I almost felt like I should have replayed Max Payne again prior to playing through Max Payne 2. While the story can easily stand on its own, it would have been good to get an idea of the recurring characters; Max, Mona Sax, Woden. But Max Payne 2 is already a six year old game. Replaying the original would be going back another two years to very dated graphics. Nevertheless, Max Payne 2 is a good looking game. There are no big set-pieces or memorable levels. You may include the Funhouse as a memorable level, as it hasn't been done before in my playing experience. However having to play through the same level on three different occasions gets old very fast.

While there were no set-pieces, the game still looked good with oodles of detail scattered throughout the levels. The entire game takes place in a John Woo style film noir world. It's always dark and raining, the city is run-down. If you love film noir, you'll love Max Payne 2. It's not just the design of the levels but the story is heavily told throughout the game. I haven't seen the Max Payne movie, but I'm sure the story told in this game could be made into a full movie.

Gameplay was good even with just the one difficulty setting. After playing through the first two levels I was soon tired of Max's head always in the view of the target. I just knew throughout the entire game I would grow tired of this, and wished it was first person. So, I did a search. Somebody had created a first person mod, and I restarted the game and played it all in first person view. I think it was more enjoyable actually, as you can aim at enemies much easier. The trade off is your line of vision isn't quite as good.

But even so, the difficulty level was well balanced. The game increases the difficulty depending on how well your playing. The most difficult parts I found were when your having to escort or protect another character in the game. Including playing as the sexy Mona Sax trying to protect Max. However these were equally the more frustrating parts of the game.

Overall May Payne 2 was a great game, with fantastic story telling, good design and fun gameplay. It could have had more spectacular levels, but what was here fit in well with the film noir setting. Also not a long game; I finished it in three long sittings. No more than 10 hours. 

bit short though.

But please, it's extremely try hard film noir at best :) 

anyone played this Dead Space game? 

but the holographic HUD is a cool idea. I heard it was a lot like doom 3 in 3rd person however, so I may wait until it hits the bargain bucket :) 

But please, it's extremely try hard film noir at best :)

I always presumed the try-hard was tongue-in-cheek, although it wasn't particularly witty or funny.

I tried replaying Max Payne 2 recently, but on the PS2 this time. Had a lot less fun than before, I mainly blame the controls, oh and the FUCKING LACK OF QUICKSAVE/LOAD OR ANY TYPE OF SLIGHTLY CONVENIENT SAVE SYSTEM. I especially love being taken back several chapters of the game when I die, silly me for expecting a single autosave thoughout the whole game. I need to lie down. 

from BlackDog: http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=23795&start=2310&end=2310
from Lunaran: http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=23795&start=2225&end=2233 

Got Max Payne2 for Christmas few years ago. Beat it in 3 hours. Not very satisfying tbh. 

It being far too short compared to the original as well. 

Sure, it was short but I find it hard to believe that it was 3 hours short on a first play through. 

yeah the developers were pretty lazy, there's even a few levels where you play through multiple times like that stupid fkn funhouse. but yeah... 3 hours on a first play through sounds a little low to me too. i guess if you skipped all the cinematics that would take an hour or two off. 

I liked it. Simple game but plenty of style. Was shortish but took me a lot longer than 3 hours. Certainly got plenty of playtime for my � as I do with almost any game. 

Looking back Max Payne 2 is still one of the best stories I ever played. Gotta play it again.
3 hours is a joke but maybe Zwiffle is so zwofflish that he zwuffled right through it.

I still haven't bought it though, cough. But I bought GTA:San Andreas and that piece of shit just does not end. So I guess I am even with the gaming industry dickheads. 

Hey, aren't you the guy who fell in love with Mona Sax? 

Yeah, quite embarrassing reading that old gibberish... 

thanks. I did do a search but didnt realise the game was so old :) 

negke: Post? Where is this little gold nugget hidden at? 

any links for HL 1 mods/editing info?

... I'm lazy, I know. 

I found this one really nice (but have to admit that I do not remember if I completed it, oops). If you like "post-nuclear" feeling, check it out: http://paranoia.level-design.ru/index_eng.htm

Nice review site: http://spmapcorner.blogspot.com/search/label/Half-Life 

i've never play it before and i must say it impressed me a lot, what the beautiful game :) 

Anyone played it? From the authors of painkiller 

I'm using the steam version of half life, but not the source version. Not sure if downloading mods/editing will be a pain in the ass to set up - anyone have any experience there? 

no problems here with the non source version. Some older mods though dont work with 1.08 updates onwards. 

Pulsar I didn't think it was gold yet? Looks awesome though, a bit of a RTCW ripoff, but who cares if it looks good and is fun. 

i wonder why no one tells anything about it, it's about a week in retail. my pc is too old to run it 

I got the demo at work. It doesn't run all that well, and the PC here is fairly decent. It was running well on a coworker's PC, and looked pretty much like Painkiller in WW1. Fight zombie Germans, ghosts, use two weapons at a time, run around a lot, etc.