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The Fall Of Max Payne Announced
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out Rockstar Games have announced Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne, the sequel to the third-person action title from Remedy Entertainment. The press release indicates the game will ship for PC this fall, but doesn't mention when the console versions will come out. This follows last year's announcement that 3D Realms/Apogee and Remedy had sold the intellectual property for Max Payne to Rockstar for around 35 million dollars in cash and shares, for those wondering which bottomless pit Duke Nukem Forever's development budget is coming from.
It should either have just been called Fall of Max Payne or Max Payne II: The Downfall. The redundancy looks horrible...
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Since you plug your site, I'll bite and give you my two cents. Why oh why do you focus on the negative aspects of everything you review? I mean, I understand the point of your site, but, frankly, after reading your comments on Ape Escape, Zelda and Max Payne, I am beginning to wonder if there is any game you do enjoy. Not meaning to offend there, just think you are far too unforgiving and that your levels are too high for what is, essentially, entertainment.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Simple, really. There is far too much positive, childish, gushing praise for games already.
Since you now understand the tone of the site, you should read the writing there in that context. Just like when I read IGN or GameSpot...they give a game an 8.5, then I'm thinking to myself "Hm, good chance that that's an inflated score." See, for example, Tony Hawk 3 which got a 10 out of 10 on Gamespot. (As a counter argument, you could point out Ico, which earned an 8.5, a score that's far too low, really. See my Ico review for the biggest example of positive, childish, gushing praise on Curmudgeon.) So, knowing that we're going into a game with a critical eye, you should take that approach into account.
Besides, look at the positive comments that are in some of those reviews you point out. Ape Escape is most inventive platformer I've seen and I characterize it as "fun" and "cute". Does that mean it doesn't have flaws or that I should ignore them? No. Was I disappointed with the approach they took in the end to ramp up the difficulty? Yes. Shouldn't I mention that? Of course.
Same goes for Zelda, which makes me forget that I'm playing a game because it's so cleanly rendered. I also enjoyed the three main characters (Link, Aryll, Tetra) a good bit, and said so. In my update (forthcoming) I'll probably ramble on a good bit about just how Link is probably the cutest, most expressive character I've ever met in a game. Should I just forget the technical failings of the game, just because I like other parts? No, I shouldn't, and I won't. They're there just like the positive bits.
Finally, I can't think of anything redeeming to say about Max Payne other than "bullet time was fun". Sorry, but I feel it was a failure for a game, and enjoyed success simply because most people have low standards for story telling and FPS games.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Wow, you really didn't "get it", did you? The whole POINT of Max Payne is that it was over-the top, a parody of the old gum-shoe detective film noir stuff. It was hilarious! That you can't tell bad writing, from good parody is indicative that I shouldn't give the rest of your review comments much weight.