I'm looking to buy this game, and will probably get it on the 360, but I was wondering what about this game demands a 2 disc release.

They intentionally want to inconvenience you

No idea. I don't know how they can fit a game like RDR which looks fantastic, is long as hell, and has tons of cutscenes, voice acting, mo-cap, etc PLUS multiplayer on one disc, and then release a more linear game like MP3 on two discs. I don't get it. Especially after the 360 discs just got a 1GB increase in usable size.

Disc swapping is a non-issue, it's just curious to think about how they couldn't fit it into one disc.

at least you won't have to download 35gb's on steam.

They intentionally want to inconvenience you

Cutscenes, maybe. Uncompressed audio, less likely.

@xyzygy said:

No idea. I don't know how they can fit a game like RDR which looks fantastic, is long as hell, and has tons of cutscenes, voice acting, mo-cap, etc PLUS multiplayer on one disc, and then release a more linear game like MP3 on two discs. I don't get it. Especially after the 360 discs just got a 1GB increase in usable size.

Disc swapping is a non-issue, it's just curious to think about how they couldn't fit it into one disc.

Exactly this, and I don't care if I have to swap discs, it just strikes me as weird.

Textures is probably a good deal of it.

RDR was a huge game, but the texture variety was probably less than that in MP3.

But that's totally conjecture from an uninformed observer.

Wow, that means Redbox won't stock the 360 version.. Hope they offer it on PS3

@TinyGallon: No they have it they are just renting out the first disc... which seems kinda useless....

@captain_clayman said:

at least you won't have to download 35gb's on steam.

Wait, seriously? No.. you.. haha, you got me.

@mlarrabee: I would totally agree, this game is surprisingly detailed.

Because there is a lot of audio dialog that Max spits out randomly during the game.  There is also a ton of cut scenes in the game and they are long.... very long at times.

@sins_of_mosin said:

Because there is a lot of audio dialog that Max spits out randomly during the game. There is also a ton of cut scenes in the game and they are long.... very long at times.

Damn, that's ridiculous. How does that even work? Are you playing the game and a screen says "Max wants to say a one-liner. Insert disc 2 to hear what it is!"

Better they stick it on two discs than compromise the game otherwise because of the ancient disc format.

@AndrewB said:

Better they stick it on two discs than compromise the game otherwise because of the ancient disc format.

pretty much.

does anyone know whether or not mp3 has performance issues on ps3? I'm kind of curious now

Well, texture detail, audio and animation will certainly add up but don't forget that the game also has a load of physics, AI routines and real time bullet rendering.

@Demoskinos said:

@TinyGallon: No they have it they are just renting out the first disc... which seems kinda useless....

Wow, just read that on the Redbox site.. What in the hell are they thinking?? Why even bother renting out HALF of the game. Seems like that would only serve to piss people off

via Redbox site: ONLY DISC 1 AVAILABLE. DISC 1 INCLUDES THE FIRST HALF OF SINGLE PLAYER GAME AND THE MULTIPLAYER PORTION OF THE GAME.

@murisan said:

@captain_clayman said:

at least you won't have to download 35gb's on steam.

Wait, seriously? No.. you.. haha, you got me.

thats what hard drive space it requires. but that won't be the size of the download of course.

It's big.

It's not length of game, it's number of assets.

The complete lack of understanding of some of the stuff behind video games is really surprising sometimes.

Because you're parents don't love each other anymore.

It can't be as bad during the PS One era. I remembering playing Fear Effect and it came with four discs. The problem was that swapping discs were not in sequential order. Start with disc one the switch disc three. Insert disc two and then four. It would suck if you had borrowed the game from a friend or rented it. I just imagine PC gamers laughing their asses off at the inconvenience of just swapping two discs.

@TooWalrus said:

It's big.

I think we're done here.

@sins_of_mosin said:

Because there is a lot of audio dialog that Max spits out randomly during the game. There is also a ton of cut scenes in the game and they are long.... very long at times.

Damn, that's ridiculous. How does that even work? Are you playing the game and a screen says "Max wants to say a one-liner. Insert disc 2 to hear what it is!"

@TooWalrus said:

It's big.

Incase the words this man of literal depth are too complex for you then you should know that The Witcher 2 takes up over 15GBs of space and if you didn't already know... One disc holds a maximum of (approx) 7.5GBs so do the math son. Nothing else needs explaining here...

Why was Dead Space 2 a two-disc game? It was because of high rez and uncompressed textures, massive audio files, full in-game cutscenes, etc etc. They didn't want the game to lose any luster in translation from that disc to your screen.

From what I've seen of Max Payne 3, it's very much the same way.

@jakob187 said:

Why was Dead Space 2 a two-disc game? It was because of high rez and uncompressed textures, massive audio files, full in-game cutscenes, etc etc. They didn't want the game to lose any luster in translation from that disc to your screen.

From what I've seen of Max Payne 3, it's very much the same way.

This is essentially the proper reasoning, though it would have been nice to see multiplayer on both discs as you did with Dead Space 2.

Can I also posit that the game might not be the efficiently coded game in the world? I mean, that team is simply trying to get Max Payne 3 out the door at this point, especially if the GTAV in 2012 rumors hold true. That's not a criticism, as it's something the player will never see, but it is possible.

Because it can't fit on one disc. It isn't rocket science.

it's because one disc has max's hair on it and the other doesn't. it takes up all the space.

@captain_clayman said:

at least you won't have to download 35gb's on steam.

I wont either, because I'm buy the game PC retail.

Yup.

@AndrewB said:

Better they stick it on two discs than compromise the game otherwise because of the ancient disc format.

pretty much.

does anyone know whether or not mp3 has performance issues on ps3? I'm kind of curious now

@Demoskinos said:

@TinyGallon: No they have it they are just renting out the first disc... which seems kinda useless....

Wow, just read that on the Redbox site.. What in the hell are they thinking?? Why even bother renting out HALF of the game. Seems like that would only serve to piss people off

via Redbox site: ONLY DISC 1 AVAILABLE. DISC 1 INCLUDES THE FIRST HALF OF SINGLE PLAYER GAME AND THE MULTIPLAYER PORTION OF THE GAME.

Why do people care about swapping discs a few times in any game that's longer than say five hours?

So Redbox can let you rent one half of the singleplayer. Shame on me, shoulda done my research. I figured disc 2 was multiplayer.

ME SO WRONG.

@RollingZeppelin: :( Uh.. well.. at least I got to try out the mechanics?

@Zleunamme: wait are you sure? damn that's messed up. I played through that 2-3 times for endings etc.

such a shame it doesn't hold up control-wise today.

@Zleunamme said:

I just imagine PC gamers laughing their asses off at the inconvenience of just swapping two discs.

@SarjuTheRapper: Not that I've noticed. Runs really well for me.

Because the scope and asset quality of games has improved over the course of the generation that we are nearing the end of, did you really not understand or were you just making a point...

@RollingZeppelin said:

@TinyGallon

@Demoskinos said:

@TinyGallon: No they have it they are just renting out the first disc... which seems kinda useless....

Wow, just read that on the Redbox site.. What in the hell are they thinking?? Why even bother renting out HALF of the game. Seems like that would only serve to piss people off

via Redbox site: ONLY DISC 1 AVAILABLE. DISC 1 INCLUDES THE FIRST HALF OF SINGLE PLAYER GAME AND THE MULTIPLAYER PORTION OF THE GAME.

Wow, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Who the hell would waste their money renting that?

People that just wanna play multiplayer?