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6 months ago
Hanger 13 gave the world open-ended crime caper Mafia III, a game that is at once a formulaic GTA-style action game, and an impressive slice of the American South in the 1960s (with a few fictionalised elements letting the team interpret New Orleans a little more loosely). It seemed to do pretty well sales-wise but today the chances of a Hanger 13-developed follow-up appear dim.…
10 months ago
After five years of not being sold for download anywhere (and long being out-of-print on disc), the first Mafia has returned to sale. GOG this week dredged the digital bay, hauled the crime 'em up out, and chipped off its concrete boots to re-release it DRM-free. This version has an edited soundtrack with the licensed music removed, mind. Presumably music licenses expiring is what got…
Up to 80% off XCOM 2, Mafia 3, Bioshock and more in Bundle Stars’ 2K sale
Bundle Stars is offering up some rather nice discounts on a big batch of 2K Games' finest wares this week, with up to 80% off some selected titles from the XCOM, Borderlands, Civilization and Bioshock series, among others.
11 months ago
Feature: I wish it was 6 hours long
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time. I was put off from playing Mafia 3 [official site] by John's thorough review, which told tales of bugs, bad AI, repetitive mission design and more design flaws. But then a few people I respect kept praising it, for its supposedly exciting combat and its more-ish…
1 year ago
A kooky cult is now causing trouble in Mafia III [official site] with Sign of the Times, the third of its three big story DLCs. I'm told the Ensanglante are a blood-worshipping cult into drugs and human sacrifice, which sounds like a wild time. Sadly, Lincoln Clay is out to shut them down, investigating their crime scenes using new detective skills then, I imagine, shooting…
A demo for Mafia 3 [official site] has arrived, letting all and sundry in to poke around a Nu Orleans. John's Wot I Think praised the city and was none too pleased with most of the rest so hey, I'll welcome a demo to have a look myself. The first paid story DLC is out today too, for folks who've already bought in. Faster, Baby!…
2 years ago
Given its pretty open-crimeworld shininess but blah reception, Mafia 3 [official site] seems likely to fall in the category of 'games to maybe pick up cheap on sale and pootle around over Winterval while clutching our bellies and groaning 'I should never have drunk all that eggnog''. In which case, you might be interested to know that an update yesterday added races and car customisation.…
Our John thought Mafia III [official site] was a “vast, seemingly unfinished calamity” but you might think that he is wholly, objectively wrong. If that’s you - happy days. 2K have released an update that gives New Bordeaux’s revenger-in-chief a bunch of outfits, some of which you’ve already seen if you’ve gone through the story and some of which are new. Alongside these new threads,…
Feature: Do you fear hundred hour epics?
The Witcher 3 [official site] is the longest game I've played for years, or at least the longest game that I've actually come close to completing. There was a time when I'd be thrilled to hear about a new fifty or sixty hour epic adventure, very much subscribing to the policy “the more the better”, but now I'm more likely to flinch away from the…
I have a terrible confession to make. While, on a weekly basis, I protest about the oft-unchanging nature of these charts, the truth is that a new entry makes me sigh. It means I have to laboriously type out new HTML rather than just copy the links from last week. This means terrible, unspeakable suffering in a week such as this, where there actually are…
Feature: Disorganised Crime
Here, at last, is our Mafia III [official site] review. Having published two reviews-in-progress over the last week, this is the final version. I've still not finished it, because the game is apparently infinity hours long. And it's a fascinating mess. A vast, seemingly unfinished, calamity, incredible amounts of work routed by its AI, bloated plot and lack of ambition. Here's wot I think:
As it was prophesied, soon it will come to pass. The Steam Charts approach their endgame: where all sales and all pre-order shenanigans converge to ensure that just one game occupies all top ten placements. Soon, there shall be unity. Terrible, terrible unity.
Feature: Disorganised Crime
For reasons that are increasingly apparent, 2K chose not to share review code with the press for Mafia III [official site], instead choosing for everyone to be able to buy it before critics could potentially warn them off. Having played the game for many, many hours, here is a second incarnation of my review-in-progress of the crime caper, in a revised and much extended version…
Mafia III [official site] might be a bit of a derivative drabfest, but the focus of ire from PC players has so far been on the lacking elements of the PC port. Framerates locked to 30, weird control mapping, and many crash bugs and dumb-ass AI. At least the first two of these issues have been addressed with a new patch.
Feature: Mafioso-so
For reasons that are becoming apparent, 2K chose not to share review code with the press for Mafia III [official site], instead choosing for everyone to be able to buy it before critics could potentially warn them off. So it is that we couldn’t get our hands on it before you could, and I’m playing the game over the weekend to be able to bring…
No sooner had Mafia III [official site] launched last night than publishers 2K threw up their hands and admitted problems with the PC port. They said they were working on a patch adding options like removing the lock keeping framerates at 30fps, and have since followed up saying that'll be coming sooner than we perhaps expected: this weekend. They don't say if it'll fix other…
Bang! Vroom! Pow! Thwock! Cuss! Crime! Those sounds and more are now echoing across '60s not-New Orleans in Mafia III [official site], which has just come out - in the UK, at least. It's an open-crimeworld third-person shooter about gangs, the mob, and other naughty people, with crimes to commit, men to shoot, and a criminal empire to build. Our John has put on his…
Arkham Fright: Spiteful Ian Bros. ORDERED Devs To Create MORE Bugs Milohh No: Molyneux Trapped REAL CHILD In Xbox Illubinati: Ian Ubisoft Turns EVERYTHING YOU LOVE Into Assassin's Creed Those are the sorts of (untrue, I should stress) sensational headlines some games writers long for: sexy headlines of danger, mystery, and excitement. They'd be a lark, sure, but I'm still happy telling you something helpful…
I remain puzzled by big publishers announcing DLC for games before they're even released. "Here are cool things that won't be in the game you're paying £35 for," they proudly announce. "Here's what will cost you an extra £26." We haven't even got to play the game and see if we like it yet they're trying to upsell us on extras - which makes me…
2k have been quiet on their open-world period crime 'em-up for a couple of months, but Lincoln Clay has just resurfaced again. Here's Mafia 3 [official site] setting out its story stall and showing off some very impressive character models that I really hope are not solely restricted to cutscenes.
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