Mafia II

Mafia II was a rough gem, a title with a ton of promise that executed wonderfully on some of its concepts and fell (excuse the pun) criminally short on others, hamstrung by some fairly basic issues. The third pack of downloadable content, Joe’s Adventures, hit your favorite online service recently and while it shares the main title’s strengths, it’s also vulnerable to its weaknesses...

Good afternoon and welcome to the home of TalkRadar UK - the #1 source for gaming podcasts that talk about games like you would with your mates. Unless you're well spoken and y'know intelligent like.

This week's episode is brought to you by Dave M, Cundy, Nathan and the letter 'Z'. What can you expect from this week's show? All of this gubbins...

NEWS! - Instead of retreading old stories the men have actually been out and about creating the news themselves. No, not that armed robbery in Macclesfield, some other stuff like Matt playing Kinect with his kids and Nathan reporting from an old power station at the UK launch party for Call of Duty: Black Ops.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK! - The team wade through your answers to the burning question... Is there any genre of game you just can't enjoy, no matter how good any individual entry? What turns you off about it?

WHAT WE'VE BEEN PLAYING! - There's a discussion on why Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 might have the worst boss battle ever, why Vanquish leaves you wanting more and why Mafia 2 is at least a 7/10 game.

PLUS LOADS OF OTHER STUFF!!1!

Listen now...

Well it's that time of year again, the dog days of summer have just wrapped up and you're either headed back to school or you're grinding away at work, except now it'll be darker sooner, and colder to boot. If there's one upside to the lack of sun and incoming miserable weather, it's that you can feel less guilty for locking yourself in your room and tearing into a stack of games. This week we've got a FAQ for  Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (make sure your room is properly ventilated before blowing all the dust off of your PSP), and some helpful strategies from Tyler Nagata and Matt Keast about Starcraft 2 and RTSes in general. Also, Mafia 2!

This week, we’re giving away fresh copies of Mafia II along with a ton of mob-tastic t-shirts. Entering is easy, but supplies are limited. Find out how to win inside…

By now, it's possible you've finished Mafia II's story. You may have even scrounged around and found all 50 of its hidden Playboy centerfolds, giving you a complete set of what might be the best collectible whatsit ever dropped into an open-world game. But you can't really say you've exhausted Mafia II's potential until you've hunted for its ultimate collectibles: the whopping 159 developer portraits disguised as wanted posters...

Mafia II is great. Between its deep, epic plot, warm, likeable characters and brilliant set-pieces, it's an absolute winner if you're after a thrilling slice of cool crime and smooth storytelling. And also, it has boobs. One hundred of them in fact.

Not in some horrendous Cronenbergian flesh parade, you understand. No, Mafia II contains 50 original vintage Playboy spreads as collectables, littered around the game world for your ogling pleasure. We've already told you how to find them, and believe us, it's worth the effort. The huge, HD prints look great onscreen, and even better, they're zoomable. You know, for appreciating the quality of the lighting in each composition. And stuff. But if, however, you're too lazy or impatient, or just want a sneak preview before you go and collect them all for yourself, we've captured the lot of them and spread them decadently across the next few pages. Click on! Click on now, for the love of God!

If you picked up the PS3 version of Mafia II last week, then you've probably already had a taste of playing as Jimmy, the bald, mercenary protagonist of the "arcade-style" Betrayal of Jimmy DLC. Enjoy your exclusive claim on the guy while it lasts, because next week - Sept. 7, to be exact - Jimmy's Vendetta, the follow-up to Betrayal, will be available to 360, PC and PS3 owners for $9.99 (or 800 Microsoft Points)...

Metroid: Other M, Mafia II, Tim Schafer drops by to talk about Costume Quest, and Paul Ryan returns!

CheatPlanet may not be able to teach you how to dougie, but we can help you get better at your games, or failing that, cheat. On deck this week we've got some studying material to help your feeble attempts at beating the Koreans in Starcraft 2, and an in-depth guide for collecting every single Playboy in Mafia 2. Ahh it reminds me of those desperate pre-internet days of tearing through your Dad's stuff looking for his porn stash. You kids today have it easy, get off my porch!

It’s hard to imagine a less dignified or mobster-like activity than continually dropping everything to search every inch of every room for pornography, but that’s exactly what Mafia II asks you to do – assuming, of course, that you’re trying to collect all 50 issues of Playboy scattered throughout the game and net the Ladies’ Man Achievement/Trophy. Stop. Don’t waste time and/or ruin the tension of every action scene by scrounging for naked  pictures of women now old enough to be your great-grandmother.  We already did it for you, and now we’ll save you the guesswork by pointing out where to find every last one...