Misplaced Pages

#282717

101-501: Mafia II is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by 2K Czech and published by 2K . It was released on 24 August 2010 for PlayStation 3 , Windows , and Xbox 360 . The game is a standalone sequel to 2002's Mafia , and the second installment in the Mafia series . Set within the fictional city of Empire Bay from 1945 to 1951, the story follows Vito Scaletta, a young Sicilian-American mobster and war veteran , who becomes caught in

202-405: A CD , they became technically capable of utilizing more than a few minutes' worth of movies in a game. This gave rise to a slew of original FMV-based computer games such as Night Trap (1992), The 7th Guest (1993), Voyeur (1993), Phantasmagoria (1995), and Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT (1995). Other titles were simply scaled down ports of Laserdisc arcade games, some of them

303-619: A fantasy " setting. Tutankham , debuted by Konami in January 1982, was an action-adventure released for arcades . It combined maze, shoot 'em up, puzzle-solving and adventure elements, with a 1983 review by Computer and Video Games magazine calling it "the first game that effectively combined the elements of an adventure game with frenetic shoot 'em up gameplay." It inspired the similar Time Bandit (1983). Action Quest , released in May 1982, blended puzzle elements of adventure games into

404-446: A joystick -controlled, arcade-style action game, which surprised reviewers at the time. While noting some similarities to Adventure , IGN argues that The Legend of Zelda (1986) by Nintendo "helped to establish a new subgenre of action-adventure", becoming a success due to how it combined elements from different genres to create a compelling hybrid, including exploration, adventure-style inventory puzzles , an action component,

505-566: A monetary system , and simplified RPG-style level building without the experience points . The Legend of Zelda series was the most prolific action-adventure game franchise through to the 2000s. Roe R. Adams also cited the arcade-style side-scrolling fantasy games Castlevania (1986), Trojan (1986) and Wizards & Warriors (1987) as early examples of action-adventure games. Games like Brain Breaker (1985), Xanadu (1985), Metroid (1986) and Vampire Killer (1986) combined

606-759: A subgenre of open world action-adventure video games in the third-person perspective . They are characterized by their likeness to the Grand Theft Auto series in either gameplay or overall design. In these types of open world games, players may find and use a variety of vehicles and weapons while roaming freely in an open world setting. Metroidvania is a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania ; such games are sometimes referred to as "search action", and are generally based on two-dimensional platformers. They emphasize both exploration and puzzle-solving with traditional platform gameplay. Survival horror games emphasize "inventory management" and making sure

707-412: A 9.0/10, writing that "in an era when video games are moving away from relying on cinematics for storytelling, Mafia II draws on the rich mobster film history to weave a gripping drama about family, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and pragmatism." The most negative review came from John Teti of Eurogamer who gave the game a 4/10 and wrote that " Mafia II gets the last word by destroying the myth that

808-517: A better lifestyle. Learning that Don Alberto Clemente is conducting drug operations against the traditions of the Commission , Carlo orders the pair to assassinate him. Following the hit, Henry approaches Eddie through Vito in search of new employment and is ordered to kill Leo to prove himself. Although Vito manages to warn Leo in time and help him leave the city, the Falcones nonetheless welcome Henry into

909-545: A choice of what to say. The NPC gives a scripted response to the player, and the game offers the player several new ways to respond. Due to the action-adventure subgenre's broad and inclusive nature, it causes some players to have difficulty finishing a particular game. Companies have devised ways to give the player help, such as offering clues or allowing the player to skip puzzles to compensate for this lack of ability. Brett Weiss cites Atari 's Superman (1979) as an action-adventure game, with Retro Gamer crediting it as

1010-524: A colleague's online portfolio, explaining that there was going to be a full campaign in Sicily rather than just the one mission. When a fan asked Vávra on Facebook how much content was cut, Vávra replied, "A lot". Sonia Alfano , a member of the European Parliament and president of Italy's association for the families of Mafia victims, called for the game to be banned. Alfano's father Beppe was murdered by

1111-448: A complex text parser and no free-moving character. While they share general gameplay dynamics, action-adventures vary widely in the design of their viewpoints, including bird's eye , side-scrolling, first-person, third-person , over-the-shoulder, or even a 3/4 isometric view . Many action-adventure games simulate a conversation through a conversation tree . When the player encounters a non-player character , they are allowed to select

SECTION 10

#1732858359283

1212-533: A cut of their profits. When Vito and Joe go to meet with Henry to discuss the matter, they witness the Triads publicly murdering him and escaping with their money. The pair pursue and kill them, but fail to retrieve the money. Indebted to loan shark Bruno Levine, whose money they borrowed for the heroin deal, Vito and Joe take on various jobs to raise money, including the assassination of retired mobster Tommy Angelo . When Vito visits Derek in search of work, he discovers that

1313-586: A decade after the first game, Mafia II takes place between two distinct time periods – 1945 and 1951 – within the fictional U.S. city of Empire Bay; the game's first chapter takes place in the fictional town of San Celeste in Sicily , while the sixth is set within a prison located outside Empire Bay. The city is situated on the United States' eastern coastline and divided by a river, and consists of several districts, including wealthy suburbs, slums and tenement blocks for

1414-450: A decade old by this time. Regardless of their sources, these FMV games frequently used B-movie and TV actors and promised to create the experience of playing an interactive movie or animation. However, production values were quite low with amateurish sets, lighting, costumes, and special effects. Animated titles either cobbled together footage from old anime or used cheaper overseas animation producers to create their footage. In addition,

1515-415: A dozen Laserdisc games over the next few years and many other companies again rushed to release titles using the technology. Dragon's Lair II , a title which had been shelved years earlier, was released by Leland to strong sales. Time Traveler further pushed the technology by using special projection technology to give the appearance of 3D visuals. Again, the fad passed quickly. The limited nature of

1616-470: A few years, the technology had improved and Laserdisc players were more reliable. In addition, costs had come down and the average price to play a game had gone up. These factors caused a resurgence of the popularity of Laserdiscs games in the arcade. American Laser Games released a light gun shooting game called Mad Dog McCree in 1990 and it was an instant hit and then in 1991 with Who Shot Johnny Rock? American Laser alone would go on to lease almost

1717-536: A hit put on him by the Clemente family. He slowly works his way up the ranks of the Falcone family in hopes they could help him, but soon uncovers a plot to overthrow Don Carlo Falcone, which he must thwart. The DLC combines standard missions with score-based, open world missions. It is estimated to provide eight hours of gameplay. The DLC also contains the exclusive Delizia Grandeamerica vehicle. Mafia II: Collector's Edition

1818-499: A home console system called the Halcyon was released by RDI Video Systems that used Laserdiscs for its games and was to feature ports of several popular Laserdisc arcade games of the day. It used FMV exclusively, but the company folded after releasing only two titles for the system. The LaserActive from Pioneer would try the technology again in 1994, but it too failed. By the early 1990s when PCs and consoles moved to creating games on

1919-409: A limited melee combat system is also included, which combines punching and dodging. There are 50 era-accurate vehicles in the game as well as licensed music. Depending on the weather during the course of the game, vehicles handle differently. For example, during the early chapters in winter, vehicles are more likely to slip on the road due to the ice. Many firearms from the previous game return, such as

2020-457: A power struggle among the city's Mafia crime families while attempting to pay back his father's debts and secure a better lifestyle. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. The player character 's criminal activities may incite a response from law enforcement agencies, measured by a " wanted " system that governs the aggression of their response. Development began in 2003, soon after

2121-560: A selling point or focus has diminished in modern times. This is primarily due to graphical advancements in modern video game systems making it possible for in-game cinematics to have just as impressive visual quality. Digitized video footage of real actors in games generally ended for mainstream games in the early 2000s with a few exceptions such as Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War released in 2006, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars released in 2007, Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure released in 2014, Her Story released in 2015,

SECTION 20

#1732858359283

2222-705: A side-scrolling platformer format with adventure exploration, creating the Metroidvania platform-adventure subgenre. Similarly, games like 005 (1981), Castle Wolfenstein and Metal Gear (1987) combined action-adventure exploration with stealth mechanics, laying the foundations for the stealth game subgenre, which would later be popularized in 1998 with the releases of Metal Gear Solid , Tenchu: Stealth Assassins , and Thief: The Dark Project . The cinematic platformer Prince of Persia (1989) featured action-adventure elements, inspiring games such as Another World (1991) and Flashback (1992). Alone in

2323-513: A similar custom movie codec in its CD-ROM release, but a later limited-volume DVD-ROM release saw MPEG-2 DVD-quality movies that far exceeded the original CD release in quality. A hardware decoder card was required at the time to play back the DVD-quality video on a PC. Wing Commander IV was also the first game to have used actual film (rather than video tape) to record the FMV scenes which attributed to

2424-400: A single avatar as the protagonist . This type of game is often quite similar to role-playing video games . They are distinct from graphic adventures , which sometimes have free-moving central characters, but also a wider variety of commands and fewer or no action game elements and are distinct too from text adventures , characterized by many different commands introduced by the user via

2525-531: A slew of original FMV-based computer games such as  Night Trap  (1992),  The 7th Guest  (1993),  Voyeur (1993),  Phantasmagoria   (1995), and  Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT (1995). The introduction of CD-based consoles like  3DO ,  CD-i , and  Sega CD  brought the concept of interactive FMV gameplay. Companies such as  Digital Pictures  and  American Laser Games  were formed to produce full-motion video games. As

2626-447: Is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, classical adventure games have situational problems for the player to explore and solve to complete a storyline, involving little to no action . If there is action, it is generally confined to isolated instances. Classical action games, on the other hand, have gameplay based on real-time interactions that challenges

2727-557: Is a game that has enough action in it not to be called an adventure game, but not enough action to be called an action game." In some cases an action game with puzzles will be classified as an action-adventure game, but if these puzzles are quite simple they might be classified as an action game. Others see action games as a pure genre, while an action-adventure is an action game that includes situational problem-solving. Adventure gamers may also be purists, rejecting any game that makes use of physical challenges or time pressure. Regardless,

2828-547: Is a steelbook which includes 9 items: Made Man Pack (two classic luxury automobiles and two "made man" suits, including a vintage tuxedo), Art Book (photo album-style about the design process of the game), CD of the Orchestral Soundtrack (recorded by the Prague FILMHarmonic Orchestra), and a Map of Empire Bay. Mafia II: Digital Deluxe Edition is effectively the same as the physical edition, inclusive of

2929-508: Is driven off in a separate car. Vito agitatedly asks where Joe is being taken. Leo reveals that he was not part of their deal, leaving Vito to watch helplessly as his friend is driven to whatever fate awaits him. Preliminary work on Mafia II began in 2004; the work on the script began in 2003. Originally intended for a PlayStation 2 and Xbox release, the game was moved to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2005, following difficulties with

3030-457: Is facing problems. The developers stated that they wanted to stray away from traditional Italian mob characters from the first two Mafia games in this installment, although the game still features an Italian Mafia family that serve as the game's main antagonists. The game features several callbacks to Mafia II , including the return of Vito Scaletta, who plays a supporting role in the game. Action-adventure game An action-adventure game

3131-424: Is heavily reliant upon the player character's movement, which triggers story events and thus affects the flow of the game. Popular examples of action-adventure games include The Legend of Zelda , God of War , and Tomb Raider series. There is a good deal of controversy over what actually constitutes an action-adventure game. One definition of the term "action-adventure" may be '"An action/adventure game

Mafia II - Misplaced Pages Continue

3232-555: Is intended for older audiences and is "specifically not targeted toward young people." On 28 July 2015, 2K Games announced the sequel Mafia III . The game, which was released on 7 October 2016, takes place in the city of "New Bordeaux", based on New Orleans, Louisiana , in 1968, seventeen years after the events in Mafia II . The protagonist, Lincoln Clay, is a black veteran of the Vietnam War , who returns home to find that his former gang

3333-425: The Grand Theft Auto series ), and include a score attack feature in which players earn points for doing certain actions; both features would return in the second and third DLC packs. This DLC also contains the exclusive Waybar Hot Rod vehicle. Jimmy's Vendetta is the second DLC pack for the game. It was released on PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Steam on 7 September 2010. The story picks up from

3434-478: The Tex Murphy series combined FMV cutscenes with a virtual world to explore. Video game consoles too saw incredible gains in presentation quality and contributed to the mass market's growth in awareness of gaming. It was during the 1990s that the video/computer game industry first beat Hollywood in earnings. Sony made its debut in the console market with the release of the 32-bit PlayStation . The PlayStation

3535-568: The Uncharted franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Ark: Survival Evolved . Full motion video The early 1980s saw almost exclusive use of the LaserDisc for FMV games. Many arcade games used the technology but it was ultimately considered to be a fad and fell out of use. In the early 1990s FMV games had a resurgence of interest, the proliferation of optical discs gave rise to

3636-466: The 2015 reboot of Need for Speed , and Obduction released in 2016. The early 1980s saw the almost exclusive use of the Laserdisc for FMV games. Many arcade games used the technology but it was ultimately considered a fad and fell out of use. At least one arcade game, NFL Football from Bally/Midway, used CEDs to play its video. Some 1970s era Nintendo games used film and projectors. formats had

3737-670: The 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment . Vito first experiences the power of the Mafia when an operation in Sicily goes awry, and Don Calò arrives to order the Italian soldiers to stand down. In February 1945, Vito returns home on leave to Empire Bay, reuniting with his childhood friend and accomplice Joe Barbaro, who has joined the Clemente crime family in Vito's absence. Joe supplies Vito with counterfeit discharge papers and introduces him to some of his contacts for work. Learning that his late father left

3838-623: The AM Show in September, and Star Rider , introduced by Williams Electronics at the AMOA show in October. The limited nature of FMV, high price to play (50 cents in an era where 25 cents was standard), high cost of the hardware and problems with reliability quickly took its toll on the buzz surrounding these games and their popularity diminished. By 1985, the allure of FMV and the Laserdisc had worn off, and

3939-575: The QuickTime 2.0 codec. Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger was one of the most significant FMV titles made in 1994, featuring big-name Hollywood actors. The video quality in the game suffered significantly from the aforementioned problems and was almost visually indecipherable in parts; however, this did not stop the title from earning significant praise for its innovative gameplay/FMV combination. Its sequel, Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom , used

4040-581: The Thompson submachine gun and Colt 1911 , as well as a pump-action shotgun . New World War II –era weapons, such the MG 42 and the Beretta Model 38 , also appear in the game. Interacting with objects in the environment involves two action buttons: a standard action and a "violent" action, used in context-sensitive situations; for example, when stealing a car, the player may choose to either pick its lock or break

4141-461: The consigliere of Don Frank Vinci, but learns from his sister Francesca that their mother died and all the money Vito had obtained was spent on her funeral. In April 1951, Vito is released early due to his connections to Leo. Reuniting with Joe, the pair work their way up the ranks of the Falcone family, led by Don Carlo Falcone and his underboss Eddie Scarpa. Soon, Vito and Joe become made men within Falcone's organization, allowing them to secure

Mafia II - Misplaced Pages Continue

4242-535: The video game industry was emerging from its niche status into the mainstream—by 1994 it was two-and-a-half times larger than Hollywood by revenue—Hollywood began to make inroads into the growing market. In 1994, Sony's Johnny Mnemonic became the first video game title produced by a film studio. Soon thereafter, video game heavyweight Electronic Arts featured well-known Hollywood talent such as Mark Hamill , Tom Wilson and John Spencer in their critically acclaimed titles Wing Commander III and IV , setting

4343-813: The "first to utilize multiple screens as playing area". Mark J.P. Wolf credits Adventure (1980) for the Atari VCS as the earliest-known action-adventure game. The game involves exploring a 2D environment, finding and using items which each have prescribed abilities, and fighting dragons in real-time like in an action game . Muse Software 's Castle Wolfenstein (1981) was another early action-adventure game, merging exploration, combat, stealth, and maze game elements, drawing inspiration from arcade shoot 'em ups and maze games (such as maze-shooter Berzerk ) and war films (such as The Guns of Navarone ). According to Wizardry developer Roe R. Adams, early action-adventure games "were basically arcade games done in

4444-486: The Dark (1992) used 3D graphics , which would later be popularized by Resident Evil (1996) and Tomb Raider (1996). Resident Evil in particular created the survival horror subgenre, inspiring titles such as Silent Hill (1999) and Fatal Frame (2001). Action-adventure games have gone on to become more popular than the pure adventure games and pure platform games that inspired them. Recent examples include

4545-472: The Falcone family, Vinci family, and Clemente family — a Chinese Triad outfit, the Irish Mob , and several street gangs. The city's design, including the architectural styles, cultures, public transportation and landmarks, are influenced by various real-life American cities, including New York , Chicago , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Boston , and Detroit , from within the two respective time periods used in

4646-501: The Laserdisc hampered interactivity and limited replayability, a key weakness in arcade games. American Laser, the chief producer of Laserdisc games during this era, had stopped making arcade games in 1994 and most other companies switched over to newer technologies around the same time. With the rise of 3D graphics and the introduction of hard drives and CD-ROMs to arcades, the large, expensive and small-capacity Laserdisc could not compete and disappeared. While CDs would see some use in

4747-520: The Made Man Pack, as well as digitalized versions of the soundtrack, art book and map. Mafia II: Special Extended Edition is a compilation package published by 1C Company for the Russian market. It includes the base game, the three DLC packs ( The Betrayal of Jimmy , Jimmy's Vendetta and Joe's Adventures ), and four style packs ( Vegas Pack , Renegade Pack , Greaser Pack , and War Hero Pack ). It

4848-520: The Mafia in 1993. Take-Two Interactive quickly responded to the issue, stating that the game's depiction of the American Mafia was no different from organized crime films such as The Godfather . They also responded to allegations of racism from Unico National , who claimed that the game portrayed Italian Americans unfairly and "indoctrinating" youth into violent stereotypes, by pointing out that Mafia

4949-511: The PlayStation 3 version would be missing certain graphical details that were present in the Windows and Xbox 360 versions including three dimensional grass, pools of blood forming under dead bodies and realistic cloth physics. These details were said to be present in earlier builds of the game, but had to be removed to increase the game's frame rate . Upon release, the PlayStation 3 version received

5050-626: The Windows and PlayStation 3 versions, and "mixed or average reviews" for the Xbox 360 version and Definitive Edition remaster from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic . Greg Miller of IGN gave the game 7/10, calling it "a solid little game that'll give you a fun ride – just don't expect the world." Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot gave it 8.5 and stated: " Mafia II ' s exciting action and uncompromising mob story make for an impressive and violent adventure." Matt Bertz of Game Informer gave it

5151-441: The ability to create a DVD-quality transfer. An exception to the rule was The 11th Hour , the sequel to The 7th Guest . 11th Hour featured 640×480 FMV at 30 frames-per-second on 4 CDs. The development team had worked for three years on developing a format that could handle the video, as the director of the live-action sequences had not shot the FMV sequences in a way that could be easily compressed. However, this proved to be

SECTION 50

#1732858359283

5252-540: The action-adventure label is prominent in articles over the internet and media. The term "action-adventure" is usually substituted for a particular subgenre due to its wide scope. Although action-adventure games are diverse and difficult to classify, there are some distinct subgenres. Many games with gameplay similar to those in The Legend of Zelda series are called Zelda clones or Zelda -like games. Popular subgenres include: A Grand Theft Auto clone belongs to

5353-403: The advantage of offering full frame video and sound without the quality problems of compressed video that would plague later formats like CDs. With the re-popularization of FMV games in the early 1990s following the advent of CD-ROM, higher-end developers usually created their own custom FMV formats to suit their needs. Early FMV titles used game-specific proprietary video renderers optimized for

5454-418: The city's different immigrant races, including Irish, African-American, Chinese, and Italian, and large-scale industrial complexes, with the city supported by a large port, a railroad station, a major prison outside its city limits, several parks, and a collection of shopping malls and supermarkets. The game's main story sees the city divided between a number of criminal outfits, including three mafia families —

5555-557: The content of the video (e.g., live-action vs. animated ), because CPUs of the day were incapable of playing back real-time MPEG-1 until the fastest 486 and Pentium CPUs arrived. Consoles, on the other hand, either used a third-party codec (e.g., Cinepak for Sega CD games) or used their own proprietary format (e.g. the Philips CD-i ). Video quality steadily increased as CPUs became more powerful to support higher quality video compression and decompression. The 7th Guest , one of

5656-574: The developer of the game engine. It was officially revealed in August 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention . A playable version of the game was achieved in 2007 or 2008. Mafia II was expected to release in late 2009, but was delayed until its release in August 2010. 2K Czech wrote a new engine for the game which was named the “Illusion engine”. The new engine was the successor to the IS' LS3D engine which

5757-481: The earlier trailers. On 27 March 2010, a new trailer was released showcasing the PhysX -based cloth and physics system used in the game. On 3 August 2010, Sheridyn Fisher, the face of Playboy Swim 2010, became the official ambassador for Mafia II . Sheridyn's involvement with Mafia II highlights the agreement between 2K Games and Playboy magazine to use 50 of their vintage covers and Centerfolds in Mafia II as part of

5858-536: The events of "The Betrayal of Jimmy", as Jimmy escapes from prison and exacts revenge on those who betrayed him. This DLC also contains the exclusive Police Bus vehicle. Joe's Adventures is the third and final DLC pack for Mafia II , released on 23 November 2010. The story bridges the gap between the two time periods in the base game's story, and features Joe Barbaro as the playable protagonist. The DLC's plot revolves around Joe's return to Empire Bay in 1950, having been forced to go into hiding for five years because of

5959-493: The family in debt to a loan shark , Vito seeks work with his father's former employer, Derek Pappalardo, who has ties with the Mafia . Later, Vito is introduced by Joe to Henry Tomasino, a Clemente made man . Upon carrying out several jobs with Joe and Henry, Vito secures enough money to pay off his father's debt. However, he is arrested again, this time for the theft and sale of ration stamps , and sentenced to ten years in prison. While serving his time, Vito befriends Leo Galante,

6060-440: The family. Vito quickly finds his life falling into turmoil after Francesca distances herself from him because of his violent lifestyle and his house is destroyed in an arson attack by the Irish Mob . To rebuild his fortunes, Vito joins Joe and Henry to profit from the sale of heroin bought from the city's Triads . However, Carlo, who is also conducting drug operations behind the Commission's back, learns about this and demands

6161-414: The first megahit multiple-CD-ROM games, was one of the first games to feature transparent quality 640x320 FMV at 15 frames per second in a custom format designed by programmer Graeme Devine . Other examples of this would be Sierra 's VMD (Video and Music Data) format, used in games like Gabriel Knight 2 and Phantasmagoria , or Westwood Studios ' VQA format, used in most Westwood games made from

SECTION 60

#1732858359283

6262-482: The format, and the format ended up being used in over 3,000, largely PC-based games. With the launch of consoles with built-in optical storage (the Sega Saturn and Sony's PlayStation ) console manufacturers began more actively taking it upon themselves to provide higher quality FMV capabilities to developers. Sony included optimizations in their hardware for their MDEC (motion decompression) technology, and Sega chose

6363-564: The game updated to Definitive Edition at no additional cost. The Definitive Edition , which includes all of the story expansion and style packs, was developed by Hangar 13 and D3T . The Definitive Edition was later included in the Mafia: Trilogy pack, which was released on 25 September 2020 and also includes a remake of the first game, titled Mafia: Definitive Edition , and a version of Mafia III including all story expansion packs. Mafia II received "generally favorable reviews" for

6464-408: The game's downfall, as most computers of the day could not play the full-resolution video. Users were usually forced to select an option which played the videos at a quarter-size resolution in black-and-white. As FMV established itself in the market as a growing game technology, a small company called RAD Game Tools appeared on the market with their 256-color FMV format Smacker . Developers took to

6565-502: The game's files. There was particular controversy caused when a car-destruction mission from the main game, as previewed at Gamescom 2009, was removed from the final release, and ended up re-appearing in the Joe's Adventures DLC, leading fans to wonder if content had been withheld from the game to sell separately. In November 2021, designer and lead writer Daniel Vávra showcased prototype images from Mafia II which had recently been uploaded to

6666-519: The game. Two of the game's DLC packs, The Betrayal of Jimmy and Jimmy's Vendetta , also take place in the early 1950s, but in a different canon from the base game, while the third, Joe's Adventures , is set during the events of the main storyline, bridging the gap between the two time periods. In 1943, italian immigrant Vito Scaletta is arrested during a robbery and opts to join the United States Army to avoid prison time, being enlisted in

6767-406: The gameplay still follows a number of adventure game genre tropes (gathering items , exploration of and interaction with one's environment, often including an overworld connecting areas of importance, and puzzle-solving). While the controls are arcade-style (character movement, few action commands) there is an ultimate goal beyond a high score. In most action-adventure games, the player controls

6868-1116: The genre. The game's cutscenes are created by the game engine in real-time. For example, if the player is riding in a car and a cutscene starts, the player will be driving the same car with the same condition (damaged or intact) and will be wearing the same clothes. There are exceptions, however, such as the opening sequence and a cutscene in the tenth chapter, which are pre-rendered video clips . The game features three different in-game radio stations (Empire Central Radio, Empire Classic Radio and Delta Radio) with licensed music, news, and commercials. The radio stations include music from different genres including rock and roll , big band , rhythm and blues , and doo-wop , with licensed songs by Chuck Berry , The Everly Brothers , Dean Martin , Little Richard , Muddy Waters , Buddy Holly & The Crickets , Bing Crosby , Bill Haley & His Comets , The Chordettes , Ritchie Valens , Bo Diddley , Ricky Nelson , Eddie Cochran , The Champs , The Drifters , The Fleetwoods , Screamin' Jay Hawkins , Nat King Cole , The Chords , and The Andrews Sisters . Set nearly

6969-576: The in-game collectibles integration. A demo for the game was released on 10 August 2010 on Steam , Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network . Mafia II was released on 24 August 2010 in North America, 26 August in Australia, and 27 August internationally. On 22 August 2015, digital sales of the PC version of Mafia II were suspended on Steam and other digital retailers for unexplained reasons. The game

7070-486: The latter ordered his father's death, and kills him in revenge. Meanwhile, the Vinci family kidnaps and tortures Joe. Vito manages to save him, but the pair learn that their actions have sparked a war between the Mafia and the Triads. After paying off the debt to Bruno, revealed to be the same loan shark his father was indebted to, Vito is confronted by Leo, who chastises him for the problems he caused, before confirming that Henry

7171-494: The mafia is interesting at all. It contends that the mob world is a hell of boredom populated by aggressively stupid automatons. These drones wake up each morning, carry out a series of repetitious tasks, and return home." There was a significant amount of content removed from the final release of Mafia II . This removed content includes cut storylines, locations, characters, game modes, melee weapons and stores; various players have found leftover remnants for all of these features in

7272-417: The mid and late 1990s, it was hard drives, GD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs that caused the largest jump in FMV use in the arcade. Their very large capacities and mature, reliable technology allowed for much cheaper hardware than traditional hardware systems, and FMV cut-scenes became commonplace. FMV as a major gameplay component had disappeared by this time because of the limited gameplay options it allowed. In 1984,

7373-509: The mid-1990s up until 2000s Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun Firestorm . These video formats initially offered very limited video quality, due to the limitations of the machines the games needed to run on. Ghosting and distortion of high-motion scenes, heavy pixelization , and limited color palettes were prominent visual problems. However, each game pushed the technological envelope and was typically seen as impressive even with quality issues. Johnny Mnemonic: The Interactive Action Movie ,

7474-400: The number is still growing. In the late '90s, Duck largely shelved its support for the console market (likely fueled by the direct support for DVD support in newer generation consoles) and focused its formats instead on internet delivered video. Duck went public as On2 Technologies and later generations of its technology was licensed by Adobe , Skype and was eventually bought (along with

7575-428: The physics engine. A third trailer was uploaded to the website on 28 May 2009. From 1 June 2009, four short videos are to be added to the Mafia II website. The first of these is called "The Art of Persuasion" and features the song "Mercy, Mr Percy" by the female singer Varetta Dillard . Another video was released featuring footage from the mission "The Buzzsaw". The video reveals the fate of "The Fat Man" who appeared in

7676-489: The player has enough ammunition and recovery items to " survive " the horror setting. This is a thematic genre with diverse gameplay, so not all survival horror games share all the features. The Resident Evil franchise popularized this subgenre. Action-adventure games are faster-paced than pure adventure games, and include physical as well as conceptual challenges where the story is enacted rather than narrated. While motion-based, often reflexive, actions are required,

7777-400: The player's reflexes and eye-hand coordination . Action-adventure games combine these genres by engaging both eye-hand coordination and problem-solving skills. An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action game and an adventure game , especially crucial elements like puzzles inspired by older adventure games. Action-adventures require many of

7878-429: The popularity of games loaded with live-action and FMV faded out in the late 1990s, and with Smacker becoming outdated in the world of 16-bit color games, RAD introduced a new true-color format, Bink video . Developers quickly took to the format because of its high compression ratios and videogame-tailored features. The format is still one of the most popular FMV formats used in games today. 4,000 games have used Bink, and

7979-410: The protagonist of the first Mafia game, for his betrayal of the family. The game features two possible endings, but only one is canon and leads into the events of Mafia II . A remastered version of Mafia II with updated graphics titled Mafia II: Definitive Edition was released on PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One on 19 May 2020. The owners of the original Steam version had their copy of

8080-400: The release of the first Mafia game. Upon release, Mafia II received positive reviews, with praise particularly directed at its story, characters, and gameplay; however, the restrictive world design and lack of certain features present in other sandbox games were criticized. A version of the game including all previously released downloadable content , entitled Mafia II: Director's Cut ,

8181-404: The same or higher review scores than the Xbox 360 version from Destructoid and Nowgamer (sites that review the game on multiple platforms rather than the normal practice of reviewing a single platform) due to additional content. Three downloadable content (DLC) packs were released for the game: The Betrayal of Jimmy is the first DLC pack, announced by Sony on 15 June 2010 at E3 2010 . It

8282-439: The same physical skills as action games, but may also offer a storyline, numerous characters, an inventory system, dialogue, and other features of adventure games. They are typically faster-paced than pure adventure games, because they include both physical and conceptual challenges. Action-adventure games normally include a combination of complex story elements, which are often displayed for players using audio and video. The story

8383-761: The software route. Sega worked both internally on optimizing technology such as Cinepak , and externally by licensing video decompression technology from the New York-based Duck Corporation . While Duck's offering won praise for its quality (showcased in games like Enemy Zero , major Launch titles in the US and the Saturn adaptations of console hits from the Sega AM2 arcade group) the opaque licensing and royalty structure impeded widespread adoption outside of Japanese and larger US developers. Duck's TrueMotion technology

8484-450: The stage for a more expansive tie-up between the movie and video game industries. With the continual improvement of in-game CGI , FMV as a major gameplay component had eventually disappeared because of the limited gameplay options it allowed. The first wave of FMV games originated in arcades in 1983 with laserdisc video games , notably Astron Belt from Sega and Dragon's Lair from Cinematronics . They used Laserdiscs to store

8585-558: The technology had disappeared from arcades by the end of 1987. RDI Video Systems ( Thayer's Quest ) had branched out into making a home console called the Halcyon, but it failed and they went bankrupt. Cinematronics's fortunes fared little better and they were bought out by Tradewest in 1987. Companies such as Atari canceled more prototype Laserdisc games than they released. Others, like Universal , stopped development on games after only one release despite announcing several titles. After only

8686-432: The video quality in these early games was low, and the gameplay frequently did not live up to the hype becoming well-known failures in video gaming . At this time, consoles like 3DO , CD-i , and Sega CD borrowed this concept for several low-quality interactive games . Companies such as Digital Pictures and American Laser Games were formed to produce full-motion video games. Also, the " multimedia " phenomenon that

8787-761: The video used in the game, which allowed for very high quality visuals compared to contemporary arcade games of the era. A number of arcade games using FMV with Laserdiscs were released over the next three years and the technology was touted as the future of video games. Some games released in this era reused video footage from other sources while others had it purpose made. Bega's Battle , Cliff Hanger and Firefox reused footage, while titles like Space Ace , Time Gal , Thayer's Quest , Super Don Quix-ote and Cobra Command were entirely original. The use of pre-rendered 3D computer graphics for video sequences also date back to two arcade laserdisc games introduced in 1983: Interstellar , introduced by Funai at

8888-413: The window glass. A map is included as in the original Mafia game, but the checkpoint system has been completely overhauled. New controls include a cover system that allows the player to take cover behind objects and shoot enemies, rather than just entering an arbitrary crouch pose behind them as in the first game. This feature provides tactical support against enemies and has become a crucial technique of

8989-442: Was a federal informant and that Carlo wants to kill Vito for vouching for him. But thankful for Vito previously saving his life, Leo arranges for him to be spared by both the Commission and the Triads as long as he kills their common enemy: Carlo. Vito confronts Carlo, who offers to make Joe a caporegime if he kills Vito. Joe refuses and helps Vito kill Carlo. The pair are greeted by Leo, who takes Vito with him to celebrate, while Joe

9090-578: Was available from Amazon and the Greaser Pack featuring two hot-rods and two suits were available to Best Buy customers. These pre-order packs are available for purchase as game add-ons on the PlayStation Network , Xbox Live and Steam. On 26 May 2010, a collector's edition was announced for Mafia II . The PlayStation 3 version became subject to controversy on 2K's Mafia II forums when 2K's interactive marketing manager Elizabeth Tobey stated that

9191-502: Was developed for mobile phones by Twistbox Games and published by Oasys Mobile; the iOS version was published Connect2Media. Instead of being a direct adaptation of Mafia II , the game bridges the gap between it and its predecessor, taking place largely in 1938. The story centers around Marco Russotto, a soldato in the Salieri crime family and the nephew of the family's gunsmith Vincenzo, who travels to Empire Bay to find and kill Tommy Angelo,

9292-556: Was exploding in popularity at the time increased the popularity of FMV because consumers were excited by this new emerging interactive technology. The personal computer was rapidly evolving during the early-to-mid 1990s from a simple text-based productivity device into a home entertainment machine. Gaming itself was also emerging from its niche market into the mainstream with the release of easier-to-use and more powerful operating systems, such as Microsoft's Windows 95 , that leveraged continually evolving processing capabilities. Some games like

9393-442: Was extended to the PC and Macintosh as well, showcased in the high-profile Star Trek: Borg and Star Trek: Klingon , The X-Files Game , Final Fantasy VII , and the highly anticipated sequel to Phantasmagoria , Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh and other titles. It was reported that versions for PlayStation and GameCube were developed, but the last console version released was for Sega's short-lived Dreamcast . As

9494-424: Was initially released exclusively to the PlayStation 3 as a free add-on to the base game, before being later ported to the other platforms. Set in a different canon from the base game, the story follows a gun-for-hire named Jimmy, who works for several criminal syndicates to undermine their rivals, until he is eventually set up by his employers and arrested. Missions are structured in a non-linear manner (similarly to

9595-446: Was later bundled in the Mafia: Trilogy , released on 25 September 2020. Mafia II is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective . Most of the game is set in the fictional city of Empire Bay, based on New York City , Chicago , San Francisco , Los Angeles , Boston , and Detroit , during the mid-1940s and early 1950s. The core gameplay revolves around shooting and driving;

9696-615: Was probably the first console to popularize FMVs (as opposed to earlier usage of FMV which was seen as a passing fad). A part of the machine's hardware was a dedicated M-JPEG processing unit which enabled far superior quality relative to other platforms of the time. The FMVs in Final Fantasy VIII , for example, were marketed as movie-quality at the time. FMVs in games today typically consist of high-quality pre-rendered video sequences ( CGI ). These sequences are created in similar ways as computer generated effects in movies. Use of FMV as

9797-463: Was released by Feral Interactive in December 2011. A sequel, Mafia III , developed by 2K Czech's successor Hangar 13 , was published in October 2016. To coincide with the remake of the first game of the series, Mafia II: Definitive Edition , a remastered version of the game co-developed by D3T and Hangar 13, was released by 2K on 19 May 2020, to mixed critical reception. This Definitive Edition

9898-551: Was released on 3 December 2010 for Windows. The same package was released on 1 December 2011 for Western markets as Mafia II: Director's Cut on Windows, OS X and their respective budget labels on consoles. In July 2015, this full edition of the game became unavailable on Steam in Western countries. However, The Made Man Pack, previously only available in the Collector's Edition, is now available as DLC on Xbox Live. A version of Mafia II

9999-543: Was restored to Steam on 1 June 2016. On 26 May 2010 four content packs were offered as pre-order bonuses in America and European countries, each one available through different retailers. The Vegas Pack containing two additional cars and suits for Vito and the War Hero Pack containing two military-style vehicles and suits was available from GameStop and EBGames . The Renegade Pack containing two sports cars and two jackets

10100-480: Was the first FMV title made by a Hollywood studio . Sony Imagesoft spent over $ 3 million on the title. Instead of piecing together the title with filmed assets from their movie (directed by Robert Longo ) of the same name, Sony hired Propaganda Code director Douglas Gayeton to write and film an entirely new storyline for the property. The CD-ROM's interactivity was made possible with the Cine-Active engine, based on

10201-557: Was used to make the first Mafia game. A promotional trailer was released for the game in August 2007. A second trailer was released on the Spike VGA show on 14 December 2008. An extended version of the trailer was released on 15 January with an extra 30 seconds of cut scene footage. The first gameplay footage debuted on GameSpot on 17 April 2009 as part of an interview with Mafia II ' s producer, Denby Grace. The video shows driving and gunplay aspects to gameplay as well as portraying

#282717