Redemption, which uses the same animation engine).
Also, physics in general didn’t feel as good as in GTA4, but I had Physix turned off.
10/08/2010 at 17:03 Celkiasian says:
Why Eggsy?
10/08/2010 at 17:07 Celkiasian says:
A couple people on here have been warning that modifying the demo’s files could lead to “bad” things for your account. Does anyone have any evidence this is the case?
10/08/2010 at 17:27 [POo [POo says:
well, the Just Cause 2 demo had similar time extending patches and that didn’t cause any problems.
10/08/2010 at 17:33 Al3xand3r says:
The time limit is not a big deal, it’s not like there’s much to explore in this section of the city, and you can do the included missions fine. If you’re just exploring you can also just get yourself killed somewhere and if you haven’t started the mission you’ll just respawn back at the house (last story checkpoint you see) and have another 10 minutes to explore a different area. There’s no reason to use any patch, so just play and don’t worry. I usually hate time limited demos but this works out fine. As for confirmation of the patches causing issues, you aren’t gonna get any, Valve’s system is supposed to be clever in that it doesn’t insta-ban so you never know what the exact cause is. If it considers the crack a cheat of sorts or not is not something anyone can confirm just yet, so just enjoy the demo itself.
10/08/2010 at 17:38 Bowlby says:
Strange. After I quit the demo the screen brightness refused to revert back to the default, and when I tried to reset it via changing the screen resolution I couldn’t go back to the native 1440*900. Then, after I rebooted, chkdsk decided to do a scan.
Could just be coincidence or something funky with my Radeon 4850 driver, but I thought I may as well mention it to see if anyone else has experienced this.
But yeah, Mafia 2. It’s alright. Here are some bullet point reactions for ya:
*Like, around 99% of the demo ran above 30 FPS on high settings (no AA, though), and it looked okay. *Not thrilled about the Playboy magazines; feels a bit misplaced and pervy, tbh.
*Driving’s a bit weird, as it’s way faster than in the previous Mafia (which, in itself, was too slow), and the handling feels off with the keyboard.
*Gunplay is pretty good – good sound effects, enemies animate well when hit, and the cover mechanic works really well; it’s almost effortless.
*Uh, the Times New Roman format can look a bit ugly during the menus (very minor, I know).
*Voice acting is not noticeably bad, nor astonishingly good. But this is based off very little, and the characters in the demo are your pretty standard Italian Mafioso stereotype.
Specs:
AMD Phenom X4 955 @ 3.2 Ghz
Radeon 4850 512MB GDDR3
3GB DDR2 667 Mhz
Windows 7 Home
10/08/2010 at 18:40 Kingmarzo says:
I have the exact same brightness problem. Radeon 4850
10/08/2010 at 18:45 Bowlby says:
Bringing up the ctrl-alt-del menu and then cancelling to desktop will revert the brightness to your Windows default.
10/08/2010 at 19:08 Xercies says:
Had the same problem and it was 4850 as well. Weird.
10/08/2010 at 19:30 DrGonzo says:
I have a 4850 and don’t have this problem. I haven’t bothered to update my drivers for about 3 months or more so that could be why.
10/08/2010 at 20:18 Bowlby says:
May be a driver issue. I’m on the 07/07/10 official release, which puts me a little behind.
10/08/2010 at 21:25 airtekh says:
I had the same problem with my 4890. Must be an ATI thing, bloody Nvidia.
Bolwby’s fix is the same one that is on the Steam forums, and it sorts the problem out.
10/08/2010 at 18:24 mbp says:
I am afraid to download this.
I so fell in love with the original that it stands out as one of my greatest ever gaming experiences. I cannot bear the thought that the sequel will disappoint.
10/08/2010 at 18:25 Plopsworth says:
The car driving felt a bit odd, as if the car was rotating around its geometric centre instead of the rear axle. Then again, this was from a limited impression of driving the sporty two-seater around in “simulation” mode.
Otherwise, it seemed solid enough. With Kane and Lynch 2 I now have two solid cover-based third person shooters competing for my August salary. I may just have to get them both.
10/08/2010 at 18:42 Jonathan says:
Ahh, that was every bit as fun as I expected, and it ran surprisingly well on this old machine too. I love the period music — the “Boom boom boom boom” in the trailer at the end was perfect. Also, Vito is quite a looker!
10/08/2010 at 18:51 Nimdok says:
Kinda sorta unimpressed. Yes, the full game’ll probably be fun, but the demo is just a shooter with a big world to drive from point A to point B in. I dunno if it’ll be worth full price or waiting until it drops to bargain-bin price. If it’s moddable, though, it might be the best platform for some old ideas of mine… The Tales Of Tony Tastey, anyone?
10/08/2010 at 19:07 AndrewC says:
Ooooo, it’s nice. And, quite apart from the period, it feels like an old-fashioned game in the sense of being coolly serious about it’s characters and plot, it’s attention to detail, it’s assumption that the player will pay attention to detail. Nice.
Also, and this may be the advantage or ruthlessly linear missions – but it’s cover-mechanic was the smoothest i’ve ever played. There was no bumbling around doorways for me!
So yes, nice. Whole game please.
10/08/2010 at 19:27 dAniel says:
Does anyone know where the light switch for my bed lamp is ? I don’t want to leave it on all day.
Also i think my radio is broken. I always need to change the station before i can turn it off.
10/08/2010 at 19:57 Rinox says:
It’s the 1950′s! They don’t care about silly things like “user comfort” and “energy saving”! I’m sure radios and electricity were all free back then. (at least, if I had to believe my grandparents)
10/08/2010 at 19:52 klumhru says:
@Wheel support
I couldn’t configure the game to recognize my Logitech MOMO Racing… Prolly a demo thing, as it wouldn’t let me set any controllers what so ever. But I don’t have a X360 controller (finger cross, hissss).
Looks great though, and the shootey bits were nice.
10/08/2010 at 19:59 Dhatz says:
just hope it doesn’t have stupid imperfections like max payne 2 had with weapons(almost every anim and sounds didn’t match, plus all sounds were boring as hell,that’s why you need mods like “payne effects 3″-the gamechanging mod or “paynfull audio”-the audio only). Probably was duw to fixed shipping date, but Mafia had few delay, so I still have faith.
10/08/2010 at 20:10 Slithy says:
I saw a nifty little convertible outside my house and thought I’d hop in a pop off a few cats on the street. How come I can’t drive and shoot at the same time?
10/08/2010 at 21:37 Vandelay says:
You can’t shoot and drive? Kind of crazy if you can’t, as you could in original. The chase sequences were fantastic, with you trying to control the car and shoot at the same time. It took GTA right up until 4 to get anything even close to it.
Do you have any pistols in the demo, or is it just two handed weapons?
11/08/2010 at 15:16 sfury says:
Nah, couldn’t shoot with the pistol too.
I think I saw a mission in the trailers where you shoot with a tommy-gun when you’re a passenger, but I hope that’s not all. I’ve become quite accustomed to driving with the WASD and shooting with the mouse (though some find this troublesome, well duh, you’re driving AND aiming/shooting in the game, that should be hard), so it would be sad if I can’t use this again.
10/08/2010 at 20:14 Barman1942 says:
Even the animations in the game absolutely ooze 40s/50s gangster. For instance, when you right click while using the tommy gun, instead of aiming down the sights you bring the gun up to your hip. Spray n’ pray, true classic gangster style.
10/08/2010 at 20:29 Davian says:
Figured out you can’t shoot from a car. Wow. Has that rotten reek of dumbing down for consoles all over it.
10/08/2010 at 20:45 Xercies says:
Hmm GTA 4 had firing out of windows in the car and that was a console game. So its not dumbed down for the consoles its just the designers i guess never thought to put it in. One thing i hate now is this stupid fecking consoles have dumbed it down because of a fecking minor niggle here and there and people that put prophecy of doom. not signling you out but it fecking pisses me off.
/rant
10/08/2010 at 20:36 clive dunn says:
maybe, just maybe, (apoligies for being an optimist) you gain the ability to shoot from cars later on?
10/08/2010 at 20:54 laikapants says:
I remain amazed at how smoothly it runs with max settings. I was pretty sure I’d have to knock it down to medium or worse.
I’m a little sad that in the midst of a shoot out with the coppers, I couldn’t get in the back of a car, stick a gun in the driver’s face and tell ‘em to just drive. True, I wasn’t expecting such things but I kept thinking it as I hunkered down by the rear wheel well.
Can’t wait for the 24th.
10/08/2010 at 21:19 airtekh says:
Just had a quick go of this myself.
It seems solid enough. PC controls seem to work very well.
The setting and the story are going to be the main selling points. I found it hard to distinguish the gameplay from that of GTA IV (apart from the cars handling like they are on a block of ice); but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
It definitely seems like a game I’d buy, but not immediately; it doesn’t have the ‘must play now’ factor for me. I’ll get around to it when I work through more of my backlog of games. (AKA ‘Mount Everest’)
10/08/2010 at 21:20 Jimbo says:
I can’t tell if the AA option actually does anything? It looks hella jagged either way. A shame, because it looks like it would look glorious with a healthy dose of AA over the top.
I dig the rest of it though. The driving feels great on ‘simulation’, the shooting/cover is solid and the cutscene banter amused me a couple of times, which bodes well.
11/08/2010 at 02:12 V. Profane says:
I certainly couldn’t see any difference with AA on or off, extremely jaggy either way.
10/08/2010 at 21:49 Rick says:
In ten minutes, I had my shoes shined, got into a fist-fight with the paper boy, bought a hot dog from a stand, had a cup of coffee in a cafe before robbing it, accidentally annoyed a street gang by carjacking someone they didn’t want me to in the robbery getaway, got into a firefight with the police over consequent trouble with the street gang, crashed my car and had to repair it myself, bought a casual suit and a brand new revolver, had five glasses of brandy and then shot the bartender three times. Unfortunately, Vito was drunk by this point; the shots only wounded the bartender, who then killed Vito with a single blast from his shotgun.
Good lord there’s a lot of random, but fun, crap you can do this game!
11/08/2010 at 11:14 Sarlix says:
lol wow. All I did was went straight to the misson. Me = boring :-(
11/08/2010 at 15:34 sfury says:
I made a very similar adventure only the police was after me, I crashed my car in front of the bar and stormed in it, waiting with the gun pointed at the door to see if they’ll follow me inside.
A couple of seconds later someone shot me in the back – turns out cops could follow you in the bar but chose the front door instead of the side one I had some into thinking it was the only entrance (turns out later there was even a back door).
So while I’m assimilating this information and trying to aim and shoot at the cop who had outflanked me, that same bartender pulled off a shotgun and gunned him down. Amazing.
Oh yeah, and later when I was shooting through the fron door at the other cop outside, the bastard bartender killed me too, I guess he didn’t take kindly people barging in and shooting guns in his fine establishment…
10/08/2010 at 21:50 clive dunn says:
i accidently shot a cop, ran into a diner and hid behind the counter. The lady running the diner starts ringing the police, i’m cowering behind the drinks machine. I can hear cops arriving. A cops walks in and slowly walks along the other side of the counter, i’m thinking, ‘is he gonna see me?’, i panic when he gets close and pop a cap in his arm and go back to cowering. I’m loving the ‘cower-system’. Then, well the cops just meander about for a bit, four of them, kinda just ambling. The lady is screaming. Even the customers are cowering. I run out the back door, through some gardens and i’m a free man.
This game is pretty hot!
10/08/2010 at 22:38 The Pink Ninja says:
“Fancy Hats: Mafia II Demo”
Give this is the internet I feel obligated to say “ZOMG, TF2 RIP OFF”
That or “Al Capone does not bid on new pants”
10/08/2010 at 23:23 LionsPhil says:
Performance good. Styling rich and beautiful. Actual game so tarpit mediocre at best.
Several times I died because the stupid protagonist had velcro’d their spine to a bloody pillar and wouldn’t let go. Please die, sticky cover systems.
And the car physics…ugh.
10/08/2010 at 23:27 LionsPhil says:
Oh yes, and that BLOODY SHOULDER CAMERA. God DAMN that’s annoying.
For crying out loud, Max Payne worked out how to make an inoffensive third-person camera almost ten years ago. (And more recently Call of Juarez 2 had a cover system that was at least improvisational enough that you could run away from it.)
11/08/2010 at 00:02 DrGonzo says:
It would be impossible to use Max Payne’s camera. I used to make maps for it years ago. Everything is very out of proportion in Max Payne and very tall. Mafia 2 is an open world so I imagine doing that would make the world look stupid.
As for the cover system, I found it ok once I had got used to it. I liked using e to switch around corners and things.
11/08/2010 at 00:57 LionsPhil says:
I find that kind of surprising given that Max Payne didn’t entirely shy away from more open settings: there are whole streets that look perfectly normal from arbitrary angles. And of course MP2 has a whole building site, so lots of Z-level work.
I did discover one fun oddity in the Mafia 2 demo: cops on your tail? Drive into the sea. You’ll miraculously respawn on the shore unharmed, and no longer wanted, at the cost of a car you can just jack a replacement for.
While you’re down by the pier, run up behind a fisherman and click, too. Tommy Vito, overgrown schoolboy.
(Also, oddly enough, spending money on things like car upgrades and coffee seems to buy you a few seconds more time. You can get the clock up above ten minutes.Go figure.)
11/08/2010 at 01:20 Walsh says:
Umm sticky cover system? You mean the fact you have to push left ctrl to attach to cover and left ctrl to detach is sticky?
11/08/2010 at 01:59 LionsPhil says:
…yes? I’m not sure why it has become vogue to add buttons for something that was always a transparent action, and add in this non-obvious modality. This is not good UI design.
Give me back my lean keys, damn it. When someone flanks me I want to turn/reposition and shoot them, not have to stop to detach my spine first.
11/08/2010 at 03:57 BillyBoB says:
Im downloading the demo right now for PS3…I still got 33 minutes left…Do you only get 10 minutes to play & thats it??? Can you replay the demo?? Please Answer…
11/08/2010 at 04:00 g says:
Why do you say that? You’re not going to get banned from VAC, mostly because it’s not online, and isn’t even supported on almost all third-party games. Valve doesn’t care what you do with your games.
The only thing you need to worry about is the .exe cracks for this will give you lots of false-positives from Anti-virus software, so it’s easy for someone to put a trojan in and say it’s just another false-positive.
Here’s a link to a DUI way:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1395785
No chance of virus.
11/08/2010 at 05:48 Rugged Malone says:
Driving Under the Influence? =T
Come to think of it, hex editing would be more enjoyable with the consumption of alcohol…
(I’ll have a 73 63 6f 74 63 68 on the 72 6f 63 6b 73 please!)
11/08/2010 at 07:45 Al3xand3r says:
Have to disagree, there’s just as much copy paste in Liberty City (don’t start listing landmarks or something, just look at one section of the city, just as we have only a small part here in the demo), not to mention how bad the interiors were, and as for the animations, I still find these better. Maybe Euphoria offers more variety but not higher quality in my opinion. And even without Euphoria they still had animations for most any circumstance, your guy generally didn’t clip through things but adjusted his position to have his leg step on whatever was in his way somewhat decently. Animations in GTAIV were often lol-worthy in the cut scenes, here they’re more natural and the facial animation is better too. Shooting and taking cover looks better here too. Physics wise,, I don’t know, I didn’t miss anything from GTAIV (without phjysx myself as well). Small objects still broke fell over and tumbled, ragdollls looked awesome (guy falling down the stairs for example) and it just wasn’t as easy to make it so that you can kick things around across the whole city but I didn’t miss that and physx probably does add it (and makes it so the game runs as awfully as GTAIV probably).
This reply will probably fail…
11/08/2010 at 10:04 The Juice says:
Game is very reminiscent of the original Mafia.
11/08/2010 at 10:27 Irish Al says:
Does it have excellent music like the original ?
11/08/2010 at 11:17 Rick says:
The title theme isn’t as distinctive, but its still something that you can sit back and enjoy.
11/08/2010 at 11:26 Sarlix says:
I recognized 3 out 3 of the tracks that were playing – If you’ve ever seen the film ‘stand by me’ basically the songs that were used in that film.
11/08/2010 at 15:57 sfury says:
Sadly I found out just yesterday Vladimír Šimůnek – the composer of the original Mafia score has died in 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimír_Šimůnek
So probably the game won’t have the same (amazing!) score, though it was long in the making so who knows maybe he did contribute, but the period music is also working good for me now.
11/08/2010 at 11:01 Schadenfreude says:
I’m loving this. It happily regognises the Xbox pad, updating the icons etc and then intelligently switching back if you start using the mouse and keys. Got it running smooth as butter at 1080p on my HDTV too (Unless I enable any kind of Physx of course). So happy I invested in that 5m HDMI lead. :D
11/08/2010 at 11:06 RGS says:
Brilliant artwork. Artists are really looking and caring about what they’re making, *much* more realistic and authentic than most over games. Was the same with H&D2 and Mafia 1. Well done Illusion/2K Czech – Happy to see your standards haven’t slipped only improved!
Playboy pinups and a conversation I heard two women having about becoming lesbian seemed out of place with the rest of the demo though from the little time I’ve had with it so far (sounds like someone from marketing got involved…).
Also runs *brilliantly* on my GTX480 @ 2560×1600 too (yes, it’s a fast card, but you never know until you actually get the game running + rest of my system is top end, or rather it was… 3+ years ago!).
Very pleased, well done indeed to the devs.
11/08/2010 at 11:22 Sarlix says:
What is the ‘rest’ of your system? Need more info!
I was surprised I got the frames I did on my old amd x2 6000+
An average of 40FPS from the benchmark – thats with everything maxed out & with 16x AF and default AA, probably x2 or x4.
My system
x2 6000+
HD 4870
3GB RAM
WINXP
11/08/2010 at 11:44 RGS says:
Win 7 Ult. x64
QX6700 Extreme (at stock)
4GB Dominator RAM
1,000W Enermax Galaxy PSU
Lots of good HDDs, good creative sound card, Silverstone TJ07 case, Apple ACD 30″ and the GTX 480 (Zotac).
Can’t remember my benchmark score but mostly hitting 50-60FPS @ 2560×1600 (capped with v-sync on) in game, all settings on max but no AA. Drops to 40-45 FPS average with AA.
(tried a couple of ATI/Sapphire 5870 2GB Vapor-X cards prior to the 480 purchase, but got the GSOD ATI issue with both – RMA’d. Happily back with nVidia now)
11/08/2010 at 14:59 Sarlix says:
Thanks for the detailed info! Sorry to hear about your ATI woes :-(
I should just point out I was running it at a lower res – 1400×900
11/08/2010 at 16:06 sfury says:
The game runs reasonably well (30-40 fps avg) even on my slower machine – Athlon x2 5600+, 4850 512mb, 4GB RAM – everything is maxed out on 1680×1050 except AA for which I see no difference between switched on and off, maybe drops the frames a little bit but I didn’t wait long enough to test it – turned it off a few seconds after I sawn none of the jagged edges changed at all.
Plays very smooth, looks amazingly well, which is a nice surprise compared to GTA4 which made me weep last year.
11/08/2010 at 21:51 Harlander says:
I had some minor weirdness running at 1280×1024… seemed to slow down every couple of seconds or so. I dropped it down to 1168×768 or whatever it is, and it was smooth.
To be honest, I expected better from my weeks-old HD 5670 (though I only bought it because my 1900XT’s fan died in a heap)
11/08/2010 at 13:34 Jackalope says:
Enjoyed the demo a lot, used that ptch to remove the time limit so I could enjoyit better. I was pleased you could actually take money from the cash registers. Even managed to soup up the little red Corvette-a-like and make it “legally” mine and use it as a very good getaway vehicle as I each and every bar, shop and gas station. I loved the orignal Mafia, even though the main story was a little bit depressing.
One thing I wish they would do next; after walking round Empire Bay in my swish new suit and raincoat, I was left wishing they would do a spinoff where you play a Fed or a gumshoe, either private or police. The fisticuffs system was enjoyable, getting to legally beat the snot out of some hoodlums for info would be a nice change. As Elliott Ness probably didn’t say “Let’s do some good!”
11/08/2010 at 21:49 Harlander says:
Man, I don’t even have to play this game to know that I’d sell your mother for a police procedural or noir-esque mystery as well-realised as Mafia 1 was.
11/08/2010 at 23:09 MWoody says:
Make it generate new areas of the city and crimes on the fly, for a procedural police procedural!
11/08/2010 at 15:17 Mahel042 says:
Why did they remove the manual transmission and sidewalk physics? every other change I can take but those where the most fun things in the first game.
11/08/2010 at 18:00 Gurrah says:
A demo? 3 weeks before release. I was going to buy it anyway, but this just made the whole ordeal so much sweeter. Seriously, with all thsoe developers moaning how much time and effort it takes to produce a demo, them releasing it weeks or rather months after the games release, this is THE way to make the customer happy – try before buy.
12/08/2010 at 11:31 Sprafa says:
What most people seem to forget is that Mafia came out right after GTA 3, and in fact, it was the better game. You couldn’t take out people’s tires in GTA3, you could in Mafia. Driving was realistic, there was an inventory system, and dear beejeesus there was a mission where you had to take out a plane (and take out the people the family of rats trying to escape in it), a racing mission and an opera mission. It had an epic story, and I must’ve played it six times before getting tired of it. When you flipped a car without a hood you’d be crushed instantly. When you shot a cop in the head and ran no one would be informed of your crime. The shooting in it was incredible. The driving was maddening, using a speed limiter to avoid getting caught by the cops over some stupid thing like running a red light.
Yet most of these features are now either commonplace. or no longer in Mafia II. After Mafia, Vice City and San Andreas started including some of these features, until GTAIV took essentially all of its lessons and gave it a one up. I remember a local magazine saying that what they really wanted was the action of Mafia within the GTA world, and GTAIV delivered that.
14/08/2010 at 09:44 Tombeld says:
Has anyone experienced red lines and shading appearing after about 4 mins into the demo? I’m running a Dual core i7 2.80 ghz with 8 gig of ram and 1.2 gig Geforce GTX 250 (not bragging – that’s just the way it is) and can’t work out whether it’s my graphics card or my monitor (benq 24″LCD) . The only other program I seem to get this with is the original Mafia. Any ideas?
14/08/2010 at 22:45 sxn says:
I had the same problem with an ATi 5650 (laptop)
14/08/2010 at 22:51 sxn says:
that was supposed to be a reply to Bowlby :(