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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The first thing you can see is that the grid is composed of what Firaxis likes to refer to as “Hexes”. These give the world a more natural feel than the square grids of old.

The time spent developing the console version, Civilization Revolution, was apparently time well spent. Not only did it sell very well, but it also led Firaxis to learn a few things about simplifying the game a bit and making things more streamlined. Not to say that the newest PC Civ is going to be a “baby game”, as it actually still seems complex. One of the things they did was bring the advisors back. They were missing from Civ IV, but the positive feedback from having them in Civ Rev made it possible for them to return.

A few new changes were shown as well. Notifications that pop up on the right side of the screen make an appearance once something that needs your attention happens. Rather than stop the gameplay and have you choose an item from a menu after you’ve researched or built units, these notifications make it possible to make these choices when you’re ready to, keeping the pacing of the game quite nicely. Another thing these notifications do is bring you straight to some action that’s going on off screen when you click on them, such as a ship sinking across the world.

In previous Civilization games, the leader of other nations was represented by half of their body that either smiled or glared at you in anger, not really saying much. Now once you open up dialogue with a leader, you’re taken to a different screen with a full-bodied representation of the leader, with a background that shows what kind of personality they have, like Tokugawa standing in an open, peaceful looking field or Napolean negotiating with you from a battlefield.

Not only is their presentation different, the way the leader’s AI adjusts to you as well. The example given was if you’re successful at thwarting Elizabeth’s attack at sea, she’ll change her strategy and try to go after you elsewhere.

Religion was taken out of this version of Civilization. In it’s place is a new City-State system that allows you to come across a small settlement of about a single city, which you can either choose to help or conquer. If you help these city-states, you’ll receive benefits based on what they specialize in, like a steady stream of gold coming in each turn or military units.

When you place settlers in an area, you can apparently buy up land around the unit. If you end up buying too much land near the territory of another nation, the leader will call you out on the problem.

Combat has received a nice overhaul as well. Before the outcome of a war between nations depended on how many units each side has stacked into one square. Now each tile is limited to one unit, which are now represented by a bunch of the same type instead of a single person. When these units are damaged, the number of people in the group goes down.  Where each battle use to last until one side’s Hit Points are depleted, now each fight seems to last longer and can end with a unit being injured instead of just dead.

Since each tile can only hold one unit now, city defense now relies on them being surrounded by protectors. The cities are also now able to fend off enemies on their own.

Archers and other ranged units can now fire over warriors or spearmen in front of them to soften up the enemy before a strike.

That’s about all we got to see during our presentation. Civilization V is set to be released in the Fall of 2010, a time when my roommate and I will once again be awake at 3 AM wondering where the time went.

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Back when I was in college, I was exposed to a little title known as Guitar Hero. I mistakenly believed that buying this game at finals time would be excellent way to unwind when I wasn’t studying my little ass off. I was sorely mistaken, as the best of us often are. Pretty soon studying wasn’t happening, but there is always a flip side. I managed to complete “Bark at the Moon” on hard mode before going home for the summer.

Since college, we’ve seen massive jumps forward for music games, in difficulty and in hardware. Rock Band pushed the envelope with drum and microphone compatibility, and the industry has now made this the standard. For a few years it has held at this point, but no longer. As you look at the above picture of a couple of average guys playing Rock Band, squint and take a close look at their hands (alternatively, just look at the second image). That’s right. Those are not buttons. Those are real six string guitars, and they are wired up to be compatible with PS3 and Wii versions of all music games.

A company called Open Chord has created a little device you can attach to the guitar strings to turn any electric six string into a game controller. With the accompanying program, you can choose to play your favorite music game in three different modes. In “fret mode,” you play the proper frets to hit the proper notes, much like the current norm. In “chord mode,” you set different chords to different color combinations. You can actually practice your chord progressions and start learning skills used in real guitar while playing the game. Lastly, you can use “note mode,” where specific notes are programmed to the specific colors and you’ll be fingering up and down the neck of the guitar until your hand is sore. If you can remember which note is which, that is.

This device is going to be available through OpenChord.org and will cost $35. The program that it uses is available, and the whole thing is open source. That’s right. Players can tweak the program to their choosing, and will be able to program their own chord and note patterns in.

The whole thing seems very complicated, but worthwhile for those who are looking to get just a little bit more out of their music games.

Additionally, a newer company called Seven45 is putting out a standalone game called Power Gig: Rise of the Six String. The guitar controller that is packaged with it is actually a six string in itself, and it seems it will function much in the same way as the above device although company representatives have revealed that they are also planning to incorporate power chords into game play. They were relatively tight-lipped about the project’s details, but said that gameplay, as well as the game’s other peripherals, will be revealed this year at E3. Their website is currently online with minimal content at www.powergig.com.

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Since NCSoft picked the franchise up completely off Cryptic Studios five years back, the new Paragon Studios put out the City of Villains expansion which doubled the content of the original game, and are now working on Issue 17, the 17^th free expansion. The Paragon team is, in a word, meticulous. They are always looking for new ways to liven up the City of Heroes experience, and they are always adding content that blows away the fanbase. It certainly has continued to impress me..

Matt “Positron” Miller, the game’s lead system designer, credits these plentiful (and dare I mention again, free) upgrades as the key to the franchise’s success. From new power sets and zones, to color customization, to the Mission Architect system that allowed players to create their own missions, this constant new content always does a great job of keeping things fresh. The average video gamer is attracted to shiny things, and Paragon is constantly just rolling them in front of our faces.

So what’s still to come?

Issue 17: Dark Mirror is just over the horizon, and oh is this a treat. City of Heroes is getting a complete graphical overhaul to catch up with today’s upgraded computer systems. They game will now render shadows realistically, following the sun across the sky throughout each day. This gives Paragon City and the Rogue Isles an unimaginable visual upgrade, as the Studio’s before/after pictures illustrated. They have also done incredible work on reflective surfaces. Now, water and glass will reflect the characters and the world around them, again adding a level of detail. Other subtle changes were made in ambient occlusion. These visual enhancements together are called “Ultra Mode,” and will be available for players with the proper graphical hardware. This will not slow down players on less-than-perfect machines.

In addition, some more content is being included. Moving tails will be available as a costume part, the Positron Task Force will be divided and upgraded for a smoother and more fun game experience, and some more missions will be added. The  Issue’s biggest achievement though is in the doppelganger system.

With doppelganger, players will be able to square off with evil versions of themselves within Mission Architect. These doppelgangers will be customizable. They can be a mirror image of your hero or villain, or they can be a polar opposite. They might just be subtly different, with a different costume, or legs growing out of their heads. Either way, this means an unprecedented level of customization in Mission Architect, and additional replay value, as the same mission played with different party members will result in different doppelgangers and a different overall experience every time.

Going beyond Issue 17, the team talked a bit about Going Rogue, the only paid expansion the game has seen since City of Villains in 2005. In Going Rogue, your hero or villain will be able to change sides, falling into a kind of “gray” area and then progressing to the other faction altogether. Obviously this does a lot for characters’ personal stories, and the relationships between heroes and supergroups as a whole. Most of the information on the expansion is already publicly viewable, but I’ve got a few things here you have not yet seen…

Four new power sets will be coming with Going Rogue. Dual Pistols is already available for those who preorder the expansion. Demon-Summoning will be available at pre-order soon as well. NCSoft will be putting up a video for that on Monday, so keep your eyes peeled. The other two sets were only just revealed at PAX, and here they are. Kinetic Melee will be available for scrappers, tankers, brutes and stalkers. This is a punching-based class that will focus on gathered energy. The final class is one that has been clamored for forever: Electric Control for controllers and dominators.

Even beyond Going Rogue, the team decided to spill a little information on Issue 19, and revealed that City of Heroes will be getting some end-game content very soon (look out, Blizzard). This content comes in the form of the “Incarnate system,” which will add additional and different levels, again more classes, new abilities, new rewards, and new zone events. They were very tight-lipped on what exactly these would be, but we can anticipate ten new levels and plenty to do for those stagnant level 50’s who have lingered at the top for too long.

It never ends with Paragon Studios, but, like a smooth chocolate milkshake, you never want it to. Going Rogue, and everything else to come, will continue adding new depth into a franchise that has shown innovation at every turn. Watch NCSoft’s website for upcoming screenshots and videos of the new content, which they have promised will be available soon.

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2K Games announced today that Mafia® II will be available in North America on August 24, 2010 and internationally on August 27, 2010 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC. Mafia II is currently in development by 2K Czech, the same creative team behind the award-winning, genre-defining Mafia®, which captivated millions of gamers around the world.

Through a compelling narrative, Mafia II transports gamers into the dark and unforgiving world of the Mafia. The fiction is embellished by a sophisticated, era-evoking atmosphere that meticulously replicates the clothing, cars, music and advertising of 1940’s and 1950’s Americana. Players will easily become immersed in the game’s cinematic Hollywood-style experience with strong, believable characters in a living, breathing metropolis. By fusing high-octane gunplay with white-knuckle driving and an engaging narrative, Mafia II looks to be the industry’s most compelling Mafia title to date.

Born the son of a poor immigrant, Vito is a beaten down Italian-American who is trying to escape the life of poverty that consumed his childhood. Vito, along with his lifelong friend, Joe, will descend into the world of organized crime. Looking to escape the life of hardship that his father led, Vito dreams about becoming a “made man,” and together with Joe, will work to prove themselves to the Mafia as they try to make their names on the streets. However, the two quickly realize that life as a wise guy isn’t quite as glamorous as it seems.

Additionally, Mafia II will be playable by the public for the first time at the Penny Arcade Expo East.

We at AmpedGaming are slated to take a look at Mafia II at PAX East this weekend. We’ll provide some first-hand details and opinions as soon as we’ve gotten the chance to see the title for ourselves. For now though, just breathe deep. Gotta love the smell of tommy guns in the morning…

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Matt and I spoil the last half of this epic game and finish things off with a short discussion on some of the other things I’ve been playing recently.

Intro and outro music clips this week are from the Mass Effect 2 inspired song by Kabuto the Python, Those Minerals.

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Yesterday marked when Blizzard finally let people in to the highly anticipated sequel to what appears to be South Korea’s national sport, Starcraft.  I got my invite and as soon as everything was done downloading and installing, I dove right in.

One of the things that Blizzard has been talking about releasing along side of Starcraft II Is the new Steam/Xbox Live-like Battle.net system. It’s definitely a nice set-up and I can’t wait to see how well this integrates into the other games this will connect with, World of Warcraft and Diablo 3.

After spending a considerable amount of hours in the past few days playing Starcraft I, the way the sequel looked struck me more than it would have otherwise. Everything is how one would expect an 11 year old game who’s graphics have been updated to fit today’s standards would look. If anything, it seems to have a bit of future proofing.  My PC is a pretty powerful one and it is not able to handle the High settings without a considerable amount of lag.

The gameplay remains to be something I’ll have to comment more on later since I haven’t had a chance to play more than two matches so far. But before I get back to playing, here are a few screenshots.

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EA’s huge press release revealed that they will be unlocking “The Cerberus Network” in-game at launch. Each new copy of Mass Effect 2 will ship with a one-time exclusive code and those who get the game used can buy the code online. “The Cerberus Network” is “a conduit for players to receive bonus content as well as daily messages and news on upcoming releases for Mass Effect 2 for no extra charge.” Doesn’t that sound incredible? I agree, it certainly does.

Also slated for release-date enjoyment is the exclusive DLC that will pack an entirely new mission and introduce you to the ruthless gun-for-hire, Zaeed. Bioware also announced another DLC pack that will introduce players to the Hammerhead, an entirely new vehicle, which is a hover tank that players can use to get across rugged terrain. Hold on, I know it’s overwhelming but there’s still more. New missions and in-game items are on the horizon for the game after launch, including the Cerberus Assault Armor and M-22 Eviscerator Shotgun.

Now, this all sounds amazing but I still have a question. Are we paying for the DLC released after launch? If so, what is it priced at? And why create the Cerberus Network if we’ll just end up paying for stuff at the end? I suppose these questions will be answered shortly as Mass Effect 2 will launch next week for the XBOX 360 and PC on January 26 in North America and January 29 in Europe.

We. Can’t. Wait.

[Source: EA]

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