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I remember how I loved the first instalment of the series. I played it to death and bought multiple copies to pass out to friends (when I encountered the game in a bargain bin somewhere).

Sadly, I don't have much time for gaming anymore... (work, wife, kids, you know), 'cause I'm aching to dive into Mafia II.

I personally like the gaming news also. It's a nice diversion from other more technical stuff.

Stamps worth their weight in gold? I know what you are trying to say, but....

I'm about halfway in the game myself and so far I love it. Yes, it's very linear despite being (mostly) set in a big town where you can go wherever you want. It's even divided into chapters where each mission is a new chapter. I don't think that is a problem though, it was obviously a design decision.

It has gotten a few quite bad ratings (from IGN for example) because of this but after reading the reviews it's obvious that the only reason for the bad rating is that they were expecting something else, an open-ended game.

I'm fine with the linearity and if you are too you'll probably love the game, as do I.

Playing it right now.

Minireview:

- It seems to be pretty much the same game as Mafia 1 (this is good) - though perhaps a bit easier (to cater to modern taste)?

- It has big framerate problems on a PC. 2ghz core2 duo seems to be the MINIMUM this time. Recommended setup is core 2 quad.

In a way I'm happy about this, I have so far found it difficult to rationalize upgrading my pc.

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't catch what platforms are supported. Is this an XBox game, PS3, Wii, Windows PC, or other platform game?

I empathized with just about every character that wanted to kill him.

Good review though, I'll probably pick it up later in the year.

I played the original Mafia and I thought it was hilarious how you were often forced to drive old timey cars around at 15 mph. It's the complete opposite of your typical video game where speeding around with rocket boosters is standard fare.

they ruined Bioshock for me (i would probably fall in love with it if the setting was similar to System Shock though).

Having said that i have to admit I liked Mafia II a lot. I can appreciate the wonderful attention to detail in just about every element of this game - the characters, cars, music, lighting, interior design and the city. Nothing feels generic (like in Just Cause or similar sandbox games, even Fallout 3) and at times i felt like i'm driving/walking through a painting rather than a video game environment. I often found myself just playing with the camera and admiring the view - not a thing I do often now.

I've been playing computer/video games for more than half of my life (i'm 26) and these days most of them feel like they came of an assembly line. Mafia II is not one of those and even if the ride is short i was having fun every second of it. 9/10 in my book.

I partially agree with the review, especially when you consider the amount of detail poured into the game, the references to other forms of entertainment or art (architecture in primis). At the same time, being a great fan of the first game, I sadly have to say that the sequel is almost a complete trainwreck.
There are two (huge) main problems in the game: story and gameplay.
Story is not really a work of art, it's good, but filled in with cliches, underdeveloped and unbalanced. The first was a lot simpler, and yet more refined, And it's sadly not only that, the first game was directed by Daniel Vavra (who also wrote the story) while this one is not, and it shows. Direction is sketchy and repetitive, and while you play along the less than 10 hours of gameplay, your screen will turn black every 5 minutes, and the story will be interrupted by countless of "2 hours later..." "6 hours later..." "two days later..." "4 years later..." imagine if you had a movie in which they interrupt all the action to tell you how much time has passed. The first game had a lot more clever direction, and there was a lot less disconnection between the storytelling and teh actual gameplay. Which brings me to the second issue: gameplay. Lackluster at its best. Again, not only the first game was way better than the sequel, but Mafia II doesn't really stand out among modern games. You do two things in game: drive and shoot. You can sneak a bit as well, but in the end the missions in which you'll do are so few, that it doesn't really count. Driving is generally fun, and the environment is really great, but it's not enough to fill in half of the gameplay. The fighting as well is a mixed bag. Guns are great and the destructible environments are awesome, but they're too seldom apart, there are no melee weapons and the hand combat is one of the lamest and most boring things ever seen. But the worst part is how all this is mixed together. For some obscure reason, it was decided at some point during the production process that, in order to make the game more fast-paced, most of the side missions were cut, and instead of having you phisically doing something, it was better to have a cutscene. Early alphas of the game show the missing gameplay, and you actually wonder the reason of the removal since the result of it is a very disconnected experience. Now whenever you refuel, you enter a building, or do something that the devs decided it was out of place, the screen goes black. Which means that other than driving and shooting, most of the times you're watching cutscenes. The last big issue is the length of the game. You can beat the thing on the hardest setting (difficulty hard + driving simulation) in 10 hours or even a bit less, and with no free roaming when you finish it there's basically no replay value. If you think of all the details and love put into the environment, the cars, and the character models, you can't really say it's put to good use. Sure, there's a lot of DLCs planned, one already released as an exclusive for PS3 and another due tomorrow, but these are not free and you just wonder why 2k released a half finished and rushed game for full price.

I am Italian and I can't see myself playing this game, knowing what I know about the real mafia.
Throughout the last 60 years the organized crime has spread and contaminated the whole country, since the americans first cut a deal with the families to control the territory and to exterminate different ideologies. This approach was followed by the italian state too, so that, nowadays, all top levels of the government are in one way or another entangled with the mafia.
The mafia has gotten different, more subtle, more global, more legal and political. Also much bigger, even if it does not seem so.
I hope that kids in my country are not alienated by games about such a subject and spend time considering the real phenomenon.