Posts Tagged ‘PC’

It’s strange to think that it is now eleven years since I first played Max Payne. There was something special about the Remedy developed title, a noir story met an irreverent sense of humour that could only be achieved from an outsiders’ perspective (in this case Finnish). This combined with polished mechanics and controls to create a game that, even all these years on, feels modern.

Max is the model anti-hero; a distressed undercover cop, framed for the murder of his friend and who discovers (while searching for the true killer) that the case is tied up with the murder of his own family. Haunted by dreams of his loved one’s deaths there is the constant suggestion of a need to escape his past, a fact portrayed by Max’s dependence on painkillers to restore health. It was this blending of narrative and gameplay, this attention to the small details, which really made Max Payne. That and bullet-time.

Max's first look was based on the game's writer Sam Lake.

Max Payne was the first game to utilise the now all too familiar slow motion effect of bullet-time. It had already been popularised thanks to the Matrix, but the sense of empowerment was a revelation to me as I controlled Max’s leisurely glide through the air while gunning down dozens of thugs. The cinematic atmosphere this mechanic added defined the franchise and remains its greatest legacy.

In keeping with the story’s tone, the conclusion of the game offered little in the way of justice for Max, and a fraction of the redemption he deserved. But despite his murderous rampage through New York, the authorities at least saw he was the hero of the piece. His freedom ensured that Max Payne would soon return for a similar, less than cheery, adventure.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, had perhaps the most unnecessary subtitle in gaming. Max had been on a steady decent from day one, so the idea he could some how fall any further was at once unimaginable and inevitable. This, combined with its billing as “a film noir love story”, only served to make me worry for damage that was to be done to the already emotionally shattered hero.

Max Payne 2 played even more to the cinematic feel of the series, and had a better looking Max.

Personally I found the second game a little less satisfying as Max’s driving force through the world felt less convincing than in the original game. Hinging around taking out a Russian Mafia boss Max’s interests was less potently personal, and as such the lengths to which he was prepared to go felt less believable. Remedy went some way to balancing this with the return of assassin Mona, one of the few characters (comparatively) sympathetic to Max in the first game. She returned as a love interest to add some emotional resonance to proceeding, but while I would be the first to admit men do stupid things for lust the lengths to which Max was driven even I struggled to relate to.

The conclusion of Max Payne 2 promised Max would return, but despite the games popularity it never materialised. Eventually I forgot about it, until a few years ago Rockstar (who handled the console ports of the first two games) suddenly announced they were working on a third title to the series.

I was in two minds about the announcement. While still foreign to the American setting the GTA developer’s humour is distinctly different to that of Remedy’s. It may sound like an odd thing to pick up on, but it was a subtle element that had a huge impact on the first two games. This worry combined with initial screen shots for the title, which looked so different in tone from the rest of the franchise (featuring a bald Max in sun drenched Rio) that I got the feeling Rockstar had missed the point. That was until the new trailer was released.

Back to being ugly, Max's new incarnation is older and even more distressed.

The new trailer shows a greater scope than the previous game. Rather than taking place over a few days in Max’s life, the third title is to follow Max through a longer journey. Beginning the hero’s familiar urban New York setting, he is now doing freelance security. His leather coat has returned, as has his depression and a now open use pain killers to self medicate the pains of his past. This is the Max Payne I remember.

I have little idea how the story will unfold, or what will eventually drive Max to shave off his distinctive hair and fulfil the promise of the original screen shots. But the anchor of a New York setting, and Rockstar’s track record, has me hopeful this will deliver me the game I had forgotten I was waiting for.

Max Payne 3 on PC, 360 and PS3 will all be available from May the 18th. Personally I will be siding with the PC version (if my system can handle it). That is where this series began, and there is still no better way to make Max freak out in bullet-time than a quick flick of the mouse.

Here I am again for another dip back in to the games 2010 that left a mark on me. It was a bad year for me, and while gaming was not to blame but it did provide emotional touchstones, both good and bad. These posts are not a summery of the year’s best games, nor are they in any order or relevance, they are simply the titles I remember and the emotions I will forever connect with them.

After a lifetime of sharing apartments and houses with friends and family I finally found myself alone. Indeed more accurately I found myself homeless, lost and emotionally empty. It is no exaggeration when I say that I was riding the streets calling friends to ask them for a roof for the night. Riding my bike through the dark night I called, and when someone finally I answered I went to his sofa.

I took comfort from having a friend willing to put me up, and in no small part I was relieved to have company. But my luck was not to endure so completely. Not that I was again about to find myself riding the streets looking for a room, but instead that my friend was to go on away for the weekend leaving me to fester in my own numb melancholy.

This would be a quiet moment for Blur.

Come that weekend, with nothing planned and little money, I found my options limited to the entertainment available in the apartment in which I found myself. Fortunately my friend was well equipped being a gamer himself. Surrounded by games I looked at what was on offer. I had some specific requirements for my selection, a title that I couldn’t taint for myself, which I could leave and never look back at if I had to, and something I would be able to just slip into the mindless repetition of. I picked Blur.

I don’t mean to suggest that Bizarre Creations street racing game is dull by calling it mindless, but like many racing games Blur’s controls are relatively simple (with a few easy to pick up tweaks) and demands replays and perfection of tracks to advance.

Zooming around the exploding colour filled tracks Blur felt surreal with its glowing HUD beneath my car, red and blue explosions filling the screen, but real cars and locations. The vehicles even handled in a manner more akin to a simulation than an arcade racer, but I was armed. Collecting Wipeout style weapons and blowing up part of Brighton or Tokyo in my attempts to gain an advantage over the other cars I found it possible to push to the back of my mind concerns about my life as I jostled for position up the pack.

Amazingly for this day and age Blur features four player split screen.

Sat on the sofa/my bed for the two days of the weekend, some two meters from the screen on which the neon racer was displayed, the flashing greens and pinks burned my eyes as they shoot past at incredible speeds. Tactics and strategies all bubbled in my mind as I fought for the required stars that would unlock advancement through the competitions. I played levels repeatedly, unwilling to move on until I had perfected it. Able to lose myself in this, my mind became slowly anesthetised. It was much appreciated.

Blur’s soporific effects remain with me. On my return to the UK I bought it again and still find it akin to a comfort blanket. I can sit and play, almost without thought, advancing or not with very little passion but none the less happy. Even abject failure elicits little more than a shrug from me as I happily… or at least contentedly replay the race.

I couldn’t honestly say if Blur is good game, or even a good racer. It certainly possessed more replay value for me than any games that could reasonably be considered its competition. But for me it is now more like medicine, a painkiller. A game I played with the express purpose of losing myself and then abandoning found a place in my heart from the medicinal service it provided.

Whenever I have been asked about my most anticipated game of 2010 is I have answered Dead Space 2. It is an instinctive response; the original was far and away my favourite game of 2008. While I feel the game didn’t need a sequel science-fiction survival horror titles prove a rare breed, so I take them where I can get them.

I felt a pang of disappointment and annoyance as I started watching E3 footage Dead Space 2. Isaac Clarke, the games protagonist, has changed. Gone is the clunky practical engineer suit, replaced instead by a more ‘edgy’ outfit. I was sad at the loss of the old distinctive look, worried the game was to be bleached it of personality to attract a wider audience.

New meaner looking suit just feels more generic.

Happily I was wrong.

Whatever the reason for Isaac’s new suit its existence soon faded as I watched the footage. New environments from the games terrestrial setting were on show, most interest of which was a church. A blend of gothic architecture and the games own derelict industrial style were obvious in the building, making it feel familiar but hinting at a diversity that was absent in the original.

New enemies (Necromorphs) of varying sizes were also on show. Attacking Isaac, some of these other otherworldly forms were reminiscent of spiders while others looked like small children with gaping tooth filled mouths. Foes approached in larger numbers than the original game, making pace appear more frantic, another shift in direction for the game I will reserve judgement on for now.

I am eager to jump back into Dead Space’s fiction to find out more about its mysterious parasitic Necromorphs and the delusional Church of Unitology. My only major disappointment from the news out of the show was that the release date has slipped to 2011, but at least it January.

Torchlight appeals to so many of my idiosyncrasies that I am bemused as to why its spiritual predecessor Diablo never appealed to me. Both offer lush fantasy settings and the draw of improved equipment with every vanquished foe that fuels my obsessive tendencies. Maybe I have simply matured as a gamer, or perhaps it is Torchlight’s refinements to the point-and-click, loot hording, action RPG genre that have me enamored.

Every change Torchlight has made to Diablo has focused on making it more appealing to newcomers. Most obvious of these changes is the appearance. A brighter palette, while remaining moody, adds lightness as do the exaggerated characters in the 3D world.

A distinct style made up of bold colours compliments the games mood perfectly.

Alterations are not limited to visuals; tweaks to gameplay also take center stage. Foremost among these additions is the inclusion of a pet. These little critters not only provide space for items and additional powers (cue skeleton summoning dogs), but also deliver the greatest innovation over Diablo, personal shoppers. Loading up a pet with unwanted loot will see them disappearing back to the town of Torchwood to sell it. It’s a tiny change, but one that released me from the burden of excess items, while stilling reaping some of their benefits.

At $20 it is hard not to recommend Torchlight. Accessible, dip in and out gameplay offers a fun distraction. Though the game is quite short the attraction of harder difficulties and increasingly powerful items prove a constant draw, for me at least.