Rock, Paper, Shotgun

GameTrailers has interviewed 2K producer Denby Grace about the forthcoming Mafia II. They did it on video, so we can watch it, without all the hassle of reading boring old words. Stupid words. It shows off some of the lesser-spoken about features of the game so far – the open world elements. There’s discussion of how encounters on the street occur, as well as side missions. The second video goes on to talk about environmental destructibility, and then the plans for realistic police. (Which means not only their being strict, but also it being easy to escape their primitive ways. Finally it goes on to discuss the ways to upgrade cars. So that’s most of the things I’d be wondering about – good work, GameTrailers.

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Catching up a bit here, but just before the weekend 2K released a new video for Mafia II. It’s not brand new, but rather the clip shown at E3 last… wow, it feels a long time ago, but only last month. In fact, it’s literally the E3 demo, with Denby Grace narrating it as it goes along. It’s like you’re there, man, like you’re in that stuffy little room with the uncomfortable park benches. It’s well worth a look, since it includes some really fantastic examples of the voice acting. Well, if you can hear it behind the bleeps.

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It’s going to be a quieter Christmas than we were expecting. A bundle of big-name games have announced in the last few days that they’ll no longer be bulging Santa’s sack, but instead offering themselves in the colder months of 2010. This year your Christmas tree will not be towering over 2K games BioShock 2, Mafia II, nor Max Payne 3. Indeed they’re not alone. A smattering of console-only titles have also slipped, as well as Activision’s Singularity. What’s a jolly-bellied man to do this holiday season? Deliver Modern Warfare 2 an awful lot, it seems.

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A couple of months ago we brought you lots of information about 2K Czech’s forthcoming Mafia II. A new mission has been demoed at E3, this time one set near the beginning of the game in February 1945, so it’s time to tell you some more. (You can see some clips of it in the trailer released this week.) The war’s still raging, and Vito Scalleta was recently back from Europe, flat broke, looking to get himself some well paid work. Hello the mob. By the start of this mission, called The Buzzsaw, Vito’s already met his buddy Joe, along with Italian immigrant Henry, both acting as his wingmen. It’s time to go kill the Fat Man.

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2K Games have released a story-telling trailer for their open-world historical gangster thriller, Mafia II. This is kind of dark, and I could hardly be looking forward to it more. For a reminder of why we’re excited it about this one check out (Czech out? Okay, no) John’s extensive preview. There should be a bit more info about this coming from the show, later this week.
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So Take 2 Interactive (2K Games) finally got around to discussing their end of financial year stuff, and as well as a load of money stuff being discussed, more relevant news about release dates emerged. Bioshock 2 will hit on October 30th in Europe, and November 3rd in the US. It also has a new teaser site. Woo. Mafia II meanwhile has been delayed until at least October 31st, and could be any time between then and April 30th 2010. Borderlands is still scheduled for a “fourth quarter” release, and Max Payne 3 is due in Winter 2009.

And that sounds like a hell of a line up.

After a few unofficial leaks, 2K have made sure there’s a far more comprehensive set of game footage trailers for Mafia II. Three of them, in fact, which you’ll find below. The show the truncated mission that was shown to press behind vast stone doors earlier this month, which show off the three main aspects of Mafia II. There’s the walking and driving around the remarkably detailed streets, the way the cutscenes work, and some of the shooty-gun-bang action. You can read more details about it all in our preview and interview.

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During my travels to deepest Czech Republic (look countries, can you pick names that work in grammatical sentences please?) I gathered you all the Mafia II information I could carry in my arms, providing what might well be the most detailed preview ever in the history of the universe. But I still wanted more. More! So I got hold of associate producer Alex Cox and had him answer all sorts of questions about the game. We find out about the choice behind the setting, the logic of a narrative game in a sandbox world, the background behind new player character Vito and why AI will play such an important role in the game. Read on.

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RPS is very pleased to have been one of the first websites in the world to see Mafia II running. We took a trip to 2K Czech, in their Czech Republic headquarters, and saw how the game is coming together. So far, so good. They were allowed to continue with our blessing. Below are detailed impressions of the game at this stage in development, along with five brand new screenshots (click on them for the full versions).

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