Mafia III vs GTA V

Terrapin Station



I am basically trying to do everything in Mafia III unlike GTA 5 where i just focus on advancing the general story to finish it. Mafia III just manages to hold my attention overall more at the end of the day and i like it's general visual style over GTA 5 to as it feels less cartoon like and more like a quality movie etc.

i realize the general shooting in Mafia III is very similar in most stuff you do, and i assume this is why people say it's repetitive, but i find it's general shooting more challenging etc and it makes it more enjoyable because of that where as the general shooting in GTA is more forgettable as there is basically no tension etc the vast majority of the time because it's so easy to kill your targets basically.

also, one thing i never cared for much in GTA 5 is the flying missions as i prefer to be on the ground as it can get a bit annoying trying to land a plane etc at times only to have to redo stuff because of some crash. i guess in a way it can be a bit more challenging but i usually just want those missions over with. i finished GTA 5 at something like 60 something percent completed. so i guess there is still some side stuff i could do but i have no real desire to do it.

also, that 'grind' you speak of... while i can see it being a legitimate point for some people, if i want to look at the positive thing on this extra driving etc, it gives you more time to enjoy the soundtrack/environment of the game



Yeah, but that's the thing... i don't play these games to 'screw around' as i play them to advance the missions/story as everything else is just mostly pointless if you ask me as i would get bored fairly quickly if i was playing these games just to run around and cause chaos for no reason.

i think that's one area someone will definitely like GTA more than Mafia series in general if they want to screw around and blow stuff up but i basically play them for more for that movie like experience and in that regard i think Mafia is definitely ahead of GTA series in general.

because if i wanted to screw around and cause chaos and blow stuff up... GTA series is clearly superior to Mafia series in this regard.



that's why i usually avoid acting up to dodge the police as much as i can. but in terms of stealing a car in Mafia III they usually call the police but it's pretty easy to avoid that level of the police.

personally i don't mind the police system that much as it can add to the challenge a bit. but i can see how some might prefer the GTA 5 system as it slowly ramps up as say 1 or 2 stars is fairly easy to get away from as it seems 3 stars it starts to become a challenge and much after that it can be a chore to escape from. but i will say in GTA 5 it's easier to steal a quality car then it is in Mafia because there just seems to be more faster cars laying around the city where as in Mafia III they are more limited which in a way makes you appreciate finding decent cars to steal in Mafia III all that much more. but once you can just call up someone to give you a decent car that mostly fixes the car issue. but there is still one car i like to use (i forgot it's name in the game but it sorta reminds me a bit of a Shelby Cobra) that i can't access by calling up someone to deliver me a car on the spot.

but speaking of this stuff... i always liked the general car handling more in Mafia series than GTA series as Mafia seems closer to simulation handling where as GTA seems more arcade like/simple. basically you have to be more careful in Mafia when driving than with GTA for the most part as you can get injured easier driving a vehicle in Mafia III than GTA 5. but being Mafia games generally take place more in the old days your going to have generally slower cars (with worse handling) than stuff in GTA which people who don't have much patience for driving probably won't like this aspect of the Mafia series.



personally i think you got Mafia and GTA series as everything else ain't worth playing as i consider Mafia series/GTA series the highs of the genre.

but ill ask you this... what did you think of Mafia and Mafia II? ; because if someone does not appreciate those much at all i can't see them thinking much of Mafia III either. but i will say Mafia III is noticeably different in general game mechanics (mainly with the general shooting aspect etc) than the previous games and i could see how some people might not like it.

one area i liked in the original Mafia that made it more challenging is ammo reloading acted more realistic in the sense if you got a Tommy Gun for example with a 50 round drum and you fire off one shot and reload you will lose those other 49 shots. so it forces you to run deeper into the drum before reloading (which makes you manage your ammo with that balance between losing ammo from reloading your gun too early vs that don't want to get caught reloading in the middle of a big firefight) otherwise you could be out of ammo very fast if you reload often like i suspect many are used to nowadays. Mafia II and Mafia III don't have that aspect anymore but i feel Mafia III still has a bit of challenge in that you can die fairly quickly if your not careful and still requires a bit of ammo management but in a different way. i would say Mafia II is the easiest of the three Mafia games in this regard. NOTE: i also played Mafia II on highest difficulty to.


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Thanks for your comments

i am just trying to see what others think around here as i assume GTA 5 will be more voted on than Mafia III but i can't be the only person out there who prefers Mafia III over GTA 5 even though it's safe to assume i am in the minority given GTA 5's sales figures.

Terrapin Station



Just curious... did you play Mafia back around the time it was new or many years later?

because i feel it may not have had the same impact playing it in more recent times because people got spoiled with more details/graphics in modern games of the type (but Mafia, in it's day, was solid graphically. hell, some parts of it probably still look respectable considering it's 15 years old.). i never had any issues with the general movement and shooting as i would say Mafia/Mafia II where close enough in this regard except Mafia II has some modern changes with taking cover etc. i also liked the recoil in Mafia with the Tommy Gun as once you know the game pretty well, like knowing when you and spray cars that are coming to get you so they will explode, it can be fun fighting the recoil with the mouse to guide the spray into a car so it explodes. or it's just kind of cool straight up using it to semi-snipe for headshots as i usually try that to conserve ammo in general especially given the game, like i mentioned, uses a more realistic reloading method in that once you reload you lose whatever ammo is in your current clip/drum. Mafia is more challenging than most modern games and some of that might come from the way it saves your progress as at times it can be fairly challenging and it saves at checkpoints so if you slip up deeper into some missions you got to redo it. hell, i remember before the patch on the PC that racing section in the game was quite difficult as even though i eventually beat it before they patched the game to make it easier it was no picnic as you had to race nearly perfectly to win. so if someone sucked at racing that part could become very frustrating. hell, i was quite frustrated to but eventually beat it. but after the patch it was MUCH easier to beat that racing mission in Mafia.

but i just always thought Mafia had the biggest emotional impact on me as i just don't get that feeling from games in general and need movies to pull it off etc which i am pretty sure will still be there to some degree for me to this day when i replay it given i watched one thing on YouTube (i won't say what since you did not finish it and it would be a spoiler. but ill say something in that was in Mafia II) and it still gave me a decent emotional response in relation to the first game.



Yeah, it's structured/paced better than Mafia III for sure. maybe on the next one they will bounce back more to the general style of the first two games.

but for me i would rank the games like this...

1)Mafia (2002)
2)Mafia II (2010)

and at least so far... 3)Mafia III (2016). but ill have to see how things play out.

I can definitely say Mafia is my #1 because, like i mentioned before, it's my #1 single player gaming experience for sure and i have been basically playing video games since the late 1980's/early 1990's (i was born late 1979).

as far as TODAY (like if i replayed Mafia/Mafia II)... it's possible i might like Mafia II in some ways more than Mafia because graphically it's modern enough where as i am sure Mafia is showing it's age by now even though characters/voice acting are still modern. but it does seem like there has been more of a graphics jump from Mafia (2002) to Mafia II (2010), basically 8 years, than there was from Mafia II (2010) to Mafia III (2016), basically 6 years. so while the gap is 6 vs 8 years (so i can't compare them totally) i don't think in 2018 graphics will be much different which means there was more of a leap from 2002 to 2010 than from 2010 to 2016 in terms of the Mafia games visuals/general texture quality. while Mafia III does look better than Mafia II, more details etc, Mafia II's basic textures still look modern enough (especially considering it's 7 years old) as the environment might lack a bit more details in comparison to Mafia III.



that's a fair point as i would have to at least agree with that copy/paste thing as some areas seems that way on some level.

but Vito is in there which i think helps ensure it's still got the Mafia feel, at least on some level.

but the games generally don't tie into each other much even though there is a little (but a good one (i won't say since you did not finish the first game)) from Mafia to Mafia II and Mafia II to Mafia III.



Yeah, i play them for the experience/fun to at the end of the day. but i just feel the general emotional response (which basically ties in to all around enjoyment of the game) from me is definitely better in Mafia series than GTA series.



Yeah, fair enough. i guess Mafia III has mostly different entry points to places is one thing it's got going for it but i guess you could probably say this about GTA 5.

but if you like that figure things out sorta thing you might like Hitman (2016) as that's another series i played since the beginning from the old days (i.e. 2000/2002/2004/2006/2012/2016) except i never finished Hitman Absolution (easily the weak link of that series (it's the 5th game(the newest one is the 6th game)) and seems to be most commonly considered the low point of the series from what i have seen) but i plan on playing the new one from 2016 once i am done with Mafia III. i did play a little of the intro area so far but i stopped as i am working on Mafia III at the moment and once that's done ill get into that one.



Fair enough. but just playing through GTA 5 i can't say i noticed any clear gap between GTA 5 and Mafia III in terms of the general enemies shooting at me as it seems, at least for the most part, easier to die in Mafia III than GTA 5, which makes Mafia III a bit more challenging if you ask me (not saying all of GTA 5 is easy, but i am just speaking a typical mission here). but i guess what can artificially boost Mafia III's is you can die fairly quickly if your not careful which makes it a bit more challenging since enemies can take you out faster. but i guess once you get that general sneaking/stealth with silenced pistol head shots down pretty well it makes things noticeably easier especially if your not in a rush to get through that section which i think is part of the fun trying to take out as many in a area without blowing cover etc as sometimes you can pull off some decent stuff.


darkknightofgotham



glitches/bugs don't effect game performance. it was just not as optimized as GTA 5 is on the PC as that's pretty obvious given @ 1080p res on my PC, even with my CPU (i3-2120) that's under the minimum spec, i typically float around 40-50fps most of the time (NOTE: 60fps+ is basically perfect) with it being 60fps here and there and even at it's worst points (when i got some decent explosions going) i noticed it did not drop below the low 30's.

Mafia III on the other hand... while playable, it's pushing it at times on my PC because when i was checking the frame rates earlier in the game it was floating around 30fps (typically 25-35fps but mainly around 30fps) as i don't think i got more than about the high 30's or so. but with that said... when your in areas that are not as dense with traffic/city etc the frame rate seems to smooth out a bit. i switched the game from 30fps cap to 60fps cap but being i doubt Mafia III ever hits 60fps for me capping it at 30fps might relieve some stress on my CPU/GPU which are pretty much running maxed or close to it a large portion of the time but if i put that 30fps cap on that means if my CPU/GPU combo could draw the high 30's that would lower the load on them during those sections. but i just leave it running as much as it can draw as i won't damage my CPU or GPU simply because they won't overheat even running at 100% all of the time as i tested em to see where their heat tops out at and it was safe as my GPU (Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB) tops out at about 67c (WELL withing safe limits for that) and my CPU tops out around 57-58C in Mafia III but with that Prime95 CPU torture test i got it up to 62-64c which is still safe enough (i think it's safe as long as it's below 70c and my temps are typical for a stock heatsink/fan on my i3-2120 CPU) and general usage won't stress the CPU as much as Prime95 does as that Prime95 is basically more of a worst case scenario for generating CPU heat as if that don't act up then your system is not going to freeze or crash etc from overheating.

for those who are not familiar with fps (frames per second), this should sum it up... 60fps = perfect gaming experience. 30fps-ish is basically about the minimum for a enjoyable enough experience as i would say you can squeak by in the high 20's but that's really pushing it as much under that it's basically not playable, or at least starts to really kill your enjoyment of it. so with this info... you can see Mafia III on my PC is pushing it but it's largely around 30fps or so and usually that or a bit higher on missions but it's mainly my CPU that's really killing the frame rate as my GPU is solid enough. but it's pretty obvious that Mafia III is not optimized as i heard even people with higher end systems (or close enough to that range) still get lower frame rates than what you should be getting in comparison to your typical modern game and it's not surprised as even on my weaker system i notice that to that out of all of the modern games i played it's got the weakest overall performance.

but i do notice some glitches here and there on what i have played. but thankfully nothing showstopper level so far. but i did have to reload my save once in a while because i could not start a particular mission. one part i was in a car, delivering ti somewhere and the cops where chasing me, and after i got the cops off me the game forgot to restore my destination point but when i got out of the vehicle it seemed to go back to normal and then i got back in the vehicle and proceeded to finish that part. just little odds and ends like that. even the menu, like when you access the map to select what your going to do, and press the P (which shows a screen where you can sorta scroll through missions available), it kinda acts up on that one here and there. but luckily i don't really need to use that particular screen i don't think and can access the stuff just through the general map and this is on the recent version of the game to as i never started playing it til after the last DLC came out (i.e. Sign of the Times) which means there has to be a good amount of bug fixes since it's initial release and i also heard they improved game performance to vs initial release of the game. also, when the game was released on the PC it was capped at 30fps so no matter what it would not go higher than that which made no sense for them to do that and eventually they released a fix for that.

p.s. to see your frame rate and how much CPU/GPU your using you can check it with MSI Afterburner as it has a display during your game session and shows you your frame rate along with CPU/GPU usage. it helps determine what's the bottleneck (i.e. the limiting factor to your games performance).



You mean the 'optional missions'? ; or collecting the paintings/magazines etc?

i did the optional missions (and other stuff pretty much) as it raises your 'kick back' payments as it maxes out each @ $2k a each person that you get occasionally. at least that's what i get where i am at in the game which is not too far past when i had the 'sit down' where all three of your friends meet up for the first time.

but basically... i don't think anyone would question that the general story missions are better than the side stuff. but since you can burn a fair amount of time doing side stuff in between missions i can see how some might not like that.

also, it seems there is a fair amount of DLC to play also which seems to be enjoyable enough as you got three additional STORY DLC's... Faster Baby(released March 2017)/Stones Unturned(released May 2017)/Signs of the Times(released July 2017). as i played through the game i noticed that these become available after you have that 'sit down' (the three of your friends meet up) basically as i can see those on the map being accessable for me now along with my general progression through the basic games story.

hi224



We are the opposite here for sure.

in terms of the series as a whole... i think Mafia is clearly ahead if you ask me in the character dept. that's partially why i think Mafia series is top notch unlike the GTA series.

but don't get me wrong... GTA series still has some good characters but i don't think it really has any great characters that stick with you as the years pass like Mafia does.

basically Mafia series just provokes feelings/emotions (and the like) for me that i just don't get from video games in general and need movies to pull that off, especially the first Mafia game.