Weirdest dlc mafia 2 Pc#
Weirdest dlc mafia 2 series#

Skyrim, and every Bethesda RPG for that matter, is at its best when you decide to ignore whichever part of the story you're being nudged towards and explore. It's especially good at evoking the feeling that this is an ancient, storied place, rich with history and culture. But as a world to escape into, Skyrim is a remarkable thing. In hindsight, it's only a so-so RPG, with repetitive dungeons, bland dialogue, and janky AI. This frosty landscape is impressively varied, containing blizzard-battered peaks, bubbling hot springs, autumnal forests, and swampy marshes. But it was Skyrim, the fourth main Elder Scrolls game, that really captured people's imaginations. 2011: Winter is comingД«ethesda's knack for developing open world games was well established by this point, whether it was Fallout 3, Oblivion, or the impossibly huge Daggerfall. Presenting one large city across two time periods was wildly ambitious, but 2K Czech nailed it-at the expense of filling the place with the usual open world distractions. But in terms of world-building and creating a sense of place, Empire City was, and still is, a triumph-particularly the shift from the snowy 1940s version of the city to the sunny, optimistic '50s.

Weirdest dlc mafia 2 series#

Empire City, a stunningly beautiful amalgam of Chicago and New York, was ultimately just a detailed backdrop for a series of linear missions something reviewers complained about, citing a lack of things to do outside of the story. One of the most divisive open world games of 2010 was Mafia II, developed by 2K Czech. The number of ways to comically murder zombies, and volume of items that could be combined to create outlandish weapons, made for a fun and compelling open world-even if it was a fraction of the size of Liberty City. This was an early example of an open world that was much smaller than its peers, but that made up for it with an impressive density of detail. But Dead Rising 2 revealed itself to be a worthy follow-up, taking the action to Las Vegas-alike Fortune City. In 2010 we also got Dead Rising 2, a sequel fans were initially wary of when they learned that development had changed hands from Capcom's Japan studio to Canadian developer Blue Castle. It's remarkable how Rockstar took a city we had already explored to death and made it feel brand new again-twice. It's remarkable how Rockstar took a city we had already explored to death as Niko Bellic and made it feel brand new again-twice. This expansion also saw a return to the loud, over-the-top mission design of San Andreas a response, perhaps, to players who complained that IV's story was too bleak and downbeat. The Ballad of Gay Tony is the complete opposite, taking you on a journey into the city's vibrant nightlife, with brighter colours and more vivid lighting. In Lost and Damned you see the city from the perspective of a biker gang, their grimy lifestyle reinforced by the addition of a graphics filter that adds a layer of noise to the screen and sucks some of the colour out of it. Liberty City feels like a whole new place through the eyes of Gay Tony protagonist Luis Fernando Lopez and Lost and Damned's Johnny Klebitz. These are notable not only because they're excellent, and arguably better than the base game in many ways, but because they're an example of an open world setting being reused and recontextualised.

Weirdest dlc mafia 2 Pc#

This year saw the PC release of Episodes From Liberty City, which collects both of GTA IV's DLC expansions-The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony-in one standalone package. However, the most striking thing about this world is the feeling it gives you of existing completely in another place-something Ubisoft would continue to excel at, even in the worst Assassin's Creed games, for the next ten years. Tedious optional missions like collecting 100 feathers are an unfortunate hangover from the preceding decade of open world design, but the Assassin's Tombs-optional, self-contained puzzle/platforming challenges-give you a compelling reason to break away from the critical path and explore.

Not only is it a perfect sequel, improving on everything the original didn't get right, but its painstaking, bustling recreation of the Renaissance period, in all its architectural splendour, is richly detailed and hugely atmospheric. The game transports you to 15th Century Italy, taking you from the grand city of Florence to the canals of Venice. After the wild success of Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008, people were ravenous for more open worlds at the beginning of the decade-and Assassin's Creed II was a fine way to kick things off.