Catching up on my Backlog of Games (Max Payne 3)

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on this blog but as you can probably guess, I tend to get busy and right after my post in April college bogged me down for a month. And so I didn't feel like writing for awhile, either, because of how much writing I had to do for college that month.

That being said, I'm going to TRY and keep this consistent but I almost always fail at this stuff because of my other obligations so bear with me.

Anyway, on the subject at hand: I have a backlog of games and I recently finished one of them which as you can tell by the title was a shooter.

I bought it for the PS3 for $10 from a GameFly used games sale back in April. I started playing it at the beginning of May and that was when I realized: ...is this just a shooting gallery game? I played through the first three chapters of the game and immediately became bored and stopped playing it; instead I started to play other games again like Metal Gear Rising (which is a *fantastic* game you should pick up immediately).

Before going forward, yes, this post is more of a "review" or "opinion piece" on Max Payne 3. So if you're not interested in knowing my thoughts on it feel free to dip out of this post.

The first three chapters... I can't even remember them they were so bad and uninteresting. In fact, the whole game felt that way. Obviously I set the game to Normal difficulty like any other person would when trying a new game in a series you've never played before (even though, yes, it's a shooter) or want to just have a "relaxing" entertainment kind of game.

So I won't talk much about the beginning of the single player other than: it's very forgettable. In fact, I would argue the game doesn't really "pick up" until at least Chapter 7. And even then, it's not really that enthralling of a game in general.

Anyway, so, I stopped playing it after those first chapters for two months. I just returned to this game the other day with my intention of finishing it despite how much I really didn't like it. I figured I spent the $10 might as well make it worth it. And to be honest? It wasn't worth it.

Why wasn't it worth it? For four main reasons: it's bland, it's a shoot bang game (meaning, it's a game full of constant shooting), the story is unbelievably terrible, and it's got very bad level design.

How is it bland? Well, it's a game that is chasing after the crowd that absolutely loves cinematic action/adventure games. It doesn't try to do anything new in the genre and it also doesn't even try to *top* any of the games it's competing with in this genre.

The cutscenes are nothing to write home about... and while yes, they tried to be "artsy" with the cutscenes, it really just seems like someone wanted to spam filters and words everywhere. I appreciate the "comic book" style scenes but they are nothing too special either.

Then you have a lack of any actual great set pieces. In order for a cinematic action game to be successful these days, you have to have *something* that hasn't already been done before and is also really impressive and "wows" people when they see it. Max Payne 3 has nothing like that at all, it's very safe with its set pieces and does nothing special that couldn't be done without scripting. And about the only fun set piece is right at the end of the game, which lasts a total of 2 to 3 minutes at most.

The monologues Max does throughout the game add little to the actual storyline. They are just there to check off a box because in the previous two titles that's what Max did. These monologues don't serve to really develop the character; instead they serve to try and explain some things. About the only positive aspect I can say about them is that they are well acted.

How is it a shoot bang game? Well, this kind of falls under blandness but basically: every chapter just has you walk from corridor to corridor shooting people. You walk from point A to point B, a cutscene puts you behind cover, and you start shooting people like a typical third person shooter. The game doesn't even really encourage you to leave cover because... it's safer 99% of the time to stay behind it; especially because there's no regenerating health in this game.

As far as the story goes, it's your typical washed up cop story. He meets some guy named Passos in a bar, who he suddenly is willing to trust because of the simple statement "we used to be in the academy together" and winds up being used by him in the end. And that's not even the full story, there's quite a bit that goes on but it's all around just... bad. Nothing keeps you hooked to the story, there's no one you can really care about.

Passos is an especially contrived character. He doesn't have a history at all with Max (the game reveals as much) and the player has no reason to care about the character either. He was just made to... have a companion for Max in the levels and used as a means to try and generate some kind of twist in the story *anyone* can see from a mile away. He doesn't just appear naturally like Max has known him, they make it seem that way but it really shows through he wasn't in the previous games and he was a poorly written character.

It's a story that tries to work with a character that doesn't fit the genre they're putting him in. I haven't played the previous two Max Payne games, but from what I know, this game shares nothing with them other than the Bullet Time mechanics, Max's monologues, and the pain killers as your medkit.

The story also doesn't end on a note that leaves you thinking, "wow that was amazing". Without spoiling anything, it's anti-climatic and leaves the player dissatisfied.

And now for the level design... oh my god this is like the worst third person shooter level design I've ever seen. There are parts of the game where there's zero cover and they expect you to maneuver in such a way that you don't take much damage. It's corridors masked with pretty locales and very little cover. It's often best to stay in the cover they put you in via a cutscene. You never want to leave cover because if you do, you take 3-4 shots and you're basically dead.

Pain killers are not quite as abundant and you can easily find yourself with zero of them in some combat sequences. I must have died an upwards of 60 times at least, maybe even 100. I even turned down the difficulty (and no I wasn't playing bad) and I still died quite a lot. It was definitely more manageable but man, if you're dying a lot on Normal and you know how to play video games, it's definitely a sign of bad level design or even bad game design in general.

The enemies don't die when they should and the aiming is abysmal. The reticle is small so you can easily miss your shots if you so much as move your analogue stick an inch. And then to top it all off, the enemies almost never miss their shots. So if you poke your head out for even a second, you're likely to have half of your health gone.

And then the movement has your trademark Rockstar awfulness. Rolling is beyond slow, aiming while moving is awkwardly slow (you can't strafe very well), sprinting isn't really sprinting, and finally to perform a melee attack you have to tap the fire button while near an enemy... What the hell were they thinking with that??? The controls are so backwards.

Basically, you can easily get cornered with no way to move out of cover for any amount of time before dying seconds later. It doesn't seem like you take less damage on the Easy difficulty at all (like it would do in the Uncharted games). It seems more like the enemies might take less damage to kill but I don't know, they still took a full freaking clip to kill for me!

A lot of the levels are just designed in such a way that you can't move around without being shot at from all sides. Unless, of course, you sit behind the half wall they set you in from the cutscene. And there are many, MANY unfair deaths that can happen in this game. It's really, really, really bad.

There's a chapter... I don't remember which one precisely but you're on some docks and they're really freaking narrow docks. There's water surrounding you, so you think you can swim in it, right? Nope! If you jump into it, the game plays a cutscene of an enemy shooting you with a pistol; it's an instant death. But that's not all, as you're walking through these narrow docks, there are enemies on boats shooting you AND on the docks themselves. And there's no cover on the docks at all until you get to a certain point where there's one tiny half wall in front of a boat...

Enemies spawn based on triggers rather than naturally existing in the game world. You can turn a corner and suddenly enemies will appear without you being able to react in time and... thus you die. This level I'm describing has that and when I saw it, I went into the bullet time dodge and... fell into the water thinking I'd be able to swim: nope, I died from the above cutscene that plays. There's no warning given to the player that you can die from going into the water. I mean, it's a Rockstar game so I should have expected as much but then... WHY MAKE A LEVEL WITH WATER IF IT'S JUST GOING TO BASICALLY ACT AS A DEATH PLANE???

All in all? I am glad to have finished the game but I didn't really have that much of a great time. I can now totally see why the game didn't sell like Rockstar expected it to. I mean... 3-4 million isn't bad but they projected much higher than that... I don't know why; especially since people were likely getting very selective of their games last year. I am happy I did not spend $60 but I will say right now: do not play this game for the single player and you should probably even avoid buying it at all unless you can get it on Steam for $5. (Which I doubt you will for a few more months). Even then, I wouldn't recommend it. It's a poor game all around and not worth wasting your time playing it.

I am astonished this game has an 86-87 metacritic score but I guess I shouldn't be? It's exactly the kind of game "journalists" like, I'm surprised it wasn't higher because it was Rockstar... Well, maybe it got that 86-87 because it was Rockstar and if it was another development team it would have scored lower......

Either way, those were my thoughts on Max Payne 3. Sorry if they might have sounded a little scrambled, it's late at night right now but I felt like writing something. Let me know in the comments if you agree or what you thought of what I said!

Adam Orth, Microsoft Creative Director, No Longer Works at Microsoft

According to an article written by Game Informer (which can be seen here), Adam Orth does not work at Microsoft anymore. It's not known whether it was a forced resignation, or of his own will, but Game Informer will update the story when and if they receive comments from either Microsoft or Adam Orth.

Instead of regurgitating the article in full, I also want to give my own thoughts on this whole debacle. I followed the controversy all last week, from its inception to the end of it all on NeoGAF. From the sidelines, it was evident from the start Adam Orth would be fired. His actions cost Microsoft customer loyalty, money, as well as any positive press about their upcoming console. Now everything is going to be doom and gloom leading up to their conference, which is supposedly slated for next month.

Having read the reactions from other journalists and gamers alike, there's a split on this decision. Some gamers feel Adam Orth was wrongly fired; the reasoning for firing him wasn't "a big deal". Likewise, journalists on Twitter remarked that it is sad that he got fired. Some are even baffled about it, surprised to see it actually happen. The other end of it is that he deserved to be fired. There is this thought, from journalists and others, that the Internet is "celebrating" him being fired. Mistaking the remarks about him deserving to be fired as "celebrating".

That's all based on what I have, personally, read. Granted, I don't have the knowledge of everyone's thoughts, those are just a select few. What are mine? My thoughts align with those who feel he deserved to be fired. But before I get into that, there is a huge amount of shocking revelations to me, as a Communications major.

From what I have read, many people are surprised he got fired. Many people feel he was wrongly fired, that it was "small". Here's the thing, here's the reality: any company, any business, big or small would do the exact same thing Microsoft did. It's no secret social media is used to its full advantage by businesses, but employees are expected to keep their personal lives separate from their work and vice versa.

Placing your exact job title right on your Twitter page is making yourself a target. You're also giving the false impression, to the general public, that you represent the company. Your opinions represent who you work for. And that's what lead to Adam Orth's ultimate demise. He placed, right on his personal Twitter, "Creative Director at Microsoft". Any old Joe isn't going to know how big that role is, other than the "director" part of it makes him seem important. So, what does that do? It makes someone or everyone think his opinion holds weight within the company and is either partially or largely shared with the company as a whole.

Thus, you have a huge amount of angry consumers about Microsoft's next console possibly requiring you to have an internet connection just to play single player games. Couple that with the continual recurring rumors about it and you have possibly the worst narrative generated from this whole debacle. And what's even worse is, it's a negative narrative. And that's what got Adam Orth fired. It circulated among tons of gaming websites, the majority placing it smack dab on the front page. Making the news known to even the least core of gamers.

It all boils down to the power of social media. It's why other businesses have a policy about it. As a Communications major, I've even been told about how you should be careful with what you say on Twitter. And you should dissolve any connection or ties you have to who you work for on your personal Twitter. Basically, avoid bringing any negativity to your employer, otherwise you face with being fired or dismissed from your job.

And that is what happened to Adam Orth. Yet, tons of people have never been aware of this! You're never supposed to paint the company you work for in a bad light. He deserved to be fired for what he said. He treated the customers badly, created tons of negative press, and brought their next console into a negative light (even if said console was only implied by Orth's comments). You're never supposed to list your exact job title on your personal Twitter. There's a reason you create a professional Twitter and a personal Twitter. One of my college professors does that and avoids any of his personal life/opinions being exposed to his students.

Basically, he had it coming to him. It's okay to feel bad for him, but I think it's silly for the customer to be sad about what mistakes he made. He chose to spew those statements on Twitter. And he even tried to scapegoat them by saying, "hahaha guys i was just trolling my friend from Bioware, relax" (not exact quotation). That doesn't work at all.

There's also another aspect to this firing of Orth. Something no one has really mentioned. Other businesses, when an employee does something customers didn't like (and also negatively impacted the business like Orth did), will fire the employee to restore relations with the customers. They are essentially making a "right" for those that were "wronged". It's a strategy used to create some amount of positive press to counteract the negative press or public relations created by the employee in question.

On the subject of "celebrating" him being fired: I briefly talked about this above and I feel journalists or other people with this mentality are completely misinterpreting what's being said. Saying "he deserved to be fired", is different from saying, "yay he's fired!" However, being mad at some people celebrating is also ridiculous. Maybe those people felt insulted or "wronged" by what he said. And they may be happy that Microsoft dealt with something they didn't like. This relates to what I was saying above; Microsoft fired Orth to "right" those who were or felt  "wronged". They are actively (not actually but you know what I'm saying) trying to repair their relations with the public by removing someone seen as "toxic" by many people.

Would people have been mad if Microsoft didn't fire Adam Orth? Who knows. However, I think it was the right move. If they had kept him, they would run the risk of customers being mad at them for not firing the employee who insulted them. On the other hand, the people who were "wronged" may not have been as many as Microsoft is thinking; losing such talent like Orth over it may not have been smart. Either way, what's done is done and people should just deal with it. (See what I did there?)

Welcome!

Hello world! My username is Revven and I've been meaning to have some kind of outlet where I can make articles or opinion pieces about gaming related issues/games themselves. I want to try and break into the industry in some form or another, if I can. As a Communications major in College, this is certainly my area of expertise; I may not be a game designer but I've been playing games for almost 20 years and following the industry since I was 14.

I'm not sure when the next time I'll have time to write about something, but rest assured I will try to get some kind of piece out this month at the very least. It's the near end of my semester of college so I've got a lot of my plate already. That said, I hope you'll find whatever I write of sublime quality, insightful, helpful, or entertaining.

If you want to follow me somewhat more closely, you can follow me on Twitter via @Revvven. I don't use it extremely often because I'm still adjusting to it but hopefully I'll begin to soon. You can also subscribe to my youtube channel: www.youtube.com/smk2 where I upload gameplay fairly often of certain games (for the moment it is Uncharted 3).

Anyway, that about covers it. Hopefully with my credentials of working on a mod (Super Smash Bros. Project M) and this blog I can elevate myself to get noticed and make connections somehow. If not, well... at least I have some sampling of my writing!