Rockstar Unveils Iffy Max Payne 3 Box Art

[Earnest Cavalli]

Rockstar Unveils Iffy Max Payne 3 Box Art

We've got the final box art for Max Payne 3. Fans of the series might want to avert their eyes.

See that image at right? Or perhaps its embiggened cousin down below? That's the final box art for upcoming shooter Max Payne 3, as tweeted by Rockstar Games' official Twitter account yesterday.

Now before you comment on the piece, run a Google Image Search for "max payne box art." [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=max+payne+box+art&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1218&bih=713&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi] Notice anything interesting there? The art for the first two Max Payne titles -- released in 2001 and 2003, respectively -- depicts a solemn, gritty, monochromatic noir experience, all whites and blacks with striking splashes of red. That set a perfect mood for the games, which were shooters, yes, but also gripping, pulp-esque portrayals of one cop's descent into madness in search of justice for his slain family and the shambles his life had become.

This new box art, by comparison, may as well be a picture of a puppy wrestling with a basket full of balloons. The image is actively sunny, and Max looks like a slightly more haggard Gregory Peck circa 1962. It could easily double as the box art for the (momentarily) fictitious Max Payne's Ibiza Holiday -- and even if you drop the hyperbole, the game you would expect based purely on that box art is more "homogenized, heroic gunfight" than "psychologically-charged druggie cop cleanses his sins via bullet-time acrobatic death dealing."

I won't judge the final game based purely on this box art, but this is certainly not the good ol' Max I grew up with. And that's before we even mention the man's unshaven-as-charmingly-roguish style.

It's gonna take a whole lot of shrieking, dead infants to wash away the bitter taste of this thing.

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Source: Rockstar Games Twitter [https://twitter.com/#!/RockstarGames/status/177440515430686720]

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[scnj]

The black and white look wouldn't suit the new game. Different location, different story, different tone.

 

[Zyxzy]

It's rather boring.

 

[scotth266]

The art looks fine to me. Let's run down the noir checklist, shall we?

Pissed-off looking protagonist? Check.
Femme, probably fatale? Check.
Thug with a gun? Check.

The whole "Max Payne with color = bad" line of thought reminds me of a similarly stupid argument [http://www.obviouswinner.com/storage/post-images/diablo3_release_date.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1272900754570] that was made a while back.

 

[sunami88]

I dunno... Everything I've been hearing about this game makes me think they should just drop the Max Payne name and make a new frikkin franchise altogether (bullet time has been used in other games y'know). Maybe it retains all of the noire just in a new setting, but it's seeming less likely with every new bit of info.

 

[krychek57]

(ノಠ益&#3232ノ彡┻━┻

I don't even know. I was so excited for this game on announcement but the longer it goes the more I feel I should just keep laying Uncharted. Or Max 1 &2.

 

[Pipotchi]

Yeah I dont mind it, Rockstar are one of the few companies now that havent dissapointed me, I loved GTA4, RDR and everything else they have done.

If the worst they ever do to wrong me is some slightly cliche box art then I'll take that and be glad.

That said I do miss the Film Noir styling

Also my Captcha is Roast beef... and I'm currently eating roast beef! Spooky Is the escapist watching me through my Webcam?

 

[5-0]

Looks, to me, like a mixture of Uncharted and Far Cry 2. Yeah sure it looks nothing like the Noir of the other games (although I haven't played them), but I trust Rockstar. They haven't fucked up yet, despite what some GTA IV haters seem to think.

 

[Weaver]

It just look so... Rockstar you know? It has that rockstar "feel" to it.
I hate that feel.

 

[Inuprince]

Well, I was already expecting this to be it:

http://www.payneandredemption.com/maxpayne3coverart.jpg

I thought this was okay, although the thug and the girl are totally unnecessary in both of them, but this confirmed one seems even more generic than this.

still I hope the game will be good!

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

The black and white look wouldn't suit the new game. Different location, different story, different tone.

I agree. I feel that the original games were noir games, but the new titles feel a little bit more like neo-noir, a more vibrant story but still retaining the story structure, and general feel of the noir originals.

 

[BrotherRool]

Look if your genre is specifically defined by the colour of things being, black, then it's a really really stupid genre.

Instead we could say, our genre is focused on telling stories with a dark tone and an introspective outlook. And that should be able to happen regardless of the setting and you are actually bringing new and exciting things to the genre by changing that setting

Though film noir is often identified with a visual style, unconventional within a Hollywood context, that emphasizes low-key lighting and unbalanced compositions,[8] films commonly identified as noir evidence a variety of visual approaches, including ones that fit comfortably within the Hollywood mainstream

The yes or no is, does this game focus on an interesting story, and all the signs so far suggest they have designed the characters with something else other than 'looks cool' in mind, because most of the pictures have been weather-beaten tortured faces. Rockstar itself has a reputation for telling tales with very noir styles hampered by the way they always choose open-world games. I think a campaign game is their chance to really shine with this

 

[Toeys]

box art looks good, game looks good, and now i just need to know if it plays well and if the story is well done, by playing it myself.

im hyped over this like the worst halo fanboy seeing the halo3 announcement for the first time

 

[CUnk]

What's a "box"?

 

[chuckey]

I think it's fine. People just need to get over themselves and play the game. The boxart doesn't judge a game, (remember megaman 1?) anyway, If the cover of skyrim was Puff the dragon barfing rainbows hugging your character, would YOU skip the game and say "that boxart has nothing to due with the elder scrolls series so therefore the game sucks."

 

[isometry]

I'm looking forward to the game, and based on videos I'm satisfied they are staying true to the series. But having said that, I don't like this box art. It's not a deal breaker, of course, I'd just like it to have more symmetry with the box art for the first two games.

 

[weirdee]

Sometimes I feel like most gamers hide in the past rather than take charge of the future. Duke Nukem was pretty much the prime example of what happens when you try to tug on both ends of the rope.

Stay in yesteryear. Or be in the now. But don't try to halfass it.

 

[Rutskarn]

The art looks fine to me. Let's run down the noir checklist, shall we?

Pissed-off looking protagonist? Check.
Femme, probably fatale? Check.
Thug with a gun? Check.

The whole "Max Payne with color = bad" line of thought reminds me of a similarly stupid argument [http://www.obviouswinner.com/storage/post-images/diablo3_release_date.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1272900754570] that was made a while back.

"Pissed off protagonist, woman, and thug with gun" can describe everything from Indiana Jones to Taxi Driver to Bulletstorm. The key thematic elements of Max Payne are its noir aesthetic, of which this cover is the antithesis.

I think it's fine. People just need to get over themselves and play the game. The boxart doesn't judge a game, (remember megaman 1?) anyway, If the cover of skyrim was Puff the dragon barfing rainbows hugging your character, would YOU skip the game and say "that boxart has nothing to due with the elder scrolls series so therefore the game sucks."

All other things being equal, *and having no other information to go off of*, I would see that box art and say, "Huh. That's bizarre. I haven't seen or heard any real news of Elder Scrolls games for a long time, and now this new one looks absolutely nothing like the others in a way that's not too appealing. And also, suspiciously similar to all the other dragon rainbow barfing games on this shelf that did really well the last couple of years. This gives me pause."

 

[hooksashands]

Noir this, noir that. I hate to be the devil's advocate here but is there some rule among fans that everything has to stay 100% true to its roots or it's *gasp* artistically compromised? There's this little thing called variety. If they kept making the same game with the same aesthetics and the same environments and same characters and same story, it would be BORING because we'd all know what to expect.