Mafia: Definitive Edition aims to make Lost Heaven more fun to drive around

VIDEO: Watch the full PC Gaming Show trailer and interview above. Also on YouTube.

Mafia: Definitive Edition has been a bit of a surprise. Thanks to rumours, leaks and their appearance on rating sites, we were expecting definitive editions of the mobster trilogy, but not a complete remake of the original. But that's what we're getting on August 28, and on the PC Gaming Show we found out a bit more about what we can expect. First, though, check out the new trailer above to see how the cinematics have evolved.

Along with the cinematics, there's little that hasn't been transformed.

"Everything was rebuilt," said Hangar 13 president Haden Blackman. "Every asset, every cinematic was reshot, all the gameplay was completely redone. We've kept all the same big beats from the original game, the story is the same for the most part, all the big plot points are there, all the missions are represented, but everything was completely rebuilt from the ground up."

Mafia features a lot of driving around, as well as cops that expect you to obey the rules of the road, and Hangar 13 has redesigned the city to make it more fun to spend time in your car, widening streets and reducing 90 degree angles so you can coast around corners. Lost Heaven will be a bit more crowded, too, and the studio has taken some of the city life and interactions from Mafia 3 and applied them to the remake.

Even the story has been tweaked a little bit, though, like additional dialogue that reinforces the idea that you're the underdog in the war between crime families. Similarly, the cinematics have been rewritten to introduce more character development.

There are definitely some quality of life improvements that Mafia could use, as it arrived before open-world games were refined, but I also hope it doesn't go too far in aping modern open worlds. Rather than something that drew you away from the main story and sent you off on countless diversions, Mafia's open-world was just a big stage. It was restrained and a lot more focused than the games that came later, a quality it hopefully hasn't lost.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.