Mafia has to be the only game whose opening movie actually had me thinking I was watching a movie, people actually show expression on their faces when they talk to you and things like the old jazz music reall set the mood for Mafia type ‘activities’.
The cars and trucks (sorry no bikes, boats or planes) look, feel and act by far the most realistic of any game I've ever played: tyres can be popped, wheels shot or knocked off, bodys's reshaped in real-time by fist, baseball bat or other objects and they even have working clutch's and can run out of petrol!
Police can give you tickets for all kinds of things including running a red, hitting a car or speeding. This game is very very playable, I've finished it twice and I'm on my 3rd time round and still finding things to do.
When it came out there was only one thing wrong with it: it needed a high end PC to run it without lag but with a 1.2 patch out now this had been fixed making it what I would consider a perfect game. Can't wait for Mafia 2.