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The first evidence of this was in their booth at PAX East. Collections of indie studios sat clumped around the expo hall. Rockstar Games stood next door, showing off the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption to an endless line of salivating fans. But, towering over all of it, was the 20-foot tall structure that made up the 2K booth, and the banners for the three titles they were showing off within.

The first demonstration was for the new downloadable content in Bioshock 2. This, alas, I could not touch, because I have not finished the game yet and do not want to spoil the story for myself. The second demonstration was a hands-off showing of Civilization V, a game it seems will do wonders for the realm of turn-based strategy. Jon Huie has already published an article with his impressions on Civ V, and if you have not checked that out yet, I suggest you do.

The third demonstration is the one I got a close look at. This is the sequel to the highly acclaimed 2002 release, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. 2K has lived up to the reputation of the original title and then went far beyond. Mafia II is shaping up to be a well polished title that is fun to play, beautiful to look at, and easy to become immersed in.

The player takes on the role of Vito, an impoverished Italian-American who is looking to change his lot in life. He and his friend Joe become involved in…well…some “legitimate” business enterprises, and as one thing leads to another they get drawn deeper and deeper into the sub-world of organized crime. As time goes on, they begin to see that the glamor and prestige is really just a facade for something much uglier.

The gameplay itself runs very smoothly. When you take control of Vito, you find yourself operating a familiar 2-stick, 3rd-person control scheme. Vito moves where you want him to move, and the camera is easily adjustable. Hints appear at the bottom of the screen to help new players get used to the controls. Before you know it, the tutorial segment is over, and you find yourself in the middle of a turf war that forces you to sink or swim. You learn to fire a tommy gun, throw molotov cocktails, and work cooperatively with your brothers-in-arms to make the bad guys an offer they can’t refuse.

Mafia II boasts an excellent “cover system,” that allows the player to duck and dive behind obstacles to get quick cover during a gunfight. This system is both innovative and intuitive. Vito always jumps in the direction you want him to go, and always gets behind some kind of solid mass quickly. Aiming from behind a wall is a cinch, performed with only one button and done without sacrificing cover. This system, and the solid aiming and firing controls, makes combat a blast. It’s fun, and not too easy.

Everything in the world is interactive, too. Wooden panels are destructible, as the player learns in an early segment involving a bar and some machine gun fire. You can shoot weak materials like wood apart, and use molotov cocktails to set them on fire. Vehicles are a little tougher, but if you manage to get a spark into a gas tank, you’d better stand back.

The graphics…well, look at the trailers. All the cinematics are done using the actual game engine, so the crispness you see on any release video is exactly what you’re looking at throughout the entire game. You can see the pores and freckles on the characters’ faces. You can see splinters of wood chipping off under gunfire. I thought I saw a hangnail splitting from Vito’s trigger finger, but that was just some fuzz on the screen. Nevertheless, if he had a hangnail, I guarantee I would have seen it.

I also need to mention the sound. First off, the effects do wonders for actually immersing you in the world. You feel much more like a part of the mafia if you believe the clack of your Italian wing-tip on the cobblestone street is accurate. The sounds are realistic and the gunfire is loud. Secondly, the accents are dead on. The characters sound as though they are actually from the time period, which I raved about for Assassin’s Creed II and will continue to do for Mafia II. Taking the time to find and fund skilled voice actors is important, and they have done that here. Finally, when you hop into a car (GTA syle, mind you), the radio turns immediately to authentic music from the 1940’s. This is 100% necessary for cruising, especially since, in this game, the police are out to make sure you are actually abiding by the rules of the road. Personally I don’t mind. As long as Hank Williams stays out of my car’s stereo system, we’re good.

Speaking of authentic though, I got to talking with 2K’s PR department about some of the goodies in this game (children, cover your eyes). It seems 2K struck a deal with Playboy, a well-known adult magazine that was very popular and influential in the 1940’s. They struck a deal that allowed them to publish some classic Playboy covers in game, as they appeared on the original magazines. These covers can be found throughout the game as easter eggs, and naturally you’ll want to keep an eye out for them as you play through. I asked if the classic Marilyn Monroe cover would be present, but the 2K reps were not sure. Considering Monroe did the magazine in 1953, a little on the tail end of the Mafia II time period, I’d wager not. I’ve included it here, though, just in case. Don’t want to disappoint!

Overall, Mafia II is shaping up to be a smash hit for 2010. It will not have many of the console problems that its predecessor faced, it will provide diverse and entertaining gameplay, and a deep story that will have you chipping away at it until the very end. On top of all this, 2K is working at this in tandem with Civilization V, and Spec Ops: The Line, both of which are tantalizing as well. This is a good year for 2K Studios, and let’s hope for more of them to come. A good year for 2K means a very good year for us.

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As usual, email us at podcast@ampedgaming.com and please rate us on iTunes!

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As was mentioned here, we’ll be at PAX East this weekend and will more than likely be doing a podcast with Matt and I being in the same room, hopefully getting Arsen in via Skype and possibly bringing on a couple of guests. So stay tuned for that and a slew of articles going up over the next few days.

As always, be sure to review us on iTunes and email us at podcast@ampedgaming.com!

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and nick knacks are rearing their heads for the first time. Alas, curiosity is the downfall of the of the compulsive gamer with no travel budget, but don’t worry. Just take a long, comfy sit in your gaming chair and whip out your laptop. AmpedGaming has got you covered.

Our Executive Editor, Jon Huie, and yours truly, Frank Hunter, will be heading to Boston to cover this exciting event. We’ll be talking to the developers. We’ll be asking the hard questions. We’ll be going hands on with some of the newest titles. And of course, we’ll be reporting back to you. So Keep your eyes peeled because even we don’t know what we’re going to see, and that’s not just due to shoddy research! Boston is a land of adventure, and we are the pilgrims. Stay posted for live news coverage this weekend!

And by the way, for you fans attending the show, I know there is one question on your minds above all. One nagging, lingering little question that you need the answer to. Well, wait no longer. The answer is an absolute yes. You may take me out for a drink on Saturday night. My favorite beer is Killian’s, and you’re very generous for offering to pay. I’ll look forward to it!

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First and formost. While riding the subway and checking some emails I noticed that my bad was somewhat lighter than usual for something like this. Lo and behold I forgot my camera. Yes. Awesome. Go to an event sans camera. Brilliant, but not to worry. The trusty iPhone to the rescue. So there ya go.

So the New York Comic Book Marketplace is a one day annual event held in the center (or heart, if you will) of Manhattan. Across from Madison Square Garden. As soon as I walked in I was greeted by the first counter selling rare comics. Awesome. This will probably be the only time I’ll get close enough to touch the first Issue of Spider-Man or the introductory issue of Robin, because they are Fu-king expensive. If you didn’t already know that.

10 cents my ass. Try $6,900.00 and I think thats on the low scale for the issue. I know you cant see it very well but I love the little price tag with the big number. All right moving on. To this guy.

This is Yogen and he is awesome! I mean that. Seriously, he was awesome. Super nice guy and he dressed as a Jedi for a reason outside of the fanboyism. He’s part of “New York Jedi”, basically I guess you could call them a theater/ performance group dedicated to saber battles. They also make and sell light sabers that you can actually beat the hell out of. Pretty sure they are unlicensed versions, but who the hell really cares when you’re sitting there whacking your friend over the head with a lit up saber that wont break and if it does guess what? The blades are replaceable. You can check them out here.
www.NewYorkjedi.com

Some more walking and a ridiculous amount of comics later I ran into this. Now some of you may not be as excited about this as I was, but this was a set up I haven’t seen since maybe 1989.

Come on isn’t that great. I was five in 89 if anyone was wondering. The blurry guy in the background was selling stuff I think but I cant be sure. All right. Final two bits and I’ll be out of your hair.

The guy on the left is Jimmy Tran. If you’ve picked up any recent Ninja Turtles dvd’s specifically TMNT: Fast Forward it means you’ve probably seen his work as a colorist. What you may not have seen is his work as an illustrator. Which blew my mind. A really talented guy. I urge you to check it out at
www.jtapp.com .

Finally the guy on the right. This is Chris R. Notarile. You may not know who he is but you will probably know some of the films he’s done. He’s the writer/director/actor in Blinky Productions versions of comic films. Like Mr.J, Blinky’s rendition of how the Joker and Harley Quinn met. Obviously done on a small budget, but they are fun to watch and these two are in it.

HA! I said I’d get chicks wearing skimpy outfits into this post. Anyway, this is Kim Santiago and Johanna Telander. Both of which are heavily featured in Blinky Production films.Telander actually plays Harley Quinn in the Mr.J series. Sadly I wasn’t able to get them in costume. I’m the guy that got the photos of them after they changed.

Still beautiful girls. Sadly, I just missed the spandex and gratuitous cleavage.
But back to the films and rounding this out. After speaking with Chris for a while we got to the topic of a Street Fighter film that he would like to do. He mentioned trying to get the rights and told me the plot outline. I hope he’s able to get it done. Because it would almost definitely be better than the live action crap thats out now. He did shoot a trailer though. Check it out and other films at www.Blinky-Productions.com

All in all the experience was great. The people were really friendly and I bought a bunch of comics for a dollar. So against all odds and weather this thing got off the ground and was fantastic. At least for me.

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The NSFW Chat Roulette related link that Arsen sent to Matt and I can be found here.

Please feel free to email us at podcast AT ampedgaming.com and be sure to rate us on iTunes.

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One of the first things that had me kind of concerned about this game is how it looks. The environments, the people, and the enemies just were not nearly as good looking as you would think an Xbox 360 game would be. Based on gameplay videos from the PC version, the 360 one took a bit of a hit when it got ported over. On top of that, there seemed to be a very limited amount of character models used in the game. So, if you are someone who absolutely has to have the most advanced, crisp graphics out there all the time, this may not be for you.

Another aspect of the game that had me a little put off at first was the combat. Everything about it just seemed awkward in the beginning, especially when there were multiple enemies on screen, thanks to the sometimes too sensitive camera. But with some patience, eventually you’ll find that after some combat training, it’s not so bad. You can also pretty much pause the combat at any time by accessing your inventory. For some reason though, after you close the inventory screen, you are out of combat mode and have to quickly try and get back into it again, something that, on quite a few occasions, caused the potion that I drank to be pretty much wasted after losing the health I just gained back.

The storyline in Risen is actually pretty interesting. You play as a stowaway on a ship that ends up getting shipwrecked on the island of Faranga. As you explore the island, you discover there are two factions you can join up with (which also dictates which class you’ll play as), The Don’s bandits or the Inquisitor’s magic users/warrior monks. Both factions eventually end up working towards the same goal, saving the island from impending doom. The character that you play as is quite funny at times, poking fun at quest givers and just generally being a jerk, something I can definitely appreciate.

Questing in Risen was kind of a mixed bag for me. There are a ton of quests to do, especially during the first parts of the game. Even questing towards the option to buy the first bit of armor as a bandit (that I actually wanted to wear) took quite a while to do. The only thing about them that bothered me just a bit was the quest log. It seemed only a little useful at times, reminding you of what exactly was said in dialogue with the quest giver while placing a sometimes misleading dot on the map to show you where your objective might be.

Which brings me to to what I think is actually one of the more respectable things about this game: there’s not really a ton of hand-holding to be found here. Too many games nowadays seem to spoon feed everything to you and get rid of the need for an instruction booklet by making the first portion of the game a tutorial that tells you everything you need to know. Not to say that the build-up to choosing your faction/class is not a tutorial of sorts, but it definitely did not tell me everything. For instance, I was sent by The Don to invade a nearby Inquisitor owned camp with some NPC fighters. Things seemed to be going fine, but then I realized that the enemies were not dying like the wolves and boars that cease to exist once their health bars are empty. These guys were regaining their health and standing back up again, ready to continue beating on us. This eventually led to them killing off my NPC party members and capturing my character, forcing him into service of the Inquisitor. While it was interesting that I didn’t just have to reload an earlier save, it was a path I did not want to take. I ended up finding the ability to kill an NPC in the instruction booklet and decided to start over again from the beginning, since there were quite a few that I wanted to get rid of.

One way Risen does end up giving you direction is through the enemies you encounter throughout the world. Unlike other open-world games like Oblivion, creatures don’t scale to your level. If you’re going to an area you shouldn’t be in, a monster that will either kill you in one hit or take many of your hits without getting damaged lets you know you’re out of bounds. This added a bit of tension for me while exploring the island, unsure of when I’d run into something that would show me the reason why I save every 10 minutes.

All in all, Risen is a solid, old school style open-world RPG. Those that are too use to the modern, in-game walkthrough style of game design may be in for a bit of a shock, while those that crave the lack of direction that was found in older RPGs will thoroughly enjoy this.

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The Comic Con that won’t give up. Now I know that sounds a bit extreme, but here in New York the weather has been just that. With snow piling up the New York Comic Book Marketplace is making sure that it’s doors will be open for it’s annual event and I’ll be making sure to bring any and all news from the show floor.

You can check out the website here: www.nycbm.com

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