Spotlight
FeatureRemedy on life after Xbox exclusivity
Not the Finnish.
VideoWatch: Seven games that made you look like a complete and utter badass
It's this week's Eurogamer Show.
VideoWatch: Aoife plays Max Payne for the first time
It's about bullet time.
VideoWatch: PTSD and video games
Low Batteries episode 3.
Key events
24th April 2012
8th September 2011
28th June 2005
2nd January 2004
23rd March 2002
13th January 2002
30th July 2001
FeatureRemedy on life after Xbox exclusivity
Not the Finnish.
There aren't many studios like Remedy, which relishes being a bit weird. How many studios slow jam their history to music? How many creative directors do a mini-striptease on stage and then dress as characters from their games? Remedy, the Finnish developer of Max Payne, Alan Wake and Quantum Break does.
VideoWatch: Seven games that made you look like a complete and utter badass
It's this week's Eurogamer Show.
As Eurogamer commenters are very keen to remind me, I don't often look cool. As a result, I'm all the more grateful when a video game makes me feel like I am capable of doing something impressive, however temporarily.
VideoWatch: Aoife plays Max Payne for the first time
It's about bullet time.
Max Payne is one of my top ten games of all time. There's something about the scrunchy-faced hero's first rampage through New York City that's stayed with me ever since I first played it in 2001. Aoife, on the other hand, had never played Max Payne until this month. Imagine growing up without ever knowing the joys of bullet time, hammy narration or a crippling addiction to painkillers; it's too cruel to contemplate.
Max Payne rating leaked for PS4
Another PS2 Classic on the way?
It's looking like the original Max Payne will be getting the PS2 Classic treatment on PS4, according to an ESRB listing.
VideoWatch: PTSD and video games
Low Batteries episode 3.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a multifaceted mental disorder that doesn't seem to get discussed very often; oftentimes it seems like one of those things that only happens to other people.
Digital FoundryMax Payne: PS2 Emulation on PS3 Video
A full hardware back-compat PS3 takes on the software emulated version with surprising results.
A full hardware back-compat PS3 takes on the software emulated version with surprising results.
Max Payne, Awesomenauts, Skullgirls on EU PlayStation Store this week
Plus Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Vita oddity Frobisher Says!
The original Max Payne game is available to download from the EU PlayStation Store from today. The PlayStation 2 Classic will cost £7.99, and launches ahead of Rockstar's threequel later this month.
Sony details May PlayStation Plus content
Awesomenauts and Max Payne for free, Binary Domain discounted.
Free downloads of side-scrolling arena dust-up Awesomenauts and PlayStation 2 classic Max Payne headline May's PlayStation Plus content.
Subscribers to Sony's premium service can download both Remedy's original Payne romp and Ronimo's colourful follow-up to highly-regarded RTS Swords & Soldiers from 2nd May.
You can also grab eight casual titles from developer Tik Games free of charge until 4th July, including Hamsterball and Mushroom Wars.
Remedy "proud" of Rockstar's "brilliant" Max Payne 3
"They don't really make s***ty games, do they?"
Max Payne creator Remedy Entertainment has praised Rockstar's upcoming take on the series, and said Max Payne 3 looks "brilliant".
Due out on mobiles.
Rockstar Games has announces a HD version of the first Max Payne game for mobiles.
The GTA maker did not specify which mobile devices are targeted, or when the game will launch.
Max Payne on mobile will connect to the Rockstar Games Social Club and include the same features as its PC counterparts, Rockstar said.
VideoMax Payne gets Kinect bullet time
Neo control for the Rockstar classic.
Neo control for the Rockstar classic.
FeatureRetrospective: Max Payne
Soft boiled.
The phone rang with a shriek that would wake the dead before trying to sell them double glazing for hell. I answered. It was Tom Bramwell, his words entering my ears as if a lava flow of rage.
Max Payne titles become Xbox Originals
Pick up 1 and 2 for a tenner each.
Microsoft has added Max Payne 1 & 2 to Xbox Live Originals.
Max Payne 1 and 2 for Xbox Originals?
Games listed by American ratings board.
Max Payne and Max Payne 2 may be on their way to 360 courtesy of Xbox Originals, judging by an ESRB posting dug up by Destructoid.
3DR "bewildered" by Max Payne film
But Scott Miller also "proud", bizarrely.
Scott Miller, producer of the Max Payne videogame, has voiced first his bewilderment at the movie adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg, and then, er, his pride in it.
Tops US box office nonetheless.
Critics have sullied what appears on paper to be a successful opening weekend for the Max Payne film.
Payne is Wahlberg's "favourite role so far"
"Plenty of emotion and psychology."
Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg says Max Payne is his "favourite role so far".
Beau Bridges to star in Max Payne film
He'll play our hero's mentor.
Beau Bridges, star of Stargate SG-1, The Fabulous Baker Boys and being Jeff Bridges' brother, has signed up to appear in the forthcoming Max Payne movie.
See Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne
Family Guy's Meg set to co-star.
A new shot of Mark Wahlberg in his role as Max Payne has appeared over on Dark Zero.
Mumbling hunk in negotiations.
Twentieth Century Fox has approached Mark Wahlberg to star in its Max Payne film, according to a report.
To make big screen debuts.
Hollywood producer Scott Faye has confirmed that the big screen adaptations of Max Payne and Alice are still on track and are coming along nicely, thank you.
It's going back to his roots.
It's been four years since developer Remedy first announced that Max Payne was getting an adventure on the big screen - and since then, we've heard nothing.
But now the project is back on track, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which says 20th Century Fox is working with Collision Entertainment and Firm Films to produce Max Payne: the movie.
There's no word on who's set to star or who will direct the film, but apparently it'll be a Dirty Harry-style movie with a storyline that will focus on Max's history and origins.
I've got a bit of a Payne in my hand...
Publisher
Rockstar Games (Take-Two)
Developer
Review - Max Payne and Xbox - a match made in heaven, or a hellish combination?
Take 2 Developer Remedy I Made Like Chow Yun Fat When I reviewed the original PC version of Max Payne last summer, I ended by saying that "maybe, just maybe" it was worth going through the pain a second time. Well, eight months later I've finally got around to playing through the game again, but this time round it was on an Xbox. Max Payne could almost have been made with the Xbox in mind. A triumph of style over substance with gorgeous graphics shown off to maximum effect thanks to the introduction of Matrix-style bullet time™ sequences, it was a fun but ultimately shallow and at times frustrating action game. The bad news is that the recently released Xbox version of the game is a half-hearted affair, a virtually straight port which fails to correct any of Max's shortcomings while adding a couple of new problems all of its own. As before you step into the boots of one of New York's finest, a bizarrely named undercover agent for the DEA caught in a web of double crosses, drug dealing mobsters and sinister corporations. Within the first hour the game has run through almost every cliché of Hong Kong cinema and classic Film Noir; Max is now on his own, seeking revenge for the death of his wife and child, with both the police and the mafia on his tail. Armed And Extremely Dangerous Throughout the game your story is told by short comic book style cutscenes which you will either love or hate, with cringe-inducing Raymond Chandler inspired dialogue, flat monotone voice acting, and artwork derived from photographs of the developers and their friends goofing around pulling funny faces and pointing guns at each other. Between these plot dumps the focus is very much on run and gun action, and this is where the game works best. Max has an array of semi-realistic weapons at his disposal, from Beretta and Desert Eagle pistols through pump action shotguns to assault rifles and grenade launchers, and the results are inevitably spectacular as you unleash a hail of lead on your enemies. Mafia hitmen, special forces types, corporate security guards and sinister suits all stand in your way, and their AI is generally fairly good, apart from having a habit of occasionally blowing themselves up with grenades, shooting at you through pipes, or merrily wandering single file through a doorway and into your swinging baseball bat. What sets Max apart from the swarm of bland shooters out there though is the inclusion of a bullet time meter, which gradually builds up as you kill more and more bad guys. Once activated it slows down time, allowing you to make like Chow Yun Fat or Keanu Reeves, dodging bullets as they make their lazy way through the air, and allowing you more time to aim your own shots, making every round count. By pressing the appropriate button and moving at the same time you can also pull off John Woo style leaps, flying through the air backwards, forwards or sideways in slow motion, guns blazing as the expended rounds clink off the floor one after another. During these slo-mo sessions even the audio changes, a nice touch which gives the battle a surreal muffled sound. Max, You're In A Computer Game Unfortunately Remedy's other attempts at being different are rather hit and miss. Take the nightmare sequences, for example, where you find yourself running around inside Max Payne's subconscious. These make an interesting change of pace and are certainly a very arty way of portraying Max's guilt over his wife's death, but part of the recurring dream is following a maze of blood trails above a bottomless pit, with the crying of a baby looping over and over again in the background as you try to avoid stumbling from the narrow tightrope of gore into the nothingness below. Needless to say this soon gets bloody irritating. Another scene sees you trapped in a restaurant rigged with incendiary devices, but for the most part the game gives you no visual cues to show you where the gasoline trails are on the ground or where the flames will appear next. Because of this the whole level becomes quick load city as you desperately try to make it across a room without being burnt to a crisp, then quick save, run down a corridor, get blown up for no discernable good reason, reload, continue and repeat. It's less about skill and reactions than trial and error, and again it can become frustrating. Death frequently comes with little warning in Max Payne, which can leave you feeling cheated at times. You can be blown up by a grenade thrown by a hidden enemy, with only the slightest tinkling as it hits the ground a second before it detonates to warn you that you're about to be sent flying across the room in a shower of debris. Getting out of the blast radius in time is often impossible, especially if you can't even see where the grenade has landed. Laser tripwires are another menace, as they can be virtually invisible from certain angles. Even cutscenes can prove fatal, with enemies jumping you from behind as a cinematic comes to an end, leaving you flailing to turn round before Max is peppered with bullets. Meanwhile black clad enemies can lurk in black corners of black lit levels, blasting you with black shotguns. Some sections are so dark that I had to reach for the remote to turn up the brightness on my TV set to compensate. My Options Decreased To A Singular Course Which brings us nicely to the problems which are unique to the Xbox version of Max Payne. These can be summed up by one word - memory. Or rather lack thereof. The developers were apparently unable or simply unwilling to cram the requisite data into the Xbox's 64Mb of unified memory, as a result of which most levels are cut up into two or three smaller console-friendly chunks. Max was already a very linear experience on the PC, but on the Xbox (and the PS2 for that matter) you are practically on rails. You can walk through a door and be whisked away to a new section of the map without any warning whatsoever, and when the loading screen vanishes you will find that the door has conveniently locked itself behind you. Not only does this prevent you from backtracking to recover additional supplies, it also overwrites your one and only quick save position, which can leave you floundering with low health or ammunition. On the harder difficulty levels this could easily prove fatal. In fact very little effort seems to have gone into porting Max Payne to the Xbox, with the sliced up levels the only obvious change. The graphics which wowed us a year ago aren't quite so remarkable alongside the likes of Halo, the drab box-like cars and endless rooms full of crates a bit bland by comparison. Despite this a few of the levels still suffer from slack framerates, which is pretty disappointing given that the Xbox's hardware is much more capable than the PCs we were playing Max on last summer. Perhaps most embarrassing of all, there are even second-long pauses during the comic book cutscenes as the Xbox loads data off the DVD, interrupting the background music and temporarily blanking the screen. I guess the developers never thought of caching this data before it was needed? Finito Sadly the translation from PC to console hasn't been entirely smooth for Max Payne, and although the fully customisable controls are surprisingly easy to use on the standard Xbox gamepad, the rest of the conversion has been rather sloppy. Max lacks the necessary polish to stand out on the Xbox, and the passing of time hasn't been kind to his bullet-riddled good looks. If your PC can't take the heat then this is the next best way to experience the Payne, but it doesn't fare so well on its own merits. Note : the screenshots in this review are actually taken from the PC version of the game, but you'll be hard pressed to spot any difference. Related Features - Max Payne review (PC) 6
Review - Max is back, but he's lost some of his definition
Remedy Publisher Take 2 New York Minute Max Payne is a keenly awaited conversion indeed. After the enormous success of the PC version, Remedy have produced a version each for Xbox and PlayStation 2. Technologically Max Payne was a towering example of the heavyweight PC action game, and getting it to work reasonably on the PS2 has been no easy task. A bit like forcing a Christmas tree into a drainpipe. Visually, Remedy has had to cut a few corners. The charismatic Max Payne we know - with his flowing trench coat and sharp features - has been replaced by a blocky, PS2-grade character model with a polygon deficiency. The resolution is much lower than the Xbox version, and the textures have clearly been watered down to keep the hardware happy. These shortcuts still aren't enough to keep the game's framerate on an even keel. Other changes include the slicing and dicing of many of the game's levels to include more regular loading areas. The PC version was fairly reasonable about load times, especially on a fast PC, but the PS2 version takes forever. As you will doubtless be aware, Payne on the PC featured regular comic book-style story sections, which were either loved or hated. Halfway through the PS2 version, these story features combined with regular load times merely conspire to form one of the most disjointed and frustrating experiences ever. Thankfully the game's control system is easy enough to get the hang of, but playing a game like this on a gamepad will still never seem quite right... Payneful One of Max's biggest attractions is the inclusion of Bullet Time. A small hourglass rests in the bottom left of the screen at all times, and when Bullet Time is engaged it empties rapidly, during which time players can move in slow motion. This gives people the chance to dodge bullets and set up Matrix-style action sequences. Thanks to the low resolution though, bullets are almost indistinguishable, making this much-vaunted feature more or less useless. Max is still one of the best single player action games of last year, though, and this makes up for a lot of the PS2 version's shortcomings. The storyline, however wet and soppy, sets up a textbook Hollywood diorama in which our hero is a maverick cop with nothing to lose and a score to settle. As Max Payne, you have to fight through the legions of organised crime and destroy a drug so evil that it turns people into homicidal maniacs. From the game's stunning flashback-style opening to its fiery conclusion atop the Aesir building, it's a rollercoaster ride. The game has you trying to upset a bank robbery, before stumbling upon the murder of your boss - naturally enough, the only man who knows about your undercover role. During his adventures, Max teams up with the Ruskis, and has to escape the attention of the perhaps not overly competent Jim Bravura of the NYPD. The story of Max's fall from grace is well documented by media coverage during the game, which Max picks up from place to place. Conclusion The problem with Max Payne on the PlayStation 2 is that it isn't the experience the PC game was. If you have a reasonably specced PC, you should seek out the original game in all its intemperate glory. The PS2 version is still the same game, but the higher frequency of load times and questionable graphics leave a lot to be desired. Max Payne on the PC is a stunning game, with an atmosphere unmatched by any other action game released in the last 12 months. Unfortunately for Remedy and PS2 owners, visual stimulation was a key aspect of the game's atmosphere. A piano still echoes resoundingly at the game's every twist and turn, but Max PS2 has lost a lot of his energy, and I find him incredibly difficult to recommend. With about six hours worth of gameplay and none of the glamour, he's not worth £35, either. - Max Payne PC review Max Payne screenshots 7
Review - Max Payne gives us the lowdown on his debut adventure
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. It always does.
The developers had made me talk like Philip Marlowe after a heavy
night on the tiles. It was a pain I had to live with every day of
