Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-06-24, 14:05:

Decided to try Max Payne 3 on my Xbox 360. For some reason, I never played this game before, despite being a fan of the first two. Time to rectify that.

First impressions are kinda mixed. Taking Max Payne out of New York and putting him in South American night clubs just doesn't feel right. They also ditched the noir aesthetic and replaced the stylish visual novels with in-engine cutscenes. On that note, there's one of those after practically every fight, which feels a bit disruptive. In terms of gameplay, it looks like the devs couldn't decide if they were making a cover based shooter or a bullet time run and gun. So you have to mix and match between both approaches, which sometimes feels clunky. On the plus side, the controls are pretty smooth and kinda remind me of CoD, albeit with a slightly different button layout.

I like that they got Max Payne's original voice actor to reprise his iconic role. Also, it's nice how they occasionally reuse the main theme from the first two games. But the writing and atmosphere are very different here. So far, the plot feels more like GTA and less like Max Payne, though I'm still not very far into the game. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

I feel like this is what happens when the GTA team tries to make a Max Payne game.

Exactly. It's GTA in disguise. Not Max Payne. 🙁

I was pretty disappointed by it...

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-06-24, 14:05:

Decided to try Max Payne 3 on my Xbox 360. For some reason, I never played this game before, despite being a fan of the first two. Time to rectify that.

First impressions are kinda mixed. Taking Max Payne out of New York and putting him in South American night clubs just doesn't feel right. They also ditched the noir aesthetic and replaced the stylish visual novels with in-engine cutscenes. On that note, there's one of those after practically every fight, which feels a bit disruptive. In terms of gameplay, it looks like the devs couldn't decide if they were making a cover based shooter or a bullet time run and gun. So you have to mix and match between both approaches, which sometimes feels clunky. On the plus side, the controls are pretty smooth and kinda remind me of CoD, albeit with a slightly different button layout.

I like that they got Max Payne's original voice actor to reprise his iconic role. Also, it's nice how they occasionally reuse the main theme from the first two games. But the writing and atmosphere are very different here. So far, the plot feels more like GTA and less like Max Payne, though I'm still not very far into the game. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

Gameplay wise, it felt a lot like GTA but more contained and focused in combat, I enjoyed it, but surely is not the same as the previous games in that regard.
The atmosphere was absolutely the best part for me, but that's because I'm Brazilian and could fully understand the many references to our culture, not to mention the Portuguese voices which were brutal...the acting, the anger, the extreme cursing, felt a lot like the cop movies we are used to. Thats probably why the game didn't feel too far of from the previous two for me as it still felt very much like a depressing cop story, just with different weather conditions.

Found my copy of paradise cracked. Installed on my voodoo3 system, no cigar. Downgraded my directx to 7 and reinstalled voodoo3 drivers, still has graphic issues. Tried it on my xp sff elite 8200 gt 730 buld works but the hidden movement takes too long. Waiting many years for an english translation of paradise cracked remastered which has reduced hidden movement times. Still not there so using google lens on my phone to auto translate the text. Was a big fan of this in the late 2000's.
http://www.reality413.com/index.php/adventures/paradise

Maybe someone remembers,
I played a game around 2004-2006, noir-like that starts with a detective and a fluorescent handprint.
The game is in first person.

At some point he follows this murderer in an abandoned mall where there are many mannequins.

It was nice but I can't find it.
It's not L.A. Noire.

Nexxen wrote on 2025-06-25, 12:43:

I played a game around 2004-2006, noir-like that starts with a detective and a fluorescent handprint.
The game is in first person.

At some point he follows this murderer in an abandoned mall where there are many mannequins.

Sounds like Condemned: Criminal Origins to me.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-06-25, 12:59:

Nexxen wrote on 2025-06-25, 12:43:

I played a game around 2004-2006, noir-like that starts with a detective and a fluorescent handprint.
The game is in first person.

At some point he follows this murderer in an abandoned mall where there are many mannequins.

Sounds like Condemned: Criminal Origins to me.

Bingo!
Thanks a lot 😀

Playing GTA: San Andreas like the world is coming to an end. Now I better go to sleep, the game just glitched, somehow got stuck in the darkness, no HUD, nothing, but I got a phone call and I hear myself walking / jumping.

because it's 25 now I began a new deu sex playthrough BUT:

- Entirely in PCem v17
- Lay D Denton (the new brown-nosing NPCs are hilarious)
- Joe's lipsync fix
- I duped a the kaplan scope mod and got free inventory slots oops
- I got hermann to attack a bot instead of getting me. oops (amazing what a little plasma rifle friendly fire can do)
- until "the revolution", no one was killed but one unatco (like a hot knife through butter) and one rat. a lot of mastery-level butt baton'ing happened that night
@ HongKong

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-25, 22:41:

Playing GTA: San Andreas like the world is coming to an end. Now I better go to sleep, the game just glitched, somehow got stuck in the darkness, no HUD, nothing, but I got a phone call and I hear myself walking / jumping.

i don't' think i ever experienced that glitch! There are so many glitches in the game that don't quite break it, some are part of the experience - like the at times awful ai driving (and the way some supposedly slow vehicles can speed up to rival a sports bike on the interstates!), and lots more

and yet, it's still such a fun game

leileilol wrote on 2025-06-26, 01:31:

because it's 25 now I began a new deu sex playthrough BUT: […]
Show full quote

because it's 25 now I began a new deu sex playthrough BUT:

- Entirely in PCem v17
- Lay D Denton (the new brown-nosing NPCs are hilarious)
- Joe's lipsync fix
- I duped a the kaplan scope mod and got free inventory slots oops
- I got hermann to attack a bot instead of getting me. oops (amazing what a little plasma rifle friendly fire can do)
- until "the revolution", no one was killed but one unatco (like a hot knife through butter) and one rat. a lot of mastery-level butt baton'ing happened that night
@ HongKong

i watched a bit of the Lay D Denton version on youtube but didn't see much difference, i must have skipped the best bits.

i did replay the original deus ex recently - still so good, now its depiction of the future is a little removed from our path in tech terms but the essential themes still work, i still like the earlier levels where 'the public' can be talked to and where we are in urban areas not specialist facilities

Finished Max Payne 3. My feelings on the game remain somewhat mixed, but I am glad that I finally got to experience it for myself.

First for the stuff I liked. As mentioned before, the aiming mechanics (on the Xbox 360) are really well designed, and were clearly inspired by CoD. The attach-based cover system can be a bit messy at times, but it generally works ok too. Bullet time functions more like it did in the original Max Payne, and isn't as generous as in the second game. Some people prefer that, others dislike it, I don't mind either way. Overall, I found the combat to be mostly enjoyable, aside from a few specific instances. The story didn't really grab me, but it was serviceable enough. It does touch on some very dark topics later on, which some people may find disturbing.

Now for the bad stuff. This game uses the dreaded checkpoints system, and is very inconsistent in how far it sets you back. Sometimes you have to replay the entire combat encounter, other times it just takes you back a tiny bit. There are also sudden difficulty spikes in unexpected places. And later levels aren't necessarily harder than the earlier ones. In fact, I had more problems in one of the mid-game areas where most enemies shoot at you from unreachable locations like rooftops. Meaning, you can't loot their weapons and ammo, which leaves you resource starved. The levels are also very linear, and you're constantly moving forward, with doors permanently closing behind you.

But worst of all, Max suffers from an insane amount of cutscene incompetence in this game. Every time a cutscene ends, he switches to his (less powerful) one handed weapon, even if you had a rifle selected previously. Or he loses the rifle altogether, without any explanation. He also constantly puts himself at a disadvantage after a cutscene, letting multiple enemies surround him for no reason whatsoever. He also routinely gets disarmed and beaten down during cutscenes, by enemies who are far below him in terms of skill. Overall, I found the cutscenes to be very annoying.

In the end, you can clearly tell that Max Payne 3 wasn't made by the team that worked on the previous two games. Especially in terms of writing, atmosphere, and the over abundance of cutscenes. It almost feels like the new developers wanted to create a GTA spinoff, but suddenly remembered that they own the Max Payne IP, and decided to make him the protagonist instead. While I did have fun with this game, it definitively wasn't on the level of its predecessors, at least for my tastes.

P.S.

At one point late in the game, you can get Max to play his theme song on a piano. It serves no gameplay function, but it was a pretty cool moment. He even comments that it's the "soundtrack of his life" which I found hilarious.

gerry wrote on 2025-06-26, 07:33:

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-25, 22:41:

Playing GTA: San Andreas like the world is coming to an end. Now I better go to sleep, the game just glitched, somehow got stuck in the darkness, no HUD, nothing, but I got a phone call and I hear myself walking / jumping.

i don't' think i ever experienced that glitch! There are so many glitches in the game that don't quite break it, some are part of the experience - like the at times awful ai driving (and the way some supposedly slow vehicles can speed up to rival a sports bike on the interstates!), and lots more

and yet, it's still such a fun game

I got carried away 2 days ago, played literally the whole night.

First time encountered that glitch, but it was also the first time with this combination of events. I completed Wear Flowers in Your Hair, first storyline mission in San Fierro, afterwards, Zero is supposed to call you, but I got in the car before call would occur and drove to the countryside to take Helena on a date. After the date when she asks if you want to come in for coffee and saying yes, that's when it blacked out and stayed that way.

I thought it hung, but pressing Windows button normally minimized the game and after restoring it, I landed in pause menu. Then after resuming, Zero called, I could answer, but was still stuck in the darkness. Oh, worth noting, I do have the savegame modified to unlock otherwise inaccessible naughty Hot Coffee mini-game. 😀

And couple of mods / patches:

This game was PITA on my previous computer from over 15 years ago, dancing was really difficult, could barely complete one storyline mission where it was required and another mission where you're supposed to drive the bike onto the airplane, impossible. Back then I figured to overclock that poor GeForce4 MX 440 to the max with RivaTuner, I must have had really poor frame rate and this game has highly frame rate dependent physics, overclocking smoothed things out and let me pass that mission.

NPCs and AI, yeah, that ranges from non-sensical to annoying to hilarious. Say there's a cop on the catwalk and you stealth-knife someone when the cop is couple meters in front of you, somehow he notices you, though the game claims something about stealth kills being useful to avoid police.

Another instance, cop is on the catwalk across the road and you shoot someone with non-silenced gun and he just doesn't notice. How???

Motorways, I hate it when other drivers suddenly change lanes. Way to wreck your car! Playing with the mod that adds speedometer along with some other indicators of vehicle's state...well I didn't realize back then the game bumps up some vehicles' health that you use during storyline missions.

Or how 'bout when you get busted because some paranoid driver ran you over while you were fighting the police.

Another funny thing, vigilante missions, when the criminals are a bunch of armed old ladies.

leileilol wrote on 2025-06-26, 01:31:

I duped a the kaplan scope mod and got free inventory slots oops

Is that when your inventory is full when you try to buy it, or is there another duplication glitch I'm not aware of?

It tries to toss it out like i don't have room and it purchased, eventually the stack gets so tall enough it doesn't try that so it forces into my inventory taking place *under* another item. So far I hadn't encountered this on anyone else

Unfortunately it doesn't really stick, so when you get to the armory you just see shelves full of scope mods

@Ship

Doom 3: Phobos. A mod for Doom 3 I had never heard of until GOG started up their "One-Click Mods" program. As good, if not better, than the original game. Much harder as well (or I am much worse as I get older).

Liqmat! How are you bud?!

So I splurged a bit this year and decided to upgrade a few elements of my gaming rig. I upgraded from my MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 2080Ti to an Asus ROG Astral RTX5090 along with a new closed loop Corsair Cooler and a new Lian Li case to accommodate this behemoth of a card.

I immediately grabbed the new Doom, Indiana Jones, and... Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I am completely blown away by this game - in a way that I haven't felt since playing Final Fantasy III on the SNES wayyy back in the day. The story, the character depth, the gameplay mechanics, the graphics and ohhh that music. Such an emotional rollercoaster and I'm all for it.

liqmat wrote on 2025-06-29, 22:46:

Doom 3: Phobos. A mod for Doom 3 I had never heard of until GOG started up their "One-Click Mods" program. As good, if not better, than the original game. Much harder as well (or I am much worse as I get older).

That looks interesting, I'm going to check it out!

UCyborg wrote on 2025-06-26, 20:28:

NPCs and AI, yeah, that ranges from non-sensical to annoying to hilarious. Say there's a cop on the catwalk and you stealth-knif […]
Show full quote

NPCs and AI, yeah, that ranges from non-sensical to annoying to hilarious. Say there's a cop on the catwalk and you stealth-knife someone when the cop is couple meters in front of you, somehow he notices you, though the game claims something about stealth kills being useful to avoid police.

Another instance, cop is on the catwalk across the road and you shoot someone with non-silenced gun and he just doesn't notice. How???

Motorways, I hate it when other drivers suddenly change lanes. Way to wreck your car! Playing with the mod that adds speedometer along with some other indicators of vehicle's state...well I didn't realize back then the game bumps up some vehicles' health that you use during storyline missions.

Or how 'bout when you get busted because some paranoid driver ran you over while you were fighting the police.

Another funny thing, vigilante missions, when the criminals are a bunch of armed old ladies.

yes indeed, some if amusing some is frustrating. i didn't know about the health while in mission! that's interesting.

There are times when it seems like "the public" are deliberately working against you, but i'm sure that's just a consequence of the way they tend to pile up around you at times.

one thing in play throughs is not just that there are so many ways to undertake a mission but there are so many things that can happen, even when trying to do things the same way

and the old lady criminals are funny 😀

Still playing KCD2, but we recently came back from vacation, so I've been trying to get back into the swing of making time for gaming. In the meantime, I came across a couple of interesting future titles to try:

Gates of Integrity: https://tarjan.itch.io/gates-of-integrity
Free, and there is an MS-DOS version as well as a Windows version. It appears to be based on Bard's Tale DOS and the modern remake of Bard's Tale. I got a peek at the DOS graphics and they are not bad at all!

Cyclopean: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2958790/Cy … he_Great_Abyss/
Not on GOG. 🙁
This one looks like Ultima II-VI inspired, complete with the green, pixel graphics.