Max Payne 3 screens and info skulk in

360 News | You're in for some Payne!

It’s been a while since Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne paved the way for an avalanche of bullet-time inspired titles for our underpowered PCs and last-generation consoles. With Max Payne 3 having been announced earlier this year, he’s now brought along some images and fresh info as well.

In Max Payne 3, our titular anti-hero is twelve years senior and has long quit the NYPD. Not to mention, he looks a heck of a lot different. Sure New York was pretty rough, but Max now finds himself in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one of the most densely populated, dangerous and crime-ridden areas in the world. While taking odd jobs protecting Sao Paulo’s richest and ‘finest’, Max’s rock-bottom is about to get a whole lot lower as the talons of the Primeiro Comando da Capital and local underworld sink in.

We’re informed that Max Payne 3 will continue the franchise tradition of a character-driven story, bullet-time gameplay, Max's monologues, mature themes such as drug addiction, and support from Rockstar’s Rage engine. In addition, the focus will be on close-quarter combat with an obligatory cover system and dashings of gameplay variety. Development is primarily being covered by Rockstar Vancouver, with a few other Rockstar studios helping with the ports. We’re still expecting an end-of-year release, but in the meantime, here are some screens to whet your appetite.

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37 Comments

Phreakuency

3 years ago

The screens do look average and lacking originality but guess what? Max Payne 1 and 2 were just run of the mill shooters anyway!! Yeah the bullet-time was cool, but having played a million 3rd person shooters, the slow down effects were about all that it had going for it. At the time...

Benza

3 years ago

Nic_231 wrote

I don't need a masters in visual arts to spot generic character design.

Name another game with a middle aged pot bellied ballding main charecter.

I'm starting to dig the charecter design honestly because, well it's just unusual to see a main charecter of a game with a gut that isn't based off the simpsons, wich I think is kind of cool.

Honestly the people complaing about the lack of film noir just due to the setting.

Uh, go watch some old Film Noir movies. Like say, Key Largo set in beautifull Key Largo in Florida

Film Noir doesn't mean monochromatic set in new york. Yeah most of the old film noir movies were in black and white but thats just a remenents of the era they were filmed in and not a concious stylistic choice.

Windburn

3 years ago

Benza wrote

That as may be in that one example, but I'm very certain these are exceptions to the rule. Afterall, no one can escape the fact that the words "film noir" are french for "black film".
In any case, it's meant to be a stylish depiction of a dark, cruel, crime-riddled world. When you look at these screens, the words "stylish" or "dark" do not even remotely come to mind.

Heck, you don't even get "cruel", as those bad-guy gangsters are a combination of prince of persia clones and gangsters with gold chains on. A better word would be "eclectic".

Benza

3 years ago

Second and fourth screen look pretty dark and stylish to me.

And I hate to break it to you but the gangs in brazil don't walk around in black trench coats and fedoras. They walk around, well dressed like the dudes in the screenshots,

Windburn

3 years ago

Benza wrote

It's set in Brazil, not in Arabia. They wear alot of shirts, shorts, thongs (havaianas), jeans, polos, etc. Yes, kind of like what those guys are wearing, sans the puffy prince of persia pants and headscarfs.

Actually, maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine, but I hate it when games give enemies headscarfs then clone them en masse. Seems like a copout for creating well-made likenesses of the enemies instead. I mean, those two guys look identical but for the color of their scarves! This obviously must come into the storyline, but damn it makes me cringe.

Now, as Sin pointed out above, shots 2 and 4 are just cutscenes, and yes, they do look OK (I said that already). Not convincingly so, though.

I'm just stuck up on the fact that Rockstar has said they are going with a new art style, they have said that we're to trust them with this new direction, and the first screens they want to show us are those? Is that what they're really most proud of showing off, to put our minds at ease?

bernzsta

3 years ago

The important statement here so far is...

grim-one wrote

Something tells me this isn't going to have the 'noir' detective film feel to it.

I second this a million times. :sadface

Benza

3 years ago

Windburn wrote

Benza wrote

It's set in Brazil, not in Arabia. They wear alot of shirts, shorts, thongs (havaianas), jeans, polos, etc.

Like the guy in the third screenshot?
Yes, kind of like what those guys are wearing, sans the puffy prince of persia pants and headscarfs.

They look more like balaclavas with more neck material then a head scarf though (Check out the last shots) yeah the first shot is bad but honestly I’m more worried about the fact that he’s taking cover from two dudes rather then the fact that they’re wearing head sacarfs.

On the whole film noir thing, look at a bunch of random screens from the first Max Payne and it doesn’t scream Film Noir either. It’s usually just a bunch of boring brown rooms.

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I mean, those two guys look identical but for the color of their scarves! This obviously must come into the storyline, but damn it makes me cringe.

One of them is lean and built and the other has a bit pot belly, you're defenition of Identical is differnt to mine.

Quote

Now, as Sin pointed out above, shots 2 and 4 are just cutscenes, and yes, they do look OK (I said that already). Not convincingly so, though.

Sin has speculated that they may be cut scenes. As far as I'm aware he has played the game as much as any of us has.

Windburn

3 years ago

Benza wrote

On the whole film noir thing, look at a bunch of random screens from the first Max Payne and it doesn’t scream Film Noir either. It’s usually just a bunch of boring brown rooms.

You would have to dig VERY deep for a set of screens that don't show Ragnarok, or the dark comic delivery, or the creepy drug-induced dream sequences, or the dark, lightning storm factory scenes. All those and many more "scream" film noir. Who would be stupid enough to showcase Max Payne by just showing off the underground train or carpark scenes, which are some of the lighter, more generic scenes in the game (and even then, were still of the drab and depressed style)?

Benza wrote

Sin has speculated that they may be cut scenes. As far as I'm aware he has played the game as much as any of us has.

Oh, Benza. You do this a fair bit you know...you toy with common sense to fit your words. Simply, they're cut scenes because they're not remotely from a playable angle. Note, cut scene does not expressly mean CGI, it just means a cut away from the gameplay proper.

But let's just agree to disagree on everything though, as it seems you and I are always at loggerheads over something. It's getting a bit stale and predictable, and I don't like to be predictable!

Nic_231

3 years ago

It's not so much a matter of finding another game with an identical character, it's more the fact that I am tired of playing every action game as some derivative of Bruce Willis.
As for your comments on film noir Benza, I think Windburn pretty much summed up the response I would have given. These screen shots really do not seem to fall into any standard interpretation of the genre. Show them to somebody without mentioning the fact that they were from the next Max Payne and film noir would probably be the furthest thing from their mind...

kartanym

3 years ago

I just find it funny that everyone's going off on the 'it isn't max payne', yet if Rockstar were to say 'here's a sequel, it's exactly the same as the last just with a new story', we'd probably be complaining that it isn't original or fresh.

At least with a series like Resident Evil, they try to mix it up a little instead of throwing you inside the same mansion over and over again. It might not work all the time, but credit for trying something just that little bit different (on a side note, it didn't help Res 5 that Far Cry 2 had almost the exact same setting).

There's clearly a reason why he's stuck in Brazil and looking like he's just stepped out from a Good Sammy's. Let's give Rockstar a chance to prove why first before throwing the rotten lettuce at them.

Sin Ogaris

3 years ago

Actually I would have loved another New York just with improved physics, better environment destructibility, larger shootouts and more environmental style damage.

Basically I would have been ecstatic with a "Next Gen Max Payne" (there is such a thing as "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", worked for Halo, works for Blizzard, works for Megaman and it works for an arseload of other games too). We're not getting that, which I understand, but like I've already said if you're going to drastically alter something you'd best make damn sure that first impressions are good ones, because that's what'll really sell the game.

We all know what gamers are like, we are them, you mess with something that a lot of gamers loved then you've got to back it up, these screens don't, they're not giving people confidence. Really bad first impression basically.

Windburn

3 years ago

^ A man after my own heart.

I too would have been thrilled with a revamped, current-gen max payne. Imagine how gorgeous it would look, especially if it had the depth of story that we get from the other two MP titles, on the currently amazing graphics being pumped out by various studios. It would totally stand apart from any other shooter out there, and that's before considering bullet time enhancements.

Anyway, I respect that they're trying to be original, and I appreciate that. They just also have to maintain the core values of the game- they're the reason why there are so many concerns to stir up in the first place.

Nic_231

3 years ago