“While most mob-inspired games’ emphasis is solely on action, Mafia II features a deep and compelling narrative that is embellished with a sophisticated, era-evoking atmosphere,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “In partnering with Playboy, we are able to add a unique element of authenticity to the game by using vintage images from the magazine that illustrate the power of Playboy’s influence on the attitudes and culture of that generation.”

Mafia II is a beautifully crafted look into the dark and unforgiving world of the Mafia where clothing, cars, music and advertising are meticulously created to replicate an American city in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Players will easily become engaged in the game’s cinematic, Hollywood-style experience with strong, believable characters in a living, breathing city that transports them to a time when rock-n-roll first strummed its guitar and chrome-plated hot rods roared down boulevards.

“For more than 55 years, Playboy has been a part of America’s pop culture landscape, engaging its readers with insightful features, interviews and fashion spreads, as well as pictorials of some of the world’s most beautiful women,” said Playboy magazine’s Editorial Director Jimmy Jellinek. “Mafia II is set when Playboy first came into vogue and features characters whose style and attitudes mirror content from our early issues. We’re excited to bring an element of authenticity to the game that is unmatched in the men’s publishing category.”

Mafia II is currently in development by 2K Czech, the same creative team behind the award-winning, genre-defining Mafia, which captivated millions of gamers around the world. By fusing high-octane gunplay with white-knuckle driving and an engaging narrative, Mafia II looks to be the industry’s most compelling Mafia title to date. [2k]

But hey, I was sent a review copy, so I feel like I should give the series another go, who knows, it may be totally different from the PS2 days.

But lets first look at the premise of the game: 

Cocoon — a utopia in the sky. Its inhabitants believed their world a paradise. Under the Sanctum’s rule, Cocoon had long known peace and prosperity.  Mankind was blessed by its protectors, the benevolent fal’Cie, and believed that tranquil days would continue forever. Their tranquillity was shattered with the discovery of one hostile fal’Cie.

The moment that fal’Cie from Pulse — the feared and detested lowerworld — awoke from its slumber, peace on Cocoon came to an end. Fal’Cie curse humans, turning them into magic-wielding servants. They become l’Cie — chosen of the fal’Cie.

Those branded with the mark of a l’Cie carry the burden of either fulfilling their Focus or facing a fate harsher than death itself.

A  prayer for redemption.
A wish to protect the world.
A promise to challenge destiny.

After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins.

Yep, I don’t understand a word of that either. So onto the game…

Huge intro video, absolutely stunning, eye candy. The video is running so long I don’t even have the controller in my hand when the game begins. But then the beginning is rather basic, you get to walk toward some people, they are the enemy, but you have no options but to walk up to them and engage them in combat.  Combat is simple, when you reach your enemy the combat dialogue opens and you can choose who to attack and how (if you’ve unlocked anything past ‘attack’) then you stand around whilst your attack power recharges, then you get to choose two attacks again. Hhhhm, okay.

Then you get to walk some more and you come across and obstruction, so you try and figure out what button is jump.  But there is no jump button.  Oh, right, you just walk up the the obstruction and your character automatically jumps.  So really the only control is to walk in a pre determined direction, occasionally interfacing with objects or enemies……

And of course there are plenty of beautifully rendered cut scenes making the whole experience feel like watching a fully CGI Anime film that occasionally gets interrupted with you having to make a few choices, keep an eye on your health and inventory.

I’m not a fan of Anime.

I’m obviously not a fan of Final Fantasy.

But I mentioned my thoughts to a friend who commented that it sounded very familiar and that he wouldn’t expect or want any different.

So obviously there is a fan base for this type of game. A little more digging was in order…

1UP gave it an A-
FFXIII is ambitious and daring, not to mention gorgeous and energetic. It approaches the concept of “role-playing games” with ruthless pragmatism, lopping off hunks of RPG tradition like a doctor operating on a terminally gangrenous patient.

IGN gave it 8.4
This is a staggeringly pretty PS3 game, and for all its faults, it is enjoyable and it is a meaty adventure… just not meaty in some of the ways we would have hoped.

What I can gather is that Square Enix took a slightly different route with this incarnation of their beloved series, one whose pacing might be off slightly, but if you (fans of the series) stick with it you will be rewarded for your patience with around 30 hours of brilliant game-play.

I didn’t have the patience for this, but it still sounds like (and is certainly visually stunning) a good solid game, for fans of the series, or this particular genre.

Reviewed on: PS3

Available on: PS3, XBox 360


Reviewed by:

So kicking into high gear, Ethan Mars who seems to be the main character discovers that to save his son, he has to complete a series of challenges laid down by the Origami Killer. This is where the game gets really gritty and dark – to the point where you’re left contemplating the original Saw film, and wondering if the Saw game could have ever had the emotional impact of the trials that Heavy Rain forces Ethan to go through. 

And yes, when i say forces, I do mean forces. Despite all of the hype and promises, Heavy Rain is still a linear game – sure, your choices to effect the storyline, but there are also many scenes where you have to do certain things to be able to continue the story.

Having said that, I’ve experience how the storyline can go in two very different ways. After pressing the wrong button on the PS3 controller and sending Madison to a very Hostel style death, it was the turn of FBI agent Norman Jayden to see his life flash before his eyes.

After killing off half of the playable characters in the game I started to panic, wondering if I could actually finish the game. I desperately tried to find an older saved game files, buy Heavy Rain was only creating one file – there didn’t seem to be a way to go back, other that starting all over again – and there was no way I wanted the hassle of having my wife yelling at me for putting the dinner plates out wrong all over gain. Fortunately I noticed a feature called chapters where you could re-load the game from any of the chapters you have played through, giving me that chance to resurrect Madison and consequently Norman.

Being able to press the correct button and save Madison’s life was a relief, Madison seems to be having a bigger and more important role in Ethan’s life, I could see they had a destiny together, if only I could keep them both alive.

Norman on the other hand – and this is a mild possible spoiler alert – even with advance warning of his life being in peril in the next scene, well no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t save his life. And he was an annoying little runt, so I wasn’t too sad to see him die. Hopefully he won’t come back to haunt me however. Hopefully I can still finish the game without his scrawny little ass.

Heavy Rain is one of those games that a lot of people won’t get – its an immersive story that you get t interact with and help influence the direction. You do this mainly through trying to hit the correct button combinations, or controller movements. It’s easy to see why Quantic Dream decided to make this a PS3 exclusive – the extra processing power, larger BluRay capacity and the motion controllers all make for a far better experience that could be had on the 360. It’s hard for me to admit, but this is the genre where the PS3 reigns supreme over the 360. Infact, since starting Heavy Rain, I haven’t even noticed my XBox.

Of course it’s not all cut scenes and button mashing sequences, you are on the trail of a serial killer so there is a fir bit of exploring to do, and as such you get to move your characters around, third person style. Camera issues dogged me for the first couple of nights, but then I relaised that yes,I could actually look around. Collision detection and tight spaces can still be an issue, but this is minor and nothing that other games don’t suffer from.

The atmosphere is another part of the game where you an tell Quantic Dream put a lot of effort into getting right – from the cut scenes to the choice of music, and the intensity of the music – as in any good film, it gave you subtle hints as to what was happening, and more importantly, what was about to happen, giving you subtle hints that maybe you should be doing something different.

Far from being the perfect game Heavy Rain is, as it’s predecessor was, a groundbreaking game and definer of it’s own genre. It succeeds in incorporating the intention of many other games, such as the likes of CSI and Saw, but doing so in a way that it’s not the sole focus, and more importantly, in a way that works well.

If you’re a fan of police dramas or serial killer films, as well as being an adventurous gamer, you’ll probably fall in love with Heavy Rain and find it easy to become a raving fan of the game as well as Quantic Dream. You may of course struggle with the long lead into the game, and may wonder why you picked up and game that seems to have you running around doing household chores, but stick with it and it will reward you.

Read the full three part review here.

Reviewed on: PS3

Available on: PS3


Reviewed by:

That’s not to say there hasn’t been any good stuff, playing the PI has by far been my favourite part of last night’s session, and the part that most made me reminisce about Fahrenheit. It was gritty and had some action.

Playing the part of the FBI dude however was a little long in the ear, but an essential part of what is essentially the hunt for a serial killer, and I guess realistic to what does go on in a crime scene – you know, walking around in a methodical grid looking for and then following clues.

I think there is still one more person that I get to play, then the game will probably switch from character to character depending on how the story progresses.

One thing that hit me last night was just how awesome the graphics are for the most part, with details such as individual pores in the skin on the faces of the characters – this admittedly in the cut scenes, but in a game that is carried by the quality of this cut scenes, this is a strong point. It would be easy to get lost in Heavy Rain, if it were not for a couple of things.

The first being the character animation. Now don’t get me wrong, Quantic Dream have done a great job, but there is just something not right with the way your character walks up and down stairs.

Another issue is the camera views, you only get two choices so it’s easy to get stuck in a corner not being bale to see anything – this is only a minor irritation, but it would have been nice to be bale to move the camera around whilst in free play mode.

The third issue is entirely from being a XBox gamer, and having played Fahrenheit on the XBox, the controls which are similar, have to be re-learnt to some degree, as rather than the XBox’s focus on coloured buttons, the PS3 focusses on symbols. So the dedicated PS3 player would have no trouble hitting the right key combinations, but for an XBox gamer like me, I keep having to look down. This however should remedy itself with time.

So while Heavy Rain hasn’t hooked me in as quickly as I would have liked, I’m going to stick with it because I’m sure than even though it’s taken me two nights to get this far, pretty soon things are going to pick up and I won’t be able to put the game down.

Read the full review here.

The plot revolves around a military coup in a South Asian country. Players take control of a five-man squad to stop him in the single-player campaign. IGN reports that the 12-hour mission features motion-captured characters in the directorial style of Uncharted 2. All weapons and supplies will be either given at the start of the game, or found inside the missions, to replicate the feeling of searching for supplies in a combat scenario. Of course, multiplayer is back as well, promising 32-person multiplayer with new Special Forces units. Other than that, details are sparse, but we’re sure to see more in the coming months. [1up]

On looking around TTG’s website I couldn’t find much information other that the image above that was gleaned from Joystiq. The exclusive leaked video has been taken down by YouTube citing copyright claims by Activision, which is essentially the same as saying the leak is legit.

A decent map pack would be a decent incentive to get me back to MW2, but to be honest I would have preferred Pipeline be included rather than Overgrown. Hopefully it won;t be too long before we see just what the first map pack will contain.