Max Payne 3: No Payne, No Gain

[RavenDrake]

The more I read up on this game, the more my spirit spirals into the dirt like a WWII bomber with 1 engine....

I was actually quite literally just playing Max Payne 2 recently wondering if anyone could come up with a good way to segue into a new game...

I'm sad the answer so far is "No, probably not."

 

[raxer92]

Max Payne 3: No Payne, No Gain

When is a sequel not a sequel?

Read Full Article

Im sorry but i screamed bullshit when i first saw the new pics for Max Payne 3, Max payne 2 was considered one of the greatest sequels ever made for a videogame, i can understand the pill addiction and the depression getting to him but Brazil, come on guys, did you really want to compete with Drake's uncharted 2, THAT BADLY o.o?

 

[AboveUp]

So normally when sequels pop up we here cries of "milking", "beating a dead horse", and "same ole crap, different year", but when someone truly tries to make a sequel different and evolve a stagnant, aging franchise it's all of a sudden "too different" and "not Max Payne enough"...give me a break.

You know what makes a Max Payne game? The story and narration. Seeing as how we know next to nothing about either one of those right now it's far too early to go around crying about how the game is soooo different.

You know what made Max Payne unmistakably Max Payne? The atmosphere and the likable protagonist. It's one thing to make too many sequels of a game and drive a franchise into the ground, but to make something that doesn't even resemble a franchise and call it a sequel is a sin on a worse level.

Imagine Nintendo revealing a Mario game starring a character resembling Bruce Willis taking place in ancient China. Would this make sense? Of course not. It might even play like a proper Mario game, but it would feel wrong. The magic is lost.
There should at least be some feeling of familiarity with a sequel, otherwise it simply wouldn't count as one. It might be one of the most amazing gaming experiences, but it wouldn't be a Mario game.
To make matters worse, if this new style of Mario would get any popularity, any chance of bringing back the Mario people grew attached to over the years will be lost forever.

That is the feeling a lot of people had with Max. Sure, it's not as known a franchise as Mario, but it is a character we felt like we experienced quite a bit with. To see a different developer do whatever he likes with it has killed off our old Max. Chances are we are not going to see him again.

I'll give the game a chance, but the entire time playing I'll see him as Carl from the Aqua Teens. Not as Max.

 

[Bigeyez]

So normally when sequels pop up we here cries of "milking", "beating a dead horse", and "same ole crap, different year", but when someone truly tries to make a sequel different and evolve a stagnant, aging franchise it's all of a sudden "too different" and "not Max Payne enough"...give me a break.

You know what makes a Max Payne game? The story and narration. Seeing as how we know next to nothing about either one of those right now it's far too early to go around crying about how the game is soooo different.

You know what made Max Payne unmistakably Max Payne? The atmosphere and the likable protagonist. It's one thing to make too many sequels of a game and drive a franchise into the ground, but to make something that doesn't even resemble a franchise and call it a sequel is a sin on a worse level.

Imagine Nintendo revealing a Mario game starring a character a main resembling Bruce Willis taking place in ancient China. Would this make sense? Of course not. It might even play like a proper Mario game, but it would feel wrong. The magic is lost.
There should at least be some feeling of familiarity with a sequel, otherwise it simply wouldn't count as one. It might be one of the most amazing gaming experiences, but it wouldn't be a Mario game.
To make matters worse, if this new style of Mario would get any popularity, any chance of bringing back the Mario people grew attached to over the years will be lost forever.

That is the feeling a lot of people had with Max. Sure, it's not as known a franchise as Mario, but it is a character we felt like we experienced quite a bit with. To see a different developer do whatever he likes with it has killed off our old Max. Chances are we are not going to see him again.

I'll give the game a chance, but the entire time playing I'll see him as Carl from the Aqua Teens. Not as Max.

But thats just it. People are making all these assumptions based off of a handful of screen shots...the game doesn't have to be set in the exact same place to retain a similar feeling.

Sure once we get more info and the game comes out, go ahead and crucify it if it really ends up being "Generic Shooter 3" but until then I say people need to just calm down.

On a seperate note, I personally think the noir setting wasn't the end all be all of the past two games but thats really a matter of personal opinion; I know most people loved the whole noir theme they had.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

This made me want to go back and replay Max Payne 2 with it's awesome mods.

I'm still excited, if nothing else it's not going in the generic direction. It's setting is a Central American slum for god sakes, when was the last time mass media visited that place? The Hulk, Anthony Bourdains No Reservations.. thats about it.

Everyone has different things they're passionate about, sometimes to a fault, so I won't mock your beliefs. I will say I disagree with them, and I think we can both agree we'd like it if you weren't right about MP3. So, you can be the pessimist, I can be the optimist, and one of us will be dissapointed and....well, if it sucks we'll both be dissapointed.

I guess what i'm trying to say is, agree to disagree. I still think it will be awesome.

 

[Clashero]

This made me want to go back and replay Max Payne 2 with it's awesome mods.

I'm still excited, if nothing else it's not going in the generic direction. It's setting is a Central American slum for god sakes, when was the last time mass media visited that place? The Hulk, Anthony Bourdains No Reservations.. thats about it.

Everyone has different things they're passionate about, sometimes to a fault, so I won't mock your beliefs. I will say I disagree with them, and I think we can both agree we'd like it if you weren't right about MP3. So, you can be the pessimist, I can be the optimist, and one of us will be dissapointed and....well, if it sucks we'll both be dissapointed.

I guess what i'm trying to say is, agree to disagree. I still think it will be awesome.

Brazil... Central America? SOMEONE IS WRONG... ON THE INTERNETZ!

Personally, I'm going to get MP3 the day it comes out, but won't have my hopes up too high. The gameplay mechanics they described sound fascinating, and I'd quite like for them to prove to people that noir doesn't mean "New York City at night"

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

It seems incredibly plausible to me. So you are a lean cop with a common enough hair-cut, in a short period of time you kill a great number of people. The smartest thing to do would be to get out, go to a close foreign country, loose the hair, grow a beard and put on some weight. Behold the new Max Payne.

Noir in Brazil? Knowing just a few things about Brazil I think it can be done.

 

[Velocirapture07]

I'm skeptical as well of this new Max Payne. I've only played Max Payne 2, but I'll admit it's one of the best video games I've ever played in terms of immersion, story elements, drama, that noir feel -- Hell everything was perfect.

The biggest thing for me is the change in voice actor....I'm not saying the new guy will suck, he'll probably do a great job, but it won't be the Max Payne I know. I can freaking hear Max Payne from FoMP in my head right now with his grim analogies and depressing quotes!! "I had a dream, in it my wife was still dead, but everything was alright" ---- Freaking classic.

 

[kibayasu]

It seems incredibly plausible to me. So you are a lean cop with a common enough hair-cut, in a short period of time you kill a great number of people. The smartest thing to do would be to get out, go to a close foreign country, loose the hair, grow a beard and put on some weight. Behold the new Max Payne.

Noir in Brazil? Knowing just a few things about Brazil I think it can be done.

Except that is not what has happened. Max is an alcoholic, addicted to painkillers, and working for "private security" (one that allows alcholic drug addicts, apparently) in Brazil. And like I said above, given the ending to the second game, quite a wierd thing to happen.

That said, I'll expand and say I doubt the atmosphere will suffer from being in a Brazillian slum, as those places are absolutely brutal. They're probably about as "Urban" as you can get.

I got no problems with the setting, its Max himself that bothers me. First impressions, obviously, but it looks like we're just going to get another jaded, muscle-bound badass in Max Payne 3.

 

[L4hlborg]

I couldn't agree more, mate. This simply, from everything we've seen so far, is not Max Payne. And while I'm happy that Remedy has decided to set their focus on Alan Wake, which I strongly anticipate, I wish that they had either kept the license for future use with what they've learned from Alan Wake, and made MP3 later on.

This feels like Michael Bay stepping in and re-directing the Lord of the Rings. Wrong much?

Unfortunately, they needed the money to make Alan Wake, so they had to sell MP if they would've wanted to carry on in their carreer.

I'm Finnish and I think that Max Payne is in a way a national treasure. And from my point of view some douchebag is shitting on that national treasure. Seriously. Max Payne. Southern America. Different actor. NO.

Well yeah, the game might be good. I might actually try it out if it was called say Johnny Agony or something like that.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

So normally when sequels pop up we here cries of "milking", "beating a dead horse", and "same ole crap, different year", but when someone truly tries to make a sequel different and evolve a stagnant, aging franchise it's all of a sudden "too different" and "not Max Payne enough"...give me a break.

You know what makes a Max Payne game? The story and narration. Seeing as how we know next to nothing about either one of those right now it's far too early to go around crying about how the game is soooo different.

People say this all the time, but why do we always have to land on extremes?

"If we don't drastically change a game to where it isn't even recognizable as a part of the series, WE WILL BE IN STAGNATION!"

There's obviously a middle ground, and successful sequels that don't feel tenuously tied to the rest of the series fall right on it.

-but whatever, this is Andy simply expressing his concern, and trying to bring up a point about how obsessed we are with "sequelization".

 

[westx207]

I'm excited to give this game a chance. Think about it: if we assume that it's going to have the narrative strength that the name implies, then how awesome could it be to see this character taken in a ballsy direction? Has any other game tried to make such dramatic changes to a character?

That said, it could be a complete disaster just as easily, but I'm hoping for the best.

 

[Dhatz]

it's stupid idea to use the same protagonist and title for extremely different game, they might as well name it "Max Payne's brother" and stop being delusional about this being MP.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Is the problem that most people have the muscles, the wife-beater, his alcoholism, the beard or the hair-cut?

There is seeming to be resistance because of the new look of Payne. I am wondering how many years after the first one it is. If he has been living off unhealthy Brazilian food and beer for some years it explains the gut.

 

[mooncalf]

This reminded me of an upcoming title (MP3 - HAH!), that I had forgotten about for the same reasons - outlined in the article - that I will now forget about it again...

I trust Rockstar to make good games, and maybe this new Max will be cleverly segued into and maturely handled. If he just grumbles and rests on his laurels though, that's what'd be dissappointing.

 

[Frybird]

Easily my favorite "Cutscene" from MP1, even better if you consider that shortly before that you get the exact same thing with Max being stuck in a Comic.

 

[Booze Zombie]

This is a new game with Max Payne's name, gimmick and jawline slapped onto it.

Nothing else remains that truly identifies this with the previous game, that's the crime, not that fact that it's a sequel.
I was already pissed at Rockstar over GTA IV, but this just makes me hate their guts.

 

[samsonguy920]

I got the feeling with GTA4 that Rockstar lost the concept of continuity, since we didn't see a single character in that game that appeared before, short of listening to AssLaszlo who frankly is getting beyond tiring to where the hell is he so I can blow his face away?
And they prove it with this move. I can respect the different location but ya, changing that much with no real reason behind it? Stupid. Would have been better keeping Max in NY and sending Gay Tony to Brazil.

 

[Ryuk2]

Why Brazil? Why 10 years later? Why? I wanted to know what happens after the 2 game, not what happens after years.
First one's were ironic and made you lough about our life's and was a damn good shooter. If they just had continued the story from the second game, then it would be great no matter what.
But i guess they can make Max Payne 4, that would be set +/-1 year after the second game.