Grand Theft Auto IV is hailed by many as the best open-world title on PS3 to date, releasing in April of 2008. The biggest highlight of the title, of course, was the setting – Liberty City – which boasted an incredible living, breathing world. However, one of the disappointments of GTA IV was the graphics, which fell a bit short for many gamers. This was because Liberty City was just, well, too big for its own good. With open-world competition increasing this year, including the release of Mafia II, graphics are being scrutinized more than ever. The size of the games world? Not so much.
Although the graphics in Mafia II clearly exceed Grand Theft Auto IV, the city in the title – Empire Bay – will be “less than a third” that of Liberty City. In the latest issue of Xbox World 360, the magazine stated that the smaller size contributed to the game’s visuals, which are apparently of “startling” proportions.
“Calling up a waypoint, it’s immediately noticeable that Mafia II doesn’t boast the biggest of maps – certainly not in comparison to GTA IV (we estimate that the game world must be less than a third of the size of Liberty City). Yet size doesn’t always matter and it’s obviously allowed 2K Czech to furnish Empire Bay with a startling level of polish that even genre masters Rockstar would grudgingly admire.”
Mafia II hits August 24th in North America, and shortly after with an August 27th release in PAL regions.
[Via]
