Max Payne 3 Catch All

Absolutely, sir. We can crew up on the R* Social Club, too, since I know you'll be getting GTA V.

So what's the deal with retail PC versions of this? The retail disc has a $10 promotion on Amazon, but the DD doesn't. I assume it's not a Steamworks game, but can I even play it without the disc in? Has anything been said?

I've heard you can install it. And you need 35GB to do so. I haven't paid much attention to the truth of that, though, as PC gaming makes my eyes gloss over and my Neanderthal heritage come to the surface.

One thing I've noticed watching all the trailers and dev diaries:

Apparently it's mandatory to keep your left arm at your side at all times, even while diving. Unless of course you are dual wielding, in which case your arms must be outstretched.

skeletonframes wrote:

I've heard you can install it. And you need 35GB to do so. I haven't paid much attention to the truth of that, though, as PC gaming makes my eyes gloss over and my Neanderthal heritage come to the surface.

You can always (and always have to..) install it. The question is about disc checks.

35GB isn't a big deal to install unless you're SSD only or something. On the other hand, downloading 35GB is a bit of a mouthful to some.

35GB is the system requirement. Often, the actual install size is somewhat lower, so who knows?

We have a 360 clan up: TheMaxPayneClub.

CptGlanton wrote:

We have a 360 clan up: TheMaxPayneClub.

I like it. To the point.

IMAGE(http://h8.abload.de/img/untitled-70ikvfh.gif)

This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

skeletonframes wrote:

Absolutely, sir. We can crew up on the R* Social Club, too, since I know you'll be getting GTA V.

If GTA V were going to be a reimagining/update to Vice City the way IV was to III, then I would be the happiest gamer ever.

That is a pretty incredible explosion of human. The animations look so good, too.

Is it possible to create PC crews yet or is it one crew for all platforms? I've pre-ordered on Steam and would like to get a crew going.

You can definitely create crews at the Rockstar Social Club site. Not sure if they are cross-platform or not, when I created mine (The Perestroika VIP Club) I didn't notice anything indicating that it would be only for PS3 or XBox (I own both, and have both ID's linked to my Social Club account).

Giantbomb put up their quicklook

I might get this on a Steam sale or something.
The writing was probably half the reason I loved the first two games, and based on that quicklook it doesn't seem to be there. It's Rockstar all over it (unsurprisingly). I know some people love their writing but I really don't. It also seems like they interject cutscenes every 30 seconds, ugh.

10 years ago I never would have thought that I could care less about Max Payne 3 on the day it came out. What was 2K and Rockstar thinking?

Max Payne 3 is the banner ad at the top of the NY Times home page right now. This strikes me as a bit odd.

CptGlanton wrote:

Max Payne 3 is the banner ad at the top of the NY Times home page right now. This strikes me as a bit odd.

If you live here and had seen the ad campaigns for RDR and LA Noire, it would not strike you as odd at all.

kyrieee wrote:

I might get this on a Steam sale or something.
The writing was probably half the reason I loved the first two games, and based on that quicklook it doesn't seem to be there. It's Rockstar all over it (unsurprisingly). I know some people love their writing but I really don't. It also seems like they interject cutscenes every 30 seconds, ugh.

The writing was the worst part of GTA4. The cut-scenes were overwrought, overlong.

This may be the only full-price retail game I buy all year. X360. The only thing I worry about are the controls, because Rockstar just doesn't do controls. I didn't play Red Dead, did they get that to control okay? Cause everything up to GTA IV really sucked, and even that wasn't as good as any of the decent competition. Max Payne just won't work if it isn't snappy and smooth at the same time.

So the consensus seems to be that they nailed everything except the tone. That's a real shame. The first two games were masterpieces of tone, and it's the biggest thing I'm looking for in a sequel.

The reviews have been great, but they've also really turned me off the game a lot more than I was expecting them to. I'm considering waiting for a sale and getting Alan Wake's American Nightmare instead. Alan Wake was no Max Payne, but it was the closest thing I've played since the last one was released, and I have a feeling American Nightmare will scratch my itch better than Max Payne 3 will.

I remember RDR controls as being a bit crap and confusing. But that might have been down to the fact it was open-world game and they had to utilise more buttons. Or something.

I played about 4 hours of SP last night, and I loved it. I don't understand people criticizing the tone, either. They're stealing from Man on Fire rather than noire, but it's still the same self-consciously bad voiceover, self-pitying cop stuff, and silly plot as ever. And so far, the plot is better than GTA IV's (although that game didn't really go off the rails until you were further in), and I really like having a setting that isn't New York or LA. And it's refreshingly old school in its gameplay, too: no regenerating health, limited ammo, and you take damage pretty damn quickly (and I'm playing on Medium).

My only two gripes so far are that last night MP was down when I tried to join and it froze once. When I went to turn off the 360 manually after it froze, I noticed that the console was very, very warm (and I have a Slim, too), so be aware of that.

Unless something changes, it's likely I'll double dip on the PC version, which I've never done before.

Yeah, I don't play the Max Payne games for the excellent dialogue or toned-down nuance. I play to shoot people in their faces and watch their bodies flop to the floor in awesome ways. From the videos I've seen, it looks like I'm gonna have fun.

Multiplayer- I don't think Rockstar has ever released a game where multiplayer works well for the first month. I remember both GTA IV and Red Dead gave me fits trying to connect and stay connected when they first came out. I didn't even get to really dig into Red Dead Redemption's MP until recently when I re-purchased it. Turns out its awesome.

One question for you, Cpt. Did they pull the classic R* mistake and put needless animations into your character turning around? The thing that agrivates me most about their games is trying to pull a 180 and my character running in a little circle, hitting a wall or running off a building in the process.

The animations are far better than GTA or RDR, two games where I felt like my character was gliding atop the ground. They have added a 'second chance' system; if you hit your damage limit and have a bottle of painkillers, you go into slow mo in which you have a few seconds to kill someone to auto-revive yourself. During that time, Max can contort himself into all sorts of silliness. That's the only time I've noticed real problems with the animations.

Take home is that, imo, they have improved character movement and animation vastly over Red Dead and GTA. I think that ditching the open world has done wonders for their engine's fine tuning.

I got an error trying to get into MP last night, but tried again immediately and got in. I found it to be pretty fun (though I couldn't really see any reason not to take the soldier loadout; maybe as I level up the differences will be come clearer).

CptGlanton wrote:

They have added a 'second chance' system; if you hit your damage limit and have a bottle of painkillers, you go into slow mo in which you have a few seconds to kill someone to auto-revive yourself.

One of my favorite things in Borderlands. Nice.

Going to pick it up soon. I'll see you guys online in a couple days when Single Player is done.

Bought it. Hate it.

More to come when I clear my thoughts so I don't just spit bile in Rockstar's direction.

skeletonframes wrote:

Bought it. Hate it.

More to come when I clear my thoughts so I don't just spit bile in Rockstar's direction.

Whaaat? Please elaborate, as clearheadedly as possible.

I thought it wasn't out until the 29th of this month? How are people already playing it? Did I miss something?

Rallick wrote:

I thought it wasn't out until the 29th of this month? How are people already playing it? Did I miss something?

You did. PC release was delayed two weeks.

Rallick wrote:

I thought it wasn't out until the 29th of this month?

PC

It really needed to be stated twice. For emphasis.