Reviews for Mafia 3 are finally out and it’s been an interesting journey. Everyone was quite enamored with it at first, yet the reviews usually end up in the 70s range. Why? Turns out that the first 2 hours have nothing to do with the rest of the game. All starts off very story driven. Good looking cut scenes, a fantastic soundtrack, fast and well executed storytelling, and a linear mission design that showcases every strength, while hiding all its weaknesses …and there are a lot of those. The AI is flat out broken in many cases, so is the stealth system. The open world would have been underdeveloped a decade ago and sure, that was already the case with the previous two entries to the franchise, but unlike those, Mafia 3 doesn’t have a strict story focus when it comes to mission design. Not to mention the technical issues, especially on PCs.

I usually wouldn’t bother bringing this up. Bad games get released all the time, just take a look at the list of recent releases on Steam and you are bound to find some trash in there. There is however one thing that really bothers me. The game had the potential to be good, with a bit more polish. The gunplay is great. Shooting people has a very visceral impact. Driving isn’t perfect, but fun as fuck. Hell, they even offer two different driving models. The stealth focus would also be an interesting change of pace in the genre, if it wasn’t for the brain-dead AI. But as it stands, the game is basically in a beta stage. A preterm birth that could have easily ended up as a stillborn if it wasn’t for the AAA marketing budget life-support. 2K had to know this, yet they decided to release it. Even worse, they held back review copies, so consumers wouldn’t know about the issues.

Makes you wonder. Did they focus all their energy on polishing the first 2 hours of gameplay, which are in no way representative of the full game, so YouTubers and streamers who are in competition for the early impression money have a good time? Naaah, I mean, that would be shady as fuck. 2K would never do such a thing. Or would they?

Either way, it paid off ...at least in the short term. Mafia 3 made it to the top of the sales charts, outselling its predecessors despite being a way worse game. Congratulations 2K on selling an unfinished game and getting away with it. Don Corleone would be proud of you guys.

Anyway, what is everyone playing over the weekend?

Greywolfe: I was doing so well in the longest journey.  then i wasn't.  going to try that again next week with more gusto :P

Thomas: If I get home in time, I’ll probably try out Raw Data on the Vive, since that is free for the weekend. Otherwise I’m stuck with whatever tickles my fancy on my new Shield Tablet.

Cody: Alan Wake for GameClub! And of course some Rocksmith :p

Tru: Alan Wake, Mafia II, and Mark of the Ninja.

Scroo: Alan Wake for Game Club. Thinking of maybe grabbing Shadow Warrior 2, but likely I'll wait for the holliday sales to start before I do any purchasing.