Recently, Valve experienced a major leak. At first, dataminers noticed files that could well be expected to be among "Valve's internal materials" — like Portal or Half-Life builds, but there's also something specific.
A gameplay recording of Mafia II went viral in the community. The author claims that this is the original ending of the game, which the developers abandoned.
*spoilers ahead*
In the original ending of Mafia II, Joe's fate remains unknown — the character is driven away in another car, and Vito continues to live. However, at a certain stage of development, the authors had a different vision for the game's ending.
In the ending shown by Sliderv2, everything is the opposite. First, Joe, as in the original, is driven away in another car, and then the camera focuses on the revolver of the man sitting in front of Vito. The hero reaches for his weapon, and after that, the camera pulls away and three shots are heard. Players believe that Vito himself managed to make two, and the third shot heard was from the revolver that killed the main character.
According to players, this version of the Mafia II ending with Vito's death was rejected because the hero's "death" itself was not directly shown. It was simply implied, which would have been "too pathetic and would have spoiled the atmosphere."
In the final version of Mafia II, everything turned out differently, and as a result, Vito was able to return as a character in Mafia III: Definitive Edition; the developers also told about Joe's fate.