Mafia 3 Review: Come for the Story, Stay for the Platinum Trophy

There’s a point in just about every game nowadays where you realize exactly what said game is all about. It’s usually very early in the game, after you’ve completed a few story missions and a side mission or two and now you’re staring at a world map full of tiny icons and markers.

One of two things happens when this moment arises. You either get a tingly feeling of joy for having a new outlet of fun to look forward to after each soul crushing day at the office, or you feel emptiness. Emptiness because the plot is clichéd and the gameplay is duller than… A day at the office, and all you got for your sixty bucks is a bunch of samey “quests” and worthless collectibles that you’re going to gather up because there is a trophy or achievement attached to it.

It’s a bit of a miracle that I completed Mafia 3. By the time I reached that moment of realization maybe three or four hours in, Final Fantasy XV came out and Half Life friggin’ 3 wasn’t going to keep me away from the latest Final Fantasy. Mafia 3 went back into the box.

Lo and behold, FF XV let me down and I felt oddly compelled to go back to stealth-killing racists and gathering Playboy magazines in 1960s New Bordeaux.

When an Indie Developer Shoots for the (Procedurally Generated) Stars

For me, No Man’s Sky is a bit like a brussels sprout. I haven’t tried it, but I’ve seen pictures online and heard from enough people that I can tell it’s just not for me.

But there are plenty of games that fall into that category. I just don’t have the money- and certainly not the time- to play every game that gets released, and even among the more well-received titles I often have to pick and choose. No Man’s Sky is different, though, in that I’m sure I’ve never read so many opinions or developed such a strong opinion about a game that I haven’t played.

In all honesty I’m beginning to feel sorry for Sean Murray and his development team. It’s pretty damn obvious that he’s far from innocent in all this, but how many other indie developers get this amount of hate thrown their way?

Player Choice, and How The Witcher 3 Absolutely Nails It

Publishers nowadays are in the habit of rereleasing their major games a year or so after launch, packaging them with all the DLC and add-ons and calling them “Game of the Year” Editions, so it’s no surprise that The Witcher 3 will be getting the same treatment at the end of this month. So what’s different? Nothing, really, except that CD Projekt Red’s 2015 masterpiece is one of those titles that can call their product the “Game of the Year” without anyone raising an eyebrow. It’s an unofficial title to bestow, but The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is a once-in-a-generation sort of game.

The conclusion of the Witcher trilogy does so many things well, and anyone who has yet to play it can fork over fifty dollars rest assured that it’s money well spent. Hell, if anyone is getting ripped off here, it’s the publisher. There’s enough content in this package, between the main story, the sixteen add-ons and two DLC episodes to last for months and the amazing thing is, it manages to stay fresh from start to finish.

Uncharted 4: My Final, Spoiler-Filled Thoughts

It doesn’t feel like the Uncharted series is a decade old, does it? Could’ve only been a couple summers ago I was marveling over the visuals in Drake’s Deception, and working toward what became my first platinum trophy. But that was ten years ago.

So now that the series is complete and the story has been told, we’ve controlled Nathan Drake in, what, four different stages of his life? From youngest to oldest we have child Drake at the orphanage, teenage Drake in Uncharted 3 where we also meet a dapper-as-shit Victor Sullivan, young adult Drake in the Panamanian prison and then, obviously, present Drake.