Here I was hoping that 2K delayed doling out Mafia III review code as some sort of cheerful Doom-esque surprise. “You thought it would be bad, but actually it’s excellent and one of the best games of the year!”
Who knows, maybe Mafia III is good—but today’s news certainly isn’t. Upon receiving review code ahead of tonight’s launch, PC Gamer booted the game up only to find that it’s apparently locked at 30 frames per second. Yes, on the PC. Popular Twitch streamer Cohh Carnage noticed the same limitation while broadcasting Mafia III today, a day ahead of the game’s release tomorrow.
While not exactly a world-ending catastrophe, it doesn’t speak volumes about the quality of the PC port. Batman: Arkham Knight is the last PC game I can think of to launch with a locked 30fps frame rate, and…well, I shudder to even invoke Arkham Knight’s name here, lest we jinx Mafia III further. Suffice it to say, something as basic as a locked frame rate on PC—at least in this sort of big-budget game—often indicates a questionable port in other areas too, though Cohh Carnage’s stream suggests the rest of the game holds up pretty well.
That said, a 30fps lock is a deal-breaker for some PC gamers. Cross your fingers that it’s fixable, and not a situation akin to Dark Souls II where some vital piece of the engine is locked to frame rate or what have you. We’ll keep an eye out and report back soon.
Update: 2K posted a message addressing the situation.
“We know how important having options that best suit your PC’s performance capabilities are. The team has been hard at work ensuring that Mafia III’s performance is consistent across all platforms, and right now the game runs at a solid 30 frames-per-second. We are currently working on an update for PC that will give players the option to play Mafia III at higher framerates. We’ll share more details about the update, and when you can expect it to arrive, very soon. In the meantime, the team welcomes feedback and would like to hear from you about what performance adjustment options are important to you. We’re actively considering a number of additional post-launch improvements on PC that would give players more control over how they can tailor the game’s experience to suit their rig’s performance.”
Personally I can’t imagine they didn’t anticipate PC players wanting more than 30 frames per second, and it’s hard to believe they need to be told “what performance adjustment options are important,” but at least they’re working on it. We’ll let you know when Mafia III’s inevitable unlocked-frame-rate patch goes live, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.