Topic: Mafia 3

@MaccaMUFC: Fair. To me, it offers a great depiction of historical events and it offers transportation to the 60's through its atmosphere. GTA is always a bit unbelievable and a bit bland story-wise to me.

What's up with the sky in this game? The clouds look darn right awful at times. I'm still really liking the game though.

@SPGFan34: I've read a few reviews today. A lot of them say it starts off strong but it gets quite repetitive later on. Are you still enjoying the game? Would you still recommend it?

Gameplay can be repetitive but the story is really strong. I have been glued to every cutscene.

@Splat: I'll probably pick it up this week. I've been looking forward to it. Are you far into it?

I still don't know why they always try to make games like this open world now. Open world games suck unless they're done properly with an insane level of detail.

The game would be so much better if they just did it as a linear story, focused on top notch gunplay with a bit of driving and then add a few different gameplay mechanics from there.

Glad I'm not the only one who notice this, it's so off putting but the game looks much better at night.

I am enjoying the game it's story is great and the setting is brilliant, yeah it repetitive I don't mind it.

I have a couple of questions for those that have it. I saw it at trade shows earlier in the year and was wondering if they'd gotten rid of all the bloody floating markers in the game. Or can you turn them off?

Also, is the Detective Mode (aka Clay-Vision) an optional thing?

It's a shame because this looks like it's doing some interesting things in terms of exploring racism during that time period, but it sounds like the game itself is much to be desired. Strangely enough, when it came to the earlier Mafia games, I was never too bothered by the lack of interaction points in the open world as I just loved the atmosphere!

@Churchy: the last of us-like "listen mode" thing is activated by pressing the touchpad. I don't think there's a way to turn it off but I guess you could just never press the button though. As far as I can see, there's no way to remove the radar on the HUD (which has way too many things on it, but that's another topic) so annoyingly you're still gonna red dots where enemies are etc. The floating markers are annoying as well.

@roe: Thanks for the info! It'll be a case of Survival Instinct in Tomb Raider in that case for me!

Ah man, it's a shame the radar and the floating markers are out in full force. I think the thing that irritated me about them was that they go to so many lengths to capture the feeling of the sixties, yet there's all these bland 21st century markers all over the bloody place. Even the cash has a bloody floating marker last time I saw it!

The cast as a whole is outstanding but the guy that plays John Donovan is gold... Great job.

After finishing this last night (thank god) I have to say it's been the disappointment of the year for me.

Whilst the story and cut scenes were great. The repetitive game play and grinding put an instant dislike on the game after 3-4 hours of essentially doing exactly the same thing (but in a different area)

Several hours in to the game I was feeling like "will this ever end" I wasn't enjoying the game anymore and found myself rushing through the missions just to get it done.

I'm glad I played it. It was nice to see VIto again (I loved Mafia 2 and 1) and learn more about what happened to him after his exile.

I'm still trying to finish the story but it's frustrating me how dull the gameplay is. I really want to enjoy it and in small doses I'm enjoying exploring all the different districts and getting the collectables but yeah, the repetition and grinding to progress the story gets really boring quickly.

Might just take a break and go back a bit fresher in a month or so's time. A shame.

Well I finally finished Mafia III. I still can't believe how many glitches and bugs there are in this game and the AI is as bad as a PS1 game but the story is fantastic, the cutscenes are superb and the city is well designed.

I think it needs trimming a bit as it's just too long and a lot of it can get repetitive for no real reason but overall I enjoyed it. Doesn't deserve all the negative press really imo.