Hands-on Preview of Max Payne 3 - Saturday - ready for hands-on time

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Written by biXen

 Saturday 21st April

Me and Patrick started the Saturday with a sub for breakfast/lunch then took a walk around the city, including Battery Park where we had a good view of the Statue of Liberty. It was obviously fun to meet and chat with Patrick after being online friends for that long. We headed back around 3PM to get ready to be picked up for the evenings shenanigans an hour later.

Patrick:

I had a rough night. The jetlag and knowing that today, after a wait of almost ten years I would get my hands on Max Payne 3, were not really stimulating factors for a good night's rest. Visiting New York for the first time, I experienced the city as overwhelming but much more fascinating. I kind of liked this urban jungle.

It was not until 4.30PM that we were picked up by ground transport that would deliver us to an unknown location. The location revealed to be some sort of warehouse only noticeable affiliated to Rockstar by their logo sticking at the upper centre of the, with spray paint defaced, front door. We were asked to wait in front of this door until the warehouse was ready to receive us. A passing pedestrian noticed the logo, stopped, and tried to persuade us to enlighten him on what we were about to see. We obviously left him in ignorance and after a few minutes we were allowed entry.

The warehouse was a dark and gloomy place. As soon as I set foot, I stepped on something hard. When I lifted my foot I noticed several shell casings laying on the floor. In fact, the whole room seemed to be dotted with them. Max Payne obviously had visited this place before us. The whole room was decorated in an army like fashion.

On the left side of entry was a small bar, filled with literally every drink you could think of. Opposite of the bar were various Brazilian snacks and food. In the far end of the warehouse a DJ was playing music which seemed to be all linked to Max Payne somehow (by the keyword Painkiller for example). Above the DJ was a large, beamer powered, display which greeted us with the Max Payne 3 TV commercial. I was in awe when I counted 20 Xbox 360 consoles and three PC's, accompanied by invitingly comfortable chairs.

Kristian:

We didn't actually try the PC version, I'm so used to playing on Xbox 360 now, and I was busy enough playing on that while having some drinks and food. The experience should be similar enough to not ruin anyone's fun (actually they've already said it's made specifically for PC and it is not a port). I was glad to have lots of Rockstar people around me when we played because the control scheme was a bit unfamiliar and from the point we played at least, there was no tutorial section.

Thinking back on that day the hours really flew by. Drinks, food, friendly bartenders and Rockstar representatives and a really REALLY fun game. But more on that from me later, first I'll let Patrick share his thoughts on the game.

Patrick:

Around 15 Rockstar employees joined us during play and made sure we'd kept the drinks flowing! All were very polite and interested in meeting us. That lead to some great talks. After a short welcome speech from a Rockstar representative, I was allowed to grab the controller and play. Rockstar was about to show us great many things. Some of which I'm allowed to describe, some of which I'm not. First up, three single player levels!