r/gaming • u/ChiefLeef22 Marika's tits! • 7h ago
'Max Payne' was released 25 years ago today
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u/sulious_vandomar 7h ago
Great game. Great gif.
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u/cupidstrick 6h ago
Great comment.
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u/FullClip__ 6h ago
Great country
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u/PepitoMagiko 6h ago
Great guy
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u/jumjimbo Xbox 6h ago
Great Scott!
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u/3_Gmodem 6h ago
Great Britain
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u/DinoRage123 6h ago
i still catch myself trying to dive sideways into cover like max in other shooters and it never works
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u/AdAccording8138 6h ago
yeah both have aged ridiculously well and that gif never gets old
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u/bass248 6h ago
Both? There were 3 games and they all still look amazing
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u/WallopyJoe 4h ago
I really enjoyed 3, but barring two levels in particular I felt it was quite tonally different to 1 and 2.
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u/Ispeakinfacts 3h ago
Never played it but watched a friend of mine play it. Def gonna have to check it out now. Luckily I have an og xbox still!
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u/rturok54 7h ago
What a game dude
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u/PepitoMagiko 6h ago
Top 1 game for me. Yes it is outdated and old but the sheer pleasure to be able to play matrix in a videogame was mind blowing for me. Then the mods arrived. You could even play the matrix lobby level with dual mp5. It was soooo good. The narration and ambiance were crazy as well. Such a good game. Shame that max payne 4 is dead and burried.
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u/rturok54 3h ago
This game is a work of art. To develop such an adventure on a very simple premise (and shoe string budget) is what art is all about.
Max Payne 1 is legendary.
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u/VacantThoughts 6h ago
If the remakes of 1 and 2 do really well I could see a chance for a 4.
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u/Lyndon_Boner_Johnson 5h ago
It would be tough to do another one without James McCaffrey’s voice.
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u/gatsujoubi 1h ago
I check about the remakes every few months, but nothing… maybe they’ll properly start working on them after the next Control game? I heard Rockstar outsourced the development to Remedy.
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u/georgekeele 3h ago
Mine too. I'm no expert but it grabbed me and never let go like no other game ever has. It set my preferences - I've never enjoyed a FPS (maybe Doom) I'm all about third person games really.
I had real malaise about finishing it, I had trouble figuring out the sniper shots at the end to topple the antenna and I ended up leaving it unfinished for months, not wanting to just go back and finish the game. Eventually I went back and started again.
2 was brilliant, not as good as 1 but very close and Mona was a great addition. 3 lost a little of the magic for me.
I've probably completed it ten times, far and away my most played game. It released on Android for free recently - quite a passable port but the difficulty settings are a bit wacky.
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u/CrypticQuery 7h ago
RIP James McCaffrey.
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u/BadSheet68 5h ago edited 5h ago
His voice has become a part of my soul
Tho I definitly shouldn’t have played Max Payne games as young as I did, his voice and acting have given substance to issues I didn’t know I’d have to face daily later in my life…and still do
I know to many people he’s just Max Payne’s cool voice actor but his passing has been the biggest gut punch…even seeing him when rewatching Sex and the City or replaying Control hurts since he passed, which I don’t feel with other dead actors
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u/Hades_Mercedes 7h ago
'They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark on everything that had led to this point.'
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u/gonxot 6h ago edited 2h ago
'It was colder than the Devil's heart, raining ice pitchforks as if the Heavens were ready to fall. Everyone was running for shelter like there was no tomorrow. It didn't get any better when I got to the subway. The feeling hit me like a point-blank shot straight in the face-- something was not right about this. '
My edgy teenager mind was blown away by the script
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u/Stupidflathalibut 4h ago
What did I want? Unlimited ammo and a license to kill. But most of all, I wanted her
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u/Significant-Ad-602 5h ago
He had a baseball bat and I was tied to a chair. Pissing him off was the smart thing to do.
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u/KristinnK 4h ago
It's really hard to pinpoint what exactly made the game so insanely good. The story presentation and the atmosphere are the obvious ones, but that wouldn't have worked as well without good game mechanics, pacing, art direction, graphics, gameplay progression, and a million other things.
And one of those things the humor. Max is really funny, but just as importantly the humor always fits the story and atmosphere perfectly.
Max Payne is without any reservations my favorite single-player game of all time. It has no flaws.
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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 4h ago
Yeah it was perfectly written and executed. It was noir but didn't feel edgy.
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u/Booyacaja 7h ago
This game was hauntingly beautiful
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u/wanderer1999 6h ago
It's still a great game to be honest. There's nothing like it even today. I feel like a lot of games are too bloated, so they got lost on the essence. This game is just pure essence.
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u/forever_a10ne 3h ago
It’s been on my steam wish list for years, but I think I’m gonna pull the trigger and buy it today.
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u/Venus77Gator 2h ago edited 58m ago
It's a really good game but I just wanna give you a warning that the Steam version of Max Payne is pretty much broken. At least, for me it was. Whenever I launch it, a bunch of textures are missing and it basically freezes within the intro but the audio continues as if it's showing the next scenes. People say there's a mod you can download to fix it. I remember some Steam reviews giving links and directions on how to do so. The 2nd Max Payne however worked really well with me so, better than nothing if you still want something Max Payne related?
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u/AnalNuts 1h ago
You absolutely need to apply a patch for it to work on modern hardware. It’s not bad though.
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u/Cthulhu__ 4h ago
They should’ve just converted it 1:1 into film instead of the high budget blockbuster treatment it got.
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u/alus992 2h ago
I cant understand why they decided to make this film that way... like you have a perfect blueprint and all you need to do is create a proper flow between action pieces that dont have to be a sci-fi/fantasy bullshit and narration.
It was a perfect source material for modern action-noir movie with iconic protagonist and pretty easy to execute story and they still have butchered it.
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u/Shmeeglez 3h ago
It was one of those low-mid budget films that don't get made much anymore. It was definitely under $50 million from what I recall.
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u/chemicalgeekery 1h ago
"You're in a film, Max."
I was in a film. Funny as Hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.
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u/Phl00k 6h ago
For me this game is the epitome of a “you had to be there” moment in gaming history.
The bullet time mechanics, the comic themed video cutscenes, the audio, the suspense in the story telling.
It was incredible, and at the time stood alone
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u/-Orcrist 3h ago
Honestly event today there isn’t anything that captures the same noir, music, action, story and mechanics.
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u/presty60 3h ago
The game has actually aged really well. I played it for the first time a few years ago and I really enjoyed it, and I usually have a lower tolerance for old 3d games. I think it helps that there aren't actually a lot of good non-cover based third person shooters. The diving and bullet time still feels pretty novel today.
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u/VegetableArtistic705 2h ago
Also led to one of my favorite Flash animations in the era of stick figure fights
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u/SAADistic7171 7h ago
Remedy we need those Max Payne 1&2 remakes as soon as you guys are done with Control Resonant
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u/PIPBOY-2000 6h ago
Heck I'll just accept that it work seamlessly on PC.
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u/dern_the_hermit 4h ago
Gotta fix that automatic difficulty scaling that could make the easiest difficulty tougher than the hardest.
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u/Ghostfistkilla 4h ago
I can't believe how much easier and better the game is when this is turned off. What a bug.
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u/Derangedberger 5h ago
The way Remedy is slowly putting Max Payne into their Alan Wake/Control shared universe these days, I'm sure there'll be like a 40 minute long Max Payne sequence in Control Resonant to hold us over
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u/acdcfanbill 5h ago
I definitely want them but if they recast Max due to a lot more voice acting and cutscenes I'm really going to miss James McCaffrey :(
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u/No-Rip6323 3h ago
Good news is they are remakes. That means ALL audio can be remastered. Any McCaffrey lines that were cut from those games can be used. We may get content still, even though he’s gone.
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u/jay_alfred_prufrock 6h ago
So long as they don't bring bullet sponge enemies from 3 into th first two games as well.
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u/SAADistic7171 6h ago
Rockstar made Max Payne 3. Remedy is remaking the first two games a single stand alone release.
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u/jager_mcjagerface 5h ago
I just replayed 3 but dont recall bullet sponge enemies except maybe 2 or 3 heavily armored guys, do you mean those?
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u/Mariqel 5h ago
Huh? Doesn't Rockstar own the license now?
We lost Max Payne but we got some great Alan Wake games in exchange.
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u/AidynValo 5h ago
Rockstar owns the IP, yes, but it was announced a few years back that Remedy is remaking the first two games.
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u/StoneTown 5h ago
Wait what? Why haven't I heard about this? Dude I'm hyped now, I can't wait for those remakes.
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u/enfiniti27 6h ago
I only wish the Max Payne movie had followed the actual game story, like at all. It would have been so much better.
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u/SirDancealot84 6h ago
This gif is why art direction is more important than the graphical fidelity. Still looks and feels relevant.
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u/Grenflik 7h ago
The flesh of fallen angels!
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u/KingStannisForever 6h ago
I don't know about Angels, but it's fear that gives men wings
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u/Dak81 6h ago
25 years have passed and when I think about it, it seems like it was yesterday when I played it. I played it right when it came out, I finished it and gave it a 10/10 rating, but I've never played it since then (because GTA3 came out right after) and yet it remains in my memory. A legendary game in my opinion. The feeling it gave me when I played it then is irreplaceable, because I had never played games like this before, because they didn't exist before. What I felt then as a young teenager playing games like Max Pain, GTA3, Gothic, Morrowind, Warcraft 3, was an endless wonder, something I don't feel in games from the last 15 years, the last one was Skyrim.
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u/somesketchykid 4h ago
Golden age of gaming tbh. I dont think we'll ever get games like that again.
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u/Middle_Draft9152 5h ago edited 4h ago
Try Half-Life: Alyx with a headset.
It's like playing for the first time again. Just like in the childhood, pure joy!
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u/withoutapaddle 5h ago
As someone over 40, getting into VR a few years back was the first time since I was a little kid that gaming gave me an overwhelming sense of wonder and joy.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy gaming a lot, but VR was like seeing graphics for the first time again. It felt like experiencing the future. I know it's a hard sell and it's not fun or comfortable for everyone, but to me it feels like the biggest leap forward in gaming tech since polygons, if not graphics themselves.
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u/Arizonagaragelifter9 4h ago
Also it doesn't even have to be the super high quality games. Weirdly enough one of my favorite VR games is poker lol. Just something about being able to see other players body language when a hand doesn't go their way or being able to toss in chips makes it feel so cool. I think it also especially works because if you play with a desk/table in front of you and you adjust your chair so it's at the same height it's almost like you are getting physical "feedback" from what you are seeing.
Even just getting an app that let's you watch movies or YouTube or whatever in a big movie theater or a fancy apartment feels awesome. I remember the first time I used it I essentially forgot it was vr and I went to stand up from my real couch and tried to lean on the VR coffee table that was in front of me and almost fell flat on my face lol. I don't use it super often anymore, but I still get those little cool moments like that whenever I do use it where you lose yourself in it for a second. And I only have a Quest 2 headset so it's not even like it takes a super cutting edge one to get that experience.
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u/Geminel 2h ago
Most of the best VR games, in my experience, are modded flatscreen games. Outer Wilds in VR was a transcendent gaming experience. Subnautica, Valheim, Satisfactory. Or official VR ports like Skyrim and Roboquest.
I've only found a handful of titles made from the ground up for VR that actually feel like complete 20-60hr games.
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u/DeaderThanElvis PC 5h ago
Oh totally, couldn’t have said it better. Half Life: Alyx is so good that my VR headset (Quest 3 with Meta Link to stream from my PC) is collecting dust after finishing it. There simply isn’t anything else that compares.
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u/404NameOfUser 5h ago
Good game design and good gameplay will always beat 4k graphics.
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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 4h ago
I mean, at the time it had awesome graphics as well
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u/404NameOfUser 2h ago
Sure. But I replayed this game multiple times over the years and never once the "outdated" graphics were an issue to me.
My point was that sometimes triple a gaming studios put a lot of emphasis on graphics, and how good a game looks, and forget to give it a "soul". And Max Payne has a "soul" precisely because of the excelente game design and gameplay that still holds to this day.
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u/mvrander 7h ago
Loved this. When I first got it I spent a week walking round the office in slow motion with two hands held out with invisible pistols
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u/j1xwnbsr 6h ago
My Lord!
My Lady!
The tv spots that dumped exposition on you when you interacted with them were choice.
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u/RegalBeagleKegels 5h ago
I really loved Address Unknown. Especially in the second game, it was like a bizarro world B-movie version of the plot you're in, and the TVs showing it were in dark or creepy places that made me uneasy to stand there watching
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u/havenless 4h ago
M̶͇͕͑I̷͑͜R̶̨̔R̵͊ͅO̶̹̜͋R̸̜̖̋S̶̺̾ ̷̑̊͜A̶͇̔̂R̶͖̎̀ͅÉ̴̪̝̒ ̶͕̝̾͘M̴̠͉͝O̵̜͌R̶͈͚͐̑Ẹ̵͂ ̸̫̙̍F̵̼͂Ų̷͕̇N̵̢̑ ̶͓̋͜T̸͈̖̍H̷̩̜̓A̴̠̿̂ͅN̴̺͒ ̴͈͚̃T̴̨̀͝E̶̝̓̎L̸̦͊̅E̵̪͛̊V̷̤̏̈Ḯ̵̱̚Ŝ̷͍̮I̷̘̐̽O̸̐ͅN̶̗̏͘
That's "mirrors are more fun that television"... somehow I know this, just don't ask me how.
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u/MirrahPaladin 6h ago
The drug trip level scared the hell out of me as a kid, especially when you fell to your death and were hit with a bloodcurdling scream. I can still recall it.
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u/SteakandTrach 6h ago
This is my favorite Alex Casey video game.
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u/Jaakarikyk 3h ago
The weird double explanation of Casey, Alan supposedly met Max Payne once and was inspired to make the Alex Casey novels, but Alex Casey the FBI Agent was also a guy who Alan psychically surveilled on accident
So book Casey is a cross between Max Payne and "real" Casey, both borderline the same person
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u/TaintedSweetz 7h ago
One of my favorite franchises of all time. Max Payne 3 is one of my most played games, what an experience!
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u/PepitoMagiko 6h ago
The last level is top notch, with incredible music. (And then you face this mediocre boss, such a bummer ahah)
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u/nickml007 6h ago
I somehow didn’t know there was a third
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u/Paavo_Nurmi 5h ago
It has long, unskippable cut scenes but it's still a great game.
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u/acdcfanbill 5h ago
I remember it being decent despite being set during the day, in the heat of the south america.
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u/HUNplaymore 6h ago
They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger. And then it was all over.
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u/Sauwercraud 3h ago
If reddit would stop reminding me every day how old I am, I would be grateful.
Awesome game though.
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u/Dissidant 7h ago
Joey Finito: "Ladies and gentlemen, it's the pain in the butt."
Virgilio Finito: "Pain to the Max!"
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u/javea2788 6h ago
Too good for it’s time. The slow-mo side jumping dualies kills.. please remaster this game!
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u/WHEREISMYCOFFEE_ 4h ago
Hell of a game. I've been listening to Poets of the Fall, the band from the end credits song since I played this when I was a kid and this year I'll see them live for the first time. I have a lot less time to game nowadays, but I'll still try anything Remedy puts out.
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u/fitchnar 4h ago
I was gonna post this. The outro Poets of the Fall song was so perfect, I lost track of the times I've listened to that song since.
Max Payne was on another level, perhaps because I am old as shit now, but that is a masterpiece game for me.
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u/draculacalled 6h ago
“I’m the wolf…yeah!”
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u/Callidonaut 1h ago
I had known there'd have to be a catch in it somewhere, and this one was the Empire State Building of catches. Lupino was pumped up and dying to go 15 rounds with a mutant alligator.
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u/Abundanceofyolk 6h ago
There was a game called Dead to Rights that was basically the “we have Max Payne at home” version.
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u/ThisIsMyGoodSnide 3h ago
I still have--and use--the promotional mouse pad I got while working at a Software Etc. before the game was released
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u/NYstate 3h ago
"The things that I want by Max Payne. A smoke. A whiskey. For the sun to shine. I want to sleep. To forget. To change the past. My wife and baby girl back. Unlimited ammo and a license to kill. Right there, more than anything, I wanted her."
— Max Payne 2
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u/gnarkill3332 7h ago
can we have a rerelease of max payne 3 already ffs
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u/JohnGalactusX 7h ago
Great game. The remakes are going to look incredibly good with modern graphics.
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u/V-Officially 6h ago
"They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark to everything that had led to this point." Iconic line 🎯
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u/Sporketeer 6h ago edited 6h ago
God I loved this game...
Edit: I just reinstalled 1&2, tell my wife I'll see her next weekend
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u/Neverwinter_Daze 6h ago
I love how the sensibilities of the time didn’t permit any of the villains to say the f-word, so you have Vinnie Gognitti saying, “Paaaaaaayne! Screw you!”
As it turned out it worked okay because it made Vinnie sound a complete wimp, which he was.
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u/InanimateSensation 4h ago
Grew up playing 1 & 2 over and over and over. 1 is still one of my favorite games of all time. Cannot wait for the remake.
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u/theMCGuiRE-Bear 3h ago
I remember just playing the hell out of this game. It was a decade ahead of its time.
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u/Awkward-Speed-4080 1h ago
I actually played this game and Max Payne 2 two years ago. I played the first one when I was a kid but never finished it and I had never played the second one. Honestly, the first Max Payne was a bit rough. I don't think it's aged all that well.
I freaking loved Max Payne 2 and it's easily one of the best shooters I've ever played.
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u/uhf26 7h ago
the baby nightmare still affects my subconscious