Mafia II

[Smellincoffee]

I'm anxious to buy Mafia II, seeing how much I delighted in the original game. I looked forward to the sequel for YEARs. I know modern games come dragging sinister gifts, though -- like SecureROM and internet requirements, like GTA IV's asinine "social club" saving setup. Does Mafia II require Steam or an internet connection to install? I tried asking this at MafiaScene/Lost Heaven, but they seem to be having problems.

 

[Maniacal]

It probably requires an internet connection to install but I don't think it requires Steam (although you can add your CD key to Steam).

I haven't installed it yet though, been waiting until I upgrade to Win7.

EDIT: It says on the back of the box it requires Steam. Which should work perfectly fine.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I wonder if there's a way around that. I don't buy games which force me to install outside software, and I avoid games which require internet connections -- partly out of principle, and partly out of necessity. I have two computers in different parts of the house, and I keep my gaming rig in my bedroom for privacy and space reasons. The only DSL modem is elsewhere in the house, though, so my gaming rig stays offline. I don't mind that -- in fact, I rather like it because it ensures no outside software is ever installed without me doing it directly.

 

[Maniacal]

Then you're pretty much screwed if you want to install any new/recent game because requiring an internet connection during installation is almost standard now. Steam also has an offline mode which while not perfect usually works pretty well.

You might want to invest in an very long ethernet cable.

 

[Arakhor]

I'd advise playing it on the Xbox 360. It's a short game and it's not worth damaging your PC setup with enforced Net downloads and the like if you don't want that.

 

[Maniacal]

1. Its not going to damage your PC.

2. The only forced downloads (besides patches) are.. um, windows patches? If you're getting a lot of other crap you need to stop downloading viruses.

 

[Maniacal]

The PC setup isn't the PC. Can't you imagine how annoying it would be to connect your normally disconnected computer and go through all the networking crap just because you want to play a game with maybe 5-10 hours of enjoyment?

Having spent a few DAYS last August trying to turn my laptop into a wireless receiver for my PC so I could play Mass Effect 2 (apparently ME2 has to authenticate every X amount of time, even if your comptuer was shut down and store for two and a half months...). Although it could have been solved by bringing the modem/router to the comptuer which is pretty easy to do.

And networking should be as easy as plugging a cable in. As for 5-10 hours well there are many games lnoger than that that require you to connect once during installation. And hell some expansions are digital only, such as Paradox ones.

Sure, it's not that taxing but you end up with residual setup things that you have to scour the Web for to scrub clean.

What kind of virus-ridden crapware did you download? Norton Anti-Viris?

 

[Maniacal]

When I say scrub clean, I don't mean viruses you tool, I mean crap like folders games generate to save stuff in. It's not even standardized. Some use the designated "My Games" folder in newer Windows, others just dump stuff in My Documents under their name.

And games that don't need online activation will do that anyway. Yeah its annoying, but its incredibly easy to remove (its not like your My Documents folder is hard to find!).

There also aren't tools to do this afaik and I wouldn't download something just to remove a few folders that take up less space than the tool removing them.

And then there are the registry entries! Why can't games just avoid the damn registry. I lose the freedom to move my files around because I'm worried that I'll have to fix their entry in the registry manually, or if I delete their registry entry they'd stop running altogether!

Not their fault you don't know how computers work.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

I'm anxious to buy Mafia II, seeing how much I delighted in the original game. I looked forward to the sequel for YEARs. I know modern games come dragging sinister gifts, though -- like SecureROM and internet requirements, like GTA IV's asinine "social club" saving setup. Does Mafia II require Steam or an internet connection to install? I tried asking this at MafiaScene/Lost Heaven, but they seem to be having problems.

There are ways to bypass the SecureROM/And social club. As well as to increase your FPS - and never update to patch 7 if you only care about SP.

Mafia 2 is alright. But it isn't GTA 4 though. There are reasons why Mafia and others like it are called GTA clones.

 

[Maniacal]

Meh, Saint's Row 2 is a GTA clone and it's better than GTA IMO. Numerous gameplay improvements.

Haven't played Mafia II yet (just installed it last night) but Mafia 1 wasn't a GTA clone. Similar idea with walking and driving around a city but it was largely focused on the story with little else to do besides drive around. Still a good game, I've played it through three times iirc. The setting of the 1920s and 1930s is very well done.

I'll see how Mafia II compares, though as I've heard its almost as good but with a few differences.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

I like you dude. But you can't be serious that Saint Row is better than GTA.(which one?)

I was talking about part II. Never played the first one.

Perhaps I would have like the Saint Row games if I was a little kid ... meh :/

 

[Maniacal]

I like you dude. But you can't be serious that Saint Row is better than GTA.(which one?)

I was talking about part II. Never played the first one.

Perhaps I would have like the Saint Row games if I was a little kid ... meh :/

San Andreas, Vice City and GTAIV are the three GTA's I have played in order of most played to least played (though I did see the majority of GTA IV get played by a roommate). They are all fun (except the flying controls for SA and VC on the PC are garbage) but I found Saint's Row 2 a lot more fun (and the flying worked, at least with the helicopters anyway). Obviously personal preferences will vary, but I really liked some one the improvements on gameplay mechanics like the garage and the silly humour of the game (its been a while since I've played so I don't remember the specifics) over that of the GTA games I'd played and seen. The septic tank mission is one of the few times I've found toilet humour funny (normally it annoys me).

Saint's Row 2 definitely isn't for kids

 

[Maniacal]

I'm pretty sure Smellincoffee isn't trolling.

Anyway back on topic, I just finished Mafia II last night and for the most part it was pretty damn good, I still have the music stuck in my head and the voice acting was good. The cars are beautiful and the city feels alive!

Although like the first game there isn't a lot to interact with except for some stores (which you can rob which is kind of fun although very easy to get away with most of the time), a few side missions (which I managed to miss, oops, I'll have to do those next time (and I will definately play it again!)), and a decent story line. I don't know if the story is as long or a little bit shorter than in Mafia 1, but it doesn't wrap itself up and ends in a cliff hanger with no free ride (though you can drive around the city as much as you want before or after most missions).

The controls are also pretty good, the cover system is awesome and uses a wide variety of objects to hide behind that usually doesn't (except for a couple of construction areas that you don't actually do much fighting in) look like a series of chest high walls but instead looks fairly "natural". I still have the two DLCs to play through as well, but it was definitely worth the $29.99 I paid for it.