MAFIA II ~Discussion Thread~

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Re: Mafia II

^^
Yeah, and its trailers are as well.... No one else can make you feel and sense the life Mafia so closely as this game would....

Godfather, attempted to achieve the same failed both times!!!

But this, this is an epic!!! Expectation are real high high from thus, and I hope it make up to the mark!!!
 
Re: Mafia II

himanshuaieee said:
^^
Yeah, and its trailers are as well.... No one else can make you feel and sense the life Mafia so closely as this game would....

Godfather, attempted to achieve the same failed both times!!!

But this, this is an epic!!! Expectation are real high high from thus, and I hope it make up to the mark!!!

Godfather was a nice game. I hope you know that its also based on a book something like Mafia. :|
 
Re: Mafia II

^^

Undoubtely, the Book and movie were awesome....

But the game naah...Bot of them were childish in terms of gameplay..

And had no grasping storyline!!!
 
Re: Mafia II

Just another month left. From the looks of it, this game is turning out to be real nice. I just hope that its optimized for PC such that everyone with a decent rig is able to run it on atleast the medium settings. The previews have been really good so far, what got me excited were the original playboy issues hidden throughout the game. Now this is something which I will actually take an effort to find out unlike finding the stupid pigeons in GTA IV. :P
 
Re: Mafia II

Interview with Mafia 2 developer: PC gaming will never die

Mafia 2 will appear soon and 2k czech is going to make you an offer you can't refuse. PC Games Hardware was able to talk to Denby Grace from 2k czech to get more background on the technical spects of Mafia 2.

Screenshots from Mafia 2 (11)
Screenshots from Mafia 2 (11) [Source: view picture gallery]

On August, 27th Mafia 2 will hit the stores and 2k czech will sent you to Empire Bay. PC Games Hardware took the chance to talk to Denby Grace, senior producer at 2k czech, and asked some technic related questions on physics, engine and cpu perfomance. So let's go ahead to the interview.

PC Games Hardware: For Mafia 2 you programmed a new engine called "Illusion”. Do you develop the engine code from scratch or are some remains of code from the latest iteration of the LS3D Engine (used in Mafia) to be found in your new base technology? What were the reasons for developing your own technology? What are the advantages when utilizing your own technology?

Denby Grace: The engine code has practically been written from scratch, so very little has been carried over from the first title; maybe some old vehicle code but literally, not very much at all.

As for developing our own, the fact of the matter is that there is no off the shelf solution for what we wanted to achieve with Mafia II, and at the time there was no game engine that could deliver the stunning visuals an open world environment like the Illusion Engine can create. Also, our cut scene tool is critical to our ability to create the epic emotional scenes that are one of the corner stones of the Mafia II experience. We needed this tool to be fully integrated into our technology so we wrote it ourselves.

PC Games Hardware: You announced that you game will be developed for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Will the game be a pure cross-platform product or will there be an optimized version for the PC? If there is a special built for the PC what technical feature cannot be realized with the console version or in other words are there any features the PC is the ideal platform to develop for (for example higher texture resolutions)?

Denby Grace: We developed the engine and the game to be a true cross platform experience, so the core game experiences will look and feel the same no matter which platform you play it on.

As stated in some of our recent announcements concerning the technology of PhysX, we are making great use of the hardware available to us on the PC. Amongst numerous other abilities, we can push the textures to a higher resolution, and the PhysX to many more particles.

PC Games Hardware: Are there any differences between the Console and the PC Version of Mafia 2 as far as technical as well as visual aspects are concerned, for example GPU accelerated PhysX effects?

Denby Grace: You hit the nail on the head. The biggest difference is the GPU enabled physics effects. While on a system without GPU (consoles and ATI cards), the game will have a great PhysX simulation with particles and cloth, however, if you have the extra hardware we are able to push things to a whole new level which has not yet been seen in open world game before. Our destructible environments feature thousands of physical particles which in turn can be affected by individual explosion force fields to make them move. It's all very impressive and it's these kinds of improvements that high end PC gamers can expect.

PC Games Hardware: We know you are using Nvidia's PhysX API and also APEX moduls ("Clothing”). Besides PhysX support why did you decide to use Nvidia's physics middleware instead of other physics libraries like Havok or ODE? What makes Nvidia's SDK so suitable for your title?

If you utilize GPU-Physics for the PC version of Mafia 2:

• What are the visual differences between physics calculated by CPU and GPU (via PhysX, OpenCL or even DX Compute)?

• Are there any features that players without an Nvidia card will miss? What technical features cannot be realized with the CPU as "physics calculator”?

Denby Grace: PhysX is a really scalable system, which is something that appealed to us. We get to integrate a base system that can be dialed up and down, dependant on what system specs the users have. We have a minimum benchmark frame rate that we want to see, then the PhysX simulation level will adjust itself based upon the type of hardware you have.

CPU vs GPU quite simply means that we can really push the boat out with that much dedicated horsepower without being concerned that it's going to affect the performance of other areas, separating this out is certainly preferable. Going a step further is separating out the gfx from the physics with separate GPU's (SLI configuration).

People without a GPU PhysX card will still have these effects but it won't be quite as advanced. We were very careful in ensuring that this would not affect the game play experience, no matter what system you have. , Mafia II I think looks absolutely amazing even without the full PhysX.

PC Games Hardware: Does regular by CPU calculated physics affect visuals only or is it used for gameplay terms like enemies getting hit by shattered bits of blown-away walls and the like?

Denby Grace: No we don't do this. We didn't want to alienate a part of our user base with that sort of selective functionality.

PC Games Hardware: By now multi core CPUs have become very popular and the numbers of players with such machines is rapidly increasing. Did you integrate multi core support into the engine from the beginning? Are you constantly trying to optimize your own technology for multi core Processors?

• If yes how many cores are supported and what is the expected performance gain from 2, 4 or even 8 cores?

• What different systems run in separate threads?

• Does your engine profit from SMT/Hyperthreading or do you recommend turning it off for maximum performance?

Denby Grace: Yes, we are big fans of multi-core processors and our engine absolutely, fully supports them. The more cores you have the better it is for the game.

PC Games Hardware: Last year on Gamescom 2009 we talked to Denby Grace who informed us that Mafia 2 offers only a support for Direct X 9. What are the reasons to do so? Are there any existing plans to patch in support for DX10/11 later?

Denby Grace: Currently, there are no plans at this time, but I would never say never. There are definitely features we feel we could make use of with DX 10 and 11 but for us the game experience was really the focus for the title rather than having all the latest tech gadgets and gizmos.

PC Games Hardware: Playing Games on the console becomes more and more popular. On the contrary PC Gaming becomes less interesting and developers concentrate more on developing the console version than a special PC version of a game that utilizes the technical qualities of the PC to full extend - especially in the field of rendering. Will PC Gaming slowly fade out in the next years?

Denby Grace: No, not in my opinion. PC gaming will never die while there are people like yourself, your readers and developers such as 2K Czech. With this generation of consoles I think we have seen gaming firmly move out of the bedroom and into the living room onto the HD TVs and huge 5.1 sound systems. I think that is the biggest change and this is the biggest hurdle for the PC to overcome. How can it get itself on that shelf next to the console?

With that being said, we are wholly committed to bringing great gaming experiences to all gamers no matter where they are or what platform they want to play on; provided there are people who want to play. We will be there, whether it's on the console or on the PC.

Source....

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Mafia 2 Gets Naked

2K have included collectible Playboy magazines in game. As the game has been classified as an adult 18 rating the guys at 2K have completely uncensored the Playboy magazines that you can find and then open to goggle at the nakedness inside.

It was announced back in March that 2K had signed a deal with Playboy to offer vintage issues of the magazine as an in-game collectible. What know one knew was that the completely nude centrefold will spring forth on screen whenever you pick one up.

It seems that games are readily adding nakedness and sex scenes, because as we all know, sex sells, especially amongst the teen gaming community.

Our thoughts on this?

Gaming is in the entertainment industry just like movies and they have had nakedness for some time. As the amount of money pouring in to the gaming industry out performs its Hollywood brethren it is no wonder that publishers have moved into this area as well. Parents should just be made well aware of the age ratings that are used on games in the same way that they are used on films. But how many of us sneaked in to 18 only films when we were 16?

Source
 
Re: Mafia II

Infected said:
Denby Grace: Yes, we are big fans of multi-core processors and our engine absolutely, fully supports them. The more cores you have the better it is for the game.
That is the part I love :ohyeah:

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Apart from Playboy ofcourse :P
 
Re: Mafia II

I supposed some European folks have already got their copies. PC version has AA, but levels of AA are not selectable.



Now for the PC version hands-on preview (YES with screenshots too):

Gameplanet

Screenshots heaven (again PC version):

PC Screens
 
Re: Mafia II

Thats awesome, looks promising. I had actually quit Mafia 1 after an uber annoying racing game in which i think i crashed x times before nuking the game from my HDD (back in 07, or 08).
 
Re: Mafia II

I'm actually playing the first game now (alongside Darksiders). They say that they have fixed the racing mission issue with patch 1.2.
 
Mafia II is a sandbox-style action-adventure video game which is the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is being developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and will be published by 2K Games.

Mafia II was announced in August 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention, and will be available for PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360.It is scheduled for release in North America on 24 August 2010 and in other regions on 27 August 2010.

GAMEPLAY
The game will be set from 1945 to 1957 in Empire Bay (the name is a reference to New York's state nickname "The Empire State".), a fictional city based on San Francisco and New York City, with influences from Chicago and Detroit. The game will feature a completely open-ended game map of 10 square miles. No restrictions are included from the start of the game. There will also be around 50 vehicles in the game, as well as licensed music from the era.

Many firearms from the previous game will make a return, for example the Thompson M1928, the Colt 1911 and a pump action shotgun. As seen in screenshots, new WWII-era weapons like the MP40, the M3 Grease Gun, and the MP28 will make an appearance in the game as well as the MG42.

Interacting with objects in the environment involves two action buttons- a standard action and a "violent" action, used in context-sensitive situations. A map will be included as in the original Mafia game. The checkpoint system has been completely overhauled. New controls include a cover system that allows the player to hide behind objects (such as generators, walls and large crates) to shoot enemies, rather than just using a crouch while behind an object. Flanking may be a large part of the combat.

STORY
Mafia II is a gritty drama which chronicles the rise of World War II Veteran Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants. As the game progresses, Vito will join a crime family and become a made man.

The story begins with the player character Vito returning home on leave from World War II. Vito had joined the U.S. military as a way of avoiding jail time for a botched robbery. He then discovers that his father died and left his family $2000 in debt. Vito reunites with his old friend, Joe Barbaro, and the two quickly embark upon a life of crime. Their criminal ascension starts with Mikey, a car mechanic who gets in a conflict with Joe. Mikey also needs a certain type of car to chop for parts, and will pay $400 for one that the police are not tailing. Soon enough, Vito, Joe, and Henry Tomasino (already a made man in the Clemente family) find themselves battling with, for, against, and around three crime factions: the Falcone, Vinci and Clemente families. The player is later introduced to Eddie Scarpa (a capo in the Falcone crime family). Another character is Marty, a young, novice getaway driver who takes Vito and Joe to the Empire Arms hotel in the mission "Room Service" involving the assassination of the Clemente family's don.

The game will contain two hours of in-game cutscenes. The original game, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, had a screenplay of 400 pages, opposed to the 700 pages of the sequel. Daniel Vávra, the writer and director of the original and the sequel, discussed the new angle of the game stating: "The old game was a tribute to gangster films, a romantic vision. Mafia II is grittier, real, a darker world, and the effects are based in reality." Official PlayStation Magazine states: "A high body count is still promised in this tale set in a fictional city 'inspired by' New York of the 1940s and '50s, but those casualties will come the hard way -- through small-scale operations rather than mass firefights."

Vito will also be able to pay for food and drinks, such as coffee, pie and various dishes to replenish health or stamina.
It has been stated by 2K Czech that the game's cutscenes are created by the game engine, in real time, rather than pre-rendered cutscenes.
Anybody excited about Mafia II, releasing on 24th August.
I am sure, the game will be banned in UAE due to nudity (Playboy)...but I know where to get the game from ;)
 
About time we got a thread for this game. The demo comes out in 48 minutes now. It's a good thing my connection speed is now 1Mbps 24/7. I plan on getting the PC version first and then for both the consoles. Having completed Mafia, I have very high hopes for this game.
 
The first Mafia was just awesome ... :D ... playing it again waiting for Mafia 2 .. hope the story line is as good as it was in the previous one ... n it would be better if we get the old thompson 1920 :ohyeah:
 
^Many firearms from the previous game will make a return, for example the Thompson M1928, the Colt 1911 and a pump action shotgun.

Today Demo comes out on PSN / Live / Windows :clap:

Can't wait to play this game....highly awaited since the Last installment came out.
 
I love the Thompson as well. It was my favourite weapon in Mafia. I pray the demo does not have a time restriction on it.
 
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