Max Payne 3 screens and info skulk in

[Jeremy]

Max Payne 3 screens and info skulk in by Jeremy

PALGN News: You're in for some Payne!

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[JP2daMC]

A cursory glance suggests to me that this is looking a bit like Resident Evil 5/Uncharted.
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“Committed to gaming mediocrity and no platinum trophies.”

[Sin Ogaris]

YAY! My confidence is dropping again. Way to go Rockstar for making Max Payne 3 look as boring as you possibly could make it! Watch out, you'll be facing all of ONE guy at any given moment, don't worry about dodging either because you can just stand there and be shot at without fear of dying.

Thank you, Rockstar, you've proven to me yet again that you fail at life.

[Nic_231]

Looks like another bald space marine. Top character design there team...
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[LeonJ]

Uncharted 3: Among bald fat men.

Looks to have lost the Max Payne charm. I don't think Marky mark will be lining up to for the 3rd film somehow.
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[RXWAG]

Narky, aren't we....

Think it look alright, it's way to early for me to pass any more judgement then that based on 4 screen shots...
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Selamat Pagi Bitches...

[Windburn]

Yuck yuck yuck. It looks totally shit, like someone took to it with a Dulux store. Looks more like frieking Prince of Persia (ONE!) meets GTA than anything grisly and reminescent of that Max Payne film noir. Ugh, those screens look -completely- uninspired.

Also, how is that fat hunk of lard meant to bullet time dodge anything? Obviously he's struggling, because showing Max Payne screens without showing bullet time diving/dodging is a cause for concern. The only shot there with any promise is the sillhoette image, and maybe that's just because I can't make out his ridiculously overproportioned features.

Fail!
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[grim-one]

Something tells me this isn't going to have the 'noir' detective film feel to it. Why not just use a completely new character instead of dragging poor Max out in the light like this? =\
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[Sin Ogaris]

They've already stated that it won't retain the original detective noir style. Supposedly it'll have a more "modern" style noir. No idea what that means though.

I don't really mind the setting, as Southern America can get pretty damn brutal, however the problem is I know exactly why Rockstar chose it... controversy. They, apparently, can't make a game that doesn't involve some form of controversy to it (even Table Tennis if you think about it) and I have no doubts they'll chuck in a cutscene, or a moment with a child holding a gun and getting shot or SOMETHING to that effect because they're so useless at making games they have to sell on shock factor alone. Failing that they'll just get the whole "white dude shooting black dudes" issue which is so rampant these days.

My main concern with the images is that none of them "feel" like Max Payne, MP was all about one man against a room of 10 guys and coming out largely unscathed, so far the images haven't shown this. Yes it's only the first batch of screens but they couldn't have picked worse shots if they had tried.

[Karai Pantsu]

Okay - so from a handful of screenshots you've discerned that at no point in the title will there be more than two enemies on screen?

Well fuck me dead, I had no idea that I was a peer among those gifted with the talent of future sight.

Pretty sure that there were plenty of places in the first two titles that featured one to two enemies. Hell, there were even moments without enemies!

Do you really think that these few shots show the whole experience? Media from Rockstar? Showing more than a few tiny scraps of what the game entails? Not often.

Basically - lighten up yeah? No, it isn't dark, rainy NYC. But we've not even seen it in motion yet, let alone have a solid idea of what the game is about. Maybe wait for more before chucking a wobbly

Edit: Not directed solely at you Sin.
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[Jarrod]

I know it's only a handful of screens and I still want to see it in motion, but you could throw those screens out and nobody would ever recognise it as Max Payne.

Lead character looks, artistically, boring as hell. Environments look over-glossy (LOLOL NEXT GEN) and nothing like the bleak, dark, cop noir environments of Max Payne and Max Payne 2.

It might not be much, but the job of media no matter how little is to sell the title, and so far Rockstar have failed when it comes to me.
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[Windburn]

@Karai

In all honesty, though these are but a few snippets, these screenshots were selected purposefully by their PR departments to release. They aren't leaked screens, they are there to advertise what they are developing, and they were selected to show off what they are offering.

And that doesn't bode well for Max Payne fans.

I know they gave a very convincing explanation of how they are going with a new stylization for this new Max Payne, and they made it sound really great there. But what they are showing us here is a game that seems like it has no unique art style at all.

This looks like "just another" shooter- the screens don't even look that pretty when you compare it to other games coming out now.
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[Karai Pantsu]

Perhaps we've been looking at media for different upcoming games, because I think this looks pretty damned good so far (not in a Max Payne sort of way, but detached from that in a purely visual sense). I can't think of much off the top of my head, aside from Uncharted 2 which just looks stunning, that looks much better than this does so far. Max himself looks solid and convincing, and the environments look decently highly detailed. Also - next-gen shiny? Seriously? This looks to be one of the least shiny AAA games that I've seen lately

And I don't buy the boring character bit - I don't see how this iteration of Max looks markedly less interesting than the old versions. He's older and bulkier, angry and shabby... as opposed to younger, skinnier, angsty, and trench-coated. I mean, playing devil's advocate here, but I don't see how one character is intrinsically more interesting looking than the other?

No, it doesn't look like a Max Payne game. Doesn't necessarily mean it looks bad. I'm going to hold of judgment 'till more detail it to be seen.
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[Sin Ogaris]

I'm judging the screens, and those screens are terrible. Yes they're only the first batch but they're the first screens of a well liked franchise being taken over by a new developer. If they want to instil faith in fans of the series they need to offer SOMETHING at least in the slightest catering to said fans.

What is shown there could be any game at all, it looks way too generic, that's not how you announce a rekindling of an old franchise.

Besides all that it doesn't look THAT great visually, in the first image both guys are standing in the EXACT same way which looks really jarring and very last gen. The Bullet holes have no sense of depth, again very last gen. A point blank shotgun blast (can see the blood cloud so clearly it hit) doesn't effect the enemy at all it would appear, again not something reminiscent of today's games.

Granted it does appear to have a nice level of draw distance, but really the two best looking shots in that bunch (2 and 4) don't look like they're occuring during normal gameplay so are pointless anyway.

I'm incredibly biased because I don't like rockstar, for the most part. As a developer their games have some pretty major design issues which they seem to get away with because they're "sandbox titles" and they get a crapload of credit when other games in the genre offer far more variety and style. All because they throw something in that gets in the papers, or is out of left field.

You're right though, there's no "shiny" in those pics which is one thing I will gladly say I am happy about.

[A13x]

Uh oh, he no longer looks like a guy with a carrot shoved where the sun don't shine, better avoid this one !
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<3

[Infested Jibbs]

I think it has potential to have 'nuts and bolts' syndrome, where it MAY(i stress may) be a good(passable?) game standing on it's own two feet, but as a max payne game, will fail to deliver.

I mean, short of this guy going reverse Michael Jacskon and having black skin he could not look anymore removed from the ye olde max payne we all loved.That also applies to the locale, gone is the foreboding streetscape, with long drawn out shadows, the delapitaded concrete jungle battered by a relentless blizzard;replaced instead by...?I dunno, some sort of sprawling south american street market, with the contrast and brightness at 101.

I can easily picture a shootout with 'max' taking cover behind a wooden cart filled with watermelons.Or something corny like shooting out a brace and then a whole heap of watermelons falls on some guys.

Fucking watermelons.

I just, i dunno, it really irks me when developers pull this switcheroo/bait and switch bs.

We cry for icecream, they promise icecream, and then deliver frozen yoghurt.Well froghurts good, but god damnit we wanted fucking icecream!
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[Sin Ogaris]

Like I said, I like the scenery change for what it can offer the franchise (Jibbs pretty much hit the nail on the head, Max duck running behind food stalls and stuff with fruit and veg getting shot to hell while he picks off his combatants with well placed head shots), I like the idea of a more "modern" style of bullet time, I like the idea of being able to "revenge kill" your way out of death.

I don't like the fact that these images offer NOTHING in the way of these cool new ideas that Rockstar are playing at.

[Windburn]

It's like they knew they didn't have the talent (or balls) to pull off a unique game in terms of art style, so they just shelved that side of Max Payne altogether. I too have been warming to the setting and the exciting prospects, but I feel it has to still deliver the whole Max Payne package, and art was a big part of that.

It's now colorful and easy on the eyes, and seems very generic, even bland. I really can't explain what my impressions are better than my first go at it.

It just looks uninspired.
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[Karai Pantsu]

Honestly, I get similar impressions - I can't help but think 'Stranglehold, but brighter' and that's about it.

But yeah, still too early to judge - for such a dynamic type of game you really need to see it in motion.
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[Wedley]

I thought the screenshots looked interesting. Brazil is a cool setting, and I like the idea of a bald, bearded action hero with a gut.

You guys are reading way too much into this - like when the Diablo III screenshots dropped and suddenly everybody on the internet suddenly sported a masters in visual arts and had expert opinions on why the colours proved the game would be no good.

[Nic_231]

I don't need a masters in visual arts to spot generic character design.
I didn't mean to say that Max Payne 3 would be a bad game, that would be far too great a leap, given that we only have these screen shots to go by. I am just disappointed that they have moved away from the film noir look and made Max look like every other action game protagonist on the market.
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[LeonJ]

[Infested Jibbs]

[Nic_231]

But you get your choice of topping!
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[GoldenEyeRa]

Lordy. At this rate I'll just pretend this isn't Max Payne 3 at all.

Unless this is all part of some major plot twist/ploy. "Bait and switch" was mentioned above, maybe this is the opening of the game, and then Max wakes up or something in a different locale with a different story going on?

EXTREMELY unlikely, seeing as this is Rockstar, but if they'd learnt anything from Payne (especially Payne 2), they'll know that crazy/psychadellic/freaky/weird dream-sequence moments are a must.

But yeah, its Rockstar. Doubt extremely that this is one of those moments.
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