willyleeks

@Oldirtybearon: I totally agree, I was kind of playing devil's advocate but it does fit the genre perfectly, and I enjoyed the game more for Max being a badass.

That said, I guess we're discussing it because the thread title was 'Max doesn't seem like such a bad guy'. Seems the conclusion we've reached is: this is hard-boiled, everyone's a bad a guy, and Max is just a little less bad than the rest.

@bearshamanbro said:

@Oldirtybearon: Oh, I'm not against attractive/idealized characters at all. I'm just saying that if you are combining a sexualized character and hyperrealistic violence, you are probably going to have a combination of elements that is fair game to some level of critique.

This.

It's all about context. No-one is saying rape is good. It doesn't need to be said. So the problem lies in why so much violence (and implied violence) against a woman is taking place. If it's to make the game 'gritty' or 'dark' or 'realistic', I'd suggest that those things could be achieved without it. You really don't have to have a woman get beaten up or raped to let your audience know she's tough, or is in a dangerous situation. Hence all the fuss about Lara's ordeals - what are we accomplishing by having her go through all of this in front of us?

The fact that she's attractive as well is not irrelevant; even though this is a reboot Lara has a history as a sex symbol, and that just doesn't sit well with all the violence.

@Oldirtybearon: That's fair, I agree that he pretty much gets pushed to the limit before he snaps and acts out of defence for the woman. Still, death his is solution for most problems - I understand that's his character, life has left him in the gutter, but it doesn't make him any more 'good'.

Also, everyone tries to kill Max first, which is a very important distinction. Max never raises a firearm except in self-defense throughout all of Max Payne 3.

This might be true but he definitely goes looking for trouble. It's all very well saying it's self-defence but by the end he actively wanders into scenarios he knows he's going to have to shoot his way out of.

It's definitely all about the free aim.

One piece of advice I'd give (and I think someone mentioned it further up this thread) is that bigger guns are not always better. I certainly had moments where a single handgun and a few well-placed headshots lead to a lot more progress than using an automatic rifle with a laser sight.

On that note, is it just me or does the laser sight make it really hard to aim? I found the recoil made it so tough to see where I was aiming with it - perhaps realistic but I was actively avoiding laser sight weapons by the last couple of chapters.

@Biohazardous: I totally agree that you could see it coming and that Max wasn't going to stand for it. But that's kind of my point, Max solves his problems and vents his frustrations with violence and murder. Max laments the loss of his wife and child, but that doesn't stop him killing other people's children.

In some circumstances he's in a tough spot and forced into violence, but in others he's dangerous because he's drunk and feels he has little to lose. Does he really need to shoot the New Jersey gangster's son in Chapter 4? Maybe a better man would've walked away and not shed all that blood.

I got to 1000 kills on my first playthrough, died a reasonable number of times but nothing crazy. It is a hell of a lot of people and maybe fewer enemies could've meant more shootdodging as the game reaches its conclusion, at the expense of some of the intensity.

Do you rest it on the 3DS stand to use it?

I found it tricky to decide - wound up going with Stormcloaks because they have sweet bearskin hats.