2K and Hangar 13 has released a brand new update for Mafia 3 on PS4, version 1.04. The new update brings some free DLC in the form of new outfits for Lincoln Clay to wear while he slouches around New Bordeaux, killing any fool that pisses him off. Or is that just us? That’s just us…
The update is out now on PS4 and the patch notes state the following:
Mafia 3 Update Version 1.04 Patch Notes
- Outfit Swapping
- General fixes and improvements
But that’s not all. Over on the Mafia 3 blog, Hangar 13 notes the new outfits available and that there are more improvements, though the wording of it doesn’t make clear exactly what’s been improved in the new update and what’s going to be improved in the future. As we’ve got not much else to do this fine evening (it’s freezing outside) we’ve booted up Mafia 3, installed the new update, and gone back to an old save to get right into the middle of the game.
We’ve captured some gameplay which you can see down below along with some gameplay from before the new patch released. It’s not immediately obvious, but there are some big, big improvements. For starters, the reflections on vehicles has been completely done over. Before the patch released, reflections, shadows and lighting looked very peculiar on cars. You’d drive through a dark area and there’d still be a baked-in reflection that didn’t match the surroundings. It might seem like a small thing, but it was particularly distracting when we played it through for our review and now that it’s gone, it’s going to make a second serving all the more tasty.
Now the next “improvement” could well be our imaginations being in overdrive due to such a dull day at the office, but it looks like Mafia 3’s cars now take a bit more of a beating than before. It’s something we noted in our review of the game, but after having played Mafia 3 with the new patch installed, it looks like there’s more damage on cars than before. Check the video out below and you’ll see us smashing a beauty of a car around to get maximum damage. We’re not 100% sure this is part of the update though, so we’ve got in touch with Hangar 13 to see if they can shed some light on it.
Another complaint that players and critics had with Mafia 3 on its release was the downright weird day/night cycle. It was as if the in-game clock had buggered itself up and the sky moved faster than you’d ever expect it to. Clouds would soar above at the speed of light (note: not true) casting the world into shadow/sun every few seconds. After playing through the game for an hour post-patch, it looks like the day/night cycle has been fixed and Mafia 3 no longer takes place in a universe where time-lapse weather patterns are the norm. Sweet stuff.
And finally, the frame-rate and general performance. It was noted in our review that the game had a tendency to stutter quite a bit when driving fast which caused a few problems in the controls department. Frame drops weren’t so common, but there was a strangeness to how the game refreshed its image that made it seem that it was running slower than it actually was. Then there was the weird level of detail line that appeared when driving at speed; it was a very faint, though very noticeable, in-game line that appeared in front of the car that was where the game would start drawing in details.
The new update seems to do away with the above problems that we’ve noted, and the game is all the better for it. It’s just a shame, then, that the game didn’t release in a better state. It may have been 2K’s fastest selling title, but we fear the damage has already been done and that many Mafia fans won’t be giving it the time of day.
Hangar 13 has promised that the development team is working hard on getting more updates and improvements out for Mafia 3, as well as story DLC, so we’ll be keeping an eye out to see if Mafia 3 has a chance of making it in later life, a la DriveClub.
Post-patch Gameplay
Pre-patch Gameplay
