Mafia III

[smilodon]

Mafia III unlocked last Friday. I spent a few hours playing it at the LAN and I am aware that I told more than one person what a great game it was. Having spent some more time with the game I thought it wise to post an update.

The simplest thing to do is link to an Ars Technica review that more or less sums up how I feel. http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2016/10/mafia-3-review/

In a nutshell

Mafia III has a really great opening first couple of hours in spite of a rather dodgy console port. After that it's descends into a dull and unimaginative open world game that occasionally shows flashes of what it could have been had the developers bothered to put some effort in. 5/10

[Whitey]

That's a shame as I loved the first game and really liked the second.  It sounds like it's all downhill.  I'll still get it but I'll wait for it to hit the bargain bin.

[Chaosphere]

A shame indeed... but guess I will eventually play it for those first few hours

[smilodon]

Yeah, at about £15.00 it would be a decent enough buy. It's not dreadful it's just very average.

[RogueTaylor]

Shame to hear smilo since it really sounded like you enjoyed it at the LAN and I was quiet interested in it but I will wait for a good sale on it tho, sorry it wasn't as great as you expected tho

[Tutonic]

Thanks for the review, saved me some cash there

Why do devs at the moment seem to think shoe-horning a 'sandbox' experience into every game is the best way to go?

[DuVeL]

Thanks for the review, saved me some cash there

Why do devs at the moment seem to think shoe-horning a 'sandbox' experience into every game is the best way to go?

To late for me, I've bought it last night... :doh:

[smilodon]

How far we've come in 14 years, I'm not saying that games consoles are septic blight on humanity..... but games consoles are a septic blight on humanity.  :sad:

[Tutonic]

One could argue that they've slowed down the hardware race, so I don't have to think about upgrading my GPU/CPU every other week. A good thing in my book.

[Chaosphere]

Bit of a double edged sword really isn't it.. on the one hand it stifles bleeding edge development, so you don't have to buy nVidia's new toy every year (although they still try to convince you otherwise), and on the other it stifles bleeding edge development

I guess a lot of development atm is into VR, so you could argue the pixel-pushing is directed there for now and that is why us mortals that don't own an Oculus or Vive aren't seeing it - your standard 2D gaming is stuck in a bit of a rut in comparison.

That said, I can't say it bothers me too much. I started with the latest Tomb Raider at the LAN, and that really is a very pretty game. The 980 in my machine handles it pretty well on my 1400p monitor - but any more pixels (or heaven forbid 3D / VR) and it would struggle. Seems about right for the times to me.