I got caught up in the hype with Max Payne 3 and the narrator (ya know the guy who did the trailers for RDR and L.A Noire, swear that guy could sell me shit on a stick). Anyway I bought them without thinking and just wanted to see if they still stand up today? Also any tips or hints would be great.

@Sackmanjones: I am assuming you bought the PC version since you asking about xbox controller support? I would imagine that Max Payne 2 will still hold up somewhat and is very fun. The first game is unfortunately a little ugly now. Also if you are playing on Vista/windows 7 you will get some sound issues on the first game without a fix. Both games controlled fine with mouse and keyboard, I never felt I needed a gamepad for the games on PC. EDIT: Ah, I just reread the thread title. Now I feel dumb.

I played the second one around christmas and yeah it holds up pretty good. Shootings still satisfying beating some games even released nowadays. The first one Id say will be a bit rockier but should still be playable.

The first one is...rugged to say the least, but the second one should hold up fantastically. I can't remember how to sort out the sound problems for 2, though.

i played through one on PC, it works great with keyboard and mouse and since its pre XInput it probably doesnt support your control pad, checked on steam no mention of controller support.

Max Payne is best played with a mouse and a keyboard, you need that extra quick and twitchy aiming only a mouse provides, but either way they're 2001 and 2003 titles so they doesn't support controllers.  
 
Let me warm you up with this Max Payne 1 video I took from my gazillion-th playthrough this February 

I played them for the first time last year and they hold up pretty well. They look fine and the gameplay is okay. The best part is just how over-the-top overwrought and stylized the story/atmosphere is. Some amazingly good/bad writing in both of them (especially the first).

Max Payne is best played with a mouse and a keyboard, you need that extra quick and twitchy aiming only a mouse provides, but either way they're 2001 and 2003 titles so they doesn't support controllers.  
 
Let me warm you up with this Max Payne 1 video I took from my gazillion-th playthrough this February 

  
They hold up magnificently. What you need to do/know in order to enjoy them, however, is the following: 
1. They are no Uncharted. There are no checkpoints, you need to tap F5 to quicksave whenever you're in a good condition (low damage and a good number of painkillers). Expect to tap F9 to insta-quickload A LOT because a lot of the gunfights have surprising and unexpectedly difficult turn outs.   
The occasional hard save (Escape -> save) is also advised because even though you get two quick save slots, sometimes you screw yourself over with both of them.  
When you get used to the quick saving and quick loading, the game becomes no longer frustrating, but rather enjoyable. You will begin to challenge yourself by quickloading and thinking "Let's do that again but with ZERO DAMAGE this time!"
 
2.Be quick and vicious. There's no infinite health that gets distorted by a red screen after taking 50 bullets every few minutes, there's you and the other guy, and the one who shoots first and aims better wins. 
 
3. You can either shootdodge by holding W/A/S/D + left shift, which is a temporary slow-mo sail through the air so you can shoot better, or you can trigger slow motion by tapping the right mouse button while standing still. Use both of them.  
sometimes a shootdodge would expose you and get you killed whereas tapping right mouse button, running in, shooting the guy and then immediately tapping RMB again (conserve your bullet-time) is the better solution. 
 
Make sure to turn off the lights, put on your headphones, sit back in your chair and take the experience in. Both games are fantastic, I guarantee you will be taken on a bleak noire emotional rollercoaster of mind-bending level design, memorable Max Payne quotes, touching music and overall extremely explosive third person action.
After you play them, you can check out my Max Payne blogs, where I'm talking people through both games and showing all the underlying brilliance of the ingame TV shows, the references and so much more. 

I like that your asking AFTER you bought them.

I like that your asking AFTER you bought them.

@Demoskinos said:

I like that your asking AFTER you bought them.

This. Max Payne is all about the story and characters, despite having fun gameplay as well. Whether or not you like the games depends on whether or not you like the plot and characters.

@Sackmanjones: Congratz on the 2K! So how's the game so far?

They're fun to play and have an okay video game story, if that's what you mean. Obviously Max Payne 2 holds up better technically, being the former most recent release. It's impossible to even play Max Payne the First on a computer running a modern version of Windows without a 3rd party patch to fix the sound (unless the latest Steam release fixed that finally...)

MP2 holds up very well but MP1 looks a little rough and is a little too long and repetitive. The only hint I could think of is don't stop moving, if you stand still you die pretty quick. An amazing tip I know.

@Sackmanjones: There is a fix in this thread on the steam forums. I'd also recommend that if you have a widescreen monitor to enable GPU scaling in your graphics driver's control panel and play them on a 4:3 resolution so that they aren't stretched. These are the 2 greatest action games of their generation. If you think Max Payne is great then you will be glad to know the second one is even better.

MP1 doesn't really hold up under the light of 2012 but I played MP2 on the PC this year and it's crisp and still impresses. MP2 still feels like a modern-arse-modern game bar some scripting issues, MP1 looks and feels decidedly old by today's standards.

Yes. They are still awesome, one of the best uses of narration in video games. Open Steam and play them now!

they're awesome. if you can still play games like half-life without thinking "eww, ooold" then you should be fine.

@Sackmanjones: Hell yeah, they hold up. Play them. They're amazing games.

Max Payne 2 is fucking brilliant. even though I haven't finished it I really liked Remedy's goofy, ironic mixed with grim dark noir tone of the first Max Payne.

Also, obligatory:

Still awesome, still haunting.