Hello and welcome back! After a wonderful year's worth of blogs, I let the blog breathe and take a break. That said, I'm looking forward to year 2 of this process. I have thought about how to expand the blog. I primarily have written the blog through the lens of video game production as that is what I specialized in. I still plan on analyzing different games through that same lens and trying to give the insight when I can. However, one realm of game media that has always interested me is video game reviews. I understand I do reviews in a sense but they are through a production lens and how I believe the game was developed and the pros and cons that come with that production timeline. When I talk about potentially reviewing a game I mean looking at it with a more critical lens. What worked in the gameplay? What didn't work? Did the narrative develop the characters effectively? That kind of thing. If doing critical video game reviews is something you'd like to see let me know in the comments.
With that out of the way, let's dive into the video game of the month: Mafia Definitive Edition. The game is a remastering of the original Mafia game, which launched in 2002. Fast-forward almost twenty years to 2020, and the game was remastered with new graphics and gameplay adjustments to bring it up to modern standards. The thing that surprised me the most about Mafia Definitive Edition was that it wasn't open-world. In the sense that you don't drive around the world from mission to mission, something like GTA as a close example, finding side objectives that kind of thing. You do have the option to freely roam the world but it is done so from the main menu.
First, I must say the game was refreshing to play an open-world-ish game but the missions were linear in structure and tell the story of cab driver turned Mafia member Tommy Angelo. I must say from a story perspective the game had me wanting to know what would happen next every step of the way, and the ending I wouldn't want to spoil that experience, but man it has one heck of an ending. Second, from a technical production standpoint, I believe the game has to be given its flowers. I was running the game on an RTX 3060 TI and an Intel 12400F processor at 1440p the game ran flawlessly at a locked 60 FPS. I also want to give a small shout-out to the lighting effects in the game. The way the light made the environment look was very well done.
One of the biggest underestimations of game production is when it comes to performance. At the end of the day, no matter how smooth your gameplay is, it doesn't matter if the frame rate can't run smoothly enough to represent it.
While I only played the first one the game is a part of the Mafia Definitive Collection that also includes updates to Mafia 2 and 3 gameplay-wise and graphically speaking. From a production standpoint, you're talking about art, gameplay, sound, etc, all having to be redone from the ground up. When you take that and combine it with the performance smoothness I mentioned earlier, there's great insight to be gained from a production lens of the Mafia Collection and I recommend you check out the first Mafia Game if you haven't already.
With that out of the way let's talk about MDEV 2024. In case you missed my earlier blog MDEV is the Midwest Game Developers conference, which is about promoting the game development scene in the Midwest. I will be volunteering at the conference this year and I am excited to do so. I can't wait to meet other developers in the Midwest and learn insight from them.
Perhaps even more exciting is that the senior capstone video game I was the lead producer on and had the honor to create with the rest of Lost Water Studios was selected to be at MDEV on the showcase floor. So when I am not doing volunteer things around the conference you can find me and some members of Lost Water at the SoulSync City booth during MDEV. If you're there be sure to come and say hi, we would love to show the game to you and talk all about it.
I am incredibly excited to be back on the blog scene. Who knows what games I'll be talking about with amazing games coming like Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I still need to play Star Wars Outlaws, and I am knee-deep in the fun of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 right now. Regardless I can't wait to talk all about it and I hope to see you at MDEV on November 8, 2024.
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