Mafia II

Released on the 23rd of November for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, Joe’s Adventures looks to be a great example of the way DLC really should be done. Less a side-story, more the missing part of Mafia 2’s main story, it follows Vito’s best friend Joe through his exploits in Empire Bay during the years of his buddy’s absence.

It brings new areas, new game mechanics, and eight new hours of gameplay, making it the biggest and most complete DLC offering since Rockstar gave Liberty City two new episodes. Also, what I’ve played so far is great. Read on, and I’ll tell you why.

If there’s one thing that Mafia II seems focused on above all else, it’s detail. From its sweeping attempt to re-create the look and feel of the 1940s and ‘50s to the barely visible Z-shaped scar on the cheek of its hero, Vito Scaletta, the game does its best to immerse players in its fiction, its characters and the ever-more-swank underworld they inhabit. The music, cars, fashions and even the architecture are all reflective of the period, and all of them will change as the game transitions from the comparatively bleak wartime ‘40s to the flashy boom of the ‘50s...

Our grandparents' time was simpler and purer, they say. Families ate together at the table, neighbors chatted pleasantly over white picket fences and town sheriffs whistled down the street, making sure every boy and girl was home before curfew. Bullshit, we say. After playing the upcoming Mafia II and experiencing the virtual life of a post-WWII criminal firsthand, we know just how seedy and sinful life during the 1940s-1950s could be. Here are seven less-than-wholesome activities enjoyed during a single hour and a single mission.

There are a lot of myths and half-baked assumptions surrounding Mafia II – so let’s start by clearing them up. First off, this isn’t a GTA clone. It may have a crime theme, and have a limited amount of free-roaming, but it’s first and foremost a linear, story-driven experience. Secondly, it isn’t ‘just another gangster game’. That description does the game a huge disservice.

 We’ve known about Mafia II’s existence for what seems like years, but it wasn’t until just recently that we got our first actual look at the game in motion. It wasn’t much – just a single mission – but it looked awfully polished for a game that’s still heavily under development.

Released in 2002, the original Mafia was pretty much one of the standout games of that year. It offset its admittedly mediocre driving (1930s bangers + speed limits = major yawns) with top shooting and a plot that honestly wouldn’t have looked out of place alongside Oscar-winning underworld fare like Goodfellas.

2008 is shaping up to be the year of the free-roaming sequel. In the coming months, fans of open-world games can look forward to Grand Theft Auto IV, Saints Row 2, Mercenaries 2 and Just Cause 2, for starters. And assuming its still-unannounced release date happens later this year, one of the biggest will be Mafia II.

Forget what you might remember about the first Mafia's crappy showing on the PS2 and Xbox. When it arrived on