Finally! It is back. I was quite pissed when I didn't caught it on steam when it was around. And during a time it was annoying to make it run perfectly at max settings. Thanks to this release, all of that is a thing of the past. I still have the game for Original Xbox. And i finished it twice. While many didn't liked it slow pace and its approach to immersion. I actually loved it and still think that it was one of the most unappreciated masterpieces of its time.

Yes, the game is story driven, scripted and lineal. But it still gave you the option to cruise and sight see around in a very big and cool setup for th time with great music and atmostphere. It also has excellent looks and gameplay for the time it got released. And it is still of the best video game ever written in my opinion. Because the execution of the story with the gameplay is done masterfully. Another thing is how great the attention to detail in the game actually is. There is even videos of this on YouTube. Mafia 1 vs Mafia 3. Which while set up for effects. It is still shocking how bad Mafia III is in comparison given the time context. With the only thing it having over Mafia 2 and Mafia 1 being looks and effects.

Thanks to GOG for briging it back. And as someone who is actually familiar with music contracts and contracts in general. Sometimes, when a music contract is signed, it has built demands in the case of a contract renegotiation and/or for when the contract expires. Or worse, It don't has any and once the contract runs out, The product in question becomes an infringing product. How that works is boring. But It is basically what happens with many Video Games. Unless the contract was able to be done right when signed. The licensed soundtracks become in contention once the contract runs out. Again, it is very complicated as it varies widely depending on how the rights to the music were being held and managed when put into the game. So, I perfectly understand that GOG is not only on the up and up here, They are 100% innocent of anything about that here. You want to blame someone? Blame whoever negotiated the music orgiinally. As with this kind of thing, It might not even be 2K fault, believe it or not.

Ok, having said all that. It is great to have it back. Restoring the music is trival as hell. And I can see the data to restore it is already available in 12 ways. So, restore in the music if you can/want. And also get the widescreen fix for the game. Apart from that, you can also easily setup an Xbox 360 or Xbox One Controller to work with the game via several apps if wanted/needed. All of this will not take you more than 5 minutes to do.

Oh no, the music is missing :-( I can still remember some tracks years after I've played this and that's quite something I'd say...

No worries! https://www.gog.com/forum/mafia/tutorial_how_to_restore_the_original_music

Good to know, thanks! While sharing the tracks online is quite questionable, I'm in the lucky position to own a physical copy as well, hence the extraction should be no problem.

FWIW I played through the original CD release under wine sometime less than two years ago. And it ran great.

Too bad the game isn't quite as great as my memories of it were. I almost wish I hadn't played it again.

You mentioned about xbox did it have free ride extreme in it?
Also i read on wiki that mafia 1 some of the features of the PC version do not exist in the console port, such as police patrols around the city in Free Ride, and some aspects of the game's realism and graphics.

Maybe that's why the thread isn't stickied despite me messaging both fables and Judas, and the widescreen info being stickied.

Yeah, the differences were no patrols in free ride and the effects missing were the enhanced physics effects like with explosions, fog/smoke and some lighting effects.

Did you guys play with keyboard by any chance? I remember the unpatched version being really hard with keyboard controls but with proper ones it wasn't that much of a problem (e.g. steering wheel).

Or maybe, Saboteur is a newer game than Mafia and didn't have its license expire... yet.

I played with a keyboard. I never had trouble driving around the city though but that racing car was a different beast.

This reminds me, GRID was also crap to play on a keyboard, I had to buy a controller to be able to play it.

Saboteur owners: back up your game before December 2019 rolls around! Ideally sooner; better safe than sorry. :P

I guess it's the way how they need to emulate analogue input with the keyboard paired with relative realistic driving behaviour. You just can't keep a constant steering angle using keyboard controls.

Can anyone tell me how this game stacks up to Mafia II? One frustration I had in Mafia II (Despite LOVING it to death!) was the lack of...well, really ANYTHING to do in the game. The story was about all you could do, and it felt like a pretty huge waste of an open world.

I'm totally fine with more linear, story-focused games, but if anyone can draw some comparisons between these two titles for me, I'd really appreciate it.

That's actually a good recommendation and I would extend it to other games with licensed music, such as the Saints Row series.