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MAFIA


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Started playing it today, excellent graphics, voice acting, attention to detail.

My only negatives are that there is too much 'busy work' in the beginning of the game.

1.85 GB install on 3 CD's, but the cinematics and 3D city is worth it. Bigger than all 3 of GTA3's cities...

I keep getting lost.

Great story, so far a 9/10 - would be a 10 if it wasn't for the first 4 or 5 missions, and no 'anytime' save.

Pick this one up, especially if you like mobsters (and who doesn't>?)

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I'm a pretty good ways through (stayed up a good part of the night) and haven't really died too much. The 'anywhere' save would be good to have, but so far haven't run into anything impossible to complete... got to see a nice sex scene too .

The City is more interactive than GTA 3 was, at least to me.

The 30's feel of it, with the excellent cinematics and voiceovers kind of did it for me, so I can forgive for the lack of an 'anywhere' save...

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its the idea of sex scene --> in pc game.

quote:

bah! who needs Mafia when you have BCM?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

True!!

BCM all the way

ah multiplayer is gonna be fun

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quote:

Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

uhm...what about the fact that you can't save anywhere you like.

And if you screw up, you have to start from scratch?

Agreed, this is my chief qualm with the game.

However, aside from that, I found it very entertaining.. definately one of the better releases of this year. The ending was good too

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Guest Grayfox

hah the plus side to being a parent... i can get all the games i want bwahahaha.

i got this one today. very nice. i like the dirty dingy 30's feel. the sex scene was nice (sarah's a hottie), and the car chases are cool as hell.

the only thing i miss though is riding shotgun with a tommy blasting out the passenger window.

other than that, im willing to forgive the no save anywhere... besides it saves before each major part anyways.

definitely 9.5/10 because i dont think anything is perfect... at least i havent met her yet

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Read a preview about this game a long time ago, and after realizing that it was linear I promptly forgot about it. I passionately hate linear games. I mean it's fine if it has a storyline, but if you can't just go out on your own, or continue playing after the storyline is over, then the game is a complete waste. That's my point, and I am sticking to it like I have for all these years.

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quote:

Originally posted by Soback:

Read a preview about this game a long time ago, and after realizing that it was linear I promptly forgot about it. I passionately hate linear games. I mean it's fine if it has a storyline, but if you can't just go out on your own, or continue playing after the storyline is over, then the game is a complete waste. That's my point, and I am sticking to it like I have for all these years.

*Cough* Free Ride and Free Ride Extreme *Cough*

And that's quite a strict regimen.. are you saying you've never played classics like Freespace 1/2, Hostile Waters, Battlezone, or any of the Mechwarrior series, sheerly for that reason?

Ouch.

[ 09-02-2002, 02:14 PM: Message edited by: Parias ]

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Guest Grayfox

well if you look at it THAT way... then isnt every game (with the exception of BCM) linear?

every game has an ultimate goal you must reach right? and once you reach that goal the game ends... so you still must go from point "a" to point "b". so then doesnt this make all games linear to a point if not straight up linear???

its the gameplay value to me. a game could be as linear as walking down to the 7-11, but if its fun as hell to get there and do that, then ill play it till my eyes bleed.

[ 09-02-2002, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: Grayfox ]

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Guest Grayfox

dont get me wrong... its not pr0n by any means... its just something you rarely see (if ever) see in mature games. so as testosterone driven creatures, we males tend to find it somewhat amazing besides, we just wanna see how close they can model a female body

hell last one i saw was in top secret epsiode for the famicom... and then it was only shadows on the window

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Let me clear this up. All games have a storyline, but some games don't have a random gameplay option. Like for example, Hostile Waters had a storyline, but it didn't have an option where you just select a map, build up your stuff and destroy the enemy. If all there is to the game is the storyline, then it's not really worth it. Once you beat it, there is zero replayability, and that is not only nostalgic but very dissapointing at the end. That's exactly why strategy games (mostly) rock. Take Medieval Total War, it got a storyline, and then you can also pick a race and just play "conquer the world" mode, in which random events still happen to make gameplay interesting and adds some "meat" to it, while you are basically free to go about it anyway you want, no repeats of failed missions (which is the most annoying part of storyline games).

That is also why I still think that Mig Alley is the best flight sim to date. It had random missions in every campaign. Also IL 2 Sturmovik kicks butt when you download the random campaign generator.

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Randomization is paramount IMO. Without it, you're just doing the same thing over and over. Even otherwise fun games can have this problem, as they will eventually get old if they don't change things up a bit.

I finally put NOLF in the 'reject pile' (all the 'spent' games go there) a few weeks ago. After playing it through three times, twice on the hardest difficulty setting, it just got too repeditive.

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Guest Grayfox

i agree... several games take up my "trade in" pile.

mafia got kind of redundant after awhile... drive here pick this person up, drive there, knock this person off, drive back to the garage.

dont get me wrong, i loved the game, its just that sometimes it was really repetitive.

the ending was definitely the best i have seen in a loooong while. the storyline was great, AND you still have the free ride, and free ride extreme levels to play around in so...

i still give it a 9.5/10

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  • 2 weeks later...

This post from Bill over at GoneGold.com says it all:

quote:

THE GAME YOU CAN'T REFUSE

Norton’s Ice Cream is on the southwest corner of the central plaza in Chinatown. I’m standing in the central plaza as I write this, taking notes as I walk around this unique and colorful district in the city of Lost Heaven. I mention Norton’s because there is a fender bender just outside their front door, and the ensuing traffic jam and honking horns are reminders that no place stays peaceful for long. I think I’ll take a walk.

It’s bright and a little crisp today, too cold for shirtsleeves, but not too cold for open windows to dot the buildings that surround the plaza. Fresh duck hangs in the grocery store windows and I breathe in the exotic smells as I pass by. I see a sign for Bad Guy Pale Dry ale, and it’s awfully tempting at only five cents a glass, but somebody has to drive my orange Thor ragtop home, and since I’m running a little short on friends lately, I guess I should stay pale and dry myself. I can always drop by Salieri’s bar later when I get back to Little Italy.

There are beautiful women in this part of the city. I admire them as they walk by. We are worlds apart--cultural differences and all that—even though we live in the same city and our neighborhoods are less than a mile apart. I know the 1930’s are pretty progressive compared to any decade that came before it, but I don’t think dating a Chinese woman would go over very well at home or at work. Plus I couldn’t exactly explain my day job to her, now could I? Every choice we make opens up some doors and closes others. Sometimes I can even hear them lock behind me.

It’s not like me to complain about my life. The Don is a great boss, Paulie is the best friend a guy could ever ask for, and Sarah—well, Sarah is just beyond words. I’ve just been thinking about things every once in a while. I think it all started when I snuck onto that luxury paddlewheel steamer (believe me, you don’t want to know why I was there, although I bet you read about it in the papers—yeah, that was me). While I was waiting to take care of my business, I walked around and just listened to the beautiful people. They weren’t that different from me—better accents, better clothes, sure, but underneath we are all pretty much the same. I listened to the band for a few minutes on the top deck, and that swing music just got into my blood. Everything felt fine. My life feels good, usually, but not fine. It made me wonder what my life might have been like if I made different choices, if I hadn’t accepted an invitation to join a certain organization. I didn’t have to, but I couldn’t see spending my whole life broke as a cabbie. Now I’ve got plenty of dough, but what they say is true. Nothing is free.

What they should have said is that the only thing free is nothing.

When I got back from that cruise I drove out to Oak Knoll that night, past the houses of the rich and famous. More security guards than I have family. You wouldn't believe the rides people have out there, either. I wonder how they got it all, whether they think they deserve it, whether they lie awake at night like I do.

I don't mind blood on my hands. I just wish I could get it out of my dreams. They say the essence of a great man is that he overcomes his flaws. Well, I must have a chance to be truly great.

Maybe later I’ll take a drive past the airport. It always clears my head to drive up into the mountains. That road has enough curves to forget everything, including your troubles. One night I took a side road, just a dirt trail, really, and before I knew it I pulled up to what looked like a logging camp. That's the thing about Lost Heaven. Look around--you never know what you'll find.

This isn't a game. It's a world. It's Mafia, and we are never going to look at games the same way again.

I can't even compare this game to other games. I have to compare it to film, and that is a compliment of the highest order. I thought of two directors while I played this game--Quentin Tarentino and Alfred Hitchcock. Tarentino is an obvious choice, but what impressed me even more were the times that I thought of Hitchcock. There is a chase scene that reminded me strongly of the general feel of North by Northwest. There is a second chase scene that begins up an agonizingly steep hill, and the sense of helpless urgency created by the terrain was an ingenious nod to Hitchcock. The camera angles used in the cut scenes were seemingly influenced by him as well--influenced but not copied.

There are so many "best evers" in this game that it's hard to list them all. Best game world in terms of complexity, architecture, and detail. Best writing. Best graphics (lighting effects and textures are sensational). Best sound effects. Best voice acting. Best soundtrack. What is even more incredible is that in these categories Mafia is not just barely the best ever--it is truly a leap forward. It's not just a small difference--it's a shocking, brilliant gap. Illusion Softworks has vaulted into the ranks of the elite developers, maybe even right to the top, on the strength of this game.

While I'm mentioning best ever categories, the soundtrack and voice acting have to receive special mention. Instead of an original soundtrack, actual period music is used, and it is just absolutely spectacular. Django Reinhardt, The Mills Brothers, Louis Prima, Lonnie Johnson, Louis Jordan--the songs perfectly reflect the era because they were part of the era. If you haven't heard of these musicians, they're well worth listening to outside the game as well. The voice acting is also stellar. What an enormous difference it makes in the immersive quality of a game when the voice talent cares about what they're doing and has real ability.

Great games, like great people, overcome their flaws. Mafia has them, but for once the flaws didn't make me turn away. This is the only game I've ever played without being able to choose where I save that I didn't quit on. The save points are hard-coded into the missions, and as you would expect, some are unevenly placed. However, and I'll probably never say this about another game, there are times during the game where not being able to save creates an enormous amount of tension, particularly in one particular mission involving a race. I don't want to drop any big spoilers for people who haven't played the game, but there is a race mission and you have to win to progress in the story. It lasts between eight and nine minutes, your car is very touchy in terms of handling, and the other drivers will actively impede your progress. This is the absolute poster child for the kind of mission I can't stand.

And I couldn't stop playing it. The graphics were so exhilarating (like the Grand Prix Legends engine gone to heaven) and the sensation of speed so compelling that I just kept driving. I couldn't even finish a race the first five or six times I drove the mission because the car was so twitchy. Kept playing. Couldn't figure out how I could possibly ever win the damn race. Kept playing. Cursed, threw the controller. Kept playing. Finished third a couple of times, then second. Kept playing. I'd probably put two hours into this mission, and I realized that my neck was practically locked into place because of how tensely I was holding my body. I was just totally into this damn race. Then I drove a flawless race, finish in eight minutes, won by thirteen seconds, and I was whooping and hollering like I just won the Indy 500.

The race was so good that it became a game inside a game. I think that's what kept me going. There were a couple of other missions that were very difficult for me, and I got frustrated, but I never considered stepping back or taking a few days off. There was no way I was stopping. The missions themselves are generally fascinating--there is an amazing mix of activities and levels of difficulty as well as locations. You can usually take several different approaches successfully, but there is usually a key, conceptually, in terms of completing the mission, and if you haven't figured this out you better hope you have plenty of ammo and very good aim. The best approaches are very ingenious, at times, and they usually require you thinking about the world as a world instead of a game.

This is the first time I've ever played a game with problematic design decisions where my response has been "I don't care." I just don't. It's just too fantastic to be dragged down. The game affected me more than any other game I've ever played.

Mafia affected me because the game broke from the traditional game mold. What we mostly feel in games is adrenaline. That's exciting, and it keeps me playing, but there needs to be more. I want to feel dread. I want to feel regret.

I want to feel human.

I felt some of these things in Mafia, and that alone makes it groundbreaking, at least for me.

I still want more, though. I want relationships to develop, to prosper and to sour. If a game has a two gig footprint, there has to be room for relationships. It can't all be about adrenaline. I can get the adrenaline from Speedball on the Amiga 500, circa 1989. A game has to have context to be meaningful, and without meaning, a game can be great fun but not great.

I'm not sure if this is the greatest game I ever played. I got to the final mission, and before I started I knew that if it was done just right, I would write about it in terms of being the greatest. The setup for the final mission is just epic, the location is epic, the mission itself is outstanding, and yet--two missteps, though small, made me hold back just slightly. The save game for the last mission is placed inappropriately, I felt, which drains some emotional impact from the mission. There is also a voiceover I wish I could just have cut out entirely except for the first few lines. I was trying to think about all the things that had happened to me, all the amazing things, and the game wouldn't let me reflect. That's another feeling I don't think I've ever had in a game before, a moment where I was reflecting back on all the things I'd seen and felt, and thinking about them not as a game player but as a human being.

As I write that, though, I realize I've already made my decision. There is no other game where I could drive my car around the city, park somewhere, and just enjoy the day. I can do that in Lost Heaven. Swinging tunes, a bustling city, a thousand things to see and do. I think I'll just put the car in the garage, take the trolley, connect with the elevated train station on Market Avenue, and ride the train to the waterfront. It's a great day for exploring. Be seeing you.

Let me get to sleep,

bill


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  • 2 weeks later...

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