By Alec Meer on March 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm.
Rockstar drops the first hint about the next installment of the grandaddy of slo-mo man-shoots:
Do you like beards? What about scars? Blood? A possible hint of a shaven head? Oh, we could talk about this for hours.
Um.
Hmm.
No, that’s it.
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Stuff we know so far: He has a beard, it’s not set in New York, it’s not being developed by Remedy and it’ll be multi-platform (yes, I know MP/MP2 were released on the consoles, but that always seemed like an afterthought).
Call me paranoid, but I’m not going to be getting my hopes up.
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Am I blind? I can see XBOX and Playstation logos on the bottom of the page, but any sign of PC… This is suspicious, isn’t it?
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Rockstar Vancouver. R.I.P. Max Payne.
“Max Payne 3 will be available in winter 2009 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.”
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Does he remind anyone else of Sam Fisher?
which is better than him looking like Mark Wahlberg…
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I have to agree with Seniath; it makes me somewhat worried that somebody else than Remedy is working on it.
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:o
I know it’s a bit childish of me but I can’t help being excited by this! I hope Tworak is wrong and Remedy have some creative input to the project. I also hope they pick up on the mythological references from the first game again. They sort of left all that hanging in the second one.
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Looks to me like Rockstar just grabbed some random character from GTA and put his face next to the title for no apparent reason. I guess it’s cheaper than having to pay your artists to draw a *new* angry-looking dude, when they have so many already.
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@Yiorgos Do you mean the Conviction Sam Fisher? The one which was supposed to come out like 2 years ago?
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Finally we get Hobo Max!
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How’s that bullet in the head working out for him these days?
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@Rob, he now feels no pain, but, as a downside, wants to take over the world.
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Max gets his third face in three games. I know he’s supposed to be retired now, but…
:(
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Hmm. I’m skeptical.
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I hope I’m wrong but I’m getting all kinds of bad feelings from this. The visual stylings for that character seem contrary to that of the previous two games, which sets a bad precedent for the rest of the game.
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Also, what the hell is up with the 360 ads? I know it’s a little thing but even PC sites are being invaded :(
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I miss Max’s fart-smelling grimace. When will we have more action heroes who look like they just smelt a really bad one?
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Hmm. I have a beard, but that doesn’t mean I have to like ‘em. I play games for the escapism, damnit.
My first thought when I read they’d changed devs was ‘no Remedy, no sale’. On reflection, that’s unfair, but I really hope these Rockstar Canuck types ‘get’ what makes the series so great. By which I mean, of course, that they have to adhere to exactly what I want from a Max Payne game or I’m gonna BAWWWWWW.
Here’s the wonderful, magical secret ingredient of Max Paynes 1 and 2: They’re pretty standard third-person shooters wrapped in the trimmings of a stereotypically hard-boiled noir plot. They’re also completely hilarious and charming. But Remedy pitched them straight down the middle – they don’t pander, or try to make obvious jokes that parody the genre. They dead-pan the whole thing (the narrative delivered literally in monotone) and allow the inherent ridiculousness of noirish hyper-masculinity to create the comedy, the charm.
Hmm. I’m not sure I articulated that to a point that even I was satisfied with, so I guess it’ll hardly be a travesty if the new devs don’t magically cotton on.
Guess I’ll settle for some overwrought dialogue and some smooth-as-fuck bullet time. Every game has bullet time, but Max Payne ripped off the Matrix first – so I’m expecting some Goddamn bullet time renaissance to be going on here. This game better be the Ketel One of targeting suckas in real time while the bullets’re flyin’ at the speed a redneck gets through the alphabet, to (badly) paraphrase Ray for a moment.
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“…it’s not being developed by Remedy…”
Uh-oh. I sense a strong DisContinuity in the making.
Well, we got two excellent Max games. Beats getting just the one Deus.
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Did he retire at the end of the second game? Can’t remember. Anyways… at least they decided to not stretch out the marketing over multiple years. (as long as it’s reallly coming out in 09) I like that trend. Well…
Eff yeah! :D
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Oh, looks is … {$GAME}{$number}!!!..
I myself, I am looking forward for Max Payne 4.
http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne4/
Not Found
The requested URL /maxpayne4 was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at http://www.rockstargames.com Port 80
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Where’s Mona?
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Pc version will be delayed to early 2010 to make way for console versions being released on time. Or, if the recession is a shite as I think it will be, the pc version could be cancelled altogether.
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In the Voice of MAX PAYNE:
Delivering a third installment of a popular franchise is like delivering a baby. Or a bullet. There’s a lot of screaming, a lot of blood and someone always ends up crying.
I am available for script writing work, btw.
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Thus another franchise rape was spawned. And the skies wept blood and the people wept in anguish.
Or something. It’s easier to be pessimistic these days.
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No PC ?!
Man thats crap
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Hating on sequels is the new black.
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@Bob Arctor: Depending which ending of Max Payne 2 they that take as canon, she might be dead.
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I looked at myself. A beard now hung from my face like an angry Canadian bear. I was bloody, scarred. Scars that ran deep enough to bury the past. I looked at the image that bears my name, but it was no longer me.
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There’s a PC version mentioned in the press release. No logo on the website though. Maybe that’s good. Maybe that means they’ve ditched GfW Live and just had nothing to put there. Or (the sad version) there’s no mistake on the website, just a mistake in the press release.
Also, l1ddl3monkey wins this article’s comments section.
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The prospect of a third Max Payne gets a heartfelt ‘Huzzah’ from me.
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Oh hell, I’m going to go against the flow and retain my optimism; I loved the first two games. I just hope it’s not the disappointment that “Strangehold” was – a John Woo sequel done as a Max Payne-a-like should have been pure win for me.
P.
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No.
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Seriously, am I the only one that remembers that Max Payne had those ridiculously stupid “run on bloody veins through space” areas? Hopefully Rockstar will do away with that in favor of some more reasonable way to combat the demons from your past. Also, the story wasn’t exactly … deep, although very well done, I’m pretty hopeful that Rockstar can improve that area as well. The 2 “legacies”, for lack of a better word, that Rockstar will have to keep in mind are the combat and the character development, those are the things that I think most people remember and love from the original games.
Sorry for the double post, I tried to edit the last one, and it went completely insane. I had a %20 after every word.
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Grumpy Hardass on Wheelchair – Extreme Edition!, more like.
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The “run on bloody veins through space” wasn’t too bad the first time; putting it in MP1 twice was overdoing it, though. Max Payne 2 at least had more variation in its weird hallucinations. But you can’t remove the weird, gunplayless levels without jeopardising the whole uber-noir self-mocking nature that made the games so entertaining: they’re Max’s pink flamingo, having fun with mirrors and dyeing Mona’s hair red.
But, speaking of self-mocking, given how DMA Design have apparently steadily lost the art of subtely in their parody—go fire up GTA3 and listen to the radio commercials, then compare to Vice City, then San Andreas—I suspect BooleanBob will be crying his rabbity little eyes out.
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Diogo Ribeiro: “House: the FPS”?
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Sorry for the double post, I tried to edit the last one, and it went completely insane. I had a %20 after every word.
A portent of review scores?
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So Jeremy, did you not play Max Payne 2 then? In which they already did away with the monotonous dream sequences?
Max Payne was great but the sequel was even better. The addition of a decent physics engine and the lovely monochrome, over-the-top spinning bullet time upon reloading really made it click for me.
All they have to do is come up with some decent new level designs, more convincing AI, reasonable plotline and soup up the technical aspects. SURELY they can’t screw that up?
SURELY?
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LionsPhil: A House FPS with Call of Juarez-style quote attacks = awesome.
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@ Taillefer
You REALLY want to get sued over copyright infringement, don’t you? ^.-
I’d say I’m only slightly interested.
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Hasn’t that man suffered enough?
Let’s hope it’s a happy retirement game where you can slo-mo dive from the bar into the pool.
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Things required to keep it Max Payne:
Sam Lake doing the story.
Timothy Gibbs for the look of Max.
James McCaffrey for the voice of Max.
Main theme performed by Perttu Kivilaakso of Apocalyptica.
Credits song by Poets of the Fall based on Sam Lake poem.
OK, most of that is likely to be fanboyisms, but if Sam Lake isn’t involved in the story, even on an advisory level, I’d be concerned. I hate talk of taking things in a “new direction”.
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I think I must have played that section where you happen upon a few henchmen standing around a grand piano, one playing a bizarrely Bruce Hornsby-like melody, ohh, several million times. Dropping a grenade in slo-mo among them next got old.
P.
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“Sorry for the double post, I tried to edit the last one, and it went completely insane. I had a %20 after every word.”
Don’t worry, it still looks normal to everyone else.
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@The Poisoned Sponge, nah, what will happen is that Max Payne is going to grow to about 7 feet tall and get metal teeth. Or grow a third nipple, live on a tropical island, and become a world famour assassin whilst using a gun made from a lighter and a pen. Gun wounds to the head do ka-razy things after all, other than kill you.
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oceanclub: It’s “Late Goodbye”, the same song that people hum throughout the game, and that plays over the credits. As Rei pointed out, it was based upon a poem by one of the devs. (Wikipedia, as always, has more spew if you want it.)
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Max Payne 3: We Took A Cue From Splinter Cell: Conviction
Feh; I havn’t heard anything about it, so it wasn’t written by Sami, so I don’t care.
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“I opened up my RSS reader one more time. Every minute checking my feeds, satiating my hunger for news, scrounging for a tasty morsel in the cold world of coursework…
@jalf yep, does look like exactly like the GTA art.
Like others here, I’m not getting my hopes up. I just hope they don’t completely ruin it.
And in my opinion the first game beats the second hands down. I was going to compare the stories, but to be honest MP2′s was so forgettable that I can’t…
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The franchise hung off of my shoulders like the pelt of a bear, a once mighty creature, now a shadow of it’s former self. Kinda reminded me of me. I wanted to come in from the cold and the dark, but even inside I was met with a frosty reception.
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Although let it be noted that, as long as Sam Lake at least maintains in an advisory position concerning the story (though I’d prefer he take an active role) and as long as James Mccaffrey still does the voice I’ll probably still be getting this.
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Max isn’t really changing his look, he’s just adjusting to becoming Canadian. That’s his playoff beard.
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brulleks,
Apparently I forgot what they did for MP2, those weird running on vein moments must have really affected me in a negative way :) For the sake of my curiosity and lack of memory, what did they do in MP2 for their hallucinations? I have completely forgotten.
And yes, even hardcore noir killers have their favorite sports.
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Since when did Niko invade max’s world?
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Mainly just warpy effects, a green hue to everything and never ending hallways. Plus, inexplicably blocking off corridoors with stacks of boxes just because they needed an excuse to show off the Havok physics.
Not quite as memorable as the running on veins, but not as frustrating either.
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Not holding out for anything special. Huge Max Payne fan but judging by the way games are going at the mo, this’ll be some big budget generic shooter.
Nothing about that banner says ‘gritty film noir’.
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Jeremy
IIRC, the dream sequences were still there but no silly platforming or labyrinths. You just had to run through them really. Certainly nothing punishing.
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Wow, you can tell this much just from looking at a WIP-logo?
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@Dreamhacker: short answer is, yes. Yes we can.
Long answer; we can make assumptions based on what we know already (Remedy aren’t making it, Rockstar Vancouver are), while the art style also indicates the direction they may be taking with the franchise. We don’t know anything, but we can make educated guesses.
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Google ‘max payne 3′ and the first link is to a story on – wait for it – MTV.com.
‘‘Max Payne 3′ Coming Winter 2009 From ‘Bully’ Developers.’
Says it all, really.
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And yeah, where the hell’s Splinter Cell Conviction gone? I was looking forward to running through a realistic crowd while having a beard, then hitting someone with a chair. IIRC.
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FUUUCK THEM
Max’s story ENDED
And there’s no way in hell they will do the old games justice because not a single game has lived up to MP II’s standards of characters and narrative
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If it doesn’t end up with a kung-fu mod it ain’t Max Payne.
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MP2 pretty much failed in comparison to the first game storywise anyway, never catched on with me.
MP3… I hope they’ll be a bit more ambitious than just doing another storydriven singleplayer game, give me slowmo multiplayer.
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There is just no good way to do slow-mo multiplayer. The laws of physics simply won’t allow it.
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Sam (Fisher) & Max (Payne): Hit the Road.
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The dreams in MP2 were infinitely superior to the first ones, apart from the endless repetition of the single sex noise they recorded for the game. They filled in the gaps in the narrative. If you watch a certain TV in the final dream, you can see how Vlad puts Vinnie Gognitti to an irony-steeped death.
How Max “dreams” this, I’m not sure. But it was cool.
Best escort mission ever, too.
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That part was horrible, as was Vinnie’s real death. Honestly made me squirm in my seat.
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Oh man, I just saw a picture of Sam Lake. Didn’t realize they used him to make the character.
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Can’t work without the wrinkly, scrunched-up nose.
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@Dan Harris:
MTV.com’s Multiplayer blog is headed by – wait for it – Stephen Totilo, one of the best games journo’s we have. And Bully is, by all accounts, a great game. Not sure what your point is.
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Name any other game that has a story that completely revolves around characters. No saving the world shit, no being a hero. Just really interesting characters, incredible writing and really complex relationships between them.
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There is just no good way to do slow-mo multiplayer. The laws of physics simply won’t allow it.
It was ace in FEAR mp if you ask me.
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I’m not optimistic seeing how prominent the 360 and PS3 logos are and seeing the development studio. For me Max Payne is a PC game where quick save/load is integral to the experience, for this game to be workable on consoles they will have to compromise enemy difficulty, level design and health management too badly.
:’(
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Oi Wimpo, that’s exactly what Max Payne is! Generic to the max. I’m so angry at all these comments slagging it off when we know nothing about the game. It may be shit but so far I’ve seen nothing to suggest either way other than he has a nice new beard and what’s wrong with that?
In fact I just read that it is being developed by the studio who made Bully, which IMO was an absolutely brilliant game.
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@teo: After the credits of MP2, the message “Max Payne’s journey through the night will continue” appears. His story did not end. It’s just that Rockstar may be interpreting how it will continue differently to how Sam Lake would.
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It was a problem so serious it could only be talked about in metaphors.
The incidental stuff in the Payne’s was always the best – the mainline noir was laughably bad – and Rockstar have pretty good form for that.
For me though, he’s never been the same since they removed Frank Skinner’s face.
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Max Payne 1 created some of my finest memories of gaming, even with the shite blood trail levels (that haunted me).
Max Payne 2 also had some excellent writing (with sometimes high cheese factor, but seemingly always intended). The Russian guy who says “Max Payne, dearest of all my friends!” during the last level still sticks with me.
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Loved the previous Max Payne games, MP2 is still proudly installed, and still looks great.
Am scared about this one though. Another story where Max ‘sinks as low as he can go’ etc.
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As long as it runs better then GTA4 does for non-bleeding edge PC’s, I will reserve judgment. They know the shoes they have to fill, and they certainly have the budget and the time to make it happen. I imagine it will be a lot like waiting for Fallout 3.
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‘Sam (Fisher) & Max (Payne): Hit the Road.’
You, sir, win.
(Hmm. There’s a fair bit of Kane & Lynch in “new Max”, too.)
‘How Max “dreams” this, I’m not sure. But it was cool.’
IIRC, at that point, Max’s “dreaming” was a result of barely-surviving arriving at the Address Unknown theme-park with Gognitti. He may well have been witness to the whole thing. The removal of most of the bomb even explains why he survives then, but not if Gognitti gets killed while you’re escorting him.
Fuck me, internal consistency? It’s almost as if this game’s plot had some kind of writing-type-person involved!
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“I imagine it will be a lot like waiting for Fallout 3.”
This just in: Max Payne 3 is Bully with guns!
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Do we know anything about the people making this, if it isn’t the original team? Loved Max Payne 2… ahhh Mona.
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It’s impossible to continue this series! How are they going to pull this off without it being a complete… doo-doo?
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Dave Gates: Rockstar Vancouver, hence all the talk of Bully.
Also: for the purposes of scowl-comparing, a quick side-by-side.
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I will forgive this travesty if they cast Monica Bellucci as Mona Sax.
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To be fair, they did Global Operations which was kind of ahead of it’s time. But still, it’s not Max Payne.
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Max bum, not from remedy.. uh oh.
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Awesome! I’ve always wanted to drink meths and rifle through bins in slo-mo! :D
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@SwiftRanger:
I never played the FEAR multi. How did they handle it?
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iirc it was a special pickup or something that slowed everyone but you down. Then again it’s been a very long time since I played it so there may have been some method of getting it other than a pickup. Or I may just be making this all up from some fever dream.
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@Tei – What was the point of your link?
As for the game, all I can do is hope that it’ll be a good game. I was a big fan of the other 2 but what I’m not going to do is build it on some mighty pedestal saying how glorious it will be, or, instantly say its terrible without hearing any details about it.
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I’m going to miss that constipated face.
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A bit of me died when I read this. I seriously can’t see how they’re going to pull it off with the same charm as the previous two.
Probably won’t.
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A bit of me died when I read this. I seriously can’t see how they’re going to pull it off with the same charm as the previous two.
Probably won’t.
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Max Payne is my favorite game. They better not fuck this up.
Also, THE THEME BETTER BE BACK.
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Cautious optimism, is what I’m feeling.
Very cautious.
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Disclaimer: My previous post was IRONIC.
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Geez why can’t the max paynes be made the max payne people and the fallouts be made by the fallout people
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@Captane: That studios are not tryiing new ideas, just adding on older “brandings”.
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There’s been a decided lack of OTT angst in games recently. Max could be the one to bring it back, IF handled properly. The first two games were classics – I await further details of the 3rd iteration with interest.
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I reattached the parts of the image that obviosly got lost through in the interwebs:
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Link went missing: http://yfrog.com/0omp3vj
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Max Payne: The Gran Torino Years?
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Never liked Max Payne. Always felt it took itself too seriously. I was always laughing at his facial expressions when what was supposed to be serious moments??
Ah well. I like beards though. And scars, not to keen on blood though. And my head is nearly always shaved, ‘cept in the winter.
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The vein dream sequences in the first game worked for me as they forced you to slow down, chill out and soak up the nightmarish baby screams – I though it made a nice contrast to the ‘New York Minute’ style frenetic gunplay of which the rest the game consisted.
I’ve got a nasty feeling this game we be tied to the narrative of the god awful Marky Mark vechicle – essentially super drug addicts battling bored looking b-movie actors on blue bleached sound stages. Providing they stay away from the movie I’m sure it will be fine.
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Seems like Max is going to the same barber as Sam Fisher these days.
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I found your blog on Yahoo and I just wanted to say that I think your writing is simply stunning!
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Thanks again for providing this content for free.
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