Well, it’s been nearly 10 years since we last saw Max in action and now we’re finally able to see what’s transpired since we last saw everyone’s favorite hard-boiled action hero palling around with Mona. So how do I feel having waited a decade to see Max back in action? Read on.  1. The Cover Mechanic Makes Sense Let’s forget for a second that Max Payne pioneered bullet time (even before The Matrix) and think about how games have evolved.  Pop-and-stop gameplay is nothing new, but MP3’s (heh) implementation of it is certainly well done.  A part of me cringed a bit seeing one of my old favorites brought up to more modern convention as it does detract a bit from the challenge, but ultimately with as much action as this game throws at you it’s kind of a necessity. 2. Bullet-Time Looks Even Better Slowing down time while you dive through the air, effortlessly dispatching a roomful of enemies before you even hit the ground was always satisfying.  But now?  Continuing the action after you HIT the ground laying even more waste to everyone?! Good LORD! @With the new physics it looks better than ever as Max’s dives are made more realistic thanks to the Euphoria engine.  Shoot-dodging has NEVER looked this good. 3. The Presentation is a Little Different Than You Remember Max may have retired from the NYPD, but I guess a part of me expected to still see the graphic-novel style presentation I was used to, with James McCaffrey’s brooding delivery setting them up.  Maybe it was technical limitations at the time or a purely artistic direction, but I absolutely adored it.  Frankly, I’m sad to see it go, but the interactive cutscenes and the complete elimination of loading screens...

First of all, what is a First Person Shooter? It is a game in first person (as in, you are the camera, like in a movie where you see a shot of someone running through the forest from their POV), and it involves them shooting. So you have a camera POV and usually a gun is in that view somewhere. Oh and one more thing: Because the core audience of FPS games are young boys who grow up to make more games for their childhood selves, the top sellers are almost always about aliens and/or space marines. Some day we will look back nostalgically at the alien/space marine era of subject matter in the way film people look back at the day when you went to the theatre to see a train coming at the screen. But we’re not at that day yet. You may see a flying car first. That being said, at our current level of technology, FPS’s are a very fun, proven game type that we’ve gotten really good at making. That is tempting to a lot of game designers to want to join the fray. But I’m about to rant a little bit about why you may not want to do that, if you want to succeed. So here we go…Take my mostly unresearched stats with a grain of salt. Your 1.0 can’t compete with their 3.1 A lot of us game developers have worked at studios that had goals of competing with Halo and beating it. Here’s why this is a bad idea: 1.  Game schedules are notoriously unrealistic, even if you had a crap load of money. The only way you can compete with the polish, the fun, and the scope of a Call of Duty or Halo,...