Mafia 2 (Multiplatform)

[Dungeonscaper]

Just played the PS3 demo. Loads of tearing and frame-drops, particularely inside buildings for some reason. The draw distance is very very nice though, it looks great. I can't tell if it's 720p though, it looks sub-HD-ish but the steps on some things look alright so I'm guessing it's 720p with some blur filter/ DOF. Gameplay wise, very impressed, I'm definitely getting this, the tearing and framerate don't spoil it, I dislike whatever blur filter they are using, and if it's sub-HD I won't get its. What you think?

 

[Sigfried1977]

No its German rating rules, free software with an age rating above 16 (or something like that) can not be made available for everybody to download. Ie PSN is free and anybody can sign up and download regardless of age. But PSN+ you need to be 18 to sign up for and then by default your old enough to get it.

I read it on the EU blog in the comments section, to lazy to look it up and post the link

Then why does it work with an Xbox Live silver membership?

 

[Neb]

Just played the PS3 demo. Loads of tearing and frame-drops, particularely inside buildings for some reason. The draw distance is very very nice though, it looks great. I can't tell if it's 720p though, it looks sub-HD-ish but the steps on some things look alright so I'm guessing it's 720p with some blur filter/ DOF. Gameplay wise, very impressed, I'm definitely getting this, the tearing and framerate don't spoil it, I dislike whatever blur filter they are using, and if it's sub-HD I won't get its. What you think?

720p.

Also dont know if it is PS3 version for promotion but if and if it's valid it indicates exclusive DLC for PS3 shows grass.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=22774188&postcount=231

 

[Dungeonscaper]

720p.

Also dont know if it is PS3 version for promotion but if and if it's valid it indicates exclusive DLC for PS3 shows grass.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=22774188&postcount=231

Quick shot from my webcam. No Grass sir.

 

[Karamazov]

maybe the ps3 demo is an older build.

 

[Tap In]

PS3 looks bad in those pics but if 360 is better as other pics and tweets suggest, it still looks like ass on my tv.

after playing Red Dead open world games need to look better than this IMO

 

[assurdum]

Quick shot from my webcam. No Grass sir.

http://i38.tinypic.com/10o0bbo.jpg

He talking of the final build.

 

[Neb]

after playing Red Dead open world games need to look better than this IMO

You think so?

Seeing GTAIV and RDR on consoles and comparing to mafia console version I dont see the former looking better or being more detailed. Actually I find it to be the reverse. Especially GTAIV looks uglytastic.

http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=6124&article_id=137883

http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=11104&article_id=1198266#anchor

 

[Tap In]

You think so?

Seeing GTAIV and RDR on consoles and comparing to mafia console version I dont see the former looking better or being more detailed. Actually I find it to be the reverse. Especially GTAIV looks uglytastic.

http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=6124&article_id=137883

http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=11104&article_id=1198266#anchor

I agree about GTA... Red Dead OTOH looks beautiful

 

[RobertR1]

While I was playing RDR, I went back to play TLAD expansion of GTA4. RDR is simply beautiful compared to GTA4 and not by a slight margin either.

 

[nightshade]

You think so?

Seeing GTAIV and RDR on consoles and comparing to mafia console version I dont see the former looking better or being more detailed. Actually I find it to be the reverse. Especially GTAIV looks uglytastic.

http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=6124&article_id=137883

http://www.eurogamer.net/gallery.php?game_id=11104&article_id=1198266#anchor

Nah Red Dead looks A-fuc**in-mazing , you gotta play it yourself someday to judge it !
The 360 version is easily the best looking open world game....infact I find it better than Mafia 2 PC, the lighting itself is something so special in RDR.


--------------------EDIT----------------------
Downloaded both console demos & played them...won't talk about the framerate,shadows,SSAO & grass as its already known.
However I'll mentioned few things that no one mentioned:

1) Zero blood spill in PS3 version.
2) There seems to be no Physx on PS3 ver. even if there's a logo at start, I mean on 360 version you can see Vito's cloth have some kind of simulation (the cloth doesn't seems to be as soft as PC ver, its rigid but imo it actually looks more realistic for coats & jackets) another thing is driving over garbage cans would spill out the garbage in the 360 ver (though it will disappear in air & won't interact with the ground)...nothing such in the PS3 ver every garbage can is empty & Vito's cloth doesn't moves even an inch.

 

[goonergaz]

I'm just hopeful that this is old demo code, having said that the game itself was pretty much a poor mans RDR/GTA - IMHO a big missed opportunity.

 

[Neb]

Nah Red Dead looks A-fuc**in-mazing , you gotta play it yourself someday to judge it !
The 360 version is easily the best looking open world game....infact I find it better than Mafia 2 PC, the lighting itself is something so special in RDR.

Well in comparision the RDR lighting colors generally seems a bit more realistic vs the Mafia 2 demo time of day (contrast, brightness). Though rest not really. I've played it, actually I played some week ago when I was standing inline at game store on a SONY HDTV Bravia and it looked about like the DF shots but a bit blurrier/softer due to upscaling and more contrast. IMO not anywhere near as good as Mafia 2 on PC. And while I haven't seen 360/PS3 Mafia 2 version in motion I cant judge it regarding it being in motion, but in stills they look fairly even +/- (360 version). If it really is that bad in motion on consoles then I can understand.

How sunsets, night and weather conditions looks with Mafia 2 is only seen in old promos.

Though the PS3 version seems to be a bit underwhelming in comparision to 360 version but then it's 720p and RDR and GTAIV is sub-HD on the PS3, yes and neither has SSAO in any of the R* games?

 

[nightshade]

It's not just about tech but also the amount of it, in what type of scene. You have longer draw distance than other open world games (no simulators), you got SSAO, procedural aniamtions like GTAIV, well you got pretty much most of the tech in GTAIV and then some stuff not present in GTAIV.

I disagree....RDR's draw distance is easily many times more than Mafia 2's & the procedural animation here doesn't seem as complex as GTA/RDR, NPC movements are very odd, sorta cartoony & the hit detection is largely inferior.

And how exactly can you say RDR doesn't has a better lighting tech ?
RDR even does volumetric lights for most light sources and most of them cast shadows as well as are destructible (& can cause a small fire). And then there are the procedural clouds which will get lit from the sun accordingly as it blocks the light & the volumetrics from the sun.

Vegetation also looks better, is shaded better (SSAO helps to).

To me RDR's vegetation looks much more natural (this one area near Marston's family home called Tall Tress & the great plains really shows it), the grass reacts to objects according to their positions dynamically without any clippings & they aren't 2D sprites.

 

[Billy Idol]

Downloaded the demo (PS3 version).
Tried it: first thing coming to my mind...ugly!
Second thing coming to my mind...ultra ugly!
After a few minutes of gameplay...still ugly!!
Buddy walks in the room, sees the game, shouts 'what the heck is this ugly sh**!'
I answered: 'the ugliest game I have ever seen!!'

For me this is an extreme 'don't buy'!

If the goal of the devs and of this demo was that I retire from gaming...bravo, almost succeeded!

I agree with brain_stew...the game in this state is not ready for release...when looking at the screen and slowly moving the view stick, everything is flickering to an extreme amount...the boring bright greenery setting does not help either!
I mean this thing has an IQ comparable to the PS1 classic PSN download Wipeout!!
Are you guys really sure this time that it is a 720p game, because the edges of cars look so extremely low res and jagged??

The only positive thing: driving and shooting felt ok, but I could not test it for a long time as my brain and my eyes started to collapse!
I wonder if the final version will be this much better?!

EDIT: and lol to people stating that this is comparable to console RDR...I lplayed the Xbox360 version of RDR and this game is true beauty!!

 

[N_B]

Does this game have a day/night cycle?

 

[Neb]

I disagree....RDR's draw distance is easily many times more than Mafia 2's...

I reacall seeing in some shots that the farthest non-reachable distance was baked terrain into sky cubemap.

But yes it has long draw distance but it seems that almost whereever you look there is some hills at distance occluding view cutting the draw distance. Much like FC2 did. Though cities do it to but you still have buildings/scenery that is visible.

http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles//a/1/1/0/3/3/3/8/360_043.jpg.jpg

Then it is just desert vs a city. Fallout 3 has about 50-100+km draw distance IIRC with wasteland. It's just more impressive when it is decorated into the horisont with actual objects part of the scene in some LOD form.

...& the procedural animation here doesn't seem as complex as GTA/RDR, NPC movements are very odd, sorta cartoony & the hit detection is largely inferior.

Yeah hit detection and some movements are odd but it still is quite remniscent and this is for a city with lots of people like in GTAIV.

And how exactly can you say RDR doesn't has a better lighting tech ?
RDR even does volumetric lights for most light sources and most of them cast shadows as well as are destructible (& can cause a small fire). And then there are the procedural clouds which will get lit from the sun accordingly as it blocks the light & the volumetrics from the sun.

Are you talking about volumetric lighting or "volumetric lighting" becouse I believe Mafia 2 has "volumetric lighting". Though I've not seen godrays in mafia 2 except by indoor location and probably static ones. But anyway my initial observation was quality of how it lits materials.

About the clouds it sounds nice and mafia 2 dont show any signs of having something like that.

To me RDR's vegetation looks much more natural (this one area near Marston's family home called Tall Tress & the great plains really shows it), the grass reacts to objects according to their positions dynamically without any clippings & they aren't 2D sprites.

Well that would be very limited then as the gran majority is just sprites/textures and vegetation are sprites in a formation to form a 3D form like other games and Mafia 2 does.

http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles//a/1/1/0/3/3/3/8/360_041.jpg.jpg

SSAO would help to 'connect' vegetation to terrain layer color.

 

[Kameradschaft]

It's not just about tech but also the amount of it, in what type of scene. You have longer draw distance than other open world games (no simulators), you got SSAO, procedural aniamtions like GTAIV, well you got pretty much most of the tech in GTAIV and then some stuff not present in GTAIV.

You got no loading of interiors as they are part of exterior so you could peek in into houses from distance. SSAO is not present in RDR nor GTAIV, nor as complex car mechanics (simualtion mode with pressure calcs, tire flex and much more). Did you know first Mafia had about 120 simulations for each car?

Then one can consider that most if not all lights can be destroyed, most cast shadows and some nice thick particle effects, that excluding APEX physics. Vegetation also looks better, is shaded better (SSAO helps to).

Seeing games like RDR, GTAIV, Crackdown etc I dont sreally ee them standout from Mafia 2 (consoles comp.). Though RDR shows a more natural realistic lighting colors but not better lighting tech.

Well on the other side GTAIV and RDR both have bigger maps, more detailed textures and of course the Euphoria engine...why should I care about the better lighting or the SSAO when the frame-rate hovers between 15-25fps with a ton of tearing that also affects the already clunky controls? 2K Czech should cut down their tech and manage to deliver a smooth frame-rate...the game in it's current state looks like a rushed job of porting the PC code to the consoles with minimal optimization for each system.

You have been the Mafia 2 defense force thus far but I can't see how anyone can justify releasing a demo with this IQ and this frame-rate in 2010...if this demo is an indication of how the final versions of the game will look and run this is clearly a rushed job from 2K Czech and nothing else is responsible for the current unacceptable state of the console versions.

* Moved from the Console Tech section.

 

[Neb]

Well on the other side GTAIV and RDR both have bigger maps, more detailed textures and of course the Euphoria engine...why should I care about the better lighting or the SSAO when the frame-rate hovers between 15-25fps with a ton of tearing that also affects the already clunky controls?

Yes and something like FSX has the whole world as map but it doesn't make the draw distance any bigger than set by devs. I find it interesting about textures as they dont seem worse, maybe some some but looking at DF shots it certainly dont look to be a big difference if any at all.

EDIT: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1460721&postcount=1254 (PS360 framerate analysis)

About framerate, that sounds much like how GTAIV performed. RDR perfomrs better. However I am not saying there is not room for improvements but in a open world type game in a city you cant expect miracles.

How would you find Mafia 2 360 version if compared to 360 version of GTAIV, Crackdown 2, Sainst Row 2. They are open world games in city environment.

 

[Kameradschaft]

Yes and something like FSX has the whole world as map but it doesn't make the draw distance any bigger than set by devs. I find it interesting about textures as they dont seem worse, maybe some some but looking at DF shots it certainly dont look to be a big difference if any at all.

EDIT: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1460721&postcount=1254 (PS360 framerate analysis)

About framerate, that sounds much like how GTAIV performed. RDR perfomrs better. However I am not saying there is not room for improvements but in a open world type game in a city you cant expect miracles.

How would you find Mafia 2 360 version if compared to 360 version of GTAIV, Crackdown 2, Sainst Row 2. They are open world games in city environment.

Who's expecting miracles? I said that 2K Czech should just cut down some features or lower the resolution to be able to have an actual playable frame-rate but as I said the console versions look like they are simply ports of the PC code @ 720p and nothing else.

btw GTAIV, Crackdown, Saints Row from what I've played are running better than Mafia 2 - in fact Mafia 2 has the worst IQ I've seen on the 360 and on top of that the frame-rate is the worst I've seen in a sandbox game this gen.