Mafia: Trilogy, including full remake of masterpiece Mafia: City of Lost Heaven

What the hell did I just watch?

Nobody knows, has known and will ever know.

In definitive edition of Mafia 3, there is quite some stuff that can be found.
For example, untextured city of Berlin from their canceled game Rhapsody:

Or car trackmania for testing:

Or a cut airplane mission played as Donovan:

Or…Empire Bay from Mafia 2:

Alternate reality Mafia, one in which The Thing escaped from U.S. Outpost 31 and infected the whole planet. It would continue to live life as we had but in it’s own twisted version of our reality.

Paul, I don’t think I should trust Google Translate on this, but this report on Eurogamer Czech seems to be saying that Hangar 13 returned to Mafia 4 after Rhapsody was cancelled. Is that the case?

https://www.eurogamer.cz/articles/2020-05-26-v-mafia-3-objevena-mapa-berlina-ze-zru-ene-piona-ni-hry

That is what he writes, but CZ eurogamer is kinda trash and I would never assume Doskočil has any actual confirmed insider info about it.

This was a lovely article about revisiting Mafia 2:

God I really hope Mafia 1 remake is great and these remasters get fixed because I am reeeeally itching to replay this trilogy.

Thank you, Paul. I wanted the sequel news to be true, but getting a Mafia 1 remaster softens the sting considerably. I just hope it releases in better condition than M2 & M3.

Is Mafia III (on the PC) actually changed in any way except for the label in the Steam Library (and the fact that it comes with all the DLC)?

There’s a few very minor changes:

  • The launcher has a new look
  • Three extra options have been added to the launcher: Texture Quality, Bloom, and Disable Launcher
  • The logo splash screens are new.
  • There’s a big banner on the title screen advertising the “Mafia Trilogy.”
  • You can adjust graphics options in-game now; previously you had to to this through the launcher.

The big issue I was having is that basically the map stops showing junction boxes and icons related to them (med kits, collectibles, fuses). And on top of that you can’t wiretap junction boxes to reveal those icons on that part of the map because there is no prompt to break a lock on junction box. Makes tackling the rackets a lot more difficult. There seems to be a patch in the works that I hope addresses these bugs.

Just a note, this wasn’t the case, graphics settings, incl. resolution and all that was always modifiable ingame.

Some good news about Mafia II at least…

Ah, even fewer changes than I had assumed. :(

Guys, 2 and 3 were farmed out to different porting studios for the remasters. What did you expect? It’s one thing to farm out a port. To farm out a remaster to a company that specializes in ports? Good luck with that.

To be fair, because there wasn’t a lot of information available before launch, it’s not outrageous to think a Mafia trilogy collection would be handled in-house at Hangar 13. I’ve never even heard of d3t, so I’m not familiar with their reputation.

Wait, why would this be bad? A company that specializes in ports should be one that’s good at it, right? Wasn’t the reportedly excellent Saints Row 3 Remaster done by a company that’s done a number of good remasters now? At least, I think that’s what was mentioned in the Digital Foundry video about it.

Ports aren’t the same as remasters. A remaster means tweaking the actual textures, modifying the renderer etc; not just making sure it works on other platforms. This is much closer to design work.

I looked them up (Sperasoft) and it’s an interesting company. They’re far more than porters or even remaster makers. They’re deeply involved with AAA projects – not remasters, but the actual games (e.g. they’re contributing to the next Assassin’s Creed). They’re essentially contractors/outsourcers to Russia and Poland.

Starting to wonder if 2K was too eager for sales and released 2 & 3 before they could be made ready. Had they waited until August when the M1 remake was due to be released, how many bugs and glitches could have been squished?

Instead, they are giving Jim Sterling a great intro for a roast of the re-released M2. Seriously, watch the first 15 seconds.

Really hope they fix it all up, incl. the “minor” stuff like tree pop-in and eye facial animations.

I just watched this classic and I just can’t wait for the replay of all three…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXNjwhfjDpQ

OK, that was funny.