Max Payne 3

[Art Blade]

 :(

[Fiach]

It's probably not his real name either  >:( >:D

I had similar issues with Dead Island on Steam, jumped through similar hoops as yourself, in the end I downloaded a pir(cough)....different version and it works perfectly, so its definately a Steam problem in my case, hence I dont use Steam anymore.

Sorry its being such a trial with you, I would hate to buy a really good game and through no fault of my own, not be able to play it, whats worse is Steam wont refund you unlike a high street shop which would.


* ....Fiach wanders off looking for a cat called Steam, so he can kick it....*

>:D

[JRD]

whats worse is Steam wont refund you unlike a high street shop which would.

I'm willing to take another game if I can choose one, there are plenty of games I'd like to have available there. I just want them to really try to solve the issue first and then, if nothing works, give me the choice... I just don't want to lose my cash! 

[Fiach]

I tried to get a refund for E.Y.E under the complaint that the game was so buggy (probably did a rant here at the time about it) it was "not fit for purpose" a legitimate cause for return of goods here in Ireland, they wouldnt entertain it.

From what I could gather, the only refunds they will allow (unless under extreme circumstances.... dunno what that means as I didnt pursue it on the grounds that I cba...) is a refund of a deposit for a pre ordered game.

Hopefully they will look after you better than they did for me. :(

[JRD]

It's finally running!  8)

Not without a fight though! I've deleted all content and downloaded the game again. As my GPU is brand new I was sure my driver was up to date. Turns out it wasn't and that seems to be what was causing my problems. I was a bit uncertain if I should download and install the new driver because it created some problems last time I did it... brand new drivers, five years old hardware! Even the driver gave me some problems... after downloading it I just couldn''t run it... a stupid error trying to unzip the file but it wasn't a zipped file, just a simple .exe!  :D

Redownload and try again... second time around it worked!  :)

So let's go to my very first impressions!

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Installation gave no options of language so it is portuguese. Period... I hate that, I like to choose the original language. Same for subtitles, they are always there, didn't find a way to disable it yet... annoying but no game breaker!

Graphics are set to max, DX11 on and it runs smoothly...  8)

The game looks very nice with very detailed textures, light and shadows. Movement is very fluid and the elements of the last game such as bullet time are still there!  :-X

Yes, that's Max Payne all right! Sour, bitter, tormented... same voice acting (or someone with the same voice), same atmosphere, same feeling!

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You start out as the "old" Max from other games... same appearance I mean, unshaved, hangover face, grey suit, but I know from videos he won't stay like that for too long, which is nice because it means you are going to see the character's change for a new game!  :-X

Max is now living in São Paulo (where I was born and lived for 20 years  >:D ) working as a body guard for a big shot named Rodrigo Branco and his wife Fabiana. The game starts at a party in a penthouse overlooking the city.

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Things doesn't take long to go bad... some masked guys break into the party and kidnap Fabiana. You then start a tutorial part once you start chasing the bad guys. Basic movements like shooting, dodging and hiding behind cover. This is where MP3 shines... if you right click you go into Bullet Time meaning everything go into slow motion but you can still aim and shoot freely giving you time to land precise heeadshots in a great cinematic effect. Your crosshair is just a tiny white dot in the center of the screen so it never ruins the immersion and is very easy to aim in bullet time. Still in slo-mo, if you move forward and jump, Max will perform a dive forward to dodge bullets and still shoot foes making it a perfect set for a shooter!  >:D >:D

Pess Q and Max will hide behing cover from where he can aim and shoot... just like in GTA IV (both Rockstar games  ;) )

Mouse wheel cicles through your available weapons. You can have three weapons at a time but there are four slots in the weapons circle. You can have two different pistols and a heavy weapon like a shotgun or a rifle. You can fire one pistol at a time or choose dual weild. Once you shoot the last guy a shoot camera shows you the trajectory of the bullet till it hits the target also in slo mo... which can be quite annoying after a while... didn't find where to disable it so far.

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As in other Max Payne games, the story is very linear and there is no open world, which is a shame given how well Rockstar can do open world but as a fan of Max Payne I wouldn't let something like this interfere  8)

Barely played 15 minutes. I just wanted to make sure it is running now. Will have some time gaming this weekend and post more impressions!

[Fiach]

Glad you got it sorted. the lack of language choice would certainly give me a wtf moment though :)

Here's a game you should check out, I always associated the MP3 dev cycle as it unfolded to remind me of Boiling Point :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_Point:_Road_to_Hell

[Binnatics]

I think the lack of language options is a steam issue. They seem to choose for you what you want 

Funny it was the driver in the end. I remember I always found out that the driver given with the vid-card I purchased was heavily outdated. Glad you found the issue. I first thought it might be DX11; "Ohh no"I thought, "yet another game that can't bring up a proper DX11 config that works".

I;m seriously considering buying the game, but maybe a little later. Atm I want to save time for BL2.  ;)

[PZ]

Great review JRD!  :-X

[Art Blade]

steam always offers me English language versions because my windows is set up in English.

[Jim di Griz]

I seem to recall reading that Steam offers only the language of your area, as Binn says - so that'd be correct Art; if your machine is set to English, it will detect that and you're off and playing in that language.

I'm not sure the MP is my kind of game but I enjoyed reading the review - thanks JRD. How was the representation of São Paulo? I love it when games 'visit' places you know.

[fragger]

Thanks for your impressions of the game thus far, JRD :-X Glad you got it up and running!

Great looking game, going by those screenies. Max looks good. Boy, that's a lived-in face :-D

[JRD]

I seem to recall reading that Steam offers only the language of your area, as Binn says - so that'd be correct Art; if your machine is set to English, it will detect that and you're off and playing in that language.

I don't think this is correct... my machine is set in Portuguese and I have STEAM games set in English like GTA IV which is also a Rockstar game! Batman Arkham City is set in Portuguese... again, I had no choice whatsoever ????

Maybe some STEAM games (or games that require an internet activation prior to install), and I can't see any pattern here, will choose your language (provided it was developed with multi languages) depending on your IP, and not on your operational system language, whereas others will install in English regardless of your location!

How was the representation of São Paulo? I love it when games 'visit' places you know.

You play indoors most of the time so there's not much sightseeing!  ;D

In one level you get to land on a helipad on the top of a building and this is what you see

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Which I can say is pretty much what São Paulo looks like at night and from above. A huge concrete jungle on a relatively flat plain. Couldn't see any landmark yet. In one level you get to meet officers from the local police force and their uniform is just like the ones you see in the streets. Signs are written in Portugues just like it should be and the local characters speak in a perfect (so far) Portuguese with São Paulo accent, including cursing and swearing  ;D (voice acting is quite poor though  :-( )

Let's see what the game will show in the next chapters

@fragger... the graphics are very good indeed. Light and textures are excellent just like I was expecting to see. Movement is fluid and natural but some textures are not good. Women''s hair looks like stiff plastic even in cutscenes.

[Art Blade]

JRD, I'm not sure whether or not there are many games with Portuguese voice acting and/or translation of any written content. I reckon that if you get a game that is available in Portuguese, you will get that one, in case there isn't any translated version, you'll probably get the English one. For some reason, all the games I've ever played were available in German yet I do get every steam version in English.

[JRD]

So it may be due to OS language setting after all... all my games, except Flight Simulator X, are STEAM games and some install in Portuguese.  ????

I just whish I could choose though!  :-(

Voice acting in Max Payne features Portuguese simply because it takes place in Brazil and only a few characters speak Portuguese, namely the bad guys and some side characters. Even the main Brazilian characters (the ones Max is protecting) speak English with very good accent but I still can tell they are voiced by Brazilians when they mention some places or Portuguese words.

[Art Blade]

I bought hitman:bloodmoney in Spain knowing it was a Spanish dubbed version without any connection to steam. The voice acting was cool (I have a few more games with Spanish voice acting, they're cool, too). Most of the games I have either already were set to English or had an option to choose English. The (very) few that I played with German dubbing were so abysmal that I try to avoid German voice acting at all costs. By the way, same goes for 99% of German actors and films. I can almost see them read their texts to the audience rather than make believe they were actually living the story. I reckon Germany produces the utmost WORST voice actors (and actors) on this planet. The very few who actually are rather good usually make it to Hollywood and of course speak English there. I reckon Portuguese (voice) actors are worthwhile so you don't have to worry as much as I have to when getting a game set in our respective native language  ^-^

[Fiach]

Oh, I dunno Art, I seem to remember that Rutger Hauer made a good Guinness advert once :)

Guinness Ad featuring Rutger Hauer

[Art Blade]

Well, he isn't speaking German there, is he  :-()

I meant, watch a German film in German and you will want to have a barf bag at hand  :-()

[ninzza]

Generally I don't like TPS but I might get this game. Gunplay looks exciting. I like the animations, they're not canned and very realistic.  :-X

[JRD]

Ok, a few more screenies

That games takes place in Brazil all right  ;D

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Malaria pills Max?  ????

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Nice facial details. If you've played the previous games you remember and youger Max who looks much deteriorated now after years of alcohol and prescribed drugs abuse!  >:D

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When you shoot the last enemy of a wave you get the camera view which is a cinematic view of the bullets hitting the target. When you fire a sniper rifle it goes to the bullet itself in a nice looking sl-mo action scene. There's a chapter you play in a football stadium and you end up on aa higher ground having to protect your buddy on the pother side of the stadium from inbound enemies!  8)

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[Art Blade]

funny, you left this topic at a point of the game which I have just reached. I too saw that bullet from my sniper rifle :)

OK, so Binnatics and I acquired the game during the current steam summer sale (thanks again for your help there, Binnatics :) ) and I got a head start.

I decided to start the game right away on the highest available difficulty (after a playthrough on hard you'll unlock two more difficulty levels) and that means it reduces the bullet cam time a lot and, frankly, your life span, too. The game seems to be mostly an action film full of at times rather lengthy cutscenes which will seamlessly put the player back into the game.
  I sometimes didn't realise the transition and the cutscene ended with my death.  ??? After a while you'll get used to dying after cutscenes, though. :D :-D Which means, you either keep tapping your keys to find out whether you're back in or you just sit back and wait for your death so you can restart from that "checkpoint."
  The game tells you that on hard difficulty precise aiming is essential and perfect timing for the bullet cam time vital. In other words, you'll get to see yourself killed a lot, almost as if it was more times than you get to see others getting killed by you. So I spent quite a bit of time getting my keys mapped and mouse buttons assigned properly so I'd survive a tad longer.

There are golden weapon parts to be collected and clues to be found and occasionally some life-extending pills to be collected but.. you're in a rush most of the times. No leisurely loitering and casually exploring your environment, linear as it is, it is basically one massive extended timed event. At least the game remembers that you found something even after a checkpoint restart which means you don't have to try find stuff again once you've got it. Which speeds things up a bit after yet another death.

The AI is aiming freaking precisely on hard difficulty and you'll get to see your last moment in a pic with a bullet in your face or forehead.. they even know what to aim for in order to get proper results. Or they randomly hit your nut because it was the only thing sticking out behind cover. You'll never know.

The story sometimes reminded me a little of FC3. For example, there too are rich kids that go out clubbing (only they're having someone fly them to the club with a helicopter) and they get abducted by rather bad guys. Particularly the scene in the club and all that pretty much reminded me of FC3. But FC3 at least had open world between missions while in MP3 you don't have anything between missions which renders it a very linear timed event type of game. A shame, really. With more freedom and less "you need to get to the next checkpoint NOW" it might have been a really nice game.

It is my first Max Payne game so I can't compare it with previous Max Payne titles but the bullet time or bullet cam is nothing new to me, many games feature it and I suspect it's all copycat but Sniper Elite V2 probably does it even better than any other game before it. The need to take power-ups (pills for health) is a bit quaint, too. Nowadays you just heal after some moments without getting shot at.

The graphics are.. not as good as I expected. And I have a high-end card that allows me to play with everything payned out. Excuse me, everything maxed out. :-D It looks a bit.. like a comic. Almost as if stuff had either an outline or the shadows were too hard, can't exactly tell, but it's not natural. Okay, it's got plenty of nicely designed rooms you walk around in but overall, a bit clumsy. Same for facial expressions and body motion, I've seen games which were a lot better at that.

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However. The story is interesting so far, the cutscenes are keeping me from getting too frustrated over dying every other minute and my favourite is "shootdodge" -- a slow motion cam you get to see when you start to move and press another key for that jump shoot cam. Basically like bullet time, you float in mid-jump and take your aim and kill the punks in your sight with relative ease. Moving around works well, I didn't curse any wobbly or clumsy programming which I am glad I don't have to, that would be the sudden demise of this game. As long as I think I am at least in control of the movement and aiming I think of the game as a challenge on hard difficulty and so far I am not completely disappointed  :-D Just wish I had more time walking around, bloody hell, why do they make me rush all the time.

[Art Blade]

On a second note, the game itself is OK, don't get me wrong, the graphics are OK, too (I am just a bit spoiled by L.A. Noire by the same publisher) but I'll show you what really gets on my nerves:
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That is the final stage of different scenes that come whirling around randomly, just another random cutscene in the middle of the action on your screen and sort themselves out in various arrangements. This time three scenes stacked and there are different combinations and positions of those scenes on your screen. During those scenes you get to see in written some random parts of Max's spoken thoughts plastered on your screen, every word slapped there one after another or one letter after another.

Also, note the "quality" of that image. It looks like an old-fashioned TV image when you're almost touching it with your nose. Here the same style, part of a cutscene -- note the guy in the lower right scene. His index finger isn't even touching the trigger and his victim's hair looks like some slabs made of banana peels. (so much for not so good graphics)
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Here, this isn't crappy graphics, they wanted it to be that way. It tunes in and out.. makes you want to slap the monitor to reset the screen >:D Please click on the pic to get it zoomed and check the outlines of those two guys -- fine purple and blue outlines, almost as if looking at a 3D-image without a matching set of 3D-glasses.  .. gah ???
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And you do get cutscenes that show some ghost images, randomly flickering around. Probably thought to be some sort of modern art, maybe pop art of sorts, but really.. it is always ripping me out of my immersion when I just got it.
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If you consider the giant download size, 30GB, it's most likely rendered cutscenes that use up most of that disk space. When Rockstar produced L.A. Noire they made another film-like game but man, by orders of magnitude better than this one especially regarding game play and motion capturing including outstanding moving facial expressions. Oh well. :)

[Art Blade]

Now the graphics start to get better, occasionally. A few of the views were quite impressive.

After some chase on water.
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Heh, probably the first game I got to get a new hair cut.
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Favela impressions
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[PZ]

Those last few remind me of Uncharted  :-X

[fragger]

Thanks for your impressions and pics Art :) Dunno if it's my kind of game, I hate to be rushed :-() Besides, I'd be waiting for about a month for a 30GB game to download :-\\ :D

I see what you mean about the odd outlines around those two guys, it does look a bit like a 3D image without the glasses.

[Art Blade]

I'm quite a bit into the game now.

Enemies keep spawning in the exact same locations when you start over from a checkpoint but after that they may go about at random, mainly trying to get you once they know you're there. So it is a very scripted and linear and corridor-like game and eventually you'll get into one of those situations that resemble those of FC3's Hoyt knife fight or getting out of a tiger's hug by pressing some keys popping up on your screen.

Most of the time it's just: get in, oh, there are enemies shooting at me, kill them, oh, there's more enemies because I reached a trigger position, kill them, all the time following a maze of corridors or rooms or whatever obstacles. Stupid: You don't always know what the next level entrance is. Usually behind a door of sorts. But there are other rooms, too.

Happened to me: There was a room to my left which I could definitely enter and a door in front of me that I was also able to use, and I did use it.. camera switches towards a cutscene position and on its way I see a collectible (golden weapon part) in the room I just described but also I see the door I used slam closed behind me.. cutscene, new checkpoint reached. No way of getting back. Have to get that collectible on a next playthrough.  :D (just edited: after the game you can get to any specific chapter AND any specific checkpoint within that chapter and then take a look so you may collect and find stuff you missed out on before)

BUT

the story is really intriguing and keeps me going. Also, the game takes me places. I went through an office building, another office building which later caught on fire (reminds me of FC3's burning hotel), fought off pursuing enemies from a speed boat which were either in boats themselves or in cars on roads by the water. I fought my way in, through, and out of a Brazilian favela (most of the time it is In, Through, and Out of something), a cemetery, rooftops, a bus station, a really massive 5-billion-dollar yacht with loads of rooms and decks, a police station, a hotel under construction, a football stadium.. Brazil, USA, Panamá, you name it, it's probably in the mix.

The story is what keeps me going, that story is really inspiring. :)

Here.. how much I'd have liked to walk around there, free roam.. but no, it's just another cutscene.
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