I agree with you Jibber. Mafia II has a fantastic atmosphere, but I prefer GTA IV's personally. The Player and Driving Physics are much better in GTA IV which is probably why I think it seems to have a much more refined feel than Mafia II.

Either way, I will definitely be getting it for my Xbox 360 when it gets released. I have been suffering no frame drops like said in here though? The game has been running very smoothly with no issues, and the graphics are lovely!

Oh, and a little tip for some fun in the demo. Find one of those old Corvette C1 lookalike cars rolling around in the demo. Steal it, and take it to the car shop near the bottom of the map and modify the engine fully. When the car backs out, go towards the end of the road to your left. Then, turnaround and floor it trying to keep the car in the middle of the road. Keep going, and eventually, you will see a huge ramp at the end of the road. You can get lots of air off it.

Of course it's a different feel. The city in GTA is one of todays, with huge skyscrapers, 4-lane city roads, crack-junkies running around, many different sportscars, helicopters, cellphones, over-population (xD). simply things that were not present in the 50's.

Mafia II is awesome for what it is and the story hopefully will be as epic as the first one.

BTW, someone got the wheel working? Mine (g25) doesnt get recognised at all.

Quote from JazzOn :

Of course it's a different feel. The city in GTA is one of todays, with huge skyscrapers, 4-lane city roads, crack-junkies running around, many different sportscars, helicopters, cellphones, over-population (xD). simply things that were not present in the 50's.

I was mainly talking about how the gameplay feels. For me it's like LFS vs. Rfactor. One is looking a bit dated but feels smooth and natural, the other looks great but feels a bit "static" in comparison.

@Nathan
I'll try that tonight!

Ofcourse, you all know how the cars in the 50's used to handle. How can you judge on the ''feel'' and ''handling'' of the cars anyway.
To be honest, I think it's just retarded to compare the cars and setting to GTA IV, as they're both so different. OK, they're both sandbox games in a big city where you have to shoot people and do missions, but that's about it as far as it'll go with comparisons.
The cars understeer and oversteer, and I'm already more then happy about that, the game isn't based solely on driving a car anyway.. what do you expect.

Yea, the physics in simulation mode is a lot of fun, tho a bit frustrating for me with KB

Jibber, so you say GTA is like rtractor ? Thats not fair

But seriously, GTA has more of a comic style to it and that's what makes it funnier. Alone how the cars wobble around going over a bump or through corners, wherby Mafia has a more "serious" behavior, without being "stuck-up".

The shooting is a lot different too, just like in the first one.

PS: i'm not really informed, but maybe someone knows if there will be multiplayer modes or online/co-op missions?

E: nvm, no multiplayer.

Quote :

"We're not doing multiplayer... but downloadable content is something we're definitely looking at. All games seem to have it nowadays. We're not ready to talk about it right now, but I definitely won't close the door on downloadable content. Mafia is all about this single-player, cinematic experience, like watching a movie. Multiplayer just didn't feel right. At 2K, at a higher level, we certainly believe that if we're going to do something we're going to do it properly. We don't want to do a half-assed job on something".

E2: or it's supposed to be a surprise.

Quote :

Although we've heard about Mafia 2 having leaderboards, we have now found code that suggests there's an entire mp game included.

Source

when you think mafia, you think car chases and tommy guns. so driving has alot to do with it imo. i like the cars handling. i love the power slides from a standing start. the smoke is really good. and it's not too bad with physx disabled. as long as i can hit a 90° corner pure sideways then i'm happy.

Quote from Stiggie :

the game isn't based solely on driving a car anyway.. what do you expect.

Neither is GTAIV, so that what you're saying doesn't make much sense. (Not offensive meant)

Quote from Bose321 :

Neither is GTAIV, so that what you're saying doesn't make much sense. (Not offensive meant)

Wasn't comparing it to GTA IV, because.. like i said in the same comment comparing those 2 doesn't make sense in my opinion.

Quote from JazzOn :

Jibber, so you say GTA is like rtractor ? Thats not fair

But seriously, GTA has more of a comic style to it and that's what makes it funnier. Alone how the cars wobble around going over a bump or through corners, wherby Mafia has a more "serious" behavior, without being "stuck-up".

No, i'm saying GTA is like LFS. Mafia II is like Rfactor. Stupid comparison, i know...

And i agree about the cars behaviour in Mafia II, on first glance it looks much more realistic. After playing it for a few hours i can't help it tho... the physics in Mafia feel much more canned. In GTA everything feels like it's calculated in real time... even after you've taken the same corner a thousand times already, it never feels exactly the same... this is why i still have fun everytime i start up GTA. In Mafia, after a few hours of messing around, i feel like i've seen it all already (taking a corner sideways, maybe hitting the curb (sidewalk) a little... it looks the same almost every time. Or when you damage your car and your wheel starts to whobble, looks the same every time, so after 50 times you feel like "yeah, i've seen this before").

Don't get me wrong tho, i'm not trying to bash Mafia II. I'll buy it and i'm sure i'll have lots of fun with it.

Quote from Stiggie :

Wasn't comparing it to GTA IV, because.. like i said in the same comment comparing those 2 doesn't make sense in my opinion.

It makes a lot of sense, they are both sandbox games. It's not like we're comparing an FPS and a racing game. The setting isn't much of an issue, cars from the 50's still had to obey to the laws of physics. Fist fights and shooting a pistol were pretty much the same 50 years ago aswell, etc...

Here it comes again, the bad habit of sim racers over analyzing everything about physics.

Neither is a sim... both are supposed to be fun. Better physics = more fun. My god some of you people can't handle a bit of criticism and comparison...

Ok ok... it's the most fun, best game of all time! Happy?

naw, JJ is just whoring for some attention

Quote from JazzOn :

naw, JJ is just whoring for some attention

And rather unsuccessful at it, it is the first time I have seen people reacting to it.......after what...a year using this sic.

Better physics = more fun, yeah. But digging how physics is wrong in a game certainly won't make it more fun.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Well, Yeah, ATi cards do have problems.

You forgot one big problem of latest NVidia cards.

Quote from E.Reiljans :

You forgot one big problem of NVidia cards.

That's alright.. ATi cards just end up like this:

also, look at the way the smoke is rendered.....

Quote from E.Reiljans :

You forgot one big problem of latest NVidia cards.

thats physX at work

i wonder if it's modular.

ANYWAY....

I had 2 funny moments today in the Demo. My first one was I was blowing up a load of cars (BTW, don't do it to convertibles...The occupants turn into burnt corpses!) and a cop came over to investigate, so I hid my weapon. He stood next to me, scratched his head, then said "Hey buddy. You got any idea what the **** has gone on here?". I ROFL'ed.

The other one was a really weird glitch. I went to the garage to modify my car. The usual thing happened, beep your horn, then it cuts to a scene of the car pulling in etc. Only, when I selected Paintjob, the mechanic walked over to do that paint spraying animation thing, he touched my car and for some reason, this slammed the car into the wall knocking it off the ramp. So, I cancel everything and my player tries to drive out but now cant because of a wall being behind him. After about 20 seconds of trying to back up, the car starts clipping through the wall, then it flings me off outside the garage and I die....Probably the strangest glitch I have seen in the demo so far, but humorous none the less.

Quote from jibber :

Neither is a sim... both are supposed to be fun. Better physics = more fun. My god some of you people can't handle a bit of criticism and comparison...

Ok ok... it's the most fun, best game of all time! Happy?

I feel exactly the same about both these games, yet I (will) play Mafia more because of it's 50s atmosphere. Not saying GTA isn't detailed game, but things like opening windows, hoods, robbing shops, having empty fridge and the simple fact Mafia is CZ dubbed which I understand natively, unlike the EN version of GTA would make me buy this game very easily and also enjoy it as a best game of 2010 for sure.

Nathan_French_14: I tried the jump thingy you mentioned.

First time i flew into lamp post (while in air), that slowed me down and i landed near the gas station (!), otherwise i would land at least on it's roof.
Second time i speeded up to the ramp, jumped and... crashed directly into the fence on the bridge, being killed instantly.
Also nice detail i found are broken cars. They are parked mostly in the poor quarters, have broken glass and punctured tyres etc. I got into one of these, not knowing about it's failures and cop spotted me. I was speeding away and in first turn i realised that LF and RR tyres have puncture. Sadly, i smashed it into the wall thanks to that -> suicide.

Really good work there 2K.

E: Mysho, imo czech dubbing in demo sucks a$$, so if it won't be better in full game, i'll rather get english with CZ subtitles.

Quote from Kid222 :

E: Mysho, imo czech dubbing in demo sucks a$$, so if it won't be better in full game, i'll rather get english with CZ subtitles.

Ya, that's quite personal, but I also played first one in czech and somehow I like to listen to them and don't think about every sentence in english in my brain. (no subs )

Taking it as relax when playing, though voices and overall quality wasn't the best, yes.

Can anyone explain to me what this "Vega Pack" when you pre-order is all about?

^there are different preorder packs that give you different cars. its all on wikipedia.

I put a NVIDIA 9600gt in my rig as a dedicated physx card to assist my ATi 5850, and now I am getting over double the average framerates so i can run physx on high easily along with everything else! Love ati! so if you are an ati user, you can slap in a cheap nvidia card if you have a lot of physx games.

there's visible tire deformation in Mafia II. did you guys notice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl5miuo0sUs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcgF_htfUO4

Too bad my 3rd PCI-e slot is blocked by the PSU... You must use older drivers right? I've heard nvidia blocked this in newer drivers. I might buy a 9600 and put it in the place of my 2nd 4850.