The impression I got is that part of the game takes place as flashbacks, so you’ve got Younger Max with all his hair, and then Heisenberg Max whose let himself go after things got too much for him at some point after MP2.
I played the game at PAX East this year, so I think I can answer most of the questions.
– The game features scenes in both New York and Brazil told in a non-linear fashion. So Max with hair and bald Max will both be playable throughout the game.
– The head shaving is a major plot point (more or less a “They fucked with the wrong non-Brazilian” moment) and I saw part of it as I was playing.
– I think “pot belly Max” was nothing more than a bad concept art piece as even bald Max looked pretty svelte and in-shape.
– I can’t tell you how it compares to the first two, but the game plays pretty spectacularly. I especially liked the revenge shot mechanic where bullet-time is automatically enabled after you’re shot so you can take a shot at the guy who shot you.
All that said, I have no idea if it’s worth $90 in Aussie money. I only got to play for like 15-20 minutes. It was fun, but I’d wait for some reviews if you’re on the fence.
Only reason I haven’t pre-ordered it is because I didn’t know it would come out in May already, so I pre-ordered Diablo 3 instead. I kinda regret that, now. Though I am annoyed that the PC-EU version will be dropped on June 1st instead of May 15, since I have that week off.
I created a Crew: The Perestroika VIP Club (Tag: “Homicide from the Homeland!”). If anyone wants to join up, feel free! I plan on keeping it going through GTA V as well, hence the GTA-themed name.
If anyone creates a straight dope crew, let me know and I’ll join. I’m playing on PSN, ID is Morganthaler.
Wow. Just wow.
Great game. Anyone playing it?
I started playing it and I’m not liking the narrative so far. It’s eye-roll inducing in the extreme.
However, the shooting is fun, and Max seems like a more interesting, nuanced character to me in this chapter.
It’s also a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. Playing on normal and I’ve died A LOT. Though not so much that I find it frustrating… just a little unforgiving.
On PC the high resolution textures, lighting, tessellaiton, AF and AA make the game look really, really good. If it wasn’t for some of the wooden, stiff animations of the characters I’d say it was one of the better looking games I’ve played.
The only issue with the graphics are the constant in engine, but pre-rendered cut scenes. They look like they were made for the console version. The lighting, the shadowing, the jaggies, the textures, plus it’s obviously 30 FPS.
What was obviously made to be seamless, on PC is completely jarring. The game just looks 10 times better running in real time on a PC than in those cut scenes, and MAN are there a LOT of cut scenes!
Note: My opinions of the game come only from the first disc of the 360 version.
After playing a good chunk of the game I can say that if you really like 3rd person shooters you will probably really like this. The actual shooting mechanics are some of the best feeling I’ve ever played (and I have played quite a few), however that’s really all there is. The entire game is a shooting gallery nothing more, the game has absolutely no content that isn’t in the form of standard shooting or cut scenes, and this really hurt the game IMHO.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that the story is the only real reason to play the game, but I didn’t experience this. Everything I saw was simply the characters going from one area to the next looking for the kidnapped girl and then narrowly missing her like I said I didn’t play the whole game but there wasn’t a whole lot that I saw that was interesting.(Note: the disc I played ends just after the attack on the company place with the fire at the end)
In my opinion I would consider on the same level as something like the original Assassin’s Creed, in other words it has fantastic game play mechanics and is worth playing, but it’s far too repetitive to be worth it at this price.
The more I play it, the more I agree with this.
I’m setting this aside for some more Diablo 
I’ve played through it on Normal and Hard now and I’ve got to concur. The replay value is hampered by having only the one really good gameplay mechanism - shooting. It is absolutely fantastic, for what that’s worth and going back to other games like Space Marine now feels so imprecise and cludgy it’s hardly worth it. But it does kind of feel like they just took that one thing out of Red Dead Redemption, which had a similiar mechanic, and built everything else around it.
And the writing is … not so good. It lacks the flair and heartfelt bitterness from the first two games and plays the same notes way too many times. There’s very little space for Max to grow as a character. While he changes it up a bit towards the end, I’m really more interested in the next game in term of storyline, since I’m tired of the whole “woe is me, pill-popping alcoholic” schtick. Now that he’s off the sauce and a free agent again, I think they can go to more interesting places. The voice acting is competent, but flat.
What I really want, though, is a total conversion mod to the Matrix, like Max Payne 1 & 2. If there’s ever been a better vehicle for a Matrix game than this, I’ve never seen it. The animation, graphics and general attention to detail is incomparable.