@GetEveryone said:

@Brodehouse said:

Yeah hasn't appeared to blow the doors off like they've done traditionally.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/max-payne

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/max-payne-2-the-fall-of-max-payne

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/max-payne-3

It's the best received out of the entire series (though, that statistic is based on fewer reviews).

No. Max Payne hasn't appeared to blow the doors off like Rockstar have done the last few years. Comparing it to Red Dead and LA Noire, not Remedy's previous entries.

@GetEveryone said:

@Brodehouse said:

Yeah hasn't appeared to blow the doors off like they've done traditionally.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/max-payne

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/max-payne-2-the-fall-of-max-payne

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/max-payne-3

It's the best received out of the entire series (though, that statistic is based on fewer reviews).

Actually the user scores have it as the worst, but I don't pay them much mind, and I'll explain why. Once you start reading through the negative ones, and I have pored over MANY of them, they all have the same theme. The ones that dislike it are primarily hating the scripted nature of the game, and not just the unskippable cutscenes. They make it clear they cannot stand being thrust into the fray at the start of a battle.

Some even imply you can't get creative with how you fight the battles or easily switch weapons. Clearly these people can't adapt to a Max Payne game that forces you to think on your feet more than the previous ones did, and it's not like you don't have the tools to do it. If anything that's what gives this game more replay value than it's predecessors. I've played through and beaten all difficulty levels and it felt different each time not just due to hardness, but the varied tactics I used.

Now of course many of them complaining about the gameplay also comment on their distaste for the unskippable cutscenes and the styling of the screen effects, dialog and protagonist himself. I get the feeling if these people actually had a clue how to adapt to a more challenging game though, the average user score would be much higher. It's said that games are slipping in quality. Sometimes it's more the case that players slipping in their abilities insist it's the game's flaws rather than their own.

Who the fuck release the same date as D3? Oh, right. Good going!

Well I wouldn't say it's a flop just because it sold less than LA Noire initially. Just under 500,000 for the US alone, for a few weeks and not counting digital sales, some of the bigger US chains or PC sales doesn't really mean much for the short term. Sales will be more interesting in the long term. Rockstar aren't stupid, I'm going to guess they knew they won't get GTA/Red Dead Redemption sales from this game.

If anything I think MP3 will have longer legs and the more good word that spreads about it the better it'll do in the long run. LA Noire had a lot of people fooled, including myself, before it came out and I'm just gonna have a guess that a lot of its sales were front loaded. Noone I know personally who played it liked it. I absolutely hated it and felt conned out of my money. I won't go into a rant here or anything but it's one of my most hated games in years. If anyone enjoyed it then fair play to you but, yeah, not a fan.

In general I think I tend to be more of a fan of Rockstars more fringe titles. I adore games like The Warriors, Manhunt, Bully and Max Payne 3 a lot more than GTA or Red Dead Redemption (though I do enjoy those games too, well maybe not GTA IV so much)

If that's true...man. That's a pretty severe drop. And considering how that game looks and how long it's been in development, I bet it cost some money. Yikes. Well, at least the story has a conclusion if they don't get to do MP4 or whatever.

What a shame. That game is great and totally deserves to do well, it's clear alot of care went into making it.

@squirrelnacho said:

This is a Rockstar game, and it's not as good as the Remedy ones.

Not only is this subjective, it's mostly irrelevant to the topic at hand (sales numbers). The last Max Payne game Remedy made was a commercial dud.

'Twas just too little too late. A sequel to a sequel that not many people played almost a decade ago, from a developer whose fanbase is mostly fixated on their open world offerings, launching against Diablo III = not an ideal situation.

@Frag_Maniac: It's very clear that Remedy did not have a major impact on development. If you've played multiple Rockstar games, and multiple Remedy games, you can clearly see this is a Rockstar style game. Remedy has already said they would have made different choices.

@Fjordson There are multiple posters deviating from the topic, and that's fine. Max Payne 2 was better received.

In a way, this means MP3 really was Max's swan song, and I'm happy about that. No Max Payne 4 or 5 since 2 and 3 didn't do well financially. So no Payne milking in the future. I like that!  
 
@Fjordson said:

'Twas just too little too late. A sequel to a sequel that not many people played almost a decade ago, from a developer whose fanbase is mostly fixated on their open world offerings, launching against Diablo III = not an ideal situation.

@squirrelnacho said:

It's very clear that Remedy did not have a major impact on development. If you've played multiple Rockstar games, and multiple Remedy games, you can clearly see this is a Rockstar style game. Remedy has already said they would have made different choices.

Of course I've played a lot of Rockstar games and the Remedy made Max Paynes as well as Alan Wake. Funny how people put cinematics and thrusting the player into an ambush off on Rockstar when Remedy does that exact same thing in Alan Wake. Funny too how you claim they would have made different choices without any examples after I clearly showed they whole heartedly approved of the game. Seems to me if they liked the final product as much as they indicated in the interview I linked to, the differences you claim they wanted would have been trivial by comparison, otherwise they'd not have liked it so much now would they?

@Frag_Maniac: Simply putting cinematics into games is not what defines studios, and that is not what people are talking about. Remedy has already said in an interview that while they make like the game, they would have made different choices. The two are not mutually exclusive. If you can't tell that Max Payne 3 has a very different tone and style than the first two games, then you should the review or watch the quicklook on this site.

@squirrelnacho said:

@Fjordson There are multiple posters deviating from the topic, and that's fine. Max Payne 2 was better received.

Not saying you can't deviate, I don't want to come across as a backseat mod or anything, it just seems like such a tired subject at this point. Remedy washed their hands of Max Payne years ago.

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Word

@AhmadMetallic said:

@2HeadedNinja said:

Well, I bought it, not my fault.

Not your "fault"? There's no fault here, I bought it as well but I'm glad Rockstar bombed, because they fucked me with LA Noire last year, they deserve it.

You didn't like their previous game so you're happy this other game of theirs is doing worse?

@squirrelnacho said:

Simply putting cinematics into games is not what defines studios, and that is not what people are talking about. Remedy has already said in an interview that while they make like the game, they would have made different choices. The two are not mutually exclusive. If you can't tell that Max Payne 3 has a very different tone and style than the first two games, then you should the review or watch the quicklook on this site.

Yeah and simply repeating "they would have made different choices" is pretty vague and says nothing about the type of difference or the level of difference. Obviously this one is a clearly different style than the previous two, anyone can see that. The reason I gave the cinematic styling as an example is because that is clearly one of the most striking differences, which also ties into the action movie dialog, flashy effects, and even the cover system, which is more real life than constantly bullet dodging.

If anything this installment takes the original John Woo inspired theme and extrapolates on it. The problem is, Max Payne has always had the dichotomy of a noir novel vs an action movie. It's bullet time slo mo is inspired by movies like Matrix, but it's story telling takes a novel approach. This one ties the two together in a more seamless fashion. While the dialog may be less mature and more trashy, it also fits the over the top action movie inspired combat better.

I get that a lot of people fell in love with the very noir feeling script of Max 1&2, but honestly, MacCaffrey's voicing of it felt forced, as if you could see him reading the lines vs feeling them. I also honestly don't get why so many were put off by the new dialog and strikingly different way of conveying the noir feel, when the first two had such romantic narrative juxtaposed to such arcade, action movie gameplay. Likable or not is was an odd combination.

I also feel your point comes off as very vague and baseless when you A) speak for Remedy without even knowing what they meant by different choices, and B) speak for all others whom preferred the first two when saying they're not talking about cinematic styling without knowing it. Read the negative (red highlighted) user reviews on Metacritic. Most criticize the cinematic styling of unskippable cutscenes, action movie dialog, and scripted action sequences. It still comes back to your argument having no details on your end and the fact that Remedy said the game was brilliant.

Even if Remedy thinks they could have improved upon it, they would have been starting with Rockstar's already quote "brilliant" work as a reference point, in their own words. I hardly call that a need for significant improvement as you seem to be claiming. Or what really ARE you claiming? So far you've given literally NO examples, because you appear to be speaking for others without really knowing their thoughts.

I look at all the complaints people blaming Rockstar for in this game and most of them are present in Remedy's Alan Wake, which didn't fare quite as well as MP3 in overall ratings. Whether it be the cinematic styling, effects, or gimmicky way of inducing panic by scripting action sequences, Alan Wake has them all too. In fact the movement and aiming is even more consolish and clumsy. The only theme it adheres to that MP 1&2 had is the novel dialog, yet still, it didn't fare as well as MP3 in overall ratings. A few "different choices" don't necessarily make a game more likable or playable.

I loved MP 1 and 2 and I didn't really see anything in MP3 that made me feel confident about the direction they were taking it. For most of its development I was actually more concerned that Rockstar wasn't going to live up to the prior games and the 35 gig install for PC put me off even more. Rockstars PC ports have been terrible for this generation of games and to me that made it seem no different.

As someone that really liked Max Payne 3 I'm sad to hear this.

Thats a shame because its really one the best games Iv played in a while.

@AhmadMetallic said:

In a way, this means MP3 really was Max's swan song, and I'm happy about that. No Max Payne 4 or 5 since 2 and 3 didn't do well financially. So no Payne milking in the future. I like that!

I highly doubt Rockstar would have milked the Max Payne name anyway. They're clearly the kind of developers that have a passionate love for storytelling, and I doubt that even they would somehow contrive their way into making a new Max Payne game. There's pretty much nothing else to tell at this point after all - his story is finished. They may well have (and still might, who knows) made a game with similar sort of shooting mechanics to act as the spiritual successor, but I doubt it would have involved Max Payne.

@Yummylee said:

@AhmadMetallic said:

In a way, this means MP3 really was Max's swan song, and I'm happy about that. No Max Payne 4 or 5 since 2 and 3 didn't do well financially. So no Payne milking in the future. I like that!

I highly doubt Rockstar would have milked the Max Payne name anyway. They're clearly the kind of developers that have a passionate love for storytelling, and I doubt that even they would somehow contrive their way into making a new Max Payne game. There's pretty much nothing else to tell at this point after all - his story is finished. They may well have (and still might, who knows) made a game with similar sort of shooting mechanics to act as the spiritual successor, but I doubt it would have involved Max Payne.

Max Payne 2 didn't actually need a sequel to begin with, so the fact that there was a Max Payne 3, at all, kind of renders your point moot. If it made money (assuming it truly is a flop), there would have been a Max Payne 4.

@MonetaryDread said:

I hope this game has a tail on it. This is one of the finest crafted shooters since Crysis.

Agree wholeheartedly.....so much great action and so different mechanically to so many shooters out there.

@BionicRadd said:

@Yummylee said:

@AhmadMetallic said:

In a way, this means MP3 really was Max's swan song, and I'm happy about that. No Max Payne 4 or 5 since 2 and 3 didn't do well financially. So no Payne milking in the future. I like that!

I highly doubt Rockstar would have milked the Max Payne name anyway. They're clearly the kind of developers that have a passionate love for storytelling, and I doubt that even they would somehow contrive their way into making a new Max Payne game. There's pretty much nothing else to tell at this point after all - his story is finished. They may well have (and still might, who knows) made a game with similar sort of shooting mechanics to act as the spiritual successor, but I doubt it would have involved Max Payne.

Max Payne 2 didn't actually need a sequel to begin with, so the fact that there was a Max Payne 3, at all, kind of renders your point moot. If it made money (assuming it truly is a flop), there would have been a Max Payne 4.

Max Payne 3 exists because Rockstar wanted to make their own Max Payne story. As others have said many a time, Max Payne 3 is a noticeably different game than the first two; Rockstar clearly enjoyed Max as a character and wanted to try their own interpretation. And considering the ending of Max Payne 3 in particular, having Max suddenly locked & loaded to tear through another sea of badguys would go against everything Rockstar's Max Payne story stood for. He saved Giovanna and her unborn baby, which in turn is there to somewhat redeem him for not being able to save his own family.

The last we see of him on the beach is what is probably the closest he'll ever be to being truly happy. Of course considering the sales, we may never know. But given Rockstar's usual record of games, I highly doubt that they would continue on with the blood-soaked adventures of Max Payne.

One of the lessons this gen is that no company regardless of stature can just "drop big bucks" on a project and get sales. Max Payne 3 is a good game but it still might have been too expensive to make.

it looked dull, was shocked giantbomb talked about it so much.

@adam1808 said:

As a person who gives not one toss about GTA I'm glad Rockstar chose to release something I would actually enjoy. MP3 and LA Noire have been two of my favourite Rockstar releases since Bully

Yup. And while Max Payne 3 stands there unfinished for a week I really liked LA Noire.

On a sidenote though, I think Rockstar has lost it. Their focus on the heavy storytelling falls flat when they don't have a story to tell.

There's more complexity to the money making end than some are acknowledging. The first two didn't have big shooter titles near release. The first two didn't release during a global recession. There wasn't a lot of multi platform piracy going on when the first two released. The first two were released quite some time ago and this is still a fairly small niche shooter category (3rd person/bullet time/noir) compared to others.

However I think the main reason after having seen the negative user reviews on Metacritic is many were initially so put off by the very scripted action movie gameplay that they never took the game seriously enough to improve their gameplay and adapt to the need to think on your feet in many of the scripted scenarios, and the word of mouth probably caused a lot of other players to not even give it a chance at all.

There's far more to it than the difference between trashy action movie vs romantic novel dialog. Alan Wake has Remedy's usual romantic novel vs trashy action movie dialog, yet it didn't fare quite as well as MP3 in overall ratings.

@Frag_Maniac: They have said they would have made different choices, that's their words. There's one example, along with the countless reviews and discussions (on this site and others) of people who have noticed that this this game has a very different style and tone. That doesn't mean they don't like the game, but it also doesn't mean it's the same or better. No one is claiming to speak for anyone. Rather, it's simply pointing out what has been said. You have no greater point to claim anything about it. You most certainly cannot claim this the same as the old style. Also, the old games were not just shoot dodging, and adding flashy visual effects does not make a game better or more cinematic. Adding goofy dialogue and side characters does not make your game more mature. Seriously, that made so little sense. Keep making arbitrary claims about supporting examples if you want, it's not buying you anything.

@Frag_Maniac said:

If anything this installment takes the original John Woo inspired theme and extrapolates on it. It's bullet time slo mo is inspired by movies like Matrix.

Max Payne was not inspired by the Matrix, it was in development before the Matrix came out. Also, this game most certainly deviates from the John Woo style cinematography, and is heavily based on the film Man on Fire. Please, get your facts right before you go and write a long response with poorly reasoned arguments.

Many people feel the old games were incredibly cinematic, andcombined story, style, gameplay, and action like few others, and the new game does not have that. Some people will have different opinions. This point is really all that needs to be said.

My claims aren't "arbitrary", those regarding negative player reaction are taken straight from user reviews on the site most commonly used as a consensus of them, combined with comments on forums and threads for the game from those whom dislike it over the previous two. Those regarding styling are common facts on previous works by John Woo. Even your own comment about the flashy effects, despite your not recognizing them as part of the cinematic theme, validates that.

If anything what's arbitrary is your continued reliance on the "different choices" angle when all you can offer is how previous MPs differ from this one, along with the echo of it being obvious. You not only take it upon yourself to fill in the blanks, you don't even put it in detail. THAT is arbitrary. If it isn't obvious to you that the primary differences are the action cinematic vs romantic novel stylings, then I must be literally talking to a brick wall.

Furthermore it is well known that John Woo pioneered the slow mo cinematic styling used in many movies and games. I said movies "like" Matrix, in other words those that use that kind of slow mo styling. Matrix is just one work of entertainment that pays homage to it, and you can add Max Payne to that list. Then there's the fact that Alan Wake, as I've already exampled, uses heavy cinematic effects, including extremely heavy blur, and also many scripted action sequences. About the ONLY way it differs is it's adherence to romantic novel vs action movie dialog, yet it didn't fare any better than MP3, actually worse overall.

I'm well aware of the differences and sources of the techniques used. There's nothing I'm tossing in on a whim on personal (and rather vague) observation as you are. How you could use the word arbitrary when you are epitomizing that mindset is rather absurd. The old games were not cinematic, excuse me but where's your proof of "many" people saying that? Those that may have were clearly wrong. If anything the first two had more of a story board style that was more novel-like than cinematic in their look and dialog. This is the one that plays and looks like an interactive movie. THAT is the nature of cinematic.

You claim I need to get my facts straight, but you don't even seem to know common sense facts about this stuff. Get a clue that cinematic is action with styliized visuals as per the way many movies are made now vs the novel based story boards MP 1&2 used, and that Remedy have indeed followed John Woo's ideas in MP 1&2. Everyone seems to know it but you and a few naive others you claim agree with you. As I've said before, MP 1&2 were built on the odd fitting dichotomy of action movie meets noir novel. This one uses a more centralized movie-like theme throughout.

@mrcraggle said:

I loved MP 1 and 2 and I didn't really see anything in MP3 that made me feel confident about the direction they were taking it. For most of its development I was actually more concerned that Rockstar wasn't going to live up to the prior games and the 35 gig install for PC put me off even more. Rockstars PC ports have been terrible for this generation of games and to me that made it seem no different.

Dude, the 35GB install is because it's a perfect PC port. Performance is incredible, the textures are all 2k or over in size and there are dozens of graphical options.

And as someone who considers Max Payne 2 one of their favourite games of all time and did not like what he saw of this sequel initially, I can tell you that it's an incredible successor to the max payne name. The gameplay is better than ever and while the story may be tonally different, it totally works.

Don't write it off so quickly - at least check out the reviews to see that the PC version is incredible.

@stinky said:

it looked dull, was shocked giantbomb talked about it so much.

'Dull' is about the least appropriate adjective I can think of to describe Max Payne 3.

Yeesh, I didn't know so many people actively disliked the game. I agree that the tone changed between Max Paynes 1 & 2 and 3, but I feel like Max Payne 3 was a worthy successor to the two previous entries. The gameplay, while at first seemingly clunky, allows for such mastery, and with such relative ease, that every firefight was a joy to play (a slight exaggeration: there were a few pains in my ass). And the story, while hardly a novel approach to the genre, was well written and well enough acted, and Max was more believable as a character than he ever was previously, with much more nuanced emotional reasoning than he'd ever exhibited before.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed every Max Payne game, but I feel that Max Payne 3 lived up to the previous entries in every way possible while still carving out a niche for itself.

Oh and I played it on the PC, and it is a fantastic port, I can attest to that. I'm on 3-4 year old hardware and the game ran flawlessly maxed at 1920 x 1080.

Well, I fucking hate this game, really hate it, whatever you do do not try and play it on hard, it's fine at first but you'll get into situations that only bare luck will get you through, that or some last guy who you didn't even see gets a shot at you at the very end of a sequence and you have to go through 500 fucking guys all over again because the game doesn't know how to checkpoint right...

Plus one on the not writing it off and the story and dialog being fitting, but mainly on it not being dull, who is anyone kidding with that? There's several firefights that when they're done give you that feeling that you know Max has by the look on his face at the end of the standoff at the back of the bus, exhausted, exhilarated, amazed, and proud that you made it through.

Max Payne 3 is not just a sissy, bland stylized game. Sometimes it appears to make fun of it's own styling, like when Passos and Max are apprehended at the cemetery and told to freeze, and Passos says "As opposed to what, dicso dance?" Despite the oft cheeky humor and flashy styling though, make no mistake about it, this is a gritty grab life by the balls shooter's shooter, and if you aren't game for it, don't blame it on Rockstar, play a tamer game.

@onarum said:

Well, I fucking hate this game, really hate it, whatever you do do not try and play it on hard, it's fine at first but you'll get into situations that only bare luck will get you through, that or some last guy who you didn't even see gets a shot at you at the very end of a sequence and you have to go through 500 fucking guys all over again because the game doesn't know how to checkpoint right...

So you hate a game because you're playing it on a harder difficulty, and are frustrated because it's difficult.

Alright

Yeah his claims are not only very exaggerated, they're basically knee jerk reactions that clearly indicate he has not gotten to know the game well enough to hone his skills at it. It's not just "fine at first", it becomes even more doable as you find ways to play it better. I or anyone of a number of people could easily disprove his claims via video, and I'm 54 and hardly have the reflexes of a teenager.

Best we pay attention to, emphasize, and respond to posts like these though, because it's a common theme among those whom also criticize the scripted cinematic theme before they've given themselves a chance to adapt to it. The game gives you many tools with which to dispatch roomfuls of enemies even when abruptly thrust into the middle of the action, higher difficulty level or not, and I'm not just talking about bullet time and shoot dodging.

They usually place cover spots strategically to allow you to dive from one to the other, killing two birds with one stone while shoot dodging. They place environmental objects here and there that can be used to kill enemies. Prone shooting is 360 degrees now and if done from a good spot is also an excellent way to dispatch enemies while taking minimal damage. Do a bit of common sense experimenting instead of bashing and maybe you'll find it actually is a pretty good game.

@Robiin said:

Releasing the same day as Diablo was a good idea...

At least I could finish the single-player portion of Max Payne 3 without any hitches...

@TheHumanDove said:

@onarum said:

Well, I fucking hate this game, really hate it, whatever you do do not try and play it on hard, it's fine at first but you'll get into situations that only bare luck will get you through, that or some last guy who you didn't even see gets a shot at you at the very end of a sequence and you have to go through 500 fucking guys all over again because the game doesn't know how to checkpoint right...

So you hate a game because you're playing it on a harder difficulty, and are frustrated because it's difficult.

Alright

The check pointing is bad regardless, that's not due to the difficulty level, it's bad design.

@TheHumanDove: The only problem with hard is the awful, awful checkpointing.

I loved the game apart from the genuinenly awful checkpointing (worst since GTA IV I think), and that Rockstar seems completely uncapable of telling a story in-game while you are in control of your character. At least 30% of the game is cutscenes, and they fuck up the pacing completely. A number of times I sat there and just felt like "OH COME ON" when scene after scene was just cutscenes. Really, really dig the action though, thought it was a perfect blend of cover and bullet dodging etc.

@Frag_Maniac:

Arbitrary is your thinking that you have any greater claim to whether or not the new style is fitting. You don't, end of discussion. You may like the new tone and writing, many don't and think it's worse. I'm not saying they would have made different choices, I'm saying that they said they would have made different choices. It's not an "angle", it's what they said.

Not only user reviews don't like the new sstyle, there are also editorial reviews (and quicklooks and podcasts on this very site) that do not like the new style. Keep pretending it's just some random forum talk, and demanding proof, if you like.

Actually, Sam Peckinpah pioneered the slow-mo that John Woo uses in so many of his films. How do we know? John Woo said so.

Yes, Remedy was influenced by John Woo films (not heavily the Matrix, like you are now backtracking on). They also developed their own cinematic style through cutscenes, writing style, and artwork (things which you don't seem to understand also define a cinematic style). Make no mistake, they were some of the most cinematic games of their era. Want more proof? Go read just about every review of the originals.

Once again, it's fine that some people like the new style. It's also fine that some people don't like it. You really have nothing to argue about.

@Robiin said:

Releasing the same day as Diablo was a good idea...

I was thinking the same thing.

I must be fucking crazy because I enjoyed L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3 much more than GTA IV.

They should have stuck closer to the formula that made the first Max Payne such a hit. Maybe a high definition remake of the first one?

@HellBrendy: I'm not so much interested in storytelling as I am in gameplay, and every GTA has been a chore to play in order to get to the best writing and story content. Rockstar in general have issues with stretching out their narratives over too much game.

At least here in the US, advertising for the game was horrid. It was just "from the makers of GTA" with some action footage, never making it clear what kind of game it was or what was neat about it.

NPD sales aren't the best choice for deciding what sold well or didn't.

I'm not surprised. Since the beginning, I was never that excited with Max Payne 3 because it doesn't look anything like its predecessors and the violent content feels old and cliche. I guess everyone feels the same way too and thus, Max Payne 3 is a bomb.

@MackGyver: An HD remake would be really cool, with built in widescreen support.

@Psykhophear: Yep, people familiar with the first 2 probably held off because the third is so much different, and then people not familiar probably weren't going to buy it anyway. If it was more like the originals it probably would have sold better.

@squirrelnacho: The first Max Payne will always be my favorite. I almost shat myself when the game came out on the iOS and Android a few months ago.

@Squirrel,

Geez, give it a rest already. Arbitrary is putting your own slant on something vs being fact based. How many times do I need to tell you that I base my assessment of player reaction on actual things MANY of them say. Unlike you I even mentioned a specific source. You only point out the obvious, that they don't like the new style. I clarify that it's particularly the interactive movie-like theme, unskippable cutscenes, action movie vs novel-like dialog, and scripted action sequences, get it? That is Max Payne 3, MP 1&2 are all about story boards and novel-like dialog. They have a few dream sequences, but it's style is mostly novel-like, not cinematic like this game. You really are daft aren't you?

Again, you seem to be clueless that this is the more movie-like game, I mean CLEARLY it is, are you blind? What the hell do you think cinematic means? Also Peckinpah mostly depicted certain scenarios in slow mo, it was Woo that brought it to the level of modern stylized slow mo with dynamic action sequences. So yes, the way it's now used in a lot of action movies and games, including this one, comes more from Woo than Peckinpah. Again, get this straight, John Woo is the one whom pioneered modern stylized slow mo action sequences. It's not the same as just slow mo in general. He may have derived some of his ideas and techniques from him, but the overall style as we now know it clearly has John Woo's name written all over it. Why the fuck do you think he's so sought after?

I don't know why you'd labor on about it anyway when clearly you have no understanding of the difference between motion picture and novel influences, or any appreciation for the techniques used in this game. It's even more bizarre that you claim MP 1&2 are cinematic when it's the movie inspired style of this one you seem to loathe. You troll a lot here for someone that doesn't like the game. Apparently the games you like better aren't as interesting as you claim.

I'll end by saying I looked into why GB has no ignore feature, and they don't seem intent on offering one. So if you insist on acting arbitrary while calling others such, and can't for the life of yourself understand what the difference between cinema and novel is, while throwing petty inferences around that those your arguing with don't have a clue when you lack the ability to even detail examples or sources, then I see no point reading your drivel. You don't seem to say much worth reading anyway.

@Frag_Maniac: You are just rambling now, and accusing me of trolling since you apparently don't like having your obviously false statements corrected. For example, you said John Woo "pioneered" the slow-mo style. Wrong. Sam Peckinpah did, as John Woo cites him as an influence. I already mentioned specific sources (including this very site). Since you just want to accuse people of trolling, I don't much care to converse anymore about this.

@CornBREDX said:

Weird that we're now taking Michael Pachter's word on something. I'd need more info then that.

I wouldn't be surprised if it flopped, though. It seems like the series in general never meets expectations- the first one being the only exception. I find it weird personally, but I guess a large amount of players aren't into what Max Payne is selling. I still like it... so whatevs

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-15-max-payne-3-sold-440-000-units-in-us-launch-month

http://www.shacknews.com/article/74374/max-payne-3-sells-440k-in-debut-month-called-a

@Timnoldzim said:

@psylah said:

According to Joystiq, MP3 sold a little over 400,000 copies.

400,000 copies in one month is a flop now? How much did that damn game cost to make?

They were expecting 600K copies, and was delayed a lot of times since 2009. This is the only Rockstar game this year, and that's a big deal for Take Two. Might have been 6-8 years in development, when Remedy were not allowed to work on the sequel because of weak MP 2 sales. I'm guessing the budget must have gone way past $100 million because of the delays and all the staff involved. 900 employees all being paid for all that time.

They probably need 3 million copies to BREAK EVEN.

It's just bad all around.