Paulie’s voice actor seems to have a hard time finding his, um, voice. Sometimes it’s nasally whiny, other times it’s more of a normal tone. Weird.
Mafia 2’s playboys only contained the nudes and no articles though. So the valuable stuff in 3 was new at least.
“I only read the virtual Playboys for the articles honey, I swear!”
I played through the first few missions last night. I do not like Paulie’s voice actor. At all. I’m having a hard time even playing the game. He’s all over the map. And his giant It clown mouth isn’t helping either. I thought facial mapping technology was supposed to get better over time - not worse. This isn’t even as good as LA Noire it seems to me. Maybe that’s just because it’s been a while since I played?
When the articles are stuff like 12 page interview with Stanley Kubrick, absolutely :p
I don’t mind Paulie or his voice, but it is true his ingame model looks very shrek-like. The actor looks better than that. Tommy also looks kinda weird when he smiles, reminds me of Edgar from Men in Black.
I really have a hard time distinguishing Paulie and Sam’s voices.
Anyway, I made some progress today. Beat the race on my 2nd try. Whoever suggested switching to first-person for that, thank you. Did a few other missions and reached the 2nd intermezzo scene. Called it quits for the day. Man, what a ride!
Also, I wish that I didn’t play Mafia 2 when it was released over the summer. Because now I know shit.
I’m officially a made guy!
Had a lot of fun with the last few missions shoot outs, which felt quite dynamic and intense on Classic. H13 recaptured the feeling of the original without it becoming needlessly slavish to the past. The ending wasn’t as impactful as the O.G., and that’s not just because I knew what was coming this time round, as the changes they implemented in the coda were a little on the nose. That said, I really admire how they tie the three games together, and I had a blast hanging out with the crew again after all these years! It’s pretty fun bit-sized experience. I’m a fan of the changes they made to the original story which, for the most part, do a good job at fleshing out the characters motivations and backstory.
For issues, I think Paulie’s actor is seriously miscast and terribly directed - he can’t land on a tone performance-wise and after seeing the guys’ real-life photo after it was mentioned upthread in I think they messed up with the facial capture (possibly Covid was a factor here), but the rest of the crew are great, so even though a crucial guy mucks up the rest of the gang picks up his slack.
Lost Heaven feels so small next to New Bordeaux, and for me this remake doesn’t hold a candle to Mafia 3, which remains my favorite in the series, though it’s no disappointment, especially since this is a discounted title with a smaller scope created in around 2 years. Even though Lost Heaven veers closer to a bog-standard mob pastiche (there’s even a building with the name “Scorsese” awkwardly plasted on the side, lol), I appreciate how low-key the overall stakes are, which is quite refreshing from its open-world contemporaries. A few of the nods to the sequels are a nice touch, and unless your driving through a tunnel, its great fun to hear mentions of both Empire Bay and N.B. on the radio.
Free ride mode has a cute side quest with Lucas Berton giving you a series of post-cards with hints you have to solve in order to track down some experimental cars. A couple of them even include some very light navigation puzzles, which is a cool deviation. Still, I prefer forgoing the speeders in favor of the heavy and durable tin cans, that feel like they going to veer out of control when taking a corner when doing anything over 40MPH. I hope Hangar 13 get to continue the series after the finish their unannounced superhero game because it would be disappointing to see their obvious affection for this universe end here.
Dan Vávra will be doing a charity stream today evening of the remake, and posted a pretty interesting post about the driving in the original game with a bit of impressions from the remake (google translate with my fixes where needed):
In preparation for tomorrow’s stream, today I remembered the 18-year-old password to .rar file, where I have documents from the Mafia and was looking at reference car models for the original M1, when I noticed that Morello was not in the remake in his first cutscene in Silver Arrow which upset me. Is this car there? Because I spent perhaps more than a month choosing cars for the M1 at the time, and those vehicles are real pearls (all based on real cars). Of course, there are a few common classics like Ford T and A, but those bonus fast cars, I cared about them :) I tried to capture the development of the automotive industry and design and the widest possible range of vehicles, which were each unique.
The Cord 810 was the first US car with front-wheel drive and tilting headlights. Pierce Silver Arrow was a magnificent futuristic prototype of which only three units survived. Auburn Speedster was driven by Al Capone’s assistant and it’s a mindblowing stinger. You drive Salieri for lunch with a monstrous Cadillac V16. Chrysler Airflow was the first mass-produced aerodynamic car in the world and was created in parallel with the Tatra 77. Today, the Mercedes 500K is one of the most expensive veterans. And it would be a crime not to mention the absolutely incredible Cadillac V16 Hartmann Cabrio. That was a complete sci-fi. And of course Duesenberg and its chrome-plated intakes from the engine …
The cars, whose physics were then programmed by Václav Král, were set up for the most part by me, and it was an absolutely an ant job (idiom meaning something like “supermicromanaged chore”). First, in the early days of the Internet, it was very difficult to get their parameters - so I’m glad that the page I guess I was pulling from then (supercars.net) still exists, and our setup was much more complicated than many people think.
Each car had dozens of parameters. I did not get to the resulting behavior, speed and acceleration by entering the power, acceleration and maximum speed, but by really setting the engine and transmission, weights, consumption, wheel sizes, gear ratios, even the aerodynamic coefficient (!!!) and then in a special level I tested them with a stopwatch in my hand, what the car’s acceleration is, how fast it brakes, how it turns, etc.
We have also developed a simulation of various surfaces, which you can verify in the M1, and so far I have never seen it to the same extent and just as well done in almost any game, including racing games. Each material has a set “bumpiness”, ie how many holes and pits are on it, how deep and high they are, how often and how regular. The wheels then jump on it, even if the actual polygons are straight in reality. And that jumping really has an effect on physics, it’s not just an aesthetic effect like today. Of course, each terrain has a completely different rolling resistance, so when you enter the track, it really starts to throw, when it hits the tiles, it rumbles and gets worse, and when you go to the ditch, there will of course be a massive slowdown.
Each car of course has a different gas consumption rate and I suspect that if you get a bullet hole in your gas tank, gas will leak over time and the car will stop :)
The comparison of physics in M1 and in the remake (at least as it is currently set) does not turn out very well for the remake. Cars (especially those on the circuit) behave like sledges there, and in the city even on classic difficulty, on the contrary, they keep nailed to the road. Try to loop (tear off the car) in M1 at a higher speed on the straight line and you will immediately go into a slide (which is correct), while in remake you drive like on rails and you don’t get anything even for the most difficult settings. In races, on the contrary, it’s like on the rink. For me personally (and I played M1 after maybe 10 years and I didn’t expect much), the chases in the original are MUCH more fun and better.
Finished the remake, or rather, reimagination, because it was too different to be called a remake. I really liked it, mostly for the amazing visuals, architecture and atmosphere; gameplay was ok, but not as good as in the original. Story-wise, there are some awesome additions (scenes with Sarah) and additional characterizations, but the ending…they fucked that up, sadly.
I just finished breaking in to the mansion. According to the chapter list, I’m just past the halfway point. Is that true in terms of time spent? Or do the remaining chapters fly by?
So it sounds like this is worth getting if I never played the original? I can recall the glowing praise Mafia received back in the day but I guess I was too busy with other games at the time. I get the impression that the original is the at to go if you don’t mind dated graphics.
Darn it, this is crashing for me whenever I start the game…
I think I like this one a lot more than the original version. I appreciate the original, but the shooting and driving are just so much better in this remake that it’s not even a close comparison in gameplay.
That said, I agree with the complaints about Paulie’s appearance and voice.
I wonder if they can pull a Destiny and replace Peter Dinklage equivalent of Paulie with a Nolan North equivalent of Paulie.
well, that’s quite an interesting quote. They certainly did the work, but for a game about being a sharp-suited mafioso, well, printing the legend may have been a better idea.
From watching that race mission video I must say I preferred the look and voice of Tommy from the classic version. I suppose this new guy sounds more like he’s from the Midwest (I think Lost Heaven is supposed to be an analog of Chicago, right?). Paulie looks and sounds nothing like his old version.
While I appreciate some of the effort put into the cars and driving experience of the original, I was incredibly frustrated by it. I’m so much happier with the remake. I won the race the first attempt, and actually enjoyed myself.
I didn’t have much trouble with the driving experience of the original, but I am amused that they put so much effort into it, considering that I was driving cars with a freaking keyboard in that game. A keyboard! I’m sorry, but I can’t get much of that car physics modelling and stuff through a keyboard. Even if the remake is worse in this regard, it will still feel better because we can now drive with a controller.
I don’t understand what you mean by this, elaborate?
You know what’s funny? I tried my controller (xbox one wireless) yesterday and it works in the original 2002 mafia for driving without any issue, with analog triggers and steering and all. I just had to configure it in the menu. It blew my mind because I finished Mafia three times and I never even bothered trying a controller because I just assumed there was no way it would work. For onfoot sections mouse is still needed though.
Dammit, I got spoiled on a plot point. Not from this thread, through reddit. I was looking for clarification on something and I got my answer, but it tied into something that happens later. I’m such a dumbass.
Sorry to bump the thread again, but i just finished the game and holy shit, it was a great experience. Even knowing what I knew from playing M2, and being spoiled because I was a dumbass and looked up something that I thought was innocuous, it still packed an emotional punch.
The motorcycle chase mission can fuck off, though.