● Miscellaneous bug fixes

Fixed issue: 2K Launcher fails to open on Steam Deck, preventing games from being launched.

We are continuously working to make the experience better:

• Improved User experience in the Launcher and Error Reporter
  
• Misc Bug fixes

Updates in the 2K Launcher v1.5.0 release include:

• New and improved user interface to play and browse games
  
• Improved Launcher Update Management
  
• General performance improvements
  
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Features

- An Option to check for new 2K Launcher Updates - In the Application Settings, click on "Check for Updates" which will get a new update if available. Please note, the 2K Launcher will need a restart to apply the update.
- 2K Launcher is using the new 2K Logo
- Added trouble-shooting to clear cache by pressing key 'c' during app loading

Bug-Fixes

- Launcher app files are not being extracted to %LocalAppData%\T2GP Launcher
- Fixed Missing 2K icon on the Launcher window fixed in the Alt-Tab overlay and taskbar
- Fixed Incorrect string translations in Error Reporter
- [STEAM only] Game play is now fixed using Steam Streaming mod launch

Some 18 years after the critically acclaimed Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven first invited players to live the life of a gangster during the Prohibition Era, we're excited to announce that Mafia: Definitive Edition—a complete remake of the original game—is now available. The centerpiece of the Mafia: Trilogy[mafiagame.com] bundle, Mafia: Definitive Edition tells the story of Tommy Angelo, a Lost Heaven[mafiagame.com] cab driver who becomes enamored with a life in organized crime after an opportune brush with the Italian Mafia. It's the same enthralling story you might remember from the 2002 game, but fully remade from the ground-up and expanded, with beautiful presentation including stunning new visuals and an original orchestral score.

The missions you take on after joining the ranks of a crime family at war are faithful to those that Tommy first tackled in 2002, but play quite differently courtesy of reworked vehicle handling, enhanced melee combat, a new cover system, the introduction of motorcycles, and a host of other improvements. Mafia: Definitive Edition is more accessible than the original game by design, but there are difficulty settings to suit newcomers and experienced mafiosos alike, including the most challenging Classic Difficulty[mafiagame.com] setting, which incorporates a number of old-school Mafia features. In another nod to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, Mafia: Definitive Edition also includes a Free Ride[mafiagame.com] mode that lets you explore the map and search for hidden collectibles[mafiagame.com] and secrets at your own pace.

Mafia: Definitive Edition has been a labor of love for Hangar 13 and will continue to be even now that the game has launched. We've been paying close attention to your feedback, and we're planning to update the game with additional HUD customization options and some other cool stuff in the coming weeks. Check back for more details soon.

Whether this will be your first time experiencing Tommy Angelo's story or your fiftieth, we hope you enjoy your time with Mafia: Definitive Edition and we're excited to hear about your adventures in and around Lost Heaven.

Revisit any city after 18 years away and you're sure to find it changed. The fictional city of Lost Heaven in which the events of Mafia: Definitive Edition[mafiagame.com] take place is no different, but its transformation has nothing to do with population growth, gentrification, or changing architectural trends. Rather, the dramatic differences between Lost Heaven circa 2002 when the original Mafia was first released and the city as it looks today come courtesy of gameplay-motivated design changes, technological advancements, and—of course—the developers at Hangar 13, who've spent years rebuilding Lost Heaven as a labor of love.

Much like the city of Chicago of the 1920s and 1930s that serves as its inspiration, Lost Heaven is located in the American Midwest, riddled with corruption and home to powerful crime bosses who built their empires off the back of Prohibition. Below is a map of Lost Heaven as it appears in Mafia: Definitive Edition. The geometry from the 2002 version of Mafia was used as a guideline during the new game world's construction, so the layout of the districts, city blocks, and main roads is largely the same, even if some of the names have changed. Memorable mission locations from the original game like Clark's Motel, the international airport, and the race track are all here and, along with most of the Countryside area north of the city, can now be visited freely without needing to first progress through the story (no more invisible walls) or see a loading screen.

Alongside the obvious visual improvements, some of which were highlighted in the recent Mafia: Definitive Edition Gameplay Trailer[mafiagame.com], certain areas of Lost Heaven have benefitted from other significant upgrades that make them feel more authentic and atmospheric. The city center has more high-rise buildings in keeping with those constructed during the post-war boom of the 1920s and '30s, and Chinatown is more recognizable as a result of distinctive architecture and a population representative of the era's Chinese communities that was not present in the original game. In other areas, the topography of the terrain has been changed, not only to make navigating these areas more interesting, but also to provide more vistas of the city skyline, which can now be enjoyed from much greater distances than were possible with the limited range of vision afforded by 2002 hardware.    

When you're behind the wheel of one of Mafia: Definitive Edition's period-authentic cars, or perhaps riding one of the motorcycles that are a first for the series, you might appreciate some of the changes that have been made to Lost Heaven's road network. New side-alleys and other shortcuts give you more options when you're attempting to evade the police, and corners and intersections have been built to allow for a smoother driving experience than you might've had in the original game. Furthermore, Hangar 13 reviewed heatmaps of players' driving routes to see which roads were being used most frequently during missions, and based on this data, the locations of certain objectives were changed. As a result, you're more inclined to pass through a variety of different neighborhoods and explore new areas, instead of finding yourself on the same roads over and over again like it's your daily commute.

Every district has a distinct look and ambiance and will feel very different depending on the time of day. Roads that are filled with yellow cabs during the daytime, flanked by busy sidewalks and the smokestacks of working factories, are almost unrecognizable at night. After sundown, traffic is minimal, sidewalks are largely deserted, and the neon signs of hotels and entertainment venues so easily overlooked during the day are now unmissable even from a distance, serving as reference points as you navigate the dimly lit streets. We're excited for you to visit this remade vision of Lost Heaven when Mafia: Definitive Edition is released on September 25, and hope that you'll enjoy exploring the city as much as we've enjoyed building it.

Mafia: Definitive Edition[mafiagame.com]'s second narrative trailer "A Life of Reward Too Big to Ignore" gives you another glimpse into Tommy Angelo's story as he's welcomed into the Salieri Crime Family. The cinematics on display are particularly special to Tomáš Hřebíček[www.mobygames.com], Head of Production and Media Director for Hangar 13. As one of the developers who's worked on every game in the series since the original Mafia, Hřebíček has been an integral part of how cutscene direction and cinematic storytelling have evolved and advanced over the course of the Mafia: Trilogy[mafiagame.com].

"My heart is closest to the original, and I'm very glad we got the chance to revisit it using everything we've learned across all the Mafia games," says Hřebíček. "Our main goal with Mafia: Definitive Edition was always to keep the spirit of the classic mob story. I strongly believe we kept in everything supporting this goal, and when we made changes it was in service of making the characters and story deeper and richer. Obviously, all the memorable moments from the original game are super important for us. We were always comparing our work with the original and striving to make the new version 'the same but better.'"

Stylistically, each game was a chance to push the cinematic presentation further, and Mafia: Definitive Edition is a culmination of all those advancements. "We always try to capture the essence of each historical era with all its quirks, good and bad, and the cinematic style is heavily dependent on the story that we want to tell," explains Hřebíček. "I like the clear, simple, real-camera-like style. I always ask my team to imagine the real film scene setup and real rigs, how the camera operator would work and how we can simulate that. We try to avoid any shots that would be impossible in real life. As technology improved alongside the series, we got better animation tools so we could get better action shots, use handheld cameras in particularly stressful scenes, utilize depth of field, and so on."

It's plain to see how far the series has come since 2002's Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, and how much Mafia: Definitive Edition is a leap forward in its storytelling. As discussed in our Recasting Tommy Angelo[mafiagame.com] and Supporting Cast[mafiagame.com] articles, being able to fully capture the actors' performances has made a colossal difference. "I believe Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven was already well-narrated even with all the limitations back then—but we could capture only one actor at a time in a space of just 2x2 meters," recalls Hřebíček. "No facial capture, no live interaction between characters, missing eye movements, fingers were just in one static pose, and so on. All this was limiting us from expressing all the nuances we wanted to show in our cinematics."

"In Mafia: Definitive Edition we can do anything," Hřebíček continues. "We scanned real actors with all their facial expressions, and the motion capture lets us simultaneously record as many actors as a given scene needs, including their voices and all the facial subtleties of their performance. It all combines to give Mafia: Definitive Edition much more fidelity and creates a deeper experience. The fantastic actors and their performances are finally getting through in all their beauty and power as we had first pictured the story in our minds." You'll have the chance to see those performances for yourself when Mafia: Definitive Edition launches on September 25.

Following the initial Mafia: Definitive Edition Gameplay Reveal trailer[mafiagame.com], here's another in-depth look at Mafia: Definitive Edition[mafiagame.com] gameplay made in partnership with content creator GhostRobo. Click the image above to check out the full video, which features an interview with Hangar 13 President and CCO Haden Blackman.

And be sure to keep an eye out for more of Mafia: Definitive Edition this Thursday, August 27 as part of Gamescom's Opening Night Live presentation, which starts at 7:30 PM CEST (10:30 AM PT / 1:30 PM ET / 6:30 PM BST).