Mafia Wars New York property upgrade gives and takes away

We were promised a property upgrade in Mafia Wars New York, and it has arrived. Aside from a complete graphical overhaul, the rules to owning properties have undergone big changes, some of which will likely have virtual mafiosos up in arms.

There are no more undeveloped properties and Zynga "took the liberty" to sell these properties and deposit the cash into your New York account. Property can no longer be sold, either -- just upgraded. There's also a restriction on when and how players will be able to buy new properties. As players make "more money, additional properties will become available for purchase," according to official Mafia Wars Facebook page.

On the positive side, the new properties area looks much slicker, and it's easier to keep tabs on and collect income from each of the buildings. There's also a new option to upgrade buildings in exchange for cash. We can't tell if the upgrade increases the upkeep for each of these buildings as well, so we suggest playing conservative until further notice.

There's also a new map area -- which looks similar to the properties map in Playfish's Gangster Wars -- which is marked as 'coming soon.' There's no word whether this will be just another way to keep track of properties or a way to buy new properties. We'll see when this feature -- along with robbing -- rolls out in the near-ish future.