The extended trailer was accompanied by a letter from lead animator Tomas Hrebicek, in which he explains that the trailer was rendered using actual game assets in the real-time cutscene editor, and does not contain any postproduction effects.

Hi my name is Tomas Hrebicek, Lead Animator at 2K Czech, and I'm here to give you an overview of the Mafia II trailer that you are about to experience.

We've been receiving a lot of questions about whether or not the trailer was real-time and I'm here to clear the air. It really was. All the scenes were completely created in our editor the same way we create cutscenes for the game. Our cutscene editor is a very powerful tool. Besides, we can see it all real-time which makes our work a lot easier. There was absolutely no need to modify the resulting video in the postproduction.

Because everything was created solely in our editor, only our in-game scenes and models were used. So what you see here is great representation of the quality of work that you will see throughout Mafia II. Of course, this is not the end yet, and frame rate and other technical issues are still being tweaked in order to have the game working smoothly on all the platforms we create it for.

The common theme found in the trailer is the same common theme found throughout the entirety of Mafia II; strong interpersonal relationships. Of course, when playing you will experience all kinds of shootouts, car chases, and fights, but what I think is the most important is to identify yourselves with the main character and those close to him. Every single thing you do in the game causes a corresponding reaction. And it is only up to you what you do.

In the trailer, the relations are hinted at in the church sequence. However, we would not really like to reveal any more important facts; you have to experience it yourself with Vito from the beginning to the end.

I would like to emphasize that the game has a very dark humorous side to it. It definitely is not a superficial comedy. The story as such is quite varied so you could look forward also to a true, mafia atmosphere and strong emotions of all kinds. I can't wait to see the first players actually play it.

I'm very excited to see the reaction of this trailer. Over the coming months, you will have plenty to look forward to in the way of Mafia II. In the meantime, please enjoy this trailer and look forward to more in-depth behind-the-scenes coverage next week!

Chris Faylor

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

Filed Under

• xbox 360
• Trailer
• PlayStation 3
• screenshots
• PC