I just had the opportunity to play this now, and I have to say that it's up there with the best games of 2012. How come it didn't get more attention?

Also, it seems that there are a ton of people still playing online, so how come the GB people never talk about this?

Edit: Hopefully they'll remember MP3 in a couple of weeks.

Because they didn't like it.

They though there was many better games. It's fine for you to like it just as it is fine for Giantbomb staff not to.

It wasn't that great, plus too long.

I totally agree with you man, I think even if you don't like the story, this is the best TPS mechanically ever made. It's so impressive to me. Playing it through for my third time right now.

Hey to each their own though. I understand not everyone will like it but I think overall if you look at its rankings in the media that year it definitely got neglected. To me its one of the best games of the gen for sure and was my 2012 GOTY.

There were other games they felt strongly about. It is just an opinion after all. Except Frog Fractions which is objectively stupid.

@mosdl: Too long? Alright then. The game was great, the multiplayer was great and the gameplay improvements are fantastic.

I got it on release day, i was super pumped for it and it did not let me down.

It's a fantastic, HIGHLY underrated game. Well not critically i think it received glowing reviews everywhere. But DAMN is it a good game. Easily the best third person shooter I've ever played. Why it wasn't massively popular is beyond me. The single player is probably one of the best shooter campaigns i've played this generation. The multiplayer was fun and varied.

Wtf people? are there really people still playing online? last time i tried it was DEAD.

I thought it was fantastic, but it seems the GB crew didn't. I recall Vinny, Jeff and Brad saying they didn't finish it because they got bored, and it wasn't enough like the first two Max Payne games.

@skyfire543 said:

I kind of don't see any of them having finished any of the Max Payne games before, but maybe I'm wrong. Ryan was the only real series fan.

Those mechanics holy shit. Good to see those mechanics in gta v, hell of a game none the less

I also think its highly underrated. One of the best 3rd person shooters out there. It's also really pretty on pc, and one of the few games that actually starts to push my rig a little. I think a lot of people try to play it more Gears of War style than Max Payne.

Just because it has a cover system, doesn't make it a cover based shooter.

I liked Max Payne 3 and I would have gladly played through many more times for the sake of scores and to just mess around. However... not being able to skip cutscenes (on consoles least) kills it for me. It worked for a first playthrough, but when you just want to shoot people, the constant interruption of cutscenes definitely breaks the pace. It also makes attempting to snag high scores on the arcade modes incredibly unappealing.

@artisanbreads: I think they all finished the first one, at least. They talk about it on a podcast around the time Max Payne 3 came out. I guess Jeff, Brad and Vinny didn't like MP3 from mechanical and aesthetics standpoints, and judged it as an every-day Gears clone, rather than the disappointment Ryan seemed to have felt as a fan of the first two games who was expecting something more in-line with what those games did.

Whilst I enjoyed playing the game it did become a bit boring and almost chore-like to complete.

Personally, I don't find them fans that much, at least not to judge the series. That's cool and all, just saying. Kind of how I feel about 2 with this game as well. 2 is my second favorite game of all time and it was a big flop. If they didn't play that and like it not sure why they would like this either. And if they said it's a Gears clone, that about says it all. I hate to take the "you suck at games" or "you're not playing it right" defense but frankly I think it's right with a lot of Max Payne 3 criticism I see. I play the game on the hardest difficulty and practically never use cover, playing just like I played MP 2. And beyond that, the shooting, graphics, effects, Euphoria physics, the weapon handling system... it's all so amazing still.

Ryan still gave the game 4 stars. He liked it quite a bit, though it didn't end up on his GOTY list, so make of that what you will. He also gave AC 3 four stars too right? Yeah...

Anyway, as a person who loved the first two I still find it to be one of the best games I've played. I continue to be the Max Payne 3 cheeerleader of Giant Bomb and I'm fine with that. MORE MAX PAYNE 3 FOR ME.

Amen brother.

This I definitely agree with. The thing is the cutscenes hide the loads, which is cool, but that doesn't work with arcade, and then at that point whats the point of even having arcade to begin with.

Eventually they added a co-op wave based mode and that's what they should have had in the regular game instead.

This was one of the first times I'd ever actually enjoyed the shooting in a Rockstar game. While I haven't really gone back to it, I definitely enjoyed the story/campaign/single-player/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, and still think it had one of the better plots for action/TPS games.

Personally I liked this game more than anything else that year, it was a shame it got over-looked in more than one category.

It was okay. I got bored after a few hours though. I didn't think the story was that interesting either. Kind of predictable too.

Eh...

Max Payne 3 is a pretty good game but I don't feel like it's top ten material. There are too many cutscenes which really interrupt the flow of the game, for one. For two, the game sometimes gets a little frustrating because there's no visual cue to tell you that the tiny health bar in the bottom of your screen is almost out. I don't need (and don't want) red jam but some flashing in the corner would have been nice, especially since the health bar is kinda small anyway.

Apart from that, though, the story and writing are pretty damn good and the gunfights are generally very fun. Only Rockstar game I've ever completed and it was pretty well worth it. Just not quite up to the best of 2012, in my opinion.

@hunter5024: Frog Fractions is great.

I loved Max Payne 3. That being said, it was up against a lot of other really great games. It was on my top ten for sure though, one of the most fun multiplayer experiences I've had in a game in years. Makes me really excited for GTAV and its multiplayer component.

While I agree with this, the cutscenes were there to mask the game loading up the levels. Still, those are some long ass loading.

@e30bmw: It's alright. I was kidding though.

It's just not that great. The gameplay is fine. It doesn't feel exactly like a Max Payne game, but it's fine. The story is pretty lackluster however.

A good effort, but I'd much rather play through the older games than revisit Max Payne 3.

It's the best shooting/movement Rockstar has achieved with their engine so far. I've gone back and played it countless times, always Old School + free aim (yes, with a gamepad). Definitely some of the most satisfying gunplay and enemy feedback I've experienced in a TPS. The environments are stunningly detailed too, and you never leave an area the same way that you entered it once the bullets start flying. It's a shame most people probably played it like a cover shooter instead of letting their bullet time fill or using the infinite shootdodge.

I still don't think the multiplayer is very balanced or smooth enough to take seriously, but it's a good improvement over their past games for sure. Hopefully GTA V has even better controls.

It was a great game, felt like playing through what a revenge movie should be. Definitely NOT a max payne type of story though, but in all honesty it was better than any max payne story lol. Multiplayer was boring though, and it doesn't have much replay value besides the arcade mode.

It's a sleeper. Max Payne 3 is fantastic.

@hunter5024: Okay good haha. The moment that you figure out you can go down is pretty great.

I'm a Max Payne 3 fan (hell, fan of all three) I feel giving it to Rock Star colored the experience to the brutal, when Max Payne was really already there. I did not need Rock Star for that extra touch.

However, Rock Star in my opinion did stay truthful to the ethos and pathos of Max Payne..I recognized the character, no problem.

So yeah, count me in on the 'I liked Max Payne 3' very much-side.

HOT GARBAGE

with no Remedy, that why. I feel Ryan would of brought it up if it were a Remedy game At least.

For some reason I forced myself to play through the last half of the game in one day. I ended up finishing it at about 4 am. So I only attribute this game to self loathing and complete regret.

Other than that, I thought it was okay.

Goddamn I loved this game. I remember feeling absolutely exhausted and reacting just like Max did at one stage...I think it was near the end when one of the bad guys escapes and Max punches the wall shouting "Goddammit!"...pretty much punched my keyboard simultaneously because I just felt so physically drained...first and possibly last game to ever do that.

Because people have dumb opinions sometimes, especially Jeff. Who the hell could like the syndicate fps, but not like l4d? How could someone completely write off a game like rdr while only playing a few hours of it? Who could prioritize the new saints row over the last of us?

That being said, none of that shit fucking matters. Its all completely subjective and doesn't affect my opinion of him. Hell, I have so much respect for his opinion, even if it rarely lines up with mine. That's just a fact of life you have to get over for yourself.

I'm pretty sure Ryan would've argued in favor of it, but he knew it was a lost cause, so he just mentioned it and they moved on.

It was my favorite game of the year too . I agree, Jeff is very coincided. I enjoyed Syndicate very much but it was not better than Max Payne 3. Hell, as far as 3rd person shooters go, I'd say its better than any gears of war games

Ryan gave it 4 stars. And it was great, they did right by Remedy. I am a huge fan of Remedy, but even I can see your reasoning as total bullshit.

They did right by Remedy by not trying to ape something only Remedy could do. I love that they made Max their own thing. And they made a game that greatly improved how it played. Of course Remedy would have as well with a third game, but regardless I think Rockstar made the best playing TPS.

He was a huge fan of SR3, as I'm sure you know, so I think he just wants to get back to that crazy, over-the-top, fun universe. Also, but I may be wrong, I'm pretty sure that a lot of them didn't feel like playing The Last of Us because they didn't want a depressing game, for obvious reasons based on fairly recent events, and that may still be the case for Jeff.

I regret buying this.

And we haven't even talked about the music, THE MUSIC!

The dread of this song on the boat... you just know you are about to witness where everything went wrong.

Exactly. And holy shit, that ending was fucking PERFECT.

It really was. I love that they showed you the end at the beginning Tarintino style but for a lot of reasons it didn't matter... at some point you just knew all these complex plotting and dirty works just meant you were there to kill them all (and boy was the organ harvesting horrific), as Max says a "dime store angel of death". It was both a stranger in a strange land thing and to me was kind of a commentary on US involvement in foreign conflicts which I loved. Then off into the sunset, boozing, as it should be, because Max never has been anything more than a killer. He came to peace with it. Really curious to see if we get a 4.