When we got that first teaser for Mafia: Definitive Edition from developer Hangar 13 and 2K, our jaws dropped at just how stunning it looked. And how far we've come visually since 2002. Since that teaser we then got an expanded trailer, and an awesome gameplay deep-dive just the other day. But with all of that cinematic beauty when he had the chance to sit down and chat to Hangar 13 president and chief creative officer Haden Blackman, we knew we had ask about one thing.

The infamous racing mission.

Of course we talked about a lot of things, from technology to creating a cinematic experience to how missions and combat were approached - but, like for a lot of you, this was probably the most pressing subject of all. So, here's exactly how the racing mission will work in Mafia: Definitive Edition when it's out September 25 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

“It was almost like a badge of honour when you made it through,” Haden tells me when the discussion naturally shifts to the infamous racing sequence from the original. Where, as Tommy, players were forced to compete in an almost Formula One-style race in a do-or-die mission without much in the way of warning, or training. The sequence is remembered by many for just how difficult it was to complete, how unwieldy the race car was to control, and how it felt like a brief videogame detour into madness.

“The short answer is yes [it will be challenging] because I think it's part of the charm of the original,” Haden confirms. “It's a very polarising mission, and for some people the difficulty of that mission is what makes it great. For others they want to put their controller through the monitor. We knew that going into it and we tried to replicate it for players in the ‘classic’ settings.”

“It's a very polarising mission, and for some people the difficulty of that mission is what makes it great. For others they want to put their controller through the monitor."

“A lot of the challenge comes from the fact that racing those types of vehicles is hard,” Haden continues. “It’s counterintuitive because you don't ever want to open the throttle and simply go as fast as you can, because that sets you up for disaster when a turn comes up. Trying to teach the player how to kind of feather the gas is a challenge. We're still tuning the big race, and I guarantee we'll be working on it until the day we ship.”

For those wondering the sequence in Mafia: Definitive Edition will have an easy-mode, but even on the default settings it is being set-up as a mission the team at Hangar 13 expect the majority of players to fail a few times before making it through the finish line.

Our Full Mafia: Definitive Edition Interview