Mafia-II posts

There nothing that says "good times" more than going over a game publisher's financial numbers in its press release. What fun!

• Steam has posted up the sixth patch for Magicka along with updates for Gratuitous Space Battles and Mafia II.
• Steam has also added Myst: Masterpiece Edition and is selling it and the related Cyan Complete Pack for 25 percent off their normal price for the next week.
• Telltale Games has revealed two new characters that will appear in the second chapter of Back to the Future: Officier Parker (Jennifer's dad) and Trixie Trotter.
• This week is the 20th anniversary of the founding of id Software. We suddenly feel old.

Mafia II was released back in late August but the development team at 2K Czech continues to support the historical crime action game with new content. Today, as previously promised, the second PC DLC mini-expansion for the game, Joe's Adventures, has been released via Steam.

The rather pricy $9.99 DLC contains an all new single player campaign for the game featuring Joe Barbaro, the best friend of Mafia II's main character Vito Scaletta. Joe's main storyline deals with him finding out the real reason Vito went to jail. It also contains a number of new quests along with access to new cars and clothing.

Before Mafia II was released, various retailers like Amazon.com, Best Buy and GameStop offered downloadable in-game extras if they pre-ordered the open world action game before it shipped to stores. Now that the 2K Games title is out, all of those pre-order extras are available for anyone to purchase and download via Steam.

There are four DLC packs to purchase for $2.99 each. They include the Vegas Pack, the War Hero Pack, the Renegade Pack and the Greaser Pack. All of them add two new cars each to the game along with some player character outfits. You can read detailed descriptions of all four packs after the jump:

The team at developer 2K Czech continues to work hard on extra content for its recently released open world action game Mafia II. Toda publisher 2K Games announced plans to release Joe's Adventures, the latest DLC for the game (second for the PC and third overall).

The DLC, which doesn't have a release date or price yet, will have the player control Joe Barbaro, the best friend of Mafia II's main character Vito Scaletta. The player will explore new areas in Empire City in the DLC (including a "cathouse"; hide the kids) along with new clothing and collectibles and more classic 1940's and 1950's songs. While there will be a storyline for the DLC (Joe finds out the real reason behind Vito's prison sentence) there will also be some optional quests with arcade-like gameplay.

The latest game in the Worms series has become a big hit for developer Team17. The latest top 10 PC game sales list on Steam shows that Worms: Reloaded, the 2D turn-based strategy game, is on top this week. Team17 recently announced that it was abandoning retail game releases to concentrate on self-publishing games via digital download.

Mafia 2, the open world action game from publisher 2K Games, is at the number two spot this week, followed by the Company of Heroes Complete Pack Bundle at number three, thanks to a weekend 75 percent sale. The full list is below:

1. Worms Reloaded - Team17
2. Mafia II - 2K Czeck/2K Games
3. Company of Heroes Complete Pack - Relic/THQ
4. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Digital Illusions/EA
5. Civilization V - Firaxis Games/2K Games
6. Mount and Blade Warband - Taleworlds/Paradox Interactive
7. Mafia II Digital Deluxe Edition - 2K Czeck/2K Game
8. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
9. R.U.S.E - Eugen Systems/Ubisoft
10. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve

Even though Mafia 2 is supposedly not selling up to expectations, the team at developer 2K Czech are keeping their promise to release downloadable mini-expansions for the open world crime action game. Today it was announced that Jimmy's Vendetta, the first such DLC for the PC port, will be released on Tuesday, September 7 for $9.99.

The DLC features players controlling Jimmy, another character in the game who apparently is "the guy the other guys call when they need to finish the job." Jimmy takes part in over 30 new missions in the DLC which include "assassination and timed vehicle pursuits". You will also be able to rack up points, combos and multipliers for "precision-timed vehicular power slides, lofty jumps, and supercharged velocity."

[Via email press release]

Mafia 2 is by far one of the most anticipated games of the fall/holiday 2010 buying season for PC games and publisher 2K Games has gone all out to let people know about the sequel to the 2002 open world crime action game. But for all the pre-release hype and attention, a financial analyst believes it's been all for nothing in terms of making money for 2K Games' parent company Take Two Interactive.

According to IndustryGamers, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes that the game's mixed reviews has hurt Mafia 2's sales changes. Also, according to Pachter, "consumer interest appears to be waning, as the game's position has dropped in many best-seller lists in its first week." Pachter believes that those factors will make the game "unlikely to achieve profitability" for Take Two.

Once again a big sale has caused a game to shoot up to the top of Steam's top 10 best selling games for the past week. This time Gearbox Software' shooter Borderlands, which had a 75 percent sale in the middle of last week, found itself at the number one spot (based on revenue). In fact two of the game's DLC mini-expansions, which were also on sale at 75 percent off this past week, made it on the top 10 list as well.

A two game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. bundle, boosted by a weekend sale, made it to the number two position on Steam's list this week. The full list is as follows:
1. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
2. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Weekend Deal Bundle - GSC Game World
3. Mafia II: Digital Deluxe Edition - 2K Czeck/2K Games
4. Mafia II - 2K Czeck/2K Games
5. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Digital Illusions/EA
6. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Io Interactive/Square Enix
7. Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx - Gearbox Software/2K Games
8. Worms Reloaded - Team17
9. Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition - Bethesda Softworks
10. Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned - Gearbox Software/2K Games

It's an extremely busy week for new PC game releases. Look for two major PC titles to ship out to retail stores along with a few more downloadable exclusive titles, including a big DLC expansion pack.

Mafia II - Eight years after the original was released, developer 2K Czeck (formerly Illusion Softworks) finally offers up a sequel to their historical open world crime action game. Set in the 1940s and 1950s in the fictional city of Empire Bay, you play an up-and-coming gangster named Vito who tries to rise up in the organized crime ranks. Shootouts and explosions ensue. The PC version will support hardware-based gameplay physics effects along with 3D support.

Download Mafia II Demo (941 MB)

The OnLive streaming PC game service continues to add to its still limited lineup of games. This weekend it was revealed that Mafia II, the long awaited open world crime action game from 2K Games, will be made available to OnLive users on Tuesday, August 24 at 12:01 am Pacific time (that's 3:01 am Eastern time).

As they did this past week when OnLive added Kane and Lynch 2 to its library, OnLive users who purchase Mafia 2 will be sent a coupon to purchase any other game on OnLive's service for free. The free game offer will end on August 29.