The Mafia series has always had issues to varying degrees with each of its entries, but each entry has also had its own fair share of fans. Now, it seems the last two Mafia games might be in line for re-releases. As spotted by Gematsu, Mafia 2: Definitive Edition (PS4, Xbox One, PC) and Mafia 3: Definitive Edition (PS4, Xbox One, PC) have both been rated by the Taiwanese ratings board.

Mafia 2 was developed by 2K Czech and first came out in 2010, with players taking on the role of Sicilian immigrant Vito Scaletta in the fictional American city of Empire Bay during the 1940s and 1950s. Meanwhile, 2016’s Mafia 3 saw players stepping into the shoes of Vietnam War veteran Lincoln Clay in the New Orleans-inspired fictional American city of New Bordeaux during the late 1960s. Both games were criticized for various open world failings, but both received nearly universal praise for their narratives and storytelling.

We’ll keep you updated as soon as an official announcement is made for both these releases, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, Mafia 3 developers Hangar 13 are working on another new open world IP, and we should be hearing about it in foreseeable future.

Sony really seems to like Mafia 3. They gave it away as part of the PS Plus lineup a few months ago, and now, they will also be offering it as part of the PS Now lineup in November. Any subscriber to the service can now play Mafia 3, as well as LocoRoco Remastered (the remaster of the underrated PSP game from Sony), and Steep, Ubisoft’s extreme sports game that’s not the best, but hey, it’s good enough.

You can see the full list of the games below. These games can be streamed to PC and PS4, and if you are on PS4, you can also download them and play them locally ala Game Pass (since none of the additions are PS3 games, which obviously can’t be downloaded or locally emulated). Sony are also finally fixing the browsing list for the PS Now catalog, which is now never 700 games, via Collections, which organizes the games via platform, genre, whether or not they can be downloaded, and so on.

If you’re interested in PS Now, perhaps your hand will be forced because Sony is now, as mentioned, allowing downloads of PS4 games on the service, making it a Game Pass competitor.

• Baja Edge of Control HD
• Battle Chasers: Nightwar
• Destroy All Humans! (PS2)
• Destroy All Humans! 2 (PS2)
• Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2
• Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (PS2)
• LocoRoco Remastered
• Mafia 3
• Steep
• Vikings: Wolves of Midgard
• World to the West

Hangar 13’s Mafia 3 continues to receive new content with the Stones Unturned expansion now available. Retailing for $15 standalone and included with the $30 Season Pass, the expansion sees Lincoln Clay and John Donovan pursuing Connor Aldrige to an island with “dense” jungles.

Some of the new content on hand includes Bounty Hunting missions, new weapons like the improved grenade launcher and RPG, a Sniper Service to immediately take out foes from a distance and new fleet vehicles like the Griffin Borneo Sport and De’Leo Stiletto. You can also expect new decals for customizing these vehicles along with a new Jungle Camo outfit and Party Animal Outfit.

Stones Unturned follows the Faster, Baby! expansion with the final expansion Sign of the Times to release in the coming months. Though Mafia 3 launched with its fair share of issues, Hangar 13 and 2K Czech have been working hard to improve it with updates and free content.

What are your thoughts on the new expansion? Let us know in the comments below.

Despite the current critical reception to Mafia 3 and its flaws (such as the numerous bugs), the inherent vision still manages to shine through. Mafia 3 has been lauded for its depiction of racism and the sheer atmosphere of its setting. Back at GDC 2016 in March, systems designer Seth Rosen from Hangar 13 discussed the studio’s vision in developing the open world. The presentation talks about the player’s interactions with the world around him and how to manage animation, assets and coding to craft the illusion of realism. This is especially apparent in environmental design when drawing a player’s attention to key elements or presenting what needs to be a bustling world. How do pedestrians react to your presence? What about the density of population? In the end, Hangar 13 seemed intent on communicating good AI, even if it’s not completely human, and especially one that can be conveyed over the length of the gameplay experience.

Of course, Rosen also noted that if “performance ever falters, AI dies”. When examining the technical aspects of Mafia 3, it’s important to note its general performance above all else. How many open world games have we seen buckle under the weight of their own ambitions?

"Looking at the PS4 and Xbox One, Mafia 3 runs at 1080p resolution on the former and 900p resolution on the latter."

Looking at the PS4 and Xbox One, Mafia 3 runs at 1080p resolution on the former and 900p resolution on the latter. The target frame rate cap for both platforms is 30 frames per second and performance is relatively stable throughout. Some slight frame drops were observed while driving though and frame pacing tends to be an issue across all three versions. Anti-aliasing can be pretty bad on consoles and the solution utilized is still unconfirmed. Mysterious as it may be, we don’t like it.

When comparing the graphical quality to PC, the console versions seem to be the equivalent of the PC version’s Low to Medium settings. Here’s the weird thing though – low resolution textures can be seen in some places on all three versions. Pixel crawling is also fairly abundant. There’s not really a lot of reason to be impressed with Hangar 13’s solution regardless of which platform you choose.

Upon seeing an open world game like Mafia 3, we’re reminded of Grand Theft Auto 5 and the extensive amount of graphical options available to PC players. This isn’t a direct comparison – GTA 5’s PC port was out more than a year after the initial console release – but one would assume that the PC version of Mafia 3 would allow for the same level of graphical customization.

"Upon testing the performance, it became apparent that reflections were the main resource hog for the PC version. If you want to achieve a 60 FPS frame rate, then avoid setting Reflections to High."

In terms of options, there’s Brightness, Resolution, Frame Rate (which can now be adjusted from to 30 FPS to 60 FPS and unlimited), Depth of Field, Field of View (from 55 to 90 in increments of one) and Global Quality. Fullscreen Support is a given (though borderless window support is oddly absent) while other features include V-Sync (double-buffer), Ambient Occlusion, Motion Blur, Geometry Detail, Shadow Quality, Reflection Quality, Volumetric Effects, Anti-aliasing (with three options – Low, Medium and High) and your usual Screen Borders.

Upon testing the performance, it became apparent that reflections were the main resource hog for the PC version. If you want to achieve a 60 FPS frame rate, then avoid setting Reflections to High. We set it to Low and maxed out other settings instead.

Mafia 3 was tested across three distinct GPUs. On an AMD Radeon RX480, we witnessed an average of 51 FPS at 1080p resolution with the lowest frame rate hitting 26 FPS. At 2K resolution, the average frame rate was 39 FPS and lowest was at 21 FPS.

Meanwhile on the Nvidia GTX 1060, we averaged 62 FPS at 1080p resolution with the lowest frame rate at 39 FPS. At 2K resolution, the frame rate average was 48 FPS and lowest was 33 FPS. The upper tier GTX 1080 card recorded 81 FPS on average at 1080p resolution with the lowest frame rate at 66 FPS. The 2K resolution net 61 FPS on average and 52 FPS at its lowest. For 4K resolution, the average FPS was 33 FPS while the lowest frame rate was 23 FPS.

"While Hangar 13 and 2K Czech are expected to release more patches in the coming days to further optimize Mafia 3 on PC, your best bet is to experience it on the PS4 or Xbox One."

Overall, the PC version is a poorly optimized title. While shadow quality tends to remain consistent throughout and texture quality isn’t affected at some places regardless of whatever setting used, there were still tons of glitches. The game also crashed four times in the process. Also, the PC version is based off of the console port, the latter having a 30 FPS engine. This is the reason for it shipping with a 30 FPS lock at launch – fan feedback ultimately motivated the FPS unlock that’s now available.

Mafia 3 may have succeeded in delivering a stunning atmosphere that recreates a dark time in American history but it’s not exactly the paragon for current gen open world graphics. On the whole, it’s optimized much better on consoles with the PC version failing to really take advantage of the high end GPUs on hand. In many ways, Mafia 3 seems to be stuck in the previous generation with its poor visuals, glitches and uneven physics. As great as the setting can be, these problems tend to drag down the experience and detract from the otherwise interesting story.

While Hangar 13 and 2K Czech are expected to release more patches in the coming days to further optimize Mafia 3 on PC, your best bet is to experience it on the PS4 or Xbox One. Both excel with their steady frame rate performance despite running at the PC version’s equivalent of lower settings.

Yesterday, it was revealed by 2K Games (and many gamers who received early copies) that Mafia 3 was hard-capped at 30 FPS on PC. The publishing label noted that an update would be arriving to rectify this and it will be a lot sooner than you think.

Community associate Joseph noted that, “We currently have a patch running here at the studio that includes 30, 60, and unlimited frames-per-second options in the video menu, among other improvements for the PC version of Mafia 3.

“We’re verifying the patch now to ensure everything is working as expected. If everything goes well, we expect the update to go live this weekend. We will be keeping the PC community up-to-date on the status of the patch throughout the weekend and thank you for all the feedback!”

Further updates will be offered here so stay tuned for more information. Meanwhile, how are you finding Mafia 3’s gameplay? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Reports emerged from PC Gamer that the PC version of Mafia 3, which releases tomorrow for PS4 and Xbox One as well, had its frame rate capped at 30 FPS. The developer has issued an official response on the website and confirmed these reports, though an update is coming to enable higher frame rates.

“We know how important having options that best suit your PC’s performance capabilities are. The team has been hard at work ensuring that Mafia 3’s performance is consistent across all platforms, and right now the game runs at a solid 30 frames-per-second.

“We are currently working on an update for PC that will give players the option to play Mafia 3 at higher framerates. We’ll share more details about the update, and when you can expect it to arrive, very soon.”

Feedback is also being sought from players for other performance adjustments. “In the meantime, the team welcomes feedback and would like to hear from you about what performance adjustment options are important to you. We’re actively considering a number of additional post-launch improvements on PC that would give players more control over how they can tailor the game’s experience to suit their rig’s performance. It’s been an incredible journey developing Mafia 3 and we couldn’t be more excited to get the game in your hands and hear what you think!”

What are your thoughts on Mafia 3’s limited frame rate on PC at launch? Let us know below.

Hangar 13’s Mafia 3 isn’t just about Lincoln Clay and his quest for vengeance against those who killed his mob. It’s also about the Marcanos, a family which has a tight hold on New Bordeaux. Check out the latest video from the developer which discusses the Marcanos and who Vito, Mafia 2’s protagonist, is involved with them.

Mafia 3 takes place in the late 1960’s and features Lincoln Clay building up his own mob to take down the Italian mafia. This involves breaking up rackets, forming alliances (and honouring them, lest your teammates stab you in the back) and causing mayhem across New Bordeaux. The culture and times are less than ideal for someone like Clay but he’s got more than enough anger to get the job done.

Mafia 3 will be releasing on October 7th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Will you be picking it up? Let us know and the comments. Head here for more information on its Season Pass and story expansions.

Hangar 13’s Mafia 3 will, as you’d expect, have both free and paid post-launch support. This includes “free recurring content” such as new clothes for characters, gold weapons (available 30 days after launch), customizations for vehicles and races for earning money.

There will also be three story packs that can be purchased separately (costing $39.97 overall) or part of the Season Pass (retailing at $29.99) that will be included in the Deluxe and Collector’s Edition. These include “Faster, Baby!” where Lincoln helps an old girlfriend Roxy Laveau battle a corrupt sheriff; “Sign of the Times” with Lincoln investigating some ritualistic murders at the behest of Father James; and “Stones Unturned” where Lincoln helps CIA agent John Donovan and travels back to Vietnam to take down a hated enemy.

Mafia 3 releases on October 7th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. What are your thoughts on the free and story DLC content? Let us know in the comments.

Hangar 13’s Mafia 3 has a rather compelling story behind it but you won’t just be following the psychological journey of protagonist Lincoln Clay. The open world poses plenty of challenge and other activities to help expand your empire in New Bordeaux.

One of those activities is racket. These essentially concern criminal activities of other gangs and include drugs, slave trading and other nefarious acts. It will be Clay’s jump to take them out, thus adding to his own power and influence in the process. And as noted in past trailers, Lincoln isn’t someone who operates with subtlety. There are explosions and shooting aplenty.

Mafia 3 will be releasing on October 7th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. It’s developed by Hangar 13 alongside 2K Czech and will offer a fairly large single-player mode in the New Orleans-inspired town of New Bordeaux. Will you be picking it up? Let us know in the comments below.

Listed below are fifteen features in the upcoming Mafia 3 that have us the most excited.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

UNDERBOSSES

Mafia 3 will see you play as Lincoln Clay and create and manage your very own crime family. It only makes sense that as the man at the very top of the pecking order of the family, then, you’ll be delegating plenty of work to your trusted lieutenants. Mafia 3 features three characters in the form of Cassandra, Burke and Vito (who was the main protagonist in Mafia 2) as your three underbosses, who will play a vital role in the running of your family.