Hangar 13, the studio behind Mafia 3 and Mafia: Definitive Edition, have undergone a round of layoffs according to a report on Bloomberg. The layoffs are the likely consequence of several of the studios projects being cancelled in the past year, including an unannounced superhero game.
]]>Hangar 13 studio head Haden Blackman has departed from the company. In an announcement made internally earlier this week and shared with several media outlets, owners 2K Games said that Haden was "leaving the company to pursue his passion at a new endeavor." Meanwhile, anonymous sources talking to Kotaku say that a Mafia prequel is in early development.
]]>Folks rooting around in the recent release of Mafia III's Definitive Edition have found part of Berlin, a level scrap likely from a cancelled espionage game. Supposedly a project Hangar 13 started after Mafia 3, the game known as Rhapsody was never announced but whispers have leaked out before. Now here's a rough outline of Berlin, which might be the most we'll ever see of Rhapsody. That's a nice little find, though it's less nice that some players are reporting the Def Ed has brought new technical problems too.
]]>A real pretty remake of Mafia is coming on August 28, 2K announced today. After accidentally blowing the surprise last week, they've now made Mafia: Definitive Edition official. As well as remaking the 2002 wiseguy 'em up, they've given the less-good 2010 sequel Mafia II a less-dramatic remastering, which is due to launch today as a free update. And Mafia III is getting its DLC thrown in for free. Together, they call this Mafia: Trilogy.
]]>Don't ya love a teaser trailer for an announcement that's also a trailer for a game that's coming out in three months? Classic. 2K have put up a new Mafia trailer today to announce that they'll make a real announcement next week. At least part of the reveal looks to be a remake of the original gangster 'em up Mafia game, according to a Microsoft Store page that's already floating around.
]]>Mafia is back online. Two years after its last post, longer still since the last piece of Mafia III DLC came and went, the open-world crime 'em up's Twitter account has poked the hornet's nest by tweeting out one word earlier today. Are they teasing a sequel? Lining up for a remaster? Or is this just a quiet love of familial bonds from an online brand? Right now, it's anyone's guess.
]]>Hangar 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 Hangar 13-developed follow-up appear dim. The studio has been hit with substantial layoffs.
]]>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 the game pulled from sale back in 2012. I've not played Mafia since ooh it was on CD, so I am tempted to see how it feels 15 years after it came out - and after two sequels of varying quality and direction.
]]>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.
]]>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 missions. I finally gave it a try a few weeks 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 their faces off. The DLC also lets Lincoln rebuild his murdered dad's bar, which is sweet. Given that Mafia III has gone down poorly, I'd expect this to be the last bit of it.
]]>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! will send players into a small town to deal with a corrupt sheriff. Antics ensue.
]]>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. This update comes a month after an update added dressing up, another feature I'd sorta expect to see in a sandbox. But hey, now players can design super cool radcars.
]]>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, there’s some bug fixes and performance improvements and all that sort of thing, you know, the things that matter, blah blah blah. But yes, let’s see some outfits.
]]>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 screen when a game's sprawl is revealed.
I've realised that my aversion to enormous games has been growing for a while, but the announcement of Red Dead Redemption 2 brought it into sharp focus. Do I really want yet another massive open world game? I'm not sure that I do.
]]>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 quite a few 'new' games.
]]>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.
]]>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 of my previous coverage. The final review will be later this week.
]]>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.
]]>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 you a full review next week. But in the meantime, below is a Review In Progress, my thoughts from the earlier hours of this open-city mafia-me-be, to give you a rough idea of whether this is a something in which you want to sink your pennies. Clearly the below is not a final review of the game, but it sure contains my feelings about the experience so far.
]]>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 problems like crashes, mind. Our John has experienced one crash during three hours of crimes, which he's currently committing so he can tell us Wot He Thinks of Mafia III, but some players report more.
]]>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 crimehat to do crimes and tell us all Wot He Thinks but it'll be a while before he's fully crimed-up. So for now, hey look it's out!
]]>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 and maybe giving you a wee smile then being on my way with a twinkle in my eye. So here, 2K have announced the PC system requirements for Mafia III [official site]. Perhaps you'll find that info useful.
]]>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 want the game less. Baffling. Welp, with Mafia III [official site] just over a month from launch - October 7th - 2K have detailed the paid and free extras coming to their open-world crimes 'em up after launch.
]]>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.
]]>E3 2016 has been finished for a couple of weeks, giving us time to wash the taste of LA smog from our mouths and reflect upon the games we saw there. This seems like a good time to talk about what we want to see from those games next, when they no doubt appear at Gamescom 2016 in August. What games are we most hoping to play, to see new trailers of, or hoping will reveal a different side of themselves in Cologne?
]]>It's no secret that I quite fancy the look of third-person crime-a-thon Mafia 3 [official site], and, with each passing trailer, it's fast becoming one of my most anticipated games of the year. Now, as this is E3 week, it's not unusual to see upcoming games treated to shiny new trailers, and Mafia 3's only gone and got itself two - its official scene-setting E3 vid, and another which gives us an action-heavy 20-minute dive into the cut-throat criminal underworld of New Bordeaux. Catch them both after the drop.
]]>I've watched The Sopranos from start to finish four times - partly because I'm a bit sad, and partly because it's a great TV show. Now, I know nothing about organised crime beyond what I've gleaned from documentaries and popular culture, but part of what draws me back to David Chase's seminal work is that it's believable, even if it's otherwise sugar-coated or occasionally Hollywood-ised.
What's struck me so far about Mafia 3 [official site] is that it too is believable, and the latest trailer gives a brief glimpse at the research that's gone into crafting its criminal underworld, rackets and missions, and also how they all tie together.
]]>The other day I sat down to clear out an old bills basket and realised The Godfather trilogy was on the telly. "I'll stick it on in the background," I naively thought to myself and, needless to say, I didn't get as much done as I'd first planned. Until part 3. Because no matter how much I want to like it, it's garbage compared to its forerunners.
Luckily, third-person crime fest Mafia 3 [official site] doesn't appear to be suffering from the same tri-entry tedium if the latest trailer is anything to go by. Visiting its fictionalised slant on New Orleans, New Bordeaux's alligator infested swamp area, industrialised docklands, and jazz-touting wharf district suggest number 3 is shaping up rather nicely. Look, see:
]]>One of the great pleasures of the original Mafia was flicking on the speed limiter and cruising around 1930s New Heaven, obeying the traffic laws. I remember people complaining about its slow, period-appropriate cars at the time, but now it seems to be a fondly recalled part of the experience.
Mafia 3 seems to be going for something more traditional for driving in 1968 New Bordeaux, in that its motoring is inspired by Steve McQueen movies like Bullitt. So says the developer video below.
]]>The open-world crime empire antics of Mafia III [official site] will kick off on October 7th, publishers 2K announced today. The time, the third-person crime 'em up is in the hands of a different studio, Hangar 13, and doesn't focus on the Cosa Nostra as much as a chap trying to take them down, as it visits a New Orleans-y city in 1968 through a new protagonist building his own empire. Here, a new trailer tells a little of the story:
]]>The year 2016 is slowly spinning up and retailers just can't wait to tell you when you'll be able to give them $60 for video games. Amazon France, Best Buy, Target—they care not a whit for carefully-crafted marketing plans or poorly-kept secrets.
Which is to say the release dates for Doom [official site], Homefront: The Revolution [official site], and Mafia 3 [official site] maybe (probably) leaked.
]]>A life of crime flashed before Adam's eyes when he saw a demo of Mafia III [official site] a few months back, then he hurried back to tell us all he saw on the other side. Now you can speculate about Mafia III yourself, as a new 12-minute gameplay vid shows the combat-heavy demo slice from Gamescom. A dev's on hand to gas with the IGN lot about what's going on in the demo and what's different in Mafia III, including chat about multiple endings and more stuff to do in the open world.
]]>The Mafia 3 [official site] presentation at Gamescom felt very much like an attempt to hammer home several important changes to the series rather than an accurate representation of the minute-by-minute experience of playing. Given that this was the first public showing of the game, which probably won't see release until the second half of 2016, that's to be expected. The vertical slice shown had a lot to cover: a new city, a new time period, a new protagonist, and a new take on open world criminal conquest. Perhaps it's understandable that the “new” was hammered home with all the subtlety of a blow from Mjolnir, but it's fair to say that the road to New Orleans looks rather treacherous.
And that brings us to item number one...
]]>2K seemed pretty clear that they were working on a Mafia III [official site], what with the images they released saying "Mafia III" and all, but no, that was just a teaser. Now it's official: 2K are - surprise surprise! - working on a third game in the open-world organised crime 'em up.
Leaving the fictional cities Lost Heaven and Empire bay, Mafia III is set in New Orleans of 1968. It's moved developers too, going from series creators 2K Czech/Illusion Softworks to Hangar 13, 2K's new studio. Come meet its new star, Lincoln Clay, and his pals in the announcement trailer:
]]>Last month a NeoGAF poster found that publisher 2K Games had pointed four domains at their own server: mafia3thegame.com, mafiaiiithegame.com, mafiathree.com, and mafiathreethegame.com. It was a baffling mystery that set alight the minds' of the world's greatest detectives and the games press. The clues were right in front of us all but what did they mean? Now we've discovered a second sign (via the Mafia Twitter account): Mafia 3's first trailer will be released next Wednesday, August 5th at 1pm BST.
The plot thickens.
]]>He is a funny one, that Ian Video Games. I tell you, he spends all his time on The Internet doing the strangest things. No, not like that you cheeky madam. Ian - you'll love this - he's working on a sort of a phone book for the Internet, so people can look up any website. He spends all day searching for new sites, and notes every single name he finds in his notebooks. He's filled hundreds of them! Says he's taking the idea to Dragon's Den.
And you'll never guess what - Ian says in his research (his "research", lawd!) he came across signs that we might hear about a new Mafia game from 2K soon.
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