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Mafia 3 |OT| "Family isn't who you're born with, it's who you die for"

VE3TRO

Formerly Gizmowned
Whats the resolution like on XB1 then? Mine should be here today but I just noticed the retailer is saying estimated arrival for the 18th.
 

theDeeDubs

Member
This frame rate is terrible on Xbox. Freezes every time I shoot. Constant dips. Yikes. Might just shut this off and try again tomorrow.

Maybe try a hard reset. That helped me on Hyper Light Drifter the other day. I haven't experienced that yet on Mafia III, but I'm not very far in.

Edit* Should clarify that I'm playing on an S.
 

dreamfall

Member
Four hours in and having a blast - the discover-able connected interiors of buildings has me floored. There's a ton of density in this open world, and I kind of love exploring it just for aesthetic value alone. Hangar 13 put some real love into the art of this game, and it really shows.

As far as the story goes, I'm really enjoying the presentation aspects - the story unfolds in such an amazing way, flashbacks and character reflection. The gunplay has led to some awesome firefights even with some of the braindead AI because I find myself risking getting killed and going for brutal executions. The driving is beautiful and heavy on the Sim setting, and it's a real joy to cruise around New Bordeux.

I'm happy! The performance is utter trash on the PC but it's been a lot of fun. I hope the patch comes soon. As a long time Mafia fan, this game has been pretty spectacular thus far!
 
I like what they're doing with a lot of the story and presentation. I like the characters So far that's the highlight of the game. The gunplay feels decent enough in most cases. The soundtrack is phenomenal. The rest? Eh, er... it's kind of bad.

The AI is terrible. One of the early missions has you
rescuing some ladies from a prostitution house
. I stab someone, a couple of people kind of react and run off while the others that were also near me didn't even bat an eyelash. A lot of it just feels so lifeless when compared to other open world games.

I've seen NPCs stopping in the middle of the road while trying to cross on foot with no traffic moving. I've seen a civilian woman NPC walking on top of a car. I've seen at least one enemy NPC get stuck between an open door and a wall.

The police don't seem to give a damn when you run a traffic light or stop sign, or speed despite the game saying that they'll keep n eye out for that sort of thing!

I'd also love to know why the only way to manually choose when to be lethal vs. non-lethal is by going into your options to change that! Why isn't there a way to simply tap a button for non-lethal takedowns or hold for lethal?

Transitions between some animations seem almost non-existent and end up looking very jerky as a result. There are also some general clipping issues, most easily seen during melee moves. IE: Enemies will clip into world geometry or Lincoln will sometimes grab the air around an enemy during a stealth takedown instead of the actual enemy model itself.

And then there's the crazy fast lighting changes as the clouds (I assume?) roll in front of the Sun.

It's a lot of stuff like that which ends up bugging me over time as they keep happening. There are also some minor "quality of life" things that I don't really understand either. Example of one: Why can you only move forward through the radio stations? Why not just make it a wheel or at least include a forward and backward option for changing stations.

I've flipped so much on whether or not I like the game tonight in just a few hours of playing. Any time I start to get into it, something else pops up that gives me pause.

Oh, and the game didn't really like it when I changed the mirror quality in the video options while I was standing in front of a mirror. It crashed my game immediately.

When 90% of your impressions are negative i think that means you don't like the game.
 

hbkdx12

Member
Thoughts so far:

I wish the controls were more streamlined like similar games

The facial expressions in cutscenes are probably the best i've seen in a game ever. Consistently impressive.

Stealthing rackets have been incredibly easy, in large part due to the dumb ai. The whistle ability makes for easy pickings.

Combat is visceral and extremely satisfying. Enemies realistically react to where they've been hit and everytime you melee kill someone there's this huge thud that accentuates it and gives it weight.

I really liked the way they introduce you to the racial element of the game in the first couple missions.

Music is great, It may be like the best oldie/throwback soundtrack just behind Vice City.

Simulation Driving feels good. Its pretty much handles exactly like GTA IV. Cars take a while to get up to top speed, you can't break on a dime and you'll fishtail around corners if you don't manage your speed. I don't have a point of reference as to how normal driving feels.

So far, i've seen a lot of interiors and not just the ones the game funnels you to, i've done a far bit of exploring and there's a lot of shops and houses you can go into

Spoilers as far as collectibles are handled.
Collectibles how up on your mini map when your near them and once you learn to wiretap neighborhoods (which is fairly early) the collectibles in that wiretapped area show up on your pause map. So there's no guesswork to getting collectibles. It's simply a matter of driving around and picking them up. I'm personally all for this but im sure a lot of people will be turned off by this as it trivializes the idea of collectibles for some.

The weather changes in this game are kind of awful as they happen too abruptly and it's jarring and immersion breaking. The bloom from the sunrise/sunset is also blinding as all hell if you happen to be driving towards it.

I hate how most actions in the game require a button hold rather than a button press. It's relatively quick but still annoying. Reminds me of NMS in that regard. Pretty much anything you do with Square (open doors, pick up ammo, etc) is going to require a quick hold.
 

Filben

Member
After reading a few posts here and on Steam regarding technical aspects I guess I've done right not to pre-order (why would anyone do this today is beyond me; poor coded software for full price, besides the occasional 10% off at.digital stores that doesn't compensate for the mess we receive sometimes). And friend of mine cancelled his pre-order as soon as he heard there are no reviews before release.

I was really excited about Mafia 3 since I love its predecessors. I will buy, however, if they fix the PC version and actually make PC version deserving that name.
 

Vitor711

Member
After reading a few posts here and on Steam regarding technical aspects I guess I've done right not to pre-order (why would anyone do this today is beyond me; poor coded software for full price, besides the occasional 10% off at.digital stores that doesn't compensate for the mess we receive sometimes). And friend of mine cancelled his pre-order as soon as he heard there are no reviews before release.

I was really excited about Mafia 3 since I love its predecessors. I will buy, however, if they fix the PC version and actually make PC version deserving that name.

At least they're patching it already to remove the FPS lock this weekend. Crazy fast turnaround. Hopefully it's a good fix and doesn't break more sh*t.

My concern is that I swear I saw the game dip below 30FPS in the misty swamps once or twice and I'm running on a 980 at 1440p. Doesn't bode well for me to hit 60FPS then and speaks to tough requirements for anything above 1080.
 

hbkdx12

Member
I was having fun till I got to a certain boat mission....vehicle damage is way too fucking high. There is no reason why its taking me 20+ tries to get past that shit.

I'm on PS4 and i had the same exact problem. For whatever reason, when i'm in a boat, I have to mash down R2 incredibly hard, to the point it feels like i'm going to break it, for the boat to go past 30mph. I don't know why this is. I don't have this problem when i'm in cars.

I also had this problem in GTA V when i fly planes. I'd have to hold down R2 very hard for the plane to get enough acceleration to take off. Never had that problem with any other vehicle in that game though.
 

SZips

Member
When 90% of your impressions are negative i think that means you don't like the game.
I mentioned a few of the things that I like about the game. Just because I didn't slather an equal amount of praise in the post doesn't mean I'm firmly of one mind or another when it comes to "liking" a game I've only spent three hours with.
 
- I've had no crashes in like 10 hours on PS4

- The rapid lighting changes are annoying. The skybox during rain sometimes acts very weird, and occasionally I'll get a permanent Dark Souls glow around myself and my car during storms, like reflected light is bugged or something.

- Pedestrian AI is loooooool. It's as if they don't have a solution in their scripting for other cars being stuck/dead/abandoned in front of them. I've seen intersections packed with like 30 vehicles because an abandoned car is on the street, or the weapons van got stuck on a parked car. I appreciate actually seeing traffic jams in an open world game, but it's completely for the wrong reasons :p

- I wish there was more systemic police/criminal activity, and general city randomness overall. I've seen some racial tension with the police in the French Ward (the little interaction from the gameplay reveal), but it's not enough. This is one of those areas where Rockstar is the undisputed leader, and it's disappointing that other devs don't put up much of a fight.



With all of that said, I'm still having fun. Combat, as I've mentioned before, is satisfying. The cover system does exactly what you want it to, and gunplay is punchy as hell. The writing has been very solid thus far, and I really enjoy listening to all the main and supporting characters talk, and watching cutscene play out. Lincoln is proving to have more depth than the pre-release showing would have you believe- he's not the raging Kratos figure it looked like he was going to be. I also still really enjoy the feeling of taking over business and having changes occur in the game world, however small or large they may be. It's something we've seen done in a few open world games, but it's still effective.

Also, I went exploring for a few hours last night and I have to say, the map is really well designed. Each district has its own feel, and sightlines have been carved all over the place, especially noticeable when you're on foot. The French Ward/Downtown/Southdowns areas in particular look really good at night, and the Bayou is large and dense enough that it actually gives the impression of totally leaving the city behind and stepping into a different game.

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I definitely WANT to run red-lights and not obey traffic laws. I can't stand open world games that penalize me for having fun behind the wheel.
 

ViciousDS

Banned
Can't wait to get off work and pick this up. Problem is I got into the steep beta lol......don't have to decide if it's really important to me to play steep......probably for like 30 minutes. Then it's Mafia time!!!!
 

heringer

Member
Impressions sounds like Mad Max alright (PC port aside, since Mad Max was stellar in this regard). Probably going to be hammered by some reviews and end up with a low 7's metascore.

Can't wait to play it tonight.
 
Mafia 2 is one of the best surprises I've ever had with a game, I loved every second of it. Unfortunately, these impressions have put it from "buy it when it's cheap" to "don't buy".

Real shame.
 

JoeNut

Member
They seem to be advertising this like crazy, it looks like GTA to me, which isn't a bad thing.

I've never played a Mafia game before, am i right in saying it's basically GTA? or is there something totally different about it?
 

heringer

Member
Oh..

Surprised reviewers will wait that long, lol.

Well, they are just now receiving their copies. Maybe some got a little earlier, but monday is probably a safe bet since it's a fairly long game (I assume).

Honestly, I'm pretty sure it will get hammered by reviews, lol.
 

Rellik

Member
I definitely WANT to run red-lights and not obey traffic laws. I can't stand open world games that penalize me for having fun behind the wheel.

You can still be penalised if there's a cop around but I've not had any trouble so far.

They seem to be advertising this like crazy, it looks like GTA to me, which isn't a bad thing.

I've never played a Mafia game before, am i right in saying it's basically GTA? or is there something totally different about it?

Mafia is more about story. But they've definitely added a lot more open world to this one.
 

Nyx

Member
Ps4 graphics are really bad :(

No they're not.

The only thing bothering me in regard to the graphics is the lighting sometimes, when there's fog and glare from the sun it can wash out the entire screen.

Played around 2 hours now and absolutely loved the 'intro', as mentioned the storytelling is top-notch.
 

Hjod

Banned
Was going to buy this on PSN(EU) today, but they want 98$ for the deluxe edition, no standard edition to be found. I'll just wait then and order the physical copy I guess.
 

KGoogle

Member
No they're not.

The only thing bothering me in regard to the graphics is the lighting sometimes, when there's fog and glare from the sun it can wash out the entire screen.

Played around 2 hours now and absolutely loved the 'intro', as mentioned the storytelling is top-notch.

In my opinion watch dogs 1 had better graphics
 

Nameless

Member
Has anyone who's not feeling the A.I.tried bumping up the difficulty(if that's even an option)? Curious if it makes a difference of just turns enemies into hyper accurate bullet sponges.
 
Has anyone who's not feeling the A.I.tried bumping up the difficulty(if that's even an option)? Curious if it makes a difference of just turns enemies into hyper accurate bullet sponges.

I think the problem people have is that the AI doesn't appear to respond to sound cues (outside of weapon discharges and even that is hit and miss) - as long as something happens within visual range, their reaction is adequate but believability goes out the window when someone dies screaming next to an enemy but they stay stoic because their visual perception cone is turned in the other direction.
 

SomTervo

Member
This game might have my favorite combat in this subgenre of open world games. Lincoln is a beast, and the recoil on pistols makes double taps feel amazing.

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Awesome GIF, thanks.

I like that they've gone for the Naughty Dog spacious-circle crosshair, too. That's a great design.
 

SomTervo

Member
They seem to be advertising this like crazy, it looks like GTA to me, which isn't a bad thing.

I've never played a Mafia game before, am i right in saying it's basically GTA? or is there something totally different about it?

GTA is a sandbox series with open worlds.

Mafia is a story-focused series with open worlds.

It's not developed substantially as a sandbox like GTA, so you won't get as much fun just mucking about in the world or shooting people or playing around. The point is to drill down into the story and get through it, although they've added some confusing things to this one like collectibles.
 

Karak

Member
Well, they are just now receiving their copies. Maybe some got a little earlier, but monday is probably a safe bet since it's a fairly long game (I assume).

Honestly, I'm pretty sure it will get hammered by reviews, lol.
Actually many of us found retail sources. I know of at least 4 and those are everyone I asked. From what I understand most will review based on their retail version + any time with whatever platform they got from the review copies.

Has anyone who's not feeling the A.I.tried bumping up the difficulty(if that's even an option)? Curious if it makes a difference of just turns enemies into hyper accurate bullet sponges.

I talk about it in my review I am posting later. It seems to just be more accurate and notice fights or you around it more quickly.
 
How does Mafia 3 compare to Watch Dogs in terms of story, combat, mission structure and driving? I liked Watch Dogs, so if this game is at least as good as that, I'm going to like this.
 

heringer

Member
Actually many of us found retail sources. I know of at least 4 and those are everyone I asked. From what I understand most will review based on their retail version + any time with whatever platform they got from the review copies.



I talk about it in my review I am posting later. It seems to just be more accurate and notice fights or you around it more quickly.
Cool! Though most outlets don't post reviews on weekends (I think?). At least Gamespot confirmed they just got the copy today and the review will be up some time next week.

Is your review coming today? Please give us a little taste of what you think of the game.

(I bet it's going to be wait for a sale :p)
 

Karak

Member
Maybe i need to mess around with my tv settings then because for me it doesnt look great but i have been playing hdr games lately so could be my eyes

Got to admit with all its problems...ya I can't say it looks great thats for sure

Cool! Though most outlets don't post reviews on weekends (I think?). At least Gamespot confirmed they just got the copy today and the review will be up some time next week.

Is your review coming today? Please give us a little taste of what you think of the game.

(I bet it's going to be wait for a sale :p)

It is indeed a wait for a sale.
The story is amazing, combat is great, but this should have never EVER have been released in its current form. I almost rated it a Deep Deep sale or Rent.

Also the PC downgrade is insane. INSANE. I did a trailer analysis of supposed game footage awhile ago and then played that at the starting of this week. It was hugely downgraded

Total crashes across PS4,Xbox One, and PC?....22.
22 fucking crashes. There is no good god damned way this could have passed cert. Admittedly I bet I have more hours in the game than anyone else lol. I am still up since...like monday or tuesday of solid testing and playing hahaha
 

heringer

Member
Got to admit with all its problems...ya I can't say it looks great thats for sure



It is indeed a wait for a sale.
The story is amazing, combat is great, but this should have never EVER have been released in its current form. I almost rated it a Deep Deep sale or Rent.

Also the PC downgrade is insane. INSANE. I did a trailer analysis of supposed game footage awhile ago and then played that at the starting of this week. It was hugely downgraded

Total crashes across PS4,Xbox One, and PC?....22.
22 fucking crashes. There is no good god damned way this could have passed cert. Admittedly I bet I have more hours in the game than anyone else lol. I am still up since...like monday or tuesday of solid testing and playing hahaha

Wow, 22 crashes is... a lot.

Yeah, even from videos the game already screamed unpolished. Definitely rushed.

I ended up buying anyway because the story appears to deliver and I have that itch for a game with a good story.
 
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