Max Payne 3

[Hobbit]

http://i.imgur.com/csV8U.jpg

First official trailer

Release dates:

UK - May 18th for consoles and June 1st for PC.

US - May 15th

Don't know about the rest of the world, probably about the same.

It's going to be amazing. Seems like an absolute age since the second one and the date on this one has been pushed back a few times but hopefully May will be the month.

Honestly I can't wait for this. GTA5 and Max 3. There's a few more videos on the web about it like interviewing various Rockstar people about game dynamics and footage of gameplay, here's one:

Max Payne 3: Story & Gameplay Special - YouTube



http://i.imgur.com/6YLwl.jpg

Looking moody :cool:

http://i.imgur.com/ARq0Y.jpg

Shooting people in the face :cool:

http://i.imgur.com/TtoFw.jpg

Flying whilst shooting people in bullet time :cool:

http://i.imgur.com/AlAbT.jpg

Ultra-violence and apparently thousands of animations the enemies will have for wherever and however you choose to murder them :yes:

WHO ELSE IS EXCITED??

[Guy]

I am.

I mean I'm over-the-fucking-moon type of excited.

Max Payne was probably my introduction into next generation gaming. As well as graphic novels AND John Woo movies.

I love it.

[Guy]

I also love that everyone was bitching about his new look, but it actually turned out to be the same face from Max Payne 2, just years older and shaved bald.

[Hobbit]

You fucking love it mate.

I mean really there are so many games trying to be clever and deep, after a long day at work/sitting at home wanking, all you really want to do is shoot people. Some of the slow mo replays of some cunt's neck getting blow off and Max bullet-timing his way in front of about 4 goons before machine gunning them all in one swoop is amazing, it literally can't fail to be anything other than fantastic.

There's a little bit I've seen where Max shotguns some poor bastard in front of a massive window and the glass takes a bit of damage as well as the exit wounds are positioned in front of it. I actually nearly willy-cried with joy.

I think the only way this game could excite me more is it they somehow brought back Mona Sax but by Mila Kunis and the one that Olga Kurylenko played in the film.

http://i.imgur.com/jGlpe.jpg

BANGBANGBANG

[Bluemoon]

:yesyes:

Cannot wait.

[The Rogerer]

I loved Max Payne and Max Payne 2, and I was an outcast amongst all my geek friends. I started chatting to a woman at work as she was playing the second. It led to a disastrous relationship.

I'm looking forward to it even though there's no reason to expect it to be good. I bet it will be though. So many AAAAA titles let me down and this will be solid. I would say that Dead Space reminds me a bit of it - not on the playstyle specifically but just being a game that's great to play.

[Guy]

You fucking love it mate.

I mean really there are so many games trying to be clever and deep, after a long day at work/sitting at home wanking, all you really want to do is shoot people. Some of the slow mo replays of some cunt's neck getting blow off and Max bullet-timing his way in front of about 4 goons before machine gunning them all in one swoop is amazing, it literally can't fail to be anything other than fantastic.

There's a little bit I've seen where Max shotguns some poor bastard in front of a massive window and the glass takes a bit of damage as well as the exit wounds are positioned in front of it. I actually nearly willy-cried with joy.

I think the only way this game could excite me more is it they somehow brought back Mona Sax but by Mila Kunis and the one that Olga Kurylenko played in the film.

http://i.imgur.com/jGlpe.jpg

BANGBANGBANG

Part of the reason I love John Woo's Stranglehold.

Great bit of mindless fun that game was.

[UncannyIowan]

I loved playing this on the PC.

[Grimario]

Looks awesome. Shame it is people getting shot though, way too much blood. Will definitely get banned or softened up here in Australia :(

[The Rick]

Max Payne 3 Multiplayer Is Good, Essential and Rockstar’s Boldest Move In Years
kotaku link (http://kotaku.com/5904303/max-payne-3-multiplayer-is-good-essential-and-rockstars-boldest-move-in-year)

spoiler for length

pt 1

There must be something about the number three that signals that Rockstar Games is done messing around and is about to get serious.

Grand Theft Auto III? That 2001 masterwork let the world know that Rockstar was ready to take over single-player video gaming.

Eleven years later comes another "three" (they don't do many of them), May's Max Payne 3. I've played it and I've seen that it carries a new message: Rockstar wants to take over multiplayer gaming.

With Max Payne 3, Rockstar's competition will soon be Call of Duty, Uncharted, Gears of War, Battlefield and any other big shooter vying for your playing time.

Rockstar's competition will also be themselves, as they strive to equal, with multiplayer, their reputation for making single-player games that are cultural milestones. In multiplayer, so far, Rockstar has only dabbled, enjoying decent success with supplementary multiplayer in Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption. With Max comes the first major Rockstar game since their Midnight Club racing series in which the multiplayer has the potential to eclipse the single-player. They have the potential to make their first phenomenal Mario Kart to go with their many Super Mario Bros..

A Different Kind of Shooter

I first played Max Payne 3 multiplayer a couple of weeks ago in Rockstar's New York City headquarters, and since then I've nearly forgotten that there is a single-player adventure to go with it.

I don't expect single-player to be bad; what I've seen looks at least as enjoyably playable and visually interesting as its closest contemporary, Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. I've simply come to appreciate that Max Payne 3's multiplayer is no afterthought and may even prove to be the game's main attraction.
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17kh6k7s8qiefjpg/xlarge.jpg
I began my first multiplayer visit at Rockstar with a dip into the game's solo campaign. Rockstar reps encouraged this, so that I could get a feel for controlling Max and, by extension, any of the game's multiplayer characters. Unlike most popular modern shooters-but like every major game Rockstar makes—the game is in third-person, meaning you see your character on the screen. Rockstar's pitch is that they've animated Max and the other playable characters so well—and they've given players such free movement when aiming their guns—that players can wheel around with the freedom to shoot swiftly in any direction, without any fear that they will make their character look like he's wound himself up in a pretzel.

In other words, you can stand Max still in one spot, make him shoot in front of himself, then upward, then left or even behind and he's going to fluidly and quickly move his body into proper position to make any of those shots look natural. You can dive to the ground and shoot from there without worrying that he can't shoot in a specific direction because he was facing the other way. That's first-person freedom of targeting controls merged with cool-looking third-person character animation. Rockstar reps are very proud of how good this looks, but the best byproduct of this system is how it enables a more interesting range of movement while shooting.

In an FPS, players can shoot from standing, crouching, walking, running or prone positions. In Max, you can shoot from all of those positions, plus while diving. This is the game-changer. You can be running away from an enemy, launch yourself into a slow motion dive out of a window and be firing back through the window at your pursuer…that isn't just something that looks cool, it's something that would be so confusing to pull off in an FPS that the makers of those games don't let you do it. Rockstar's game may not have the down-the-barrel intimacy of the first-person experience but the advantage in the player's options for movement and stylish action is Max Payne's.

Max Payne games didn't have multiplayer before. The announcement that the new one would invited the same skeptical squints previously aimed at the creators of the Uncharted and Assassin's Creed games. What made these games wonderful to play in their esteemed solo modes needed to transfer in some way to multiplayer. Otherwise, what's the point?

The Uncharted people tried to justify their multiplayer by making it involve shooting and climbing as well as adding some story to it, here and there. The Assassin's Creed people made their multiplayer mostly about stealthy assassinations.

The highlighted carry-over from old-school single-player Max Payne to new multiplayer Max Payne is the slow-motion shooting known as bullet time. It's in multiplayer and it works, even if it's not really the best and most Max-specific element in the competitive modes (more on what those are in a bit).

Bullet time in multiplayer slows you down, slows down anyone you can see, anyone who can see you, and anyone who those affected people can see or be seen by. Read that line again if you didn't get it. Or just think of it this way: there's no such thing as a player who is in bullet time being seen by a player who isn't in bullet time, or vice versa. If you can see someone in bullet time, you're in bullet time. Same if they can see you. You're only unaffected if you're out of sight.

If you've activated bullet time or caught in it, time slows for a few seconds. If you're an enemy of the player who activated bullet time, your screen is ringed by a red haze. Your reload speed and rate of fire is slowed. Things basically just suck a little more for you. If you're on the side of the person who activated bullet time-or if you activated it yourself-your screen is surrounded by a white haze. The world slows down for you, but your guns are still fast. You have the advantage.

You can activate bullet time in multiplayer if you have the "burst" armed on your character and activated when the burst meter has been full. You can also activate a briefer bit of bullet time if you, playing as any character in any configuration, perform what the developers call a "shoot-dodge": an acrobatic dive in any direction that is this game's prime defensive maneuver. The shoot-dodge will only trigger bullet time if you have adrenaline in your adrenaline meter, which…. Hold on. Are you getting confused?
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17kh6kbqelu2mjpg/xlarge.jpg

pt2

Let's back up a bit.

Max Payne 3 multiplayer is built on a familiar modern foundation. It has headshots and its own form of perks. It lets you earn experience points for kills and assists, and it will let you level up and unlock better weapons and perks. All of that is standard and, in that combination, has been since Infinity Ward's revolutionary Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare.

Some of Max Payne 3's core elements are simply re-named aspects of that much-imitated Modern Warfare formula. Bursts, for example, are perks, in this case upgradeable special abilities, one of which can be applied to a character as part of their weapon and gear load-out.

Other elements in Max Payne 3 are distinct, which causes this game's multiplayer to feel like a different sort of system than the Call of Duty's. The whole bullet-time system, as described above, taps into a currency called adrenaline, which is acquired as you kill enemies or loot their corpses. The player who gets no kills or raids no corpses won't be able to use their special burst moves, and their shoot-dodges won't be in slow-mo. But as they fill their adrenaline meter they'll get to use those perks and slow-mo dodges.

Player health in this game will either regenerate slowly or not at all, depending on which multiplayer playlists you choose to join. The smarter way to manage health is to use health packs called painkillers. They're acquired by looting bodies. Keeping one of them in reserve allows players who have been shot nearly dead to spring back to life if, while dying, they can counter-kill their attacker. (Think of Call of Duty's controversial Last Stand perk.)

Skilled competitive Max Payne players will be aggressive, will kill enemies, but will also loot bodies. They'll bank adrenaline, because the more adrenaline they attain, the closer they'll get to activating a second and then third level of the game's devious boost perks. That should be their main goal, because the perks are terrific.

The bursts are the true stars of Max Payne 3's multiplayer and have the best chance of establishing a distinct Max Payne flavor for this game. They are, largely, advantages based on deviousness. They are, with some exceptions, wonderfully obnoxious in the best of screwing-over-the-enemy ways. Take "Paranoia." Go into a multiplayer gunfight with that and trigger it. It will cause players on the enemy team to see their allies as enemies, complete with bogus red-text player names above their actual allies. Enjoy watching them accidentally shoot each other. It gets craftier if you wait to earn enough mid-match adrenaline to activate Paranoia level 2, which not only makes the enemies see their teammates as their foes but turns on friendly fire and targets one of their allies for a bogus bounty.

The level 1 version of the burst called Weapon Double Dealer deactivates the enemy team's special weapon attachments (silencers, for example). Hold off and try to activate Weapon Double Dealer Level 3, which causes enemies who are holding grenades to drop them. The grenades they drop are primed to explode.

When I played, I activated a burst called Grounded that, at its most basic, let me disappear from the enemy team's mini-map. At Level 2, it would make my entire team disappear from their maps. At Level 3, it would put incorrect info in their maps.

Another great one: Slippery Character… Level 1, I drop a smoke grenade and briefly have unlimited stamina which lets me get the hell out of a bad situation; Level 2, same thing but with unlimited stamina until I die and also ignites a flashbang to blind enemies while I dash off; Level 3, same as Level 2 but for everyone on my team.

Some bursts are more traditional, such as Trigger Happy, which puts better guns in your hands or Big Dog, which boosts health. Players can counter some of the bursts by using in-game currency to buy items, such as an ID card, which nullifies Paranoia or goggles that block the effects of flashbangs.

The Modern Warfare influence on Max Payne 3 is most conspicuous between multiplayer matches, when players can access pages and pages of unlockable weapons, gear and burst perks. There are upgrades within upgrades, as the game's guns can be modded with a variety of scopes, silencers and other attachments. Torso and head-gear and the aforementioned burst-nullifying items fill out several more menus. There is weight to all of this stuff, which will affect your character's movement and recovery speed. All of these options ensure that players will be able to have very different loadouts from each other. They also indicate that, as with Modern Warfare, players will be drawn to keep playing to unlock new, more interesting and more potent stuff. Leveling up will unlock this stuff. Money earned in matches needs to be spent to buy the unlocked gear (just once to unlock; not each time you want to equip it).

Considering how precious XP and money is, it's nice that Rockstar gives players some extra ways to earn it, aside from basic kills, lootings and the winning of matches. During a multiplayer match, the player can activate vendettas on a player who kills him or her repeatedly. Killing the player you marked with a vendetta earns you extra experience points; but if the marked player kills you, they get the bonus XP. When a rounds of a multiplayer match is about to begin, a player can bet in-game money on which of three randomly-selected players will meet a certain goal first (for example, first player to get a kill). The amount of the bet appears to be tied to the skill level of the player you're betting on. Winning the bet gets you extra in-game cash.
My short, violent lives in a multiplayer gang

I absorbed the details about the many features of Max Payne 3's multiplayer over a pair of visits to Rockstar's offices, during which I played two distinct modes. Both were a lot of fun, even when I wasn't winning (confession: I was seldom winning).

Payne Killer pits an ever-changing combination of two players against six other players. The first player to get a kill becomes Max Payne; the first to die becomes Max's buddy Passos. They both can activate bullet time and are more powerful than the other players. When Max or Passos is killed, the player who is most responsible for their death (based on shots fired, kill-shot and still being alive) takes their place. Players earn points when they're playing as Max or Passos and killing enemies. The player with the most points at the end of the timed match wins. This mode was good, especially when I would both manage to become Max or Passos but buddy up with the person in control of the other one. Those two characters are way more powerful together than the other players. They dominate, until the pesky other six players finally flank you and get the kill-shot.

I spent much more time at Rockstar playing Gang Wars, which is the mode the game's creators are pushing hardest. This 16-player mode is set within the fiction of the game's single-player game. It includes voice-over by Max Payne and other major characters explaining what is happening. These Gang Wars matches put teams of players on opposite sides of gang battles set in locations near New York or in Brazil that are part of the game's solo campaign. The story for each Gang Wars match is roughly the same: there's a turf battle between two sides. The minutiae of the stories differs thanks to a set of shifting modes and objectives that are doled out on the fly by the game as it calculates what players are doing, who has the advantage and what might be interesting to have happen next. For example, I played a match that started with a round played by Turf War rules, which involved seizing territory on the map. My side failed and was sent into a new round that required us to assassinate an opposing player (presumably the player on the other team who was most successful in the first round). We had to get five kills on the enemy team before our target's identity was revealed. We succeeded, which, for reasons explained in the voiceover led to a round during which we had to run bags of money (or was it contraband?) to drop-off locations. We succeeded there too, but failed in the next round that required us to seize three successive territory locations. That led into a final team-deathmatch round that would have had a completion objective that favored the team that had won the majority of previous rounds, but didn't that time since each team had won two rounds.

I played Gang Wars matches set in Hoboken and in a favela in Rio. I also played one set on a dock. The matches always lasted about 20 minutes and always through five rounds. The changing objectives reminded me of the little bit of the Killzone series' multiplayer, but in those games the objectives seemed to shift entirely at random. The array of objective-based rounds in Max Payne 3 was different every time, and it did seem to adjust according to some hidden statistical logic. Threading it together as a story was a good bonus. I'm not convinced that the game's logic always, say, picks the best player of one round to be an assassination target in the next, because I once was the worst person in my team in one round and then was the target in the next. But things didn't feel entirely random, either. I had the sense that our experiences were congealing into a mini-story thanks to the narration preceding each level. I liked that, as it made me feel more invested in the outcome.

The changing objectives in Gang Wars matched well with the nimbleness of Max Payne's multiplayer characters and the deviousness of its many perks. Many of the rounds were based on needing to get somewhere fast and be unhittable, whether to seize territory or move a bag. If the game merely let you run, that'd be nice, but it is letting you shoot-dodge in slow-motion out of the line of fire as you reach a goal or finish grabbing some turf. That makes brief moments of multiplayer mayhem feel like some sort of bullet-filled ballet. It feels grand and crafty, as does using the right burst at the right time.

There are lots of smart, subtle details to the design of Gang Wars. There are back-stories to all of the gangs and police forces that you can play as. Different gangs can fight on a map but you'll never play as a gang that couldn't be there based on the logic of the game's story. Maps are tweaked slightly to accommodate the goals of a round, but something that is blown up in a round played under Sabotage rules will remain destroyed in a subsequent round.
The start of something bigger

There hasn't been a new Max Payne game since the release of the very first Call of Duty. Little more needs to be said to underscore the rise of today's modern online shooters and the absence of Max Payne or Rockstar Games during that ascendance. And yet it's a little odd that a Max Payne game will now represent Rockstar's big move in multiplayer, not a GTA or its upstart Red Dead western. Maybe Max is more of a natural, since the series is more purely a shooter and because, let's face it, any modern linear shooter-as opposed to open-world epics like GTA and RDR—could use a good multiplayer mode with long-term appeal to keep players from feeling they didn't get their money's.

With GTA III Rockstar was leaping to something no one else had achieved. They were leading by being original. Max Payne 3 multiplayer does not seem as boldly alien as GTA III's single-player. It is something that makes sense as a major batch of tweaks to the formula of both its single-player Max Payne predecessors and its new rival, the Call of Duty games. That lake of GTA III-level historic freshness doesn't prevent it from having the potential to be an improvement.

This past weekend, Rockstar started airing a TV commercial for Max Payne 3. It features scenes pulled from the game's single-player mode. The commercial stunned me, to be honest, because it had reminded me that there's a single-player mode worth caring about in Max Payne 3. I'd nearly forgotten, because in my mind Max Payne 3 has morphed into a multiplayer game, a game whose solo mode will be relevant in May, but whose multiplayer has the chance to be the reason we're still talking about and playing Max Payne 3 in June, July and, surely Rockstar hopes, for many months beyond that.

If Rockstar finally has a multiplayer mega-hit coming it'll be thanks to their own Max Payne-like effort… they scoped the multiplayer scene, they took it slow, they aimed and now, with a leap, they're taking their shot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16qJPqnu7J4

[Bert]

Looks like this might end up being my choice for when I feel like shooting people in the face on multiplayer. :yes:

[The Rogerer]

I was going to think about it, but it's currently £32 on Amazon and I just got a £22 Amazon voucher, and that was all she wrote.

[The Rick]

Max Payne 3 Wiki Guide
ign link (http://www.ign.com/wikis/max-payne-3)

Spoiler for length.

t's been nine years since gamers had a chance to relish new Bullet-Time sequences. Max Payne 3 continues the dark and gritty melodrama of the titular former New York City detective Max Payne, and is the direct sequel to Max Payne 2.

Max Payne 3 is being developed as a cross-studio collaboration between Rockstars Vancouver, Toronto, London and New England, in a collaboration labeled Rockstar Studios. Max Payne 3 is set to be released on May 15, 2012 for North America, May 18, 2012 for Europe and May 29 for PC. It will be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Where does Max Payne 3 take place?

Max Payne 3 departs from the melodrama-tinted skyline of New York City and lands in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Will the new setting change the style of the game?

According to Rockstar, the new setting in Brazil should hardly affect the noir style of the previous games. Sao Paulo will still be plenty dark and dangerous. Rockstar also mentioned that a few levels could take place at night or in the rain, and pointed out that achieving a "noir" kind of feel is more about style than about a specific location or color. [1]

Rockstar goes on to note, "To us, and especially after such a long absence since Max Payne 2, to simply continue Max’s story in New York City was nowhere near as interesting a challenge as taking that same character and pushing him to his absolute breaking point in a very dangerous and exotic locale many, many miles from home. There was simply nowhere for Max to go in New York after Max Payne 2."

They don't believe that the noir style is exclusive to New York. It's a certain visual and narrative style that they believe Max Payne 3 will exhibit.

What is the plot of Max Payne 3?

The third installment is set 12 years after the previous game. Max, now a disgraced former NYPD detective, has never truly recovered from the events of the original games, and he still constantly wrestles with his inner demons and keeps them at bay with painkillers and alcohol. He's definitely at the bottom of a long downward spiral, scarred physically and psychologically.

Max finds himself in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil after accepting a job offer from an old colleague from the police academy days, Raul Passos, whom he meets in New York. Max and Passos work to protect a wealthy businessman by the name of Rodrigo Branco, and his family: his beautiful trophy wife Fabiana Branco, and Rodrigo’s younger brothers, Victor, an aspiring politician, and Marcelo, a party-loving playboy. All family members are part of Sao Paulo’s wealthy elite.

When Fabiana is kidnapped by a gang known as the Comando Sombra while under Max’s protection, Max’s past demons return in full force and he sets out to secure her return. As a result, Max finds himself on the streets of unfamiliar city caught between rival gangs, paramilitary squads and the city’s elite police as he searches for the truth and fights for a way out.

If I've never played any of the Max Payne games, will I be able to enjoy Max Payne 3?

You might not fully understand Max Payne's character and his legacy without having played the previous games, but you certainly can delve into the third iteration and still enjoy the game for what it offers: Hong Kong action cinema-inspired fun and .

Is Max Payne 3 a sandbox-type game like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption?

No, the Max Payne series has always followed a more structured path, allowing the strength of the narrative to pull you into its world.

What kind of game engine is Max Payne 3 using?

Max Payne 3 was designed using the RAGE engine, which has been previously seen in games like Grand Theft Auto 4 and Red Dead Redemption, and NaturalMotion's Euphoria animation and behavior technology.

Will there be more Bullet Time?

Bullet time fans, rejoice as this Max Payne staple will be making a return to Max Payne 3. The newly improved third iteration of this mechanic will also include a number of other features that have to do with animation and interaction with the environment to ensure the gameplay feels distinct.[2]

What's the bullet cam?

The bullet-cams let you know when you’ve taken out the last enemy in a specific area or wave. In addition, players can control the speed of each bullet in a final-kill cam, and the cameras are dynamic, depending on how you take the shot.

There is also a new feature called Last Man Standing:

If Max is fatally wounded while carrying painkillers, Max will automatically enter Bullet Time, and the reticule will automatically swing slowly back toward Max’s enemy, giving Max the opportunity to return fire. If successful, Max will receive a small boost of health at the cost of 1 painkiller and any accumulated Bullet Time, giving him the chance to survive the fight. It’s not the most effective use of a painkiller but it does help in a hectic firefight.

What's environmental bullet time?

Environmental bullet time is essentially a new bullet time variant that will allow the player to have full control of Max during the event and is akin to quick-time events in other games.

Is Rockstar doing anything else to reinvent the third-person shooting controls?

Targeting and thousands of animations work to ensure that Max can smoothly aim and move in any direction without ever taking the reticule off the target, including while vaulting over obstacles or shootdodging in any direction.

For the first time in the series, Max will optionally be able to take cover during combat. He's got a few additional slick move sets: Max can shoot prone in 360 degrees, smoothly pick up weapons while rolling to avoid gunfire, and carry out contextual melee kills that are activated by the right trigger.

Max's loadout allows him to dual-wield any combination single player weapons such as an smg, pistol or sawed-off shotgun.

Is there going to be multiplayer?

Yes, Max Payne 3 will multiplayer modes called Gang Wars and Payne Killer, along with the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch.[3] Multiplayer will hold up to 16 players and will feature an XP-leveling system that will reward players with weapons, weapon upgrades, items and special abilities called Bursts.

Will Max Payne 3 retain the graphic novel style expositions?

In an interview with IGN, Rob Nelson, art director at Rockstar, says, "All of the cut-scenes are motion captured, in-engine, but some are also "comic book" style as well. The graphic novel style cut-scenes of the previous Max games were one of the hallmarks of the series, giving a unique aesthetic to story transitions as well as putting a spotlight on what was going on in Max's head. The graphic novel cut-scenes are back for Max Payne 3, but instead of a static panel or page, we're creating an almost motion-comic feel that blends in-game footage, text and Max's iconic monologue, which are over laid on the game to produce something that is pretty amazing and really helps give the game a digital noir feel."

Will there be a collector's edition available for Max Payne 3?

The special edition will be sold in very limited supply. In addition to the game disc, the special edition will include:

Statue of Max Payne wielding dual pistols
Original game soundtrack
Artwork
Bullet keychain
Multiplayer DLC that includes 8 classic characters and a weapons pack called Disorderly Conduct

The special edition will be available for pre-order through April 2, 2012.

Will there be any pre-order bonuses for Max Payne 3?

Max Payne 3 will follow in the footsteps of a growing industry trend in offering exclusive content for pre-ordering from specific retail outlets. GameStop is offering the Cemetary multiplayer map. Silent Killer, a multiplayer loadout pack, is offered through Tesco Entertainment. If you order through Zavvi, you receive an exclusive Max Payne 3 bullet pen. Zavvi and Tesco are both based in Europe. No other bonuses have been announced.

[Guy]

I want it, but I can't imagine, unlike Red Dead for example, that it will be worth full opening retail price.

I have a feeling I'll clock the story in a weekend.

[Chris Scott]

I'm so looking forward to this.

[Jay]

Yeah, me too. I can't wait. I've got it on pre-order with The Hut, along with The Elite Squad and The Elite Squad: The Enemy Within on Blu-Ray, all for £34 :yes:

[Guy]

Any particular pre-order bonus you're going for?

[Jay]

Nope, none of them appealed to me, really. I'm not interested in early access to a particular MP loadout or map. I just want it on day one, and even though I usually look to pay £30 or less for a new release, I don't mind paying a little bit more for two great Blu-Ray's.

Some games I just can't be patient and wait to come down in price, especially Rockstar games since they tend to hold their price pretty well.

[Guy]

Why wouldn't you get a pre-order bonus when it costs just as much as the game without one?

[Jay]

Because the pre-order bonuses are pretty crap and worthless. The next best price is £35 at Amazon and their pre-order bonus is extra stopping power bullets in MP, which I'll be able to unlock eventually anyhow. I'd rather pay a pound less and have two Blu-Ray's instead.

After Amazon, the next best is £40 at GAME and Play, who are both offering MP maps. Again, I'm not too bothered about that as I'll probably pick up the Rockstar Season Pass.

[Guy]

So where are you getting your copy for cheaper than £35?

[The Rogerer]

Amazon was previously £32 so places were probably matching that.

[Jay]

So where are you getting your copy for cheaper than £35?
The Hut. It's this (http://www.thehut.com/games/platforms/ps3/max-payne-3-bundle-includes-the-elite-squad-and-elite-squad-the-enemy-within-on-blu-ray/10606943.html) package.

They regularly have discount codes. They had a code that ended yesterday which took it down to a little over £35, but the one I used a couple of weeks ago took it down to £34. The Blu-Ray's alone would cost £17 to buy. I know they might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm sure you could sell them on for at least £7 or £8 to bring the overall cost down.

[The Rick]

IGN review
by Daniel Krupa May 14, 2012
ign link (http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/14/max-payne-3-review)



Max Payne has suffered beyond reasonable limits. (It's all in the name.) Nine years have passed since the last game in the series, yet little has changed for its long-suffering protagonist, who remains deeply traumatised by the death of his wife and child. ‘Trauma’ is the key word – in Greek, it means ‘wound’, and Max is someone who has never let his fully heal. To move on would be to forget – a betrayal of those he loved – and so instead he chooses to wallow in the past and the pain, with the help of brown liquor and white pills.

But thankfully, Max Payne 3 isn’t content to simply relive the past, and makes bold stylistic and narrative decisions to avoid stagnation. And though these choices have significant consequences on the game’s pacing that may prove divisive, Max Payne 3 is overall a brilliant, darkly-engrossing third outing for one of video game’s most troubled characters.

Ostensibly, Max Payne 3 looks very different from its predecessors. The rundown tenements and shadowy sidewalks of New York have been replaced by the hedonistic nightclubs and baking heat of São Paulo, where Max has taken a job working private security for wealthy businessman Rodrigo Branco. Unsurprisingly, things don’t work out for Max: Rodrigo’s trophy wife, Fabiana, is kidnapped on Max’s watch, which sets in motion a chain of events that draws Max into a much larger, more sinister story.

The change of location is underscored by a raft of cinematic effects: scan lines, chromatic aberration, shifting film stock. Initially, it all seems a bit much, too noisy and distracting, but after a while you acclimatise and it becomes part of the game’s distinctive texture. But it’s not just stylish gloss – like everything in the game, it feeds into the characterisation of Max, emphasising his jaded disconnection from the world around him.

Despite swapping the shadows for the sun, the series hasn’t lost its hardboiled heritage. The non-linear narrative, the cast of suspicious characters, a plot twisted by deception and corruption – it’s all present and correct. If you’re not a fan of genre fiction, you might find the supporting cast risibly generic, the plot a bit flimsy, but there’s a marked difference between using archetypal characters because you’re creatively spent and deliberately tapping into a rich tradition. Max Payne 3 does the latter – it’s a game that is fully literate in the genre of which it strives to be a part, and judged on those terms it’s one of the finest executions of game noir to date. And nowhere is this better exemplified than in James McCaffrey’s standout performance as Max Payne. It’s gnarled and bitter, as you would expect – he effortlessly delivers the script’s many Chandlerlisms with calloused cynicism – but it’s also a surprisingly nuanced turn. Throughout the game, you're never sure if Payne's searching for absolution, trying to save another man's wife, or if he's really on a protracted suicide mission, trying to embrace his own destruction.

Almost half-way through this review, and I’ve yet to mention gameplay. Maybe that’s a tacit criticism in itself. It’s not that Max Payne 3’s gameplay is substandard – far from it – but it’s always firmly in the service of its overarching narrative. Consequently, the game is heavily punctuated by cut scenes – some brief, some quite long. And it’s easy to see how their frequency may prove too intrusive; some players might feel that control is being taken away from them too soon or given back a little too late. Ultimately, it’s a trade-off, and if you buy into Max’s plight, cut scenes become engrossing, and it’s joy to see them bleed seamlessly into the furious action.

The core gameplay is simple yet refined. Although there are a range of distinctive weapons in the game, you can only carry two side-arms and one two-handed weapon at any given time. And if you choose to dual-wield, you’re forced into dropping the larger, potentially more powerful weapon. It keeps things straightforward and uncluttered. Max’s signature time-bending moves – Bullet Time and Shoot Dodge – return, and are easy to pick up and master. The game’s fully-destructible environments really intensify firefights – seeing the air around you slowly woven with spiralling bullets, fractured glass, and plumes of shredded paper is genuinely thrilling. They’re simple mechanics, but once you’ve mastered combining them, the action and destruction you can orchestrate is breathtaking. It’s a little disappointing for a game that invests so heavily in the development of its protagonist not to reflect this at the level of gameplay: Max has no new abilities available to him that aren’t there from the start. But the inclusion of a non-regenerating health system does a great job of forcing you to play like a desperate man on the edge. You can’t cowardly hide behind a pillar waiting for you health to return – it won’t, and the pillar will crumble.

Max Payne 3 is unapologetically violent. In fact, it lingers on violence, but not in a tawdry or sensational way. Yes, it focuses on some of its most visceral manifestations – ragged bullet wounds, charred flesh, dismembered limbs – but it also peers into the unseen causes that lie behind such acts of violence. It touches on the disparity between rich and poor, and how resentment and desperation can fester in the slums and the penthouses alike. This isn’t only tackled in the main story, but also in nice scraps of incidental narrative recovered in clues dotted about the meticulously-crafted environments.

The game’s kill camera -- another one of the game’s many visual flourishes -- tracks the final bullet from Max’s gun to its intended target, but it never sublimates the violence. Although you’ll kill hundreds of people in Max Payne 3, it remains a grisly business throughout.

However, the action set-pieces seem a little muted, especially when compared to, say, the spectacular recent capers of Nathan Drake. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The difference in execution is perhaps best explained through a comparison. In Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, there’s a well-known scene in which Sully and Drake must escape from a French château before it burns to the ground. It’s exciting and adrenaline-inducing, but it doesn’t really serve much purpose in terms of the game’s narrative. It’s just another one of Uncharted’s many impressive set-pieces. A similar scene occurs in Max Payne 3; a building is set on fire and Max must escape before he is incinerated. But this isn’t just eye-candy or glitzy spectacle. Admittedly, it’s less exhilarating than Uncharted’s equivalent scene but it’s also has greater significance. Max has found himself at his lowest ebb inhabiting an environment quickly resembling hell – the metaphorical significance of which isn’t lost on Max. This is when the game is at its strongest – when gameplay, character and narrative all wonderfully fuse and interplay. For adrenaline junkies -- those who lust after bigger and fierier explosions, more extravagant death-defying scenarios -- the set-pieces in Max Payne 3 might seem a tad sedate. (Saying that, you still get to shoot missiles out of the air in slow-motion while dangling from a helicopter.) But it’s a game that is more concerned with making its spectacles mean something within the confines of its story.

For a Rockstar game there’s also conspicuous lack of freedom in Max Payne 3. It’s easy to imagine how Sao Paolo’s favelas could have been realised as kind of destitute labyrinth, with a disorientated Max lost amidst its ramshackle alleys, but instead the game always provides you with a well-defined pathway. There’s never any doubt where to go or who to shoot, since you can always feel the spectral touch of an authorial hand pushing you forwards, towards the next checkpoint, the next cutscene. Occasionally the promise of liberty is dangled in front of the player – when Max is equipped with a silenced weapon, you wonder if sections can be tackled with a more stealthy approach – but it’s never long before the excrement collides with the industrial turbine.

The single-player story lasts around 10-12 hours. Max Payne 3 has a variety of Arcade modes – from score challenges to speed runs to keep you busy once you finish the main story. In New York Minute, you're tasked with playing through the campaign with a clock counting down from five minutes above your head. The premise is simple: kill guys to earn time. It's like Time Crisis, and a lot of fun, but it's unlikely that you'll play through the entire again exclusively in this mode. Still, it's nice way to sample key parts of the narrative again, especially if you're partial to a state of constant anxiety.

It’s the multiplayer that is the real surprise, however. It’s gleeful pandemonium. Gang Wars, in particular, attempts something rather ambitious, trying to weave narrative into what is usually a player-determined mode. You'll play four rounds, with different objectives that alter depending on what happens in each of them: from claiming territory to defusing bombs to assassinating a randomly selected leader of the opposing gang. This accumulates a point advantage going into the fifth and final round, which always takes the form of an all-out death match. Bursts, which function like perks, are central to this mode, and confer advantages to the members of your crew, from raising the calibre of your weapons to inducing paranoia in the opposing team, making friendlies appear as enemies. Gang Wars has lofty aspirations, and it's not entirely successful - you're not left with enduring memories of these vignettes, nor does it feel as if they're really filling in gaps in the game's narrative once Max has exited stage left pursued by hooded thug. But it doesn't really matter since the gameplay itself is relentless fun, giving players a sense of freedom absent from the single-player campaign. It's also laudable to see a developer trying to innovate in the multiplayer space, rather than simply rehashing the mainstays. Max Payne’s multiplayer is definitely not an afterthought, and will certainly reward players with months of enjoyment.

Closing Comments

There are plenty of games which are celebrated for their gameplay but lack anything in way of story or character. Max Payne 3 is a different type of proposition. The gameplay is simple yet satisfying, but it’s entirely in the service of a strongly-authored narrative. Players aren’t at the liberty to roam, to explore, or to shake things up. Some might find this too controlling, but in return for your freedom, you’re rewarded with a mature genre piece which is also a finely-realised character study. Action games continue to inch the dial towards 11, sometimes at the expense of their narrative integrity. Max Payne 3, however, has the conviction to reign in the action, imbue it with purpose - the spectacle still sparkles but it also makes sense.

Rating

out of 10

9 Presentation
A host of cinematic effects give the game a unique look and feel, without it ever feeling

8.5 Graphics
Not the best looking game around but environments are impressively detailed and performances sensitively captured.

8.5 Sound
Stirring, evocative score by New York rock band Health highlights some exemplary voice work by James McCaffrey.

8 Gameplay
Simple yet fun and stylish, frequent interruption from cut scenes might spoil the experience for some.

8.5 Lasting Appeal
The main story lasts no more than 12 hours, but the multiplayer is a genuine surprise and a lot fun.

9 Overall
Amazing

[Jay]

Reviews are looking great for this.

Also, for those in the UK, Max Payne 3 is only £29.99 through Blockbuster's website.

[Guy]

Ordered :yes:

[Bert]

This is the first time I've paid full price for a game in quite a while, I hope it's worth it.

Usually this guy I know in Russia will buy them and then I'll paypal him because the games are region free and cheaper there ($20 instead of $60) but Steam region locked Max Payne 3. :(

[The Rogerer]

Hahaha some Americans make a Max Payne game and guess what, instead of shooting Americans now you're shooting brown people...

Oh sorry, I thought I was posting on TPWW. Please disregard this.

[The Rick]

Hahaha some Americans make a Max Payne game and guess what, instead of shooting Americans now you're shooting brown people...

Canadians, but I think they did a damn good job.

I have just started playing, and I like this game a lot. I haven't touched multi-player yet, so I will chime in at another juncture with a take on it. I am only playing on medium, but I'm dying quite a bit. I didn't die in the first chapter, but that was pretty easy. The second chapter kicked my ass after landing on the heli-pad. I had little trouble dispatching the first wave of guys, but then missed the guy crouched on the cat walk. Then I dove off the cat walk(swore I jumped forward), and took a bullet peaking around the corner right after the cat walk section.

I have only made it through the first three chapters, and I like the story so far. Some of the facial details from L.A. Noire had to have rubbed off. There isn't facial motion capture, but the facial expressions seem to be better than RDR or GTA games. Rockstar Vancouver seemed to have created quite a game here, and I hope that they get to return to the Bully franchise after this.

[Hobbit]

Yeah, me too. I can't wait. I've got it on pre-order with The Hut, along with The Elite Squad and The Elite Squad: The Enemy Within on Blu-Ray, all for £34 :yes:

Me too should be brillopads.

OUT ON FRIDAY


http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3z7dcWWEX1qgmtz5o1_250.gif

[Jay]

There's a verrrrry good chance this will be dropping through my letterbox tomorrow. I hope so, as I'm off Friday and it'll mean some late night shenanigans.

[Tramp]

This is going to be the first game I've purchased in quite some time. 2 years I think. Come Friday, we shall all feast upon the flesh of fallen angels. Anybody not excited about this should make like Chow Yun Fat.

[Guy]

Anybody not excited about this should make like Chow Yun Fat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUONbulT0U8



?

[Hobbit]

Dear Matt,

Your order from TheHut.com has been dispatched and will be with you shortly!

at 17:59.

It's going to take another day to get here isn't it :mad:

The two Elite Squad films will be worth my anger though :cool:

[Guy]

Mine was dispatched yesterday, but I have a feeling I'll have to wait til bloody Saturday.

[Tramp]

?

5:00 :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZbWULj4N2I

[Guy]

I recently re-played through the original two on Xbox. Anyone else notice the completely ridiculous sound levels on the first game?

I never noticed it on PS2 or PC, but on Xbox his narration is barely a whisper, whilst the sound effects and graphic novel vocals are fine. It really pissed me off.

[Tramp]

Started watching some vids from the walkthroughs that are popping up, and it looks good, just a tad more helpful to the player. And I'm referring to the cover system. Everybody just takes cover, hits bullet time, peeks out, and is able to land a perfectly aimed headshot with one shot. Like the pistol and the ingram, they're 100% in accuracy. Whah?

[The Rick]

Started watching some vids from the walkthroughs that are popping up, and it looks good, just a tad more helpful to the player. And I'm referring to the cover system. Everybody just takes cover, hits bullet time, peeks out, and is able to land a perfectly aimed headshot with one shot. Like the pistol and the ingram, they're 100% in accuracy. Whah?


The game features three aiming options. Hard lock, soft lock, and free aim. Hard lock, allows you to lock onto vitals with a button press. Soft lock allows you to quickly target the next foe, but you must maneuver the weapon for the death blow. Free aim is just as advertised. There is no aim assist on this option. I opted for the soft lock. Believe me, if you are new to the series pick one of the first two. At the times in the story where you are 1 v. 10+ you should be able to manage.

These are the same options in the multi-player. But here is the cool part. Rockstar Vancouver has separate lobbies for the free aim people. So you shouldn't see auto aim people matched with free aim people. This is something I wish other shooters would adopt. I like going with out aim assist in FPS games, but the lag is sooooooo bad.

BTW: exploration when possible. Like any Rockstar game there is the task of finding the "hidden" items. Plus you might happen across some much needed pain killers.

[Guy]

Ok so I'm enjoying it so far, not massively far into it but well away.

It's good, but something about it seems a bit too rigid. I made the mistake of playing the first two this week in the lead up to the release, and Max definitely feels a LOT slower in his old age. Also I do miss the graphic novel panels. I didn't think I would too much, but I do wish they had been used every now and then during cut-scenes as opposed to just some text being lobbed on the screen every thirty seconds.

[Alf]

It's failry dull.

[The Rogerer]

Theappeal of the series for me was that it was a b movie made in Finland. I'm sure this will be well polished, but from what I've seen it makes steps towards Red Dead and GTA, which get boring as they become more po faced. Also you really shouldn't have a cover system in a Max Payne game.

[Guy]

The cover system doesn't bother me so much, as I spent a lot of time in the first two Max Payne's just standing next to doorways waiting for enemies appear before diving sideways. But yea there's far too much GTA in here for my liking.

Some of the cut scenes look like they're straight out of GTA with Max just wandering about in the middle. Especially when it comes to naked ladies dancing about.

James McAfferty has done a fucking incredible job in this game though.

[The Rick]

I finally beat the game. Clocked my play time about 10hrs, and many deaths. The game is good, but not great. I had a good time with it, but I have this nagging feeling that it could have been much better.

I liked the story telling mechanic. The game uses flashes and plasters words across the screen during the cut scenes. I haven't played the original two games in so long that I didn't miss the comic panel scenes. The story is way over the top as is in the vein of Max Payne, but this seems to go out of it's own way to do so.

For me Max Payne was a run and gun game with the awesome bullet dodge mechanic built in. The only times you ducked into cover were when you needed to pop a few pills, and reload. You felt like a betrayed badass that solved his problems by barging in the front door guns blazing. Times have changed a bit.

Many times you enter a room and cover is offered. You should probably take their offering too. When you enter bullet dodge now, you can be knocked out of it if you touch an item in the environment. Max can dive slowly and lock on to targets, but if he grazes against a folding chair it jars him back to regular time. There is also the problem of having to lay in the ground too long after a dodge as well. You find yourself weighing the consequences of a dive. In some levels you can bullet dodge between cover. This would be a good option, but Max has to gain a standing position before he can enter cover. This isn't that big of a deal for the first few levels when 4-6 enemies are coming at you. When more are gunning for you a problem arises.

Ammo is a commodity in this game too. There are times in the game, you will be scrounging for guns and ammo. The game will go to a cut scene, and show max with his pistol. Even if you had a rifle or smg in your hand, when you come out of the scene you are holding the weapon that was in the scene. This is a huge problem if you have just expelled your pistol ammo into the previous wave of enemies. The game will send you into a wave of bullets with an empty weapon.

I did start to feel like a badass towards the end of the game. The story is about Max being at his lowest, and being thrown lower. You slowly crawl out of the crap of the Brazilian favela, and find clues as to what has happened. (I don't want to reveal too much as to spoil the plot) As you start piecing the clues together you start fighting the power, instead of struggling to survive. By all means explore rooms. Going into a room stocked with pain killers is way more fun than going in empty. With 2-4 pills in tow you can go in like the games of old, and wreck some fools.

I still haven't played too much with the multi-player portion. I only played one of each lobby. One had the auto lock and one was free aim. The free aim is the way to go for me. The auto lock feature felt too cheap. I didn't feel like I was doing much. It seems most of the reviews have really touted the multi-player for the gang wars game. I will have to check this out.

I don't think I can recommend buying this game if you are only getting it for the single player campaign. A nice rental and you will be able to finish the game over a weekend. I don't feel the need to go back and replay the campaign either. Don't get me wrong, the game is good. I don't think it is great. I guess after 7+ years I expect more from my games. Especially from my favorite publisher, Rockstar Games.

[Guy]

I'd agree with most of that. Though I do love that Max smacks his head on things when doing the dive, it's an impressive physics engine, and to be honest it totally works in the favour of making Max seem like a stumbling grumpy drunken old fool trying to do something he could once to with clarity.

I did feel like once I'd completed it, I was done with it however. Which makes me sad. I think because it's so on the rails, whereas in the first two games you'd run into a hotel and wouldn't stop blasting until you get out of the hotel so many rooms later, in MP 3, every time you walk through a door....cutscene. Everytime a gun fight finishes, cutscene. On the flip side of that, I know the loading times are hidden in the cut scenes, and the loading times were a fucking nightmare in the original two console versions. I did fucking love the New York sections though, which made me think maybe I did have the old Max Payne back but I just struggled to recognise it with all of the changes. I'd love to see what a re-vamped version of the original games would look like with this new engine. I do hope they give them at least a HD re-release at some point.

Looking forward to jumping into the multi-player today.

Oh also, far too much swearing from Max towards the end of the game. He started off so very Max Payne, and slowly turned into a GTA main character in the final few levels. It was upsetting.

[Alf]

I really hate the way skin looks shiny and sparkly in rockstar games. It looks so unnatural.

[Guy]

Starting to wonder how much I can get it traded in for.

[The Rogerer]

Send it to me.

I played the entire first game this weekend, for the first time in a few years. Aside from having some puzzles that you just don't see any more, the game really rewards an aggressive style of play and you should always be pushing forward. I have Max Payne 2 on the PS2 which isn't a great version, so I've ordered it on the Xbox as I can't imagine playing a whole game with a keyboard and mouse any more.

[Guy]

I'm playing through the story for a second time so I can grab all collectibles. This time on hard and without the auto aiming.

I'm enjoying it far more already and I've barely started (not that I didn't enjoy it enough the first time). I know it's going to get completely fucking ridiculously hard towards the middle/end, but it's crazy how much more it feels like Max Payne when you take the auto-aim off. Instead of using cover and popping up to use the auto-aim and hit someone's face, you have to cover/re-load/launch yourself over a barrier in the hope of spraying your bullets around close enough to the bad guys to hit them. Then launch yourself backwards again towards some other cover whilst their backup arrives.

[Guy]

I've only just realised that if you play through the the New york Minute Arcade mode, you can choose Max's outfit. This includes his look from the original two games.

It's awesome seeing Old Max take over some of the games cut scenes. Genuinely hilarious watching his permanently smirking face trying to emote at the same time into some weird shapes.

http://c3333424.r24.cf0.rackcdn.com/bc13924cea1d0a7228815714b2026f3c8096e1ec.jpg__620x 323_q85_crop_upscale.jpg

[Delta Devil]

I regret buying this game, simple as that.

-Right off the bat, I hate the direction this took. I don't like the South American setting, I just don't. This used to be a noire story, this just feels like a cheap Man on Fire knockoff.

-Absolutely dreadful writing, mostly Max's lines.
-Hate the cover system. You don't see your crosshair when you're in cover, and when you finally spring out it pops up way too late. By the time you pick your shot, you're blown halfway to hell already.
-Terrible weapon selection. I don't give a rat's ass how realistic it is with Max holding/dropping shotguns or rifles on account of your pistols. What the fuck is so wrong with normal weapon selection?
-Characters always pushing the player out the door like "Come on, hurry, what are you doing, COME ONE GO!!!" when I'm just trying to admire the fucking game.
-Overall, I don't feel like I'm in control. I don't feel like I'm playing this game on my own. It feels like there's somebody peering over my shoulder, micro fucking managing me like I don't have a goddamn choice to play the game how I want to play it.
-You can go prone, but you can't roll? Thanks?
-Aiming during bullet time is difficult at times. And the sounds when enabling bullet time aren't effective enough. In MP1 and 2, you could FEEL like you were in bullet time. This just feels way off.

Monster on its own:
-The cutscenes. The goddamn cutscenes. This is a video game which I want to play, not a movie. I don't want to have to sit through these fucking cutscenes which I cannot skip through because the game is still "LOADING!". Fuck that. And not to mention the constant shaky-cam, video distortion that is so overused that it makes me feel disoriented. And I don't mean in the way the developers originally intended. I don't want to have my screen wobbling and weaving because Max is drunk. And why the fuck did they change the comic strip format?? It's horrendous.
-Too many intermissions between gun battles. You clean out a room, you get a cut scene which breaks the flow of things, then you're thrown into another fray with a different weapon selected.
-The Man on Fire text spraying across the screen every time somebody says something insignificant, which is all the fucking time.

Rockstar fucked this one up good, and I'm not too happy that this is a Max Payne game that I'm trashing. This is why I hate video games these days; they're like WWE. The game is dumbed down, unthought out, lazy, and overall average when it could have been beautiful. The last game I actually bought was Mass Effect 2, and this is the reason why.

3/10... This was meant to bring us a little closer to heaven, instead we got the rotted flesh of fallen angels. First Deus Ex, now this.

Fuck this game.

[Guy]

....I realised you could use the old Max Payne 1 & 2 skins in the arcade modes the other day. I was quite excited.

[The Rick]

Max Payne 3 Makes Cheaters Fight Each Other
ign link (http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/13/max-payne-3-makes-cheaters-fight-each-other)
by Andrew Goldfarb June 13, 2012



Players up to no good will be banished to the ‘Cheaters Pool.’

Rockstar has announced a creative new way to deal with cheaters in Max Payne 3. According to a post on the game’s official site, players using hacked saves, modded games or any other exploits will be banished to a Cheaters Pool where they “will only be able to compete in multiplayer matches with other confirmed miscreants.”

The move is meant to address several problematic hacks that have plagued the game’s multiplayer, including invincibility, infinite adrenaline, score cheating and more. To report cheaters, players can simply email maxpayne3.banhammer@rockstargames.com and include the following information:

Platform (PC, PS3 or Xbox 360)
Cheater’s Gamertag/ID
Description of the violation
Concrete evidence such as a video or screenshot (if possible)

If any players are added to the pool and later cleared of any wrongdoing, they’ll be able to re-join the general population for online multiplayer. However, a second offense will cause them to be added to the Cheaters Pool permanently. Rockstar notes that “we do not ban players for using legitimate tactics to which some players may object, such as camping.” In addition, players who encounter harassment via voice chat should “block the player and report the Gamertag or PSN ID directly to Microsoft or Sony.”

Beyond the Cheaters Pool, Rockstar will also be addressing cheats and hacks in upcoming title updates for Max Payne 3. Invalid leaderboard entries will also be removed “to ensure that the players at the top of the charts have earned their spots fairly.”


One more reason I fucking love Rockstar.

_______________________

Delta I understand your frustration. I can't really disagree with many of your problems with the game. It is not a perfect game, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot twists weren't that great either. It didn't bother me that the game didn't feel like its predecessors. I liked the original games, but I never held them in high esteem.

[Guy]

I do hold the previous games in high esteem and I still enjoyed this one.

Granted the story and writing isn't half as good as the previous games. I don't mind the setting, I don't mind old Max Payne, I don't even really mind the bald head. I don't like Payne constantly screaming "fuck" towards the end of the game however, and a lot of his lines are bad imitations of his original monologues (although he does get the odd great line every now and then, "a hole in the second favourite drinking arm" being on of the best). A lot of it does feel very GTA (foreign coke-heads dancing on boats especially) but I will say that no matter how "not Max Payne" some of the writing/characters are....James McCaffrey instantly makes it Payne. Just his inclusion makes the whole thing so much easier to swallow, and he puts in an incredible performance, both vocally and physically for this part. It's criminal that this man never got the opportunity to play Max in the movie, sadly he's a bit old for it now perhaps. But I do love that they kinda merged Max from Max 2 with McCaffrey's actual likeness to create Payne.

http://content3.catalog.photos.msn.com/ds/pic-en-us/picenus_msnentertainment/WireImage.com/42F130E7-4379-452E-A99B-B5777DCBDFCF.jpghttp://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2011/12/16/1324032953820/Max-Payne-3-007.jpg

http://maddieman.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/mp3_75.jpghttp://maddieman.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/exhibit-b.png

I think I like the game because it at least tried to be a Payne game, as well as an individual entry in the series. They got the music, the right voice actor, the likenesses for the original Payne's, they at least TRIED to get Payne's writing correct, made cameos for Captain Baseball Bat Boy and the Sam Lake smirk as well as the piano theme Easter egg from the first game and Max's constantly drinking KONG whiskey which was originally just a billboard in the first game I believe, and lastly brought in some snow covered New York levels to ease the transition. It will never be the Max Payne we know and love, that is with Remedy (hell there's a small page or two of Max Payne dialogue, spoken by James McCaffrey in Alan Wake that's more Payne-like than this entire game) but they did at least give it a shot, and at the end of the day, I'll take a "we gave it a try" Payne over one that didn't even bother tying things together.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9lkZKcxoe8

If you don't like it, try giving the 3 part (2 issues in so far) comic that was co-written by Sam Lake and the writer of Max Payne 3 that attempts to tie the two styles together, and give some of Max's back-story.

http://media.rockstargames.com/rockstargames/img/global/news/upload/actual_1335560600.jpg

And for those that are wondering what Max Payne ACTUALLY looks like 12 years later...

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/Bloodwxw/Picture2.png

[Hobbit]

Lads I am fucking SHIT at this.

Made it to a bit where I'm trying to get out of some slums whilst the Elite Squad (what a film(s) by the way awesome) shoot anyone that moves, but I've got fuck all ammo, next to no health and no pills left. It's so intense and in your face that it's a bit silly. It's brilliant obviously, but fucking hell it's hard at times. Wave after wave of goons and you're fighting them back with about 2 rounds and nothing for cover.

The storyline is great though and I adore the style of it. Fantastic when it's turned right up.

Just started watching Rescue Me too so imagine my surprise when I think HMM THAT DEAD BLOKE'S VOICE SOUNDS FAMILIAR! :D

[Delta Devil]

I feel this guy hits it on the head.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx5MZfpQIEk&feature=related

[Guy]

Just a minute into the video so far and he's mentioned Matrix influences twice (and has gone on to so quite a bit since) This game was in development years before The Matrix came out. There was no Matrix influence at all, or at least so very little, so very late in the game, as to be completely moot. This was all John Woo, oddly enough the same place The Matric got its influence from. They just came out within the same couple of years.

Also his complains about the environment getting in the way, or the not being able to reload during Last Chance shootouts is a bit null and void as you are SUPPOSED to use pills to keep your energy up in the game. Last chance is exactly that, a last chance opportunity, a fluke bullet. Otherwise why bother using pills at all, why not just run forward waiting to get shot to death and last chance out of it EVERY time?

He also complains about gameplay not changing once Max decides to quit drinking. Saying that something in the gameplay should reflect that, his response time or something. Missing completely that Max has not drank in the game for a grand total of ONE NIGHT and is still a middle aged, out of shape, crashing into walls mess of a human being. He's just one at least starting the road to redemption, not fixing it over-night, that's a first small step for the character.

And to finish off with, he says he can't take the mix of narrative and gameplay serious because of the introspective cut-scenes and over the top violent gunplay. One of his latter exact quotes are "It's hard to take Max Payne, the man who fourteen years later laments the death of his family, the man who has a serious alcohol and drug problem, the man we're supposed to empathise with as he deals with serious inner demons, and see him as anything other than a giant walking turret since the gameplay involved nothing but shooting people in insanely violent ways"

What fucking game was he playing when we were all playing Max Payne 1 & 2? The games with metaphor ridden, emotional, dark, brooding graphic novel panels, inter-cut with gameplay based purely in slow motion, glorified overkill.

I like this game for half the same reasons I liked the original games, and half completely different reasons. The game has some elements of the original series, but relies far too much on ripping off a sub-par movie for me to love it completely. I feel it improves on that movie simply by adding the fantastic character of Max Payne, but only in the same way that any sub-par movie or video game would be improved by adding the dry humour and fantastic voice work of this character. The game plays fantastically but I do agree with his point that it is hindered by too many cut-scenes interjecting themselves into the flow of the game, something the graphic novel panels avoided by leaving you on the exact spot that they interrupted you from and letting you explore the world on your own time and accord.

[Delta Devil]

Fuck it. Dopefish feels my payne too.

8:47 I nearly died :lol:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyJ0n3eKAYY

[The Rogerer]

I have finally got around to starting this. It seems very obnoxious at first, but I think they've done a great job evoking Max Payne while moving it on. It's very visceral and heavy. I'm up to Chapter 4, will let you know if the arse falls out.

[The Rogerer]

I'm up to Chapter 8 and I agree with Guy's rebuttal to the video there very much. I already liked Max Payne 1 and 2, this is different and in a good way. I have played just about every third person cover shooter going, and mechanically Max Payne 3 is high on the list. Max may feel old and heavy to some people but he controls a lot better than most of the characters this generation.

The game does suffer from the Rockstar effect, particularly at the start, but I feel they actually see it through. The narration adds a lot of depth, the story actually has discernible themes and is laying them out well. I demand melodramatic bad metaphors from Max and he gives them, but the story makes more sense than the previous two games did.

Who the fuck is dopefish and what is that shit? I'm just getting ready to join up to a site talking about and reviewing games. We were going to do a lot of youtube content but I since I started to look around at the competition I am dismayed by what people enjoy on there. That is literally a geek screaming into a microphone about nothing. Then they spout the first thing that comes into their tiny minds and get thousands of followers who egg them on to get the new game and do it. I wondered why but then I realise my little brother enjoys these things. He's 13.

Also what is the complaint about not being able to skip a cutscene because the game is 'LOADING' is about. The clue is in the word loading. Would you prefer to stare at a static screen in silence, would that make you feel better?

[The Rogerer]

Really enjoyed Acts 1 and 2, and it felt like it could have ended at 2 but then they set up Act 3, which I wasn't too keen on. I seemed to encounter a lot more bugs in the last few chapters, namely getting completely stuck in cover many times which only happened twice before. A roll would get me out of it though. I didn't shoot the bad man at the end as I didn't realise I had manual control, does anything change on that? Also I had to do the very last section about 5 times, and when I finally got it I don't see how I was missing the plane so badly.

This game could have been a lot worse. It had some very good moments, the storytelling through act 2 was the high point.

[Olympus]

Finished this bad boy today. I enjoyed the storyline and the characters greatly, as is typical of the Max Payne series and Rockstar in general.

The difficulty really threw me for a loop, though. I guess it's realistic in the sense that most of the game was a 1 vs. 30 gunfight, but man did I die a lot, especially in the terminal section and the final battle with Becker.

The problem with the Becker fight was that I thought I was supposed to do something. At first I thought I had to get on the plane, but I could never get there without getting grenaded. Eventually I just stayed where I was and killed everyone I could and the game advanced on its own.

The result overall was really excellent gunplay and a good cover system, but it was marred somewhat by how scripted it was. It was set piece after set piece, and while it was enjoyable, a little freedom every now and then would have been appreciated.

[Peter Griffin]

Just near the end of this game I think (had a massive shoot out in a airport terminal) and have loved every second so far. Delta Devils post regarding the game seem way ott, I mean by all means you dont have to like the game, but some of your gripes are ludicrous and the fact that have to post idiots home made youtube rants just to back up your point make me think you are just as bad as them.