Mafia 2 4K gallery: 50s noir

Pixel Boost is our weekly series devoted to the artistry of games, and the techniques required to run them at high resolutions. Gallery by screenshot artist Mary K. Remember to click the “expand” icon on the images above to view them at their full size.

While everyone else has been playing the Division and the latest offering from the Hitman series, I’ve gone back to the 40s and 50s with Mafia 2.

To say I loved the game is an understatement. I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it. Having never played it before, I’m impressed by not only how good it looks, but also that the voice acting and dialogue are excellent. Even the cutscenes have an artistic flair to them. And this is one of the few games I can think of where you get to drive classic-style cars amplified by the music of the time. It’s a great experience, though a game like this would really benefit from being more open to free-roam and not as strictly linear as it is. Still, driving 900 Miles to make a hit and take care of business is totally worth it.

For the B&W shots I used my ReShade preset Noir, and the color shots use this SweetFX preset by Charger originally made for Mafia 1, tweaked with my own modifications. Mods to hide the HUD and use a fly-cam are here.

As to anyone wondering why Mafia 2 was taken off Steam without reason—the top candidate is that their license for the music expired and it wasn’t renewed. The same thing happened with Mafia 1. An unfortunate end, but Ain’t That a Kick in the Head?

Remember to click the “expand” icon on the images above to view them at their full size.