If you thought the days of sub-par PS3 ports of multi-platform games were over, bad news Sony fans, Mafia II on the Xbox 360 whacks its inferior PS3 cousin. At least when it comes to large pools of blood and grass, it seems.
This is according to Elizabeth Tobey, 2K’s Senior Manager of Interactive Marketing, who has confirmed on the company’s forum that, in the graphics department at least, the PS3 version does not perform as well as other editions of the game. She says:
“When designing Mafia II, we optimized for each of the three different systems the game would run on to make sure the core experience was the best it could be. Because of this, there are some differences from one platform to the next. In terms of the PS3 version, I wanted to clarify a couple points you have been asking about: There will not be highly detailed grass or large pools of blood, the cloth movement is less noticeable than, for example, the PC version, and the visual fidelity in the demo is generally representative of what you’ll see in the full game.
Our aim is to make a cohesive and immersive experience and optimize the game for each platform so that it could run its best. And while there are some differences between each version, I’m sure you’ll find that the core gameplay and the heart of Mafia II remains no matter whether you play on PS3, 360, or PC.”
Some people have expressed concerns about the recent PS3 demo, noting issues with frame-rate and other graphical aberrations compared to its 360 counterpart. From the above statement it would appear what’s presented in the demo is what we’ll be seeing in the final product, suggesting the 360 has the edge.
PS3 users will be getting the exclusive Betrayal of Jimmy DLC, of course, but will this be enough to assuage what is yet another sign that, even at this stage in this generation’s life-cycle, third-party developers are still struggling to get the most out of Sony’s black behemoth?
Who knows? Maybe a post-launch patch akin to what the publisher provided for BioShock is a possibility.
Source: GamesRadar
Pete_UK
Sadly I found the demo really put me off getting the full game; the mechanics are solid, but the framerate and visual quality spoilt it. I’ll pick it up from a bargain bin a few months after release – perhaps by then they will have patched it as they did with Bioshock.
Q: Would the difference between the versions of Mafia 2 have been so bad if R* and RDR hadn’t been so successful despite the difference between 360 and PS3 versions? Did RDR enable developers to think they could get away with sub-par coding?
kill_zide
sigh man just shows how lazy developers are this days ITS MADE WITH PHYSX for god sake NVIDIA NVIDIA dude and 2k czech can’t program physx to run on an NVIDIA made product? while the 360’s ATI GPU works fine right c’mon this lazy ass developers are really getting on my nerves
Cjdamon042
Just because the game uses PhysX, doesn’t mean it should suddenly run amazingly on the PS3. Yes the PS3 uses an nVidia graphics card, but it’s a fairly outdated one at that. It’s similar to the 7800 and I doubt that could handle the game’s graphics as well as physics perfectly. Both the 360 and PS3 versions have less physics being calculated in the game due to their hardware. It was obvious that this would be the case seeing as you need a great PC to get PhysX to run really well anyway. So basically, PhysX isn’t the main factor when it comes to the PS3 version’s quality. You could take out PhysX from the game entirely and I imagine the PS3 version would still be inferior to the 360’s. So you can blame the development team for that, just don’t think PhysX has anything to do with it, because it doesn’t.
kill_zide
actually the grass and blood doesn’t bother me since its not that noticeable its really the clothes especially the coat that bothers me here thats why I’m complaining about how its running on physx and how they can’t even make the clothes move even a tiny bit in the demo
Stripeysocks
Basically what they mean is: The game was built for the 360, because we cant make s*** for the PS3
There bloody lazy!
kill_zide
if you actually think about it the game was made for the ps3 because its using the physx technology
Divine
There’s too many quality titles due to be spending my hard earned on Mafia 2. That’s how it usually is, I’ve never even considered buying any of the past 3rd party titles which have suffered from sub-standard ports, even before the graphics/framerate issues were revealed.
To be fair, most seem kinda lame with or without good graphics.
Cjdamon042
That will be the PC version for me then. Honestly I’d much rather get it on the PS3 as I prefer to just sit on the sofa with a controller when playing these types of games. But the PC version is obviously going to the be the higher quality game, exclusive-DLC or not. The demo ran flawlessly on max settings for me (apart from PhysX) whereas the PS3 demo, whilst playable, wasn’t all that great. I could easily get the PS3 version and enjoy it, but I’ll be getting the PC version I think; it’s cheaper too lol
Let’s just hope this is the last of inferior PS3 products, at least from Take-Two anyway. First Bioshock, then GTA IV, then Red Dead Redemption and now this. Hopefully Agent will actually be in HD, and actually be a good looking game that runs like it should. I’m sort of worried they’ll be using the RAGE engine which will more than likely mean a sub-HD mess.
fps_d0minat0r
i played the demo and i was really disappointed.
the resolution looks sub 720p and the draw distance is tiny with cars popping up.
the physx or whatever its called is so overhyped, its basically just like how the walls crumble in killzone 2.
MXZ
This is the problem with multi-platform games, one version must always suffer
E8_BALL_
lazy bastards
love how they tell u this a wk before release, when all pre-orderers are in
E8_BALL_
forgive me but feel angry & let down
kind off ripped of, has taken the shine off the anticipation of getting this game
which has been hyped forever, then slyly sneak this in 1wk b4 launch.
cons
E8_BALL_
edit* ripped *OFF
Paranoimia
The demo already put me off getting this.
Which I’m glad of, really, since there are a lot of games out over the next 6 months. And as far as I can tell, the developers of those games (most of which are 3rd-party) haven’t turned out a half-assed game with a list of excuses.
E8_BALL_
if none devs would do this with games
i wouldn’t have spent £425 on the superior console
& bought a 360 instead
(nof fanboyism technical fact, or so i should hope for the price)
E8_BALL_
edit none *known
lol