Its obviously meant to be played with the cut-scenes for better or worse. That may not be your thing or my thing when it comes to replays but its what the game is designed to do. Its not giving the game a free pass, its just not knocking it for being the cinematic driven game that it is.
Well, considering the fact that I wasn't born yesterday and that I can read, when "still loading" continues to pop up on the screen 4 minutes into a 5 minute cutscene, I can deduce that this idiot game is - you guessed it - still loading.
Rockstar have just bitten off more than they can chew here. That's all it is. It's a disgrace.
Not really, they're just making do the best they can with 6-7yo tech.
Also, if some of this stuff that is loading is in part of the install then you'll get slower load times the more full your HDD is so loading times can depend on the users HDD spec, size and amount of free space. Granted this isn't always the case, but it changes from game to game.
Its obviously meant to be played with the cut-scenes for better or worse. That may not be your thing or my thing when it comes to replays but its what the game is designed to do. Its not giving the game a free pass, its just not knocking it for doing what it was designed purposefully to do.
I understand that, but cutscenes ARE skippable, albeit after 90% of its duration has elapsed. That's the annoying part; we're being lied to, more or less. And I also understand that no developer is going to admit that, due to loading issues, you virtually can't skip cutscenes, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a massive pain in the ass. MP3's cinematics really don't lend themselves to repeated watching.
After starting my Hard run today and encountering the 3rd cutscene that I was unable to able to skip, I exited to the dashboard, uninstalled both discs and prepped the game for return. And I really don't consider that an overreaction.
That was awesome. Had a massive grin on my face at the end of that stage.
Not really, they're just making do the best they can with 6-7yo tech.
Also, if some of this stuff that is loading is in part of the install then you'll get slower load times the more full your HDD is so loading times can depend on the users HDD spec, size and amount of free space. Granted this isn't always the case, but it changes from game to game.
Ha. Dude. Come, now. You know that's not an excuse. All of these other developers have been "making do" with less linear games far better than Rockstar have fared here. And for your information, I had both discs installed, with over 200GB of HD space free.
So you would rather be able to skip the cut scene in its entirety as soon as it starts and be presented with a loading screen instead? Or are you just upset there is so much loading? There are heaps of games that hide loading behind cut scenes, Gears and Uncharted are the first two the pop into my head. In Uncharted you can bring up the option menu during the cut scene but 'Skip Movie' is greyed out till the loading is completed, which is kinda pointless since the movie is paused anyway.
I didn't realise you were talking about the 360 version sorry. Since the 360 version doesn't have to be installed perhaps the loading is a little different to the PS3 that has a 5gb mandatory install.
So you would rather be able to skip the cut scene in its entirety as soon as it starts and be presented with a loading screen instead? Or are you just upset there is so much loading? There are heaps of games that hide loading behind cut scenes, Gears and Uncharted are the first two the pop into my head. In Uncharted you can bring up the option menu during the cut scene but 'Skip Movie' is greyed out till the loading is completed, which is kinda pointless since the movie is paused anyway.
I didn't realise you were talking about the 360 version sorry. Since the 360 version doesn't have to be installed perhaps the loading is a little different to the PS3 that has a 5gb mandatory install.
The game has bad loadtimes even when installed on 360. I think it's pretty apparent when it needs to load the main menu itself, and the MP loads being long also show this. I also have had the game paused on a cutscene for a few minutes, unpaused and still had to let the cutscene play for multiple minutes before I could skip, so I don't think it's really "loading" for a lot of that.
So you would rather be able to skip the cut scene in its entirety as soon as it starts and be presented with a loading screen instead? Or are you just upset there is so much loading? There are heaps of games that hide loading behind cut scenes, Gears and Uncharted are the first two the pop into my head. In Uncharted you can bring up the option menu during the cut scene but 'Skip Movie' is greyed out till the loading is completed, which is kinda pointless since the movie is paused anyway.
I didn't realise you were talking about the 360 version sorry. Since the 360 version doesn't have to be installed perhaps the loading is a little different to the PS3 that has a 5gb mandatory install.
Sorry if I hadn't made myself clear. My main issue is purely with the amount of loading that's going on. I'm well aware of the technique, but it's never been that bad in Gears/Uncharted/anything else I've played and the cutscenes are far less frequent. As far as I'm concerned, some of the cutscenes in MP3 may as well be 1 minute loading screens, which would obviously be even less acceptable, but it only goes to show how painful I find sitting through them.
I'd deem it a serious offense in any game, regardless of how entertaining or how integral to the essence of the game/story the cinematic may be. It's fine to force me to watch them the first time, but be damned if you do on any subsequent play-through. Also, you have to consider just how short some of the gameplay segments between cutscenes are in this game. Like I said, it seriously gives MGS4 a run for its money.
Meh. I'm done with the game. I was before I discovered this, but had I not been, this would definitely be the straw that breaks the camel's back and then some.
I've played a bit more of the multiplayer, and I don't think I'm really feeling it. It feels just too inconsistent to me at a pure gameplay level. I feel like sometimes I can kill people quickly and other times it's as if I'm shooting blanks. Same goes for other players in that I feel like they can kill me stupidly quick sometimes, spinning around and appearing to only shoot me once. I feel that the guns are fun to shoot, but they just feel so inconsistent for me most of the time. Also, there appears to be some sort of effect where bullets lose their potency over distance, and I'm not sure how I feel about that...
I don't really care for the unlock system and all of the items and bursts as they make the MP a convoluted mess in my eyes. This system of custom, player driven loadouts that every multiplayer game has to incorporate now is just not my cup of tea.
I really like the presentation and UI of the multiplayer, and while I don't really care for the unlock, 'carrot on a stick' system; the way that they broke up XP and Cash is great I think.
I'll continue to play the multi and see if I feel differently about it after more playtime. I'm at least going to hit level 50, but I'm not sure if I'll do the Legend stuff at this point. If you guys want to play don't be afraid to send me an invite. My 360 Gamertag is 'theUnjust', just shoot an invite my way and I'll play whatever.
I'm glad to read the same feelings I've had. For the longest I've felt like its just my aim causing me to not kill someone. Someone a page or two back said something like "it's not a good game to play competitively" and I think they're probably right. But that's going to be hard for me to do.
Sorry if I hadn't made myself clear. My main issue is purely with the amount of loading that's going on. I'm well aware of the technique, but it's never been that bad in Gears/Uncharted/anything else I've played and the cutscenes are far less frequent. As far as I'm concerned, some of the cutscenes in MP3 may as well be 1 minute loading screens, which would obviously be even less acceptable, but it only goes to show how painful I find sitting through them.
I'd deem it a serious offense in any game, regardless of how entertaining or how integral to the essence of the game/story the cinematic may be. It's fine to force me to watch them the first time, but be damned if you do on any subsequent play-through. Also, you have to consider just how short some of the gameplay segments between cutscenes are in this game. Like I said, it seriously gives MGS4 a run for its money.
Meh. I'm done with the game. I was before I discovered this, but had I not been, this would definitely be the straw that breaks the camel's back and then some.
Finito'd this sucker last night. Final (and extensive) impressions incoming:
The Max Paynositive:
> It's a nice looking game. The lighting is great and everything else is very decent.
> Presentation and production values are as you'd expect from a R* game: top-notch.
> Dat animation. Euphoria is awesome and there's no denying that. Max's animations are also stellar, with a few jarring exceptions here and there (moving into cover, rounding cover, etc).
> Gunplay is very solid and punchy for the most part; weapon models and accompanying animations are great. The bread and butter of MP3 - shoot-dodging in slow-motion - is fun and satisfying. Unfortunately, it is also somewhat "one noted" and does wane with extensive use.
> Now, here are two things that have really stayed with me throughout the entirety of the game: bullet-wound rendering and the final kill-cam; uncompromisingly violent and just fucking great, really. Nailing someone in the mouth and seeing them turn into what basically looks like a Necromorph from Dead Space never gets old. As far as I'm concerned, every shooter would benefit from having these features + Euphoria implemented in some fashion.
The Max Paynegative:
> Fucking cut-scenes. There are too many. I'm all for "opinions" and "subjectivity", but I'm taking a stand here; I'm calling this out as an objective truth. They are either too long, too boring or completely unnecessary, e.g. we do not need a cut-scene showing Max walking 15 metres and helping someone through a window everytime it happens. This really shat me during the second half of the game.
> That inescapable "R* Jank". Ah, R*. You've still a few things to learn, haven't you? It's actually a damn shame that the controls are plagued as they are, because it really is quite the negative when you contrast it with wholly polished nature of the game. I've never had such little faith/confidence in a mechanic than I have the cover mechanic in this game. Then you have the wobbly run, the redundant sprint, the bipolar vault...
> Aiming is strange. The fact that you have to jack the sensitivities up to their maximum in order for the game to resemble a competent TPS is pretty indicative of an inherently mediocre function.
> Checkpoints and difficulty spikes are a big issue. My desire to jump into a second play-through sits near 0% right now, which is also largely due to...
> A completely forgettable story with major disconnect between the beginning and the end. To me, it felt as if the opening set up a grand (and ultimately wasted) narrative and the ending resolved an out-of-nowhere sub-plot. I just didn't give a shit in the end. And to be honest, Max's motivations are fairly spurious and baseless throughout the game, so I kinda never gave a shit.
> The 'Last Stand' mechanic can be annoying as all hell for a number of reasons: no ammo, object obstruction, Max not even facing in the enemy's direction/taking a ridiculous amount of time to spin around, NOT BEING ABLE TO RESTART THE CHECKPOINT DURING THIS SEQUENCE (I hated that), etc.
> The
C4 collapse segment
was bullshit and poorly thought-out. The gaul of R* to take control away from the player in such an infuriating way. Who play-tested that dross? Also of note: the
graveyard sniper showdown
; extremely unclear in what you had to do.
> The final shoot-out was completely antithetical to what makes this game fun. Super dumb move, R*.
Some pretty great stuff about Lazlow's experience in Brazil during his work on the game. Max Payne talk starts at 1 hour 51 minutes in. Though he comes on at about an hour and 35 minutes and talks about how random shit, like how great the UK is because we don't care about nudity :lol gives all the guys there a bunch of lads' mags.
I actually agree with him. The cutscene issue is only minor to me, as I really appreciate the style of the cutscenes. To each his own, I suppose, but for my money it seems like over-the-top whining.
I actually agree with him. The cutscene issue is only minor to me, as I really appreciate the style of the cutscenes. To each his own, I suppose, but for my money it seems like over-the-top whining.
For a single playthrough it's an odd complaint given how story driven the game is, but I think the negativity is more in terms of replayability. Probably isn't nearly as fun the second time through when you have to sit through them since you've already seen the story.
I actually agree with him. The cutscene issue is only minor to me, as I really appreciate the style of the cutscenes. To each his own, I suppose, but for my money it seems like over-the-top whining.
I loved them for the first playthrough and some of the second as well. But it does put a damper on things. Especially since trying to mix up the gameplay a bit by going to arcade mode doesn't really change things. I dunno, I'd expect to hear that very same criticism from most of the people I know and don't find it unusual in the least, or petty.
Aw yeah, my copy from zavvi finally arrived, in near record time from dispatch no less. The bullet pen pre-order thing actually looks pretty decent, i thought it would be made out of plastic and look cheap, but it's metal. I'll probbaly go through the SP first and then join you PS3 guys in MP.
office ish area, where Branco is, and I spent like 30 mins dying on the cubicles of death part.
What am I doing wrong? I find the aiming is weird, it feels like its resisting my movements. I try not to shoot dodge too much, and use cover, but that seems wrong too.
I'm about to give up. Playing on a medium, free aim. I'm loving the game, awesome physics, good story. Just the aiming feels off, and its pretty unforgiving in certain parts.
So I assume most PC folks are buying this at retail because of the file size? Has there been any other info on the PC version recently? They need to start the pre load now lol.
Yeah, going retail on this one. I've done 25GB downloads before, with the likes of the Total War games, but I just can't be bothered waiting hours for it to download on my connection.
office ish area, where Branco is, and I spent like 30 mins dying on the cubicles of death part.
What am I doing wrong? I find the aiming is weird, it feels like its resisting my movements. I try not to shoot dodge too much, and use cover, but that seems wrong too.
I'm about to give up. Playing on a medium, free aim. I'm loving the game, awesome physics, good story. Just the aiming feels off, and its pretty unforgiving in certain parts.
office ish area, where Branco is, and I spent like 30 mins dying on the cubicles of death part.
What am I doing wrong? I find the aiming is weird, it feels like its resisting my movements. I try not to shoot dodge too much, and use cover, but that seems wrong too.
I'm about to give up. Playing on a medium, free aim. I'm loving the game, awesome physics, good story. Just the aiming feels off, and its pretty unforgiving in certain parts.
Make sure target tracking is off, and try to find a decent sensitivity for your playstyle.
For that bit what worked best for me was using a combination of cover, shoot dodging, and running and gunning once bullet time has built up enough. I made sure that whenever I shoot dodged I would land behind cover.
A good habit is when you're in cover, swing the camera around and make sure no one is flanking you, it also helps sometimes to watch for when enemies reload. I did this with the shotgunner and it helped immensely.
I'll try the aiming assist stuff, but I've done all that other stuff, as soon as I got the game. Its odd, I can cope in MP fine. Place second or so a few times. Just the story parts, where I'm getting shot from everywhere, and 1 or 2 painkillers. In aforementioned scenario, I tried shoot dodging my ass off, sticking to cover (It keeps getting blown apart too) tried a good mixture, and nothing seemed to work. I had to die enough times to get 4 painkillers to progress.
I'm usually decent at Third Person games, gone through most games on the hardest settings. But this game is ripping me a new one in spots =\
Make sure target tracking is off, and try to find a decent sensitivity for your playstyle.
For that bit what worked best for me was using a combination of cover, shoot dodging, and running and gunning once bullet time has built up enough. I made sure that whenever I shoot dodged I would land behind cover.
A good habit is when you're in cover, swing the camera around and make sure no one is flanking you, it also helps sometimes to watch for when enemies reload. I did this with the shotgunner and it helped immensely.
Yeah, pretty much what you said, but with a hefty amount of painkillers.
I even played around with the sensitivity, thinking it was that. I thought I was going nuts, so I popped in UC3 and Binary Domain, and I can aim fine in them. I dont know, will pop it in later and try whats suggested here. I want to love this game, I fucking love how the enemies REACT to getting shot! They stagger a bit, or crumple. Its very satisfying.
EDIT: Sorry double post, figured someone would have posted before mine... Sorry!
Chapter XIV on Hard. Gonna save that one for another day. I want to savour the moment Tears gets played as you're shooting dudes in the face, this time around.
office ish area, where Branco is, and I spent like 30 mins dying on the cubicles of death part.
What am I doing wrong? I find the aiming is weird, it feels like its resisting my movements. I try not to shoot dodge too much, and use cover, but that seems wrong too.
I'm about to give up. Playing on a medium, free aim. I'm loving the game, awesome physics, good story. Just the aiming feels off, and its pretty unforgiving in certain parts.
For that part you should've activated bullet time and ran laterally. If you're in cover there, you're doing it wrong and will be torn to pieces in my experience. The enemies fan out QUICK.
After putting in a solid 4 hours on muliplayer last night (just started disc 2 in single player, chapter VII) I can honestly say that this is one of the best gaming experiences I have had in years.
I haven't been drawn to play online for so long. Halo3 was the last time I actively jumped online to game. Even all 3 Gears of War were co-op / campaign games for me. Just did not get the pull of online.
It's a shame the Soft Aim and Free Aim are in the multi side of things, really splits the communities. I see in Soft Aim there are around 360 people going just for Team Deathmatch and in Free Aim I see less than 80 people. Other modes are even worse. The two aims shouldn't even be an option, that's what single player should be for, practicing your skills instead of relying on the game to do half the work for you. *sigh*
It's a shame the Soft Aim and Free Aim are in the multi side of things, really splits the communities. I see in Soft Aim there are around 360 people going just for Team Deathmatch and in Free Aim I see less than 80 people. Other modes are even worse. The two aims shouldn't even be an option, that's what single player should be for, practicing your skills instead of relying on the game to do half the work for you. *sigh*
This is actually keeping me from dropping money on the Rockstar pass. I have no idea what the Free Aim community is going to be like in 6 months and I refuse to play easy mode.
I wanted to complain how hard the game was earlier, but then I realized here you can shootdodge even when you don't have bullet time left. I could swear that was different in MP 1 and 2.
Anyway, you should shootdodge into (behind!) cover, making headshots along the way. Then you're free to get up and shootdodge out of there again.
Also remember your regular actions are sped up during shootdodge, so you can swap your weapons, take a painkiller (avoid last stands!), get a headshot and reload before landing. Pulling off stunts like that will most likely increase your enjoyment of the game.
This is actually keeping me from dropping money on the Rockstar pass. I have no idea what the Free Aim community is going to be like in 6 months and I refuse to play easy mode.
If the current amount of players is anything to go by then it's not looking too promising. Some of the Soft Aim people might prefer Free Aim but chose soft due to more active modes.
People are going to drop this as a mp game like a lead ballon. The amount of people i hear moan about balance in this game lag and just low player count in free aim is going to kill it. There doesnt seem to be much balance, the amount of times a pistol dual beats a rifle over range makes the balance in the game lolworthy.
Ha. You've obviously not been here long, then. Have you even played the game? It is the very definition of "cutscene heavy". They are frequent, they are often boring and they are largely unskippable. You're right; nothing to complain about at all, dude. Don't get me wrong, I love the game in between all of these bits, but the ratio is so askew sometimes, it's disgusting. It's a video game; the option to skip EVERY cutscene RELATIVELY QUICKLY should be manda-fucking-tory.
And to be honest, the rest of the package is simply not good enough to look past this.
This doesn't cut it, though. The game is apparently "still loading" minutes into some cutscenes. You're telling me that you're happy with such load times, for the often tiny morsels of gameplay that you're rewarded with? Bollocks. Play the game again and make a mental note of how often the game relinquishes control from you and how unnecessary it is half of the time.
EDIT: As has been said, though, to each their own. Nothing about this game's story resonated with me enough to be able to shrug this off. I'm a Max Payne noob. Were I familiar with the series, maybe I'd be more inclined to dig what I'm watching, but as it stands, everything except the voice acting was very ho-hum.
This doesn't cut it, though. The game is apparently "still loading" minutes into some cutscenes. You're telling me that you're happy with such loading times, for the often tiny morsels of gameplay that you're rewarded with? Bollocks. Play the game again and make a mental note of how often the game relinquishes control from you and how unnecessary it is half of the time.
Isn't multiplayer also a long load fest? It isn't an artificial limitation to make you watch cutscenes, it's just lots of assets loading. I'd bet you any money I'll be able to skip within seconds.*
*Waits for it to come back and bite me in the tail
Isn't multiplayer also a long load fest? It isn't an artificial limitation to make you watch cutscenes, it's just lots of assets loading. I'd bet you any money I'll be able to skip within seconds.
Many of them yes, and I'd expect multiplayer loads to be lightning quick. But I just can't shake the feeling that many campaign cut-scenes are just unskippable regardless of load times. And that some of them don't begin loading in the background until you've gotten past a certain point. We've seen background loading done countless times before, but not like this.
Many of them yes, and I'd expect multiplayer loads to be lightning quick. But I just can't shake the feeling that many campaign cut-scenes are just unskippable regardless of load times. And that some of them don't begin loading in the background until you've gotten past a certain point. We've seen background loading done countless times before, but not like this.
Heh. You and me both. For the record I really want you to be right ;P
> Fucking cut-scenes. There are too many. I'm all for "opinions" and "subjectivity", but I'm taking a stand here; I'm calling this out as an objective truth. They are either too long, too boring or completely unnecessary, e.g. we do not need a cut-scene showing Max walking 15 metres and helping someone through a window everytime it happens. This really shat me during the second half of the game.
> That inescapable "R* Jank". Ah, R*. You've still a few things to learn, haven't you? It's actually a damn shame that the controls are plagued as they are, because it really is quite the negative when you contrast it with wholly polished nature of the game. I've never had such little faith/confidence in a mechanic than I have the cover mechanic in this game. Then you have the wobbly run, the redundant sprint, the bipolar vault...
> Aiming is strange. The fact that you have to jack the sensitivities up to their maximum in order for the game to resemble a competent TPS is pretty indicative of an inherently mediocre function.
> Checkpoints and difficulty spikes are a big issue. My desire to jump into a second play-through sits near 0% right now, which is also largely due to...
> A completely forgettable story with major disconnect between the beginning and the end. To me, it felt as if the opening set up a grand (and ultimately wasted) narrative and the ending resolved an out-of-nowhere sub-plot. I just didn't give a shit in the end. And to be honest, Max's motivations are fairly spurious and baseless throughout the game, so I kinda never gave a shit.
> The 'Last Stand' mechanic can be annoying as all hell for a number of reasons: no ammo, object obstruction, Max not even facing in the enemy's direction/taking a ridiculous amount of time to spin around, NOT BEING ABLE TO RESTART THE CHECKPOINT DURING THIS SEQUENCE (I hated that), etc.
I haven't finished it yet but yeah my biggest disappointement is that I know I will have absolutely no desire to replay it. The loadings, some ennemies being bullets sponge, the pretty uninteresting story so far, the lack of the old Film Noir atmosphere, the forced use of cover which completetely destroy what was so unique about Max Payne, the crappy aiming sensitivity. 10 chapters in, I'm still not comfortable with it and I cranked it up to 8/9, funny when I had no problems with Kid Icarus. If this is what Kid Icarus would have been with dual analog then no thanks! So last night I turned soft-lock on in the options as I wanted to have a bit of fun and be more badass. And technically, Xbox 360 is showing its age for realistic graphics. I don't know if it's the framerate or the controls but the experience is not smooth at all.
So far this is a 6/7 out of 10. I think it will be very forgettable in the end.
Not really. Consoles just need to stop being so slow and move on to the next generation, everything's holding us back. Sick of seeing great potential technological advancements completely smothered by weak ass hardware. Let's have some more obvious hardware limited games so the general public screams for some proper beefy next-gen consoles.
Skipping them on the first playthrough feels like criminal neglect of what the game has to offer in terms of story and character, but hey, that's just me. I think you're truly missing out to skip them the first time though. Its like watching Heat or Die Hard and fast forwarding through everything except the gun battles. You lose out on context and what makes the game special.
And thats why the game is not running into a boatload of flak. Because what Rockstar has done here is fantastic.
Skipping them on the first playthrough feels like criminal neglect of what the game has to offer in terms of story and character, but hey, that's just me. I think you're truly missing out to skip them the first time though. Its like watching Heat or Die Hard and fast forwarding through everything except the gun battles. You lose out on context and what makes the game special.
And thats why the game is not running into a boatload of flak. Because what Rockstar has done here is fantastic.
