I never played a Max Payne game. I am ashamed to admit that.
It looked great on PC. Well, the demo did...
Never played a MP game either. I'm not ashamed, though.
The first, and only thing that comes to mind upon hearing "Max Payne" is constipated dude:
SteelAttack said:Never played a MP game either. I'm not ashamed, though.
The first, and only thing that comes to mind upon hearing "Max Payne" is constipated dude:
GG Payne!
travo said:I never played a Max Payne game. I am ashamed to admit that.
No need to feel shame, there are too many games for anyone to have played them all -- even the big ones.
SteelAttack said:...
The first, and only thing that comes to mind upon hearing "Max Payne" is constipated dude:
Yeah, like I said, that's the only bad thing about the game so far.
I do like that instead of trying to do CGI cutscenes (which would have been not so great back then) they do a comic-strip style exposition. Infamous did that to good effect as well.
Great games! MP I have on PC both the first and 2nd just a blast, it was the first game to really perfect bullet time. Like the Matrix, anyone who has not played this gem should really give it a go.
A lot of fond memories. I played both on PC, and still own them. Love the "Noir" atmosphere of the games. Also the first game to do "bullet time" gameplay.
Reason why I recently loved Alan Wake so much is that, though quite different, it is very reminiscent of Remedy's style on the Max Payne games
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
As I move through the game, I note a few more things:
- The way the camera moves smoothly from close to Max's back to further away, depending on walls, etc... is quite elegant.
- There is now a profusion of painkillers. Either that or I am playing too carefully.
- They game has a decent sense of humor and cheekiness. A kid's comic-strip alongside a brutal murder. A king-pin running around with his pants down after getting a blow-job.
- At first, I was hesitant to kill anyone unless they fired on me first. Heh. Yeah. Not that kind of game. Everyone in the game is an enemy, even if they are junkies. It is okay to kill junkies right?
- The level structure is quite interesting. Due to the limitations of the technology the game is chunked off in these little bite-size pieces. It works effectively, but it did remind me how level design has completely changed as tech has enabled larger levels etc...
I have an article here about the making of the game, I'll share some of it when I get a little bit of time.
Woefully simplistic and linear shooters but fun nonetheless.
SteelAttack said:Never played a MP game either. I'm not ashamed, though.
The first, and only thing that comes to mind upon hearing "Max Payne" is constipated dude:
He always reminded me of Ex British Prime Minister John Major's son:
gamingeek said:Woefully simplistic and linear shooters but fun nonetheless.
He always reminded me of Ex British Prime Minister John Major's son:
I'm assuming you are talking about level design, which is but a single component of what makes or breaks a third-person shooter. Yeah, it's a corridor shooter, for the most part. I must say, I'm never understood the dismissive sneering concerning "linearity" in games.
Other thoughts as I play:
- Remedy has a thing for TV's I take it? Given that, like in Alan Wake, there are plenty of them around (some of which have their own programming).
- The nightmare sequence at the start of the second act is awesome in concept. With the stretching hallways and blood trail. In practice, it's not as good. The balance beam sections of any game are tedious, even more so when your engine isn't really designed to handle it.
- I like that Max Payne is a psycho, almost from the first few minutes of the game. His wife and baby are killed, he keeps it together for 4(?) years as a DEA agent, and then out of the blue, it's a fucking nutjob blasting away everything that walks.
- Thematically it reminds me of Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy. Probably the big empty city that is full of snow.
bugsonglass said:Also the first game to do "bullet time" gameplay.
Objection!
May Payne release date = July 23, 2001
Conker's Bad Fur Day release date = March 5, 2001
Check it out the matrix level in Conker
aspro said:
I'm assuming you are talking about level design, which is but is a single component of what makes or breaks a third-person shooter. Yeah, it's a corridor shooter, for the most part. I must say, I'm never understood the dismissive sneering concerning "linearity" in games.
It different on a game by game basis. Max Payne is enjoyable but repetitive and extremely linear, even more so than something like COD, you literally go from room to room, to corridor to room. There are no advanced mechanics like a cover system, the weapons are pretty the same regardless of what you use - you can beat the whole game with a pistol.
Sometimes linear is good, sometimes bad. In Max Payne it's somewhere in the middle, it was okay for the first game but when playing sequels that are the same it gets tiresome and people expect the gameplay to evolve.
Iga_Bobovic said:Objection!
May Payne release date = July 23, 2001
Conker's Bad Fur Day release date = March 5, 2001
Check it out the matrix level in Conker
That's pretty cool. Yeah I never played Conker. I wish I could
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
I never played Max Payne because I refuse to do anything that will support Mark Walberg, even in an indirect manner.
robio said:I never played Max Payne because I refuse to do anything that will support Mark Walberg, even in an indirect manner.
gamingeek said:...
Sometimes linear is good, sometimes bad. In Max Payne it's somewhere in the middle, it was okay for the first game but when playing sequels that are the same it gets tiresome and people expect the gameplay to evolve.
Okay, well I'm playing the first, and considering it is a 10 year old game, the linearity is more than acceptable. What would be your example of a non-linear shooter?
robio said:I never played Max Payne because I refuse to do anything that will support Mark Walberg, even in an indirect manner.
I honestly thought it was going to be a very, VERY dumb game just from what I had seen peripherally, but I was wrong. It's not a "ten" or anything, but back at the time I could see why it would get close given the thoughtfulness. It's a shame that the exposition is so technically clumsy, it's very obvious that it was all done in-house without professional actors etc... but what they were shooting for is admirable.
Non linear shooters would be Halo or Goldeneye.
Even Conduit 1 is less linear than Max Payne 1 and 2.
They are enjoyable games but do feel a bit limited. I mean, I bet you that Max Payne 3 will introduce all sorts of mechanics like a cover system for instance and I bet the levels are much more open for more creative play.
gamingeek said:Non linear shooters would be Halo or Goldeneye.
Even Conduit 1 is less linear than Max Payne 1 and 2.
They are enjoyable games but do feel a bit limited. I mean, I bet you that Max Payne 3 will introduce all sorts of mechanics like a cover system for instance and I bet the levels are much more open for more creative play.
Thanks for the examples. The levels in Goldeneye certainly were the best part of the game.
Needed a quick game to play so I started Max Payne. I have the PS2 version, which is apparently the worst possible version of the game, but so far I am digging it (I've not played it before).
This is a pretty good representation of what the graphics are like on the PS2:
I'm playing it on a PS3, which usually seems to make the games look a lot prettier on a HDTV then using a regular PS2 hooked up to a HDTV. I'm, actually pretty impressed with the graphics, the only thing that looks dated is the fugly photo-heads they pasted onto Max Payne. It looks ridiculous.
I'm impressed by the regenerating health combined with having to get painkillers (which seem in scant suppply).
All in all, I guess I'm pleasnatly surprised. I was expecting a Duke Nukem-style game, but this could easily be a modern shooter with a minimal amount of updating. Any fond memories or trivia to share on this one?