I was a die-hard fan of the first two, so when 3 was announced all the changes were pouring in (namely, the shift from graphic novel cutscenes to in-engine ones) I was stressing out that I'd hate it. Instead, I totally loved it as a reinvention of Max Payne. I was kind of weirded out by the overpresence of Portuguese sans subtitles, but that's actually what I've wanted to see in media for a long time - a movie/game made for mutlilingual people. I don't know Portuguese, but had it been two languages I did know it would have been a very immersive experience. Or (thinking out loud) would it be diffferent, since I'd know what they're talking about and Max doesn't?

Anyway, the game was fantastic. You could say it was "dumbed down" for limiting your weapon choice, but it makes mores sense in a noir story than the one-man-army Max's arsenal was in the past. I was bummed there was no reference to Mona; I was hoping there'd at the very least be a reference to a past relationship they tried to make work, but ultimately failed.

I don't know if I'd nominate it for GOTY, I have to go back and try it again, but it definitely makes the top 10.

I'll just repost something I wrote a while ago because its still the most bad ass moment I've had in a game since ME2. Also the beginning of the yacht level is ridiculously good. The heart pounding music, the guys yelling in spanish, clearing out rooms, slowly making their way towards you. I've played that level at least a dozen times just because of that opening.

"Its the best "feeling" shooter this year and the minute-to-minute gameplay is superb. Its the best use of Bullet Time since Max Payne 2 and helps create moments that leave you feeling like the biggest badass in the world.

For example, last night I was playing through the last level on the second to hardest difficulty (during THE signature moment of the game, actually) running towards a gate on a catwalk. The gate opens, out pop 4 or 5 guys on the level below me and two guys on the same level as me. I immediately turn my attention to the guys on my level. A couple of bursts to their upper body and they're down. I take aim at one going up some stairs and just manage to take him out before the magazine is empty. I retreat back into cover and reload when suddenly a grenade plops down right beside me. I instinctively start slo-mo diving off the catwalk. As dozens of bullets wizz by I take aim at two guys near the stairs. Burst, down, burst, down.

Grenade goes off behind me and a bright orange flash fills the screen. Health is down to just a sliver.

At this point I know I either kill the remaining guys through the final 3 seconds of this fall, or I'm dead. I turn my cross hair to my right only to find the final two guys are hidden by a section of the catwalk. After the longest half-second ever, I spot one of the guys legs and start unloading. I make it to his midsection before he falls. I take aim at the final guy and pull the trigger. Hit the ground, fire one shot. Bullet cam kicks in as it lodges itself in that dudes brain.

I stand up, feeling like the King of the World."

I love this damn game.

I know a lot of people really rated the game at the time. But I feel like, by the time the GOTY discussion rolled round, I wasn't at all surprised that the GB guys weren't discussing this amongst their top 10 games of the year. Ryan, in particular, had talked about the things that he liked in the game but that he also found frustrating. I think if you could find all the Bombcasts in which they discuss MP3, you'd have a clear idea of why it didn't get a GOTY nod.

For what it's worth, I think I bought about three new games last year. And, after kind of being bullied into it by my online chum Sunflower, this was one of them. There were aspects of the game that blew my mind and I absolutely loved (graphics, music, characterisation, tone), but there were also parts that I found teeth-grindingly frustrating (someone else has talked about the design of some of the gunfights being poor and killing the pace of the game). If you've got time to spare to listen to a self-obsessed Brit think that their opinions matter, I even did a little video blog of my experience with the game as I was playing it...

Really? I'd have thought someone would have modded around that by now or something. That's a shame. On the off-chance that I would ever be in possession of a decent PC, I've always thought of then buying Max Payne 3 on there since I assumed the mandatory cutscenes were related to the console limitations =/

OK, I'm going to hop back in and try not really aiming down the sights unless I really have to and utilizing regular bullet time more often. That's probably a major malfunction of mine in that I rarely am in bullet time unless I'm diving somewhere. I can't remember if I used regular bullet time much in MP1+2, but with the Euphoria engine I keep slamming Max into walls and stuff then getting 3/4 of my health sapped away while I'm struggling to get Max unstuck from a counter or something.

If I can get this gameplay to click with me I'd gladly replay the game on medium just due to the atmosphere, unlike some other series veterans I am a HUGE fan of the Man on Fire interpolating going on throughout. Of all the movies Rockstar could crib from for a game, that's one of the ones I'd least expect and most inspired choices.

THIS. I wanted to go through and get the collectibles after I beat the game, and man, that was the literal worst. It took a couple of hours longer to get through that game than it should've, just because I was forced to watch 90% of the cutscenes again. Also, the fact that they made the black and white mode in Arcade mode only was just dumb. Super, super dumb. Made it worthless to me.

That aside, the game was okay. The story was alright, but I didn't like some of the changes they made to it, especially their retroactive treatment of the Mona storyline. Plus, I felt the antagonist was pretty weak in the end, and probably the worst out of the three main villains for each game(though Horne was sketchy). I also was not a fan of it being FAR more cover based than the other games, and how diving basically became a suicide warrant unless you were amazing at it. Finally, I didn't like the lack of quasi-supernatural stuff, and how everything just turned into Man on Fire instead. It just didn't really feel that much like a Max Payne game(though the comic helped a bit). But yeah, in all, it was fine, but just not really standout.