Incidentally, Mafia is run on a proprietry engine. Though it’s a similair type of game the people who made the GTA games had nothing to do with it.
One word of warning about it: polygonal sex scene!
Mafia graphics are breathtaking but the cars are WAY too slow for me.
*Originally posted by Boldface Type *
And anyway, helicopters do have a height limit - OK, it’s something like 6000m, but who’s quibbling? Maybe VC is full of Very Tall Erections ™.
No way is the height limit 6000m. That’d be like 18,000 feet. I might believe 600m. That would be about 1800 feet, which would align with what I know of VC - the copters can take you to the top of almost any building, except for the skyscrapers which are just too tall.
I think the RC 'copters feel great, but the full size chaps somehow feel less ‘realistic’. But what would I know, having never flown a 'copter? Controls are tricky with both RCs and the real deal, though.
The toy helis are definitely twitchy. I hated it at first but eventually with practice I got to like it quite a bit. Very nimble. Even the smallest and most manuverable of the full size helis, the sea sparrow, is a bit too “heavy” feeling for my liking. Though it’s certanly better than the 4 passenger “Maverick” heli, which feels like a whale.
Yeah, these seem good - but I not sure of the realism of being able to handbrake turn a boat!
Try the “cars drive on water” cheat code sometime - it’s hilarious and a lot of fun. And it doesn’t ruin the game like a free weapons or free health cheat might.
Bikes rock! Although they don’t behave like real m/cs, it’s still a good, and playable two-wheeled effort from the Rockstar boys.
True dat. Bikes are too much fun, even if they don’t behave entirely realistically.
As for the OP, I found VC to be pretty darn easy vs GTA3. The only mission that I felt was really challenging was the last story mission, “Keep Your Friends Close…” and the “Messin With The Man” mission. Those two I had to do five or six times before I won 'em. Every other mission, three times max, and a lot of “got it the first time.” Generally, you need to go in way over-armed, and proceed very cautiously whenever you’re not under a time limit. If you do that, they’re normally cake. I think I got lucky with the Hillary race, he got rammed by a cop car just south of the Malibu Club and I managed to keep the lead all way to the finish line. Of course, I drive like a (very skillful and fast-reflexed) maniac all the time in these games (that’s kinda the point) so it wasn’t much of a stretch.
I was disappointed with the difficulty level of VC, actually. I wanted VC to be as hard or harder than GTA3. As it so happens it’s the other way around. I would still play through them both though. And I wouldn’t bother getting 100% on VC unless you cheat a bit. Finding all the hidden packages by hand wasn’t that hard in GTA3, that map was just a lot smaller and there was a lot less detail to hide them in. It’s unreal hard in VC. When I finished the last story mission in VC, I had like 22 packages out of 100.
The missions seemed less varied in VC as well. In GTA3 you shot down a plane and hijacked its cargo, stole certain cars within a time limit, etc. In VC it seemed like you were always out to kill someone. Maybe the method or circumstances varied, but usually it was just “kill, kill, kill.” And while I enjoy that, it does get boring if that’s the only thing you ever do.
I also thought the fact that they didn’t have a real working Dodo in VC was kinda weak. Yeah, I know you have the hydroplane but it’s not the same. I got awfully good at flying the clipped wing Dodo in GTA3. I was hoping to get to fly the real thing in VC. Though, again, the helis and motorcycles certanly do kick ass.
Well, that’s enough rambling…
-Ben
Well I thought it was cool how Rockstar tried to vary their missions in VC. Like who wasn’t impressed with being able to fire a machine-gun at a couple crackhouses while your buddy Lance flies the hellicopter for you? Same with the bank job. I’ll agree I had more fun with GTA3 though, it had less bugs and wasn’t so flat, etc etc.
The only way the next GTA is going to impress me is when it comes to the Playstation 3. I hate those disappearing cars and not enough traffic etc.
Ah, I fear you’ve misinterpreted my facetiousness! I was referring to the fact that real 'copters have a height limit of 6000m (or whatever it is) - and so the VC skyscrapers must be Very Tall Indeed!
I’ll have to check out the watery cars, could be amusing…
I haven’t reached the last one yet, though I agree that the ‘Messin With The Man’ mission was a bit tricky - but only because it seemed pretty random as to whether you’d get enough stuff nearby to destroy within the time limit.
Some missions seem to allow for tactics which make 'em very easy. For example, in the one where you extract info from a bloke on a big ship, it’s possible to jump off the top of the ship (taking a small amount of damage from the fall) to escape, rather than fighting through hordes of gunmen. In the mission where you break some chap out of jail, there’s no need to actually keep with the guy. Instead, you can just zip off, lose the wanted level, then return to the escapee. The trek back to base is then very easy! And the ‘Martha’s Mug Shot’ mission - too easy with a 'copter nearby. And so on. So, I agree with this:
So far, anyway.
I don’t think I’ll bother to go for 100% in VC (I didn’t in GTA3) - the ambulance and vigilante missions are just too tedious to replay if you fail late on. So much wasted time! The taxi mission is pretty lame, but at least you don’t need to run through this one all at once. Pizza delivery task is also a little crappy, too.
Ha! It’s never enough.
I agree that VC has some funky missions. However, IMHO, VC is a lot less buggy than GTA3 (Non-solid building rooftops, anyone?).
I don’t like the control setup for VC very much. Plus, could someone mind telling me what keyboard key I’m supposed tp use to deliver the pizzas on the pizza delivery missions and use the hose on the fire truck missions?
I believe that is the ‘driveby’ key.
Would you all be happy if rockstar would make some sort of perfect game? I enjoyed the hell out of both. I like liberty city a bit better that vice, however, I’ve been playing vc alot lately.
I beat it about two weeks or less when I got it in october. I tired quickly of vc as opposed to gta3, which I played for almost a year.
I am looking forward to the next installment…
Hully Gully, use “look left” or “look right” to spot the target, fire to toss the pie. The firetruck spits water straight ahead using the fire button.
I love the game, but the police AI needs some work. It was disappointing to see the cop cars repeatedly smash into a fence in a futile attempt to hit you head on.
I second Neutron Star’s take on Mafia. There are plenty of high speed racing games out there, I enjoyed the variety (and sometimes the frustration) of the vehicles. I guess it’s a matter of buying into the whole period motif of the game.
Hillary sucks. Racing Hillary made me put this game down for months. I picked it up again just a few days ago. I threw my controller. I am 26 years old and have never thrown a controller once in my gaming life. Racing Hillary has made me put this game down for a few more months. Or I am gonna cheat, which I hate doing before I finish a game the whole way through without cheats.
In conclusion, Hillary sucks. (Not Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton sucked, Bill might not have been in all that mess a few years back. :p)
Played Hillary for the first time last night, and passed the mission on the 8th attempt. I agree that it’s annoying though, especially the way you keep getting creamed by the cop cars on an otherwise smooth run. Even worse, I kept winning, but only because Hillary died somewhere on the course. Top driver my hairy arse. Even even worse, if I won and Hillary had died, the game would hang. Pah!
Anyway, in the end it was tricky, but not so bad … if you take the first corner apace you can get ahead early on, and then it’s hard - but very doable - to stay there. Best to take the corners without using the handbrake (much), I found.
YMMV, depending on gear selection.
My mistake. You’re right: