Zero Punctuation: Max Payne 3

[MurderousToaster]

I actually preferred MP3's story to the previous games. The first game's plot would have been stronger if it didn't have the horrific habit of introducing characters and then having them die as soon as they speak about three lines, and the second game's story was sort of skewed by its constant pointless timeskipping.

I also wish people would take off their nostalgia goggles when speaking about the first game. The first Max Payne was nowhere near the masterpiece people proclaim it to be, thanks to the frequently-shitty level design, non-existent difficulty curve and the worst boss fights I've seen in a long time. That, and the fact that you would need to be some sort of fucking inhuman machine to avoid wanting to punch the people in Remedy square in the jaw for making the shotgun enemies kill you instantly from just about any range. The first game fell short of being great, and the second felt disjointed, even if it did tighten up the gameplay.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

So gameplay good/great, story boring?

Eh good enough, I'll buy it.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Lotta 13-year-olds trying to argue that 1-dimensional grumpy rage is totally great characterization. Let me know how that works out for you, lads.

It doesn't make you seem any wiser than the people you are attempting to put down, if you do so with generic generalizations and an air of condescension.

 

[Lykosia_v1legacy]

Call me a dribbling fanboy, but I'm really sour about Max Payne 3, cuz the original writer of the old games (Sam Lake, also attributed to the Alan Wake games) pretty much washed his hands of the whole thing. Even had a whole opening of a chapter in Alan Wake devoted to how Lake considered the Payne series dead. It's sorta a Terminator situation: if the original creator considers the series dead, they should just leave well enough alone.

Sami Järvi did not "wash his hands." He was involved in making of MP3. He wrote with Dan Houser the Max Payne 3 comics that ties-in previous MP games to MP3. He also gave design pointers with the rest of the Remedy team to Rockstar.

 

[Lykosia_v1legacy]

Ah, so it's another one of those stories where the main antagonist hires the main protagonist to stop all the bad stuff he's trying to carry out from some whacked out bizarro reason.

Thanks.
You should have used spoiler tags.

Huh? What spoiler? I haven't even played the game. I was just guessing based on Yahtzee's description of the plot.

Ah. I thought you just spoilered that your employer is also your secret twist-revealed end boss. I didn't listen to the part when Yahtzee said "Okay, this now may be considered a spoiler", so I thought that "employer is enemy" thing you told was exactly the spoiler Yahtzee was about to say.
If that isn't the case: I apologise.

Nope, I pretty much just reiterated what Yahtzee said.

And Yahtzee was wrong.

 

[purf]

36+ hours from buying the game to being able to play. 36+ hours in which I got to the point where - regardless of the game not running - I was pretty damn sure that I've flushed ?50,- down the drain.
Now I've felt like stopping the video at 3:07. Go figure.

 

[Aprilgold]

"Where was QTE? Like at all?"

- In some of the cut scenes, on the PC version at least.
Press RMB to block some guy with a big knife. Press LMB to take the knife off them. Now press F to kick them to the kerb and finally, Left Ctrl to give them their knife back (if you know what I mean).

Holy fucking christ could you use the quote feature so that the person you meant to understands you, reads you and then replies. Alright, look, it isn't that hard, you see where my comment is? Well click the Quote feature to respond to this and now you have completed the tutorial.

Actually, I looked, they weren't really QTE's as you were playing the game regularly during it. However you just had to do a sequence of button presses to get through, not to keep watching a cut-scene.

Lotta 13-year-olds trying to argue that 1-dimensional grumpy rage is totally great characterization. Let me know how that works out for you, lads.

It doesn't make you seem any wiser than the people you are attempting to put down, if you do so with generic generalizations and an air of condescension.

Attacking a comment aimed specifically at 13-year-old idiots? That reflects well on you.

None of this reflects well on either of you, so there.

-----------------------

Its Max Payne, it is so much of a Payne to run but its still good in the end.

 

[Sushewakka]

Totally agree with the lack of a likeable character in Max, I honestly didn't understand his appeal in the previous games. He's such an emo wanker.

In at least the first one, his half-smirk seems to rebate your opinion. He was more self-aware and humorous in the first one. It certainly added to the noir feel, and it didn't substract from the character.

 

[uguito-93]

Come on Yahtzee, the same Pink Floyd reference? Someone's getting lazy.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Ah, so it's another one of those stories where the main antagonist hires the main protagonist to stop all the bad stuff he's trying to carry out from some whacked out bizarro reason.

Thanks.
You should have used spoiler tags.

Huh? What spoiler? I haven't even played the game. I was just guessing based on Yahtzee's description of the plot.

Ah. I thought you just spoilered that your employer is also your secret twist-revealed end boss. I didn't listen to the part when Yahtzee said "Okay, this now may be considered a spoiler", so I thought that "employer is enemy" thing you told was exactly the spoiler Yahtzee was about to say.
If that isn't the case: I apologise.

Nope, I pretty much just reiterated what Yahtzee said.

And Yahtzee was wrong.

If you say so. *shrug*

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

really like this game, but I absolutely SUCK AT IT

Seriously; trying to be a badass, but spending more time getting bullet holes in my chest..Bullet time DOES NOTHING FOR ME

Maybe you don't suck, maybe it's just a bad game that you might have been fooled into thinking that it's good.

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

Max Payne 3 taught me that criticism is dead.

 

[Strazdas]

As a person who keeps wishing there were actual writting in video games and not liking when they actually do it, you contradict yourself. Good deal you got here for yourself.
Max payne wasnt fun because of its shooting, it was fun because of its story.

 

[Christopher Haacke]

Always has been; just used to be a lot funnier too.

 

[Breywood]

I haven't laughed this hard at a Zero Punctuation all year. Your descriptions of how you could mess up the bullet time was priceless. Well done.

 

[Geisterkarle]

I just bought MP3 today and so far I have really much fun with it!
It's interesting, how everyone says how "dark" MP3 is... actually I think MP2 was much darker and sinister than this! This quite basic and straight forward. Thanks Yahzee for the spoiler heads up, but I'm not at this point yet but had this "idea" like 15min into the game
I bullet-time-jumped in to many corners and water to count so I give you that but I wouldn't have liked the game to be totally easy! And if it is hard because of me and a tricky jumping... so be it!
Yahzee mentioned all the current standard FPS games... well MP3 is much better than most of them! Maybe a mopey main character is a little bit "dumb" or you don't like it that much ... but it is more, then CoD, Battlefield, ... ever did!

 

[satsugaikaze]

The thing that bugs me about Max Payne 3 is the necessity of the sequel (or lack thereof).

Max Payne 2 was a finely-crafted in-medias-reas homage to traditional, classic film-noir, and had a distinct moment of emotional closure, which to me felt like a definitive ending.

This game just feels like Rockstar went, "but oh wait! He didn't actually find peace, he's still screwed up. Here, have a Rockstar game with a bald dude in Brazil!"

 

[game_freak123]

man i loved this game and another good review. Yahtzee keep it up.

 

[[[Woody]]]

How do you make you animations...

 

[careful]

yah! yahtzee still got it!