Henry Hagnäs

Mafia II add-on "Jimmy's Vendetta" is dissappointing

I liked Mafia II because the story is well presented and funny. Jimmy's Vendetta looked like more of the same in the trailer:

Unfortunately the trailer is as good as it gets, there's hardly any additional voice-acting or cut-scenes other than those shown in the trailer. The rest of the add-on is just a bunch of additional missions without any interesting story-line stuff in between. The gameplay in Mafia II isn't really good enough to carry these additional missions on its own.

Stay away from Jimmy's Vendetta and just replay the story-mode instead if you want to enjoy Mafia II some more. Which is really a lot of fun - like playing a movie. Not as good as GTA4 but then, very few games are.

Quantum of Solace

Just finished playing through the game based on the latest Bond-movie. Usually I don't make much note of the franchised games, they tend to be weird games that feel very odd (Latest Batman and Wolverine-games are said to be different too). QoS tickled my interest because a video-review (IGN I believe) said that it was based on the Call of Duty 4-engine and was surprisingly good if not a bit uneven. I found it for cheap, 12 euros, via huuto.net which is kind of like the local eBay over in Finland.

In short, the game is worth 12 euros and you too can probably find it cheap on sale or second hand. The gameplay is a slightly modified and less polished version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. There are less guns but better support for stealth attacks and hand to hand combat. You can also dodge behind cover, much like in Gears of War. The story is more Casino Royale than Quantum of Solace but thats only a good thing. The story and levels aren't as polished as COD4 but passable, some of them are uneven though. The COD4 gameplay is a lot of fun and if you are a fan of it and want new challenges the QOS should suit you. Personally I love COD4, both Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 but don't play games online so something with new maps is excellent. Took me 2 pretty long evenings to save the Bolivian's from drought, well worth the price.