As part of the PC crowd, I'm pretty resigned to the fact that, even if its initial November release date sticks, we won't be getting GTA 6 over here in 2026. Rockstar Games will want to let its console version sit for a while, whether that's to ensure the PC version is as polishe
As part of the PC crowd, I'm pretty resigned to the fact that, even if its initial November release date sticks, we won't be getting GTA 6 over here in 2026. Rockstar Games will want to let its console version sit for a while, whether that's to ensure the PC version is as polished as possible, or simply to entice you to shell out for a PS5 or Xbox copy knowing that you'll probably buy it again when it comes to the Steam shores. If you need something to take your mind off that temptation, a new Rockstar Games sale is just the ticket.
Over a decade after its release, Max Payne 3 remains one of the greatest games in Rockstar's back catalog. Red Dead Redemption is the classic western epic. Grand Theft Auto 5 has basically taken over the world. And GTA 6 looks extremely promising. But the slow-motion, third-perso
Over a decade after its release, Max Payne 3 remains one of the greatest games in Rockstar's back catalog. Red Dead Redemption is the classic western epic. Grand Theft Auto 5 has basically taken over the world. And GTA 6 looks extremely promising. But the slow-motion, third-person shooter with tons of style and endless flair remains Rockstar's best if most underloved masterwork. And now its yours for less than $6. Max Payne, min price (sorry).
Actor James McCaffrey, who provided the voice of Max Payne and more recently Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2 , has died at the age of 65. According to a statement given by a representative of the actor to TMZ , he passed away surrounded by friends and family on December 17, after being
Actor James McCaffrey, who provided the voice of Max Payne and more recently Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2, has died at the age of 65.
According to a statement given by a representative of the actor to TMZ, he passed away surrounded by friends and family on December 17, after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Fellow actor Kevin Dillon was the first to publicly acknowledge McCaffery’s death via a post on Instagram, but there was some initial confusion regarding whether this was actually in reference to the actor, due to the death of an Irish teenager with a similar name being reported around the same time.
Following confirmation of his passing, Remedy paid tribute to the actor on Twitter. “We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of our beloved friend and collaborator James McCaffrey, the iconic voice of Max Payne and Alex Casey,” it said. “His remarkable talent not only gave life to our characters but also left an enduring impact on our community. Our hearts go out to his family in this time of loss.”
Video game actor James McCaffrey, whose roles included the iconic voice of Max Payne and Alex Casey in this year’s Alan Wake 2 , has passed away. Read more
Video game actor James McCaffrey, whose roles included the iconic voice of Max Payne and Alex Casey in this year’s Alan Wake 2, has passed away.
Michael Unsworth, vice president of writing at Rockstar Games , has seemingly left the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption developer. As spotted by GTAForums user Rucke, and shared by Rockstar Games new account SWEGTA, Unsworth recently updated his LinkedIn page indicating t
Michael Unsworth, vice president of writing at Rockstar Games, has seemingly left the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption developer.
As spotted by GTAForums user Rucke, and shared by Rockstar Games new account SWEGTA, Unsworth recently updated his LinkedIn page indicating that he was no longer with the developer. There's no indication on his profile as to what he's doing next, and neither he nor Rockstar has shared why he decided to leave. Unsworth has been with Rockstar for 16 years, starting as a senior creative writer in 2007, later going on to become writing director in 2019, before spending the past two years as the company's vice president of writing.
His credits include a big range of the developer's catalogue, including Grand Theft Auto 4, Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto 5, Max Payne 3, LA Noire, and most recently Red Dead Redemption 2. It's unclear at this point in time if he will be credited for any writing on GTA 6, or even if he has done any for it, as it's not currently listed in his writing credits.
Max Payne 3 is a game that weighs heavy on my soul. As a huge fan of Remedy, developer of the first two games, Rockstar's gritty, sad, Man On Fire-inspired take on the character just never felt right. He wasn't my Max, from his grim seriousness to his lumpy, bearded face... Read
Max Payne 3 is a game that weighs heavy on my soul. As a huge fan of Remedy, developer of the first two games, Rockstar's gritty, sad, Man On Fire-inspired take on the character just never felt right. He wasn't my Max, from his grim seriousness to his lumpy, bearded face... Read more.
Max Payne 3 remains the best, most tightly constructed, powerful game that Rockstar has ever made. Every level is designed to create a perfect mix of action and ardor, as you struggle through bloody, brutal gunfights that are simultaneously graceful and clumsy. Visually, nothing
Max Payne 3 remains the best, most tightly constructed, powerful game that Rockstar has ever made. Every level is designed to create a perfect mix of action and ardor, as you struggle through bloody, brutal gunfights that are simultaneously graceful and clumsy. Visually, nothing in Max Payne 3 is left to chance - from Max's outfits to the always imaginative level settings, this a game where every detail has been pored over. It also has the greatest videogame soundtrack of all time, courtesy of Health. GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, San Andreas - these are all great. But if you want the best action-adventure game of all time, Max Payne 3 is now 70% off in the current Steam sale.
Industrial band Health and Rockstar Games have announced that a 10-year anniversary edition of the soundtrack for Max Payne 3 is in the works. Today (May 15) is the 10-year anniversary of the third-person shooter, and to celebrate that, a special edition of the game's original so
Industrial band Health and Rockstar Games have announced that a 10-year anniversary edition of the soundtrack for Max Payne 3 is in the works.
Today (May 15) is the 10-year anniversary of the third-person shooter, and to celebrate that, a special edition of the game's original soundtrack is being released later this year. This new edition of the soundtrack will feature the tracks included in the original game, but will also debut previously unreleased tracks too. A release date hasn't been set in stone, but it will be available digitally. And for the gamer who likes to buy vinyl soundtracks but doesn't necessarily have a record player, there's a limited-edition vinyl coming too.
"When we began work on the Max Payne 3 score we could not have predicted the momentous effect it would have on the trajectory of our band and the music we make," said Health in a statement. "Now, 10 years on, we are still as proud as ever to be part of the story."
I was, and remain, very excited by the news that Remedy is remaking Max Payne 1 and 2 . I was also immediately hopeful that the excellent but underappreciated Max Payne 3 would get some love, too—a less likely prospect given that it was developed by Rockstar and remains in its ha
I was, and remain, very excited by the news that Remedy is remaking Max Payne 1 and 2. I was also immediately hopeful that the excellent but underappreciated Max Payne 3 would get some love, too—a less likely prospect given that it was developed by Rockstar and remains in its hands, but I am nothing if not an optimist. Today my wish came at least partially true, sort of: To mark the 10th anniversary of Max Payne 3, Rockstar has announced that it is updating and re-releasing the game's soundtrack... Read more.
Game Informer’s Blake Hester published a detailed report all about the Bully 2 that might have been and what led to the studio developing the sequel’s downfall. In short, Rockstar New England was pulled in multiple directions to the point where Bully 2 was no longer the focus of
Game Informer’s Blake Hester published a detailed report all about the Bully 2 that might have been and what led to the studio developing the sequel’s downfall. In short, Rockstar New England was pulled in multiple directions to the point where Bully 2 was no longer the focus of the developers who worked there.
Rockstar New England, which was purchased by Rockstar when the former was Mad Doc Software and was responsible for the next-gen remaster of the first Bully at the time, had ambitious plans for the sequel, a bigger, more characterized game that could stand alongside L.A. Noire and Grand Theft Auto 4 as a grand tentpole release worthy of the Rockstar name.
It was not to be, though, as the studio got pulled in multiple directions, called on to assist with projects like Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3 and immersed in the crunch culture that came with working on those games. This caused many developers at Rockstar New England to leave, but the studio was also hit with layoffs, ensuring that Bully 2 wouldn’t see the light of day. It’s a shame, too, because the game was “six to eight hours playable”, though not shippable at that point.
I will argue all day long that Max Payne 3 is every bit as good as the first two games in the series (which were great) and easily up to the very high standards of developer Rockstar. Despite my own enthusiasm, though, it didn't live up to public expectations, and the series has
I will argue all day long that Max Payne 3 is every bit as good as the first two games in the series (which were great) and easily up to the very high standards of developer Rockstar. Despite my own enthusiasm, though, it didn't live up to public expectations, and the series has been moribund for the past decade... Read more.
It sure has been a week for the Rockstar games vault. After accidentally pulling a bunch of their games off Steam on Monday, then bringing them back, some other older Rockstar games got a treat. The PC versions of Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire now include all their DLCs for free. A
It sure has been a week for the Rockstar games vault. After accidentally pulling a bunch of their games off Steam on Monday, then bringing them back, some other older Rockstar games got a treat. The PC versions of Max Payne 3 and L.A. Noire now include all their DLCs for free. A nice little treat for the back catalogue.
Rockstar has issued surprise updates to LA Noire and Max Payne 3 on PC, throwing in all the DLC for free. Both games have also seen support for 32-bit operating systems "deprecated". Of note: the LA Noire changes do not apply to LA Noire: The VR Case Files versions of the game. T
Rockstar has issued surprise updates to LA Noire and Max Payne 3 on PC, throwing in all the DLC for free.
Both games have also seen support for 32-bit operating systems "deprecated". Of note: the LA Noire changes do not apply to LA Noire: The VR Case Files versions of the game.
These updates were quietly issued yesterday, 19th April - the same day Rockstar somehow managed to delist its entire PC catalogue on Steam before relisting it again (Midnight Club 2 was briefly available to buy for the first time in three years). Perhaps someone somewhere at Rockstar fell on a load of PC publishing buttons or something?
Max Payne, the titular rogue policeman from the Max Payne series of videogames, kills a lot of people in his three action-adventure games . A couple of thousand in fact, as totted up for one eager Redditor. The posts comes from TK-576 , who breaks down near enough every kill perp
Max Payne, the titular rogue policeman from the Max Payne series of videogames, kills a lot of people in his three action-adventure games. A couple of thousand in fact, as totted up for one eager Redditor.
The posts comes from TK-576, who breaks down near enough every kill perpetrated by Max over the course of the trilogy. Max Payne 2 and Max Payne 3 were done easily enough, but the original Max Payne comes with a caveat. It's hard to get the first Payne to run on modern hardware, much less capture it to review footage later, so the numbers there had to be done as it was being played.
The rundown is as follows: in Max Payne, 652 people are killed; in Max Payne 2, 373 bodies are dropped, excluding Mona Sax's 91; and in Max Payne 3, we have 1,216 point-blank murders. That totals up to 2,291 cops, criminals, and other assorted guards and henchmen. The post goes on to discuss the trilogy's storytelling as a whole, mostly talking about how Max Payne 3 largely ignores Max Payne 2, a narrative decision that may have been fueled by the second's poor sales.
After 21 years as a Rockstar Games big cheese, Dan Houser will leave the company in March. He’s co-written almost every Rockstar game since 1999, including Grand Theft Auto from London through to V, Bully, Max Payne 3, and the Red Dead Redemptions. That’s made him a big influence
After 21 years as a Rockstar Games big cheese, Dan Houser will leave the company in March. He’s co-written almost every Rockstar game since 1999, including Grand Theft Auto from London through to V, Bully, Max Payne 3, and the Red Dead Redemptions. That’s made him a big influence on the tone of Rockstar’s games. I wonder how that might change once he’s moved on. Where he’s going and what he’ll do next, we don’t know. He can probably afford to eat pizza while watching Heat on loop the rest of his life, to be honest.
Just when the Epic Games Launcher seemed like it might have been the final salvo in the launcher wars, along come Rockstar Games with a launcher of their own. The imaginatively-named Rockstar Games Launcher lets you launch Rockstar Games games, and also buy them. Okay? And? Why w
Just when the Epic Games Launcher seemed like it might have been the final salvo in the launcher wars, along come Rockstar Games with a launcher of their own. The imaginatively-named Rockstar Games Launcher lets you launch Rockstar Games games, and also buy them. Okay? And? Why would I want that? Well, Rockstar are hoping to tempt people to install it by initially offering 2004’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a freebie.
Every other Monday, Dominic gives you a reason to dust off one of your old games and dive into its mods with Modder Superior. I felt the rise of that old familiar feeling. I hated it. I welcomed it. We’re going back to Max Payne 2 . With Control out now and putting Remedy back on
Every other Monday, Dominic gives you a reason to dust off one of your old games and dive into its mods with Modder Superior.
I felt the rise of that old familiar feeling. I hated it. I welcomed it. We’re going back to Max Payne 2. With Control out now and putting Remedy back on the map, we’re diving into their 2003 hit, and back into a world of slow-motion gunplay, over-the-top twirling reloads and mods absolutely obsessed with The Matrix and early 2000s action movie soundtracks. In fairness, the Max Payne 2 mod scene has been largely stagnant for the past few years, but that doesn’t mean dead. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting scrapes Max and pals have shot themselves out of.
As a Max Payne 2 fan, the opening chords of Late Goodbye by Finnish band Poets of the Fall always give me a shiver of nostalgia. The atmospheric song plays over the end credits, but has always felt like the game’s theme to me. When I think about Max Payne 2, I think of that acous
As a Max Payne 2 fan, the opening chords of Late Goodbye by Finnish band Poets of the Fall always give me a shiver of nostalgia. The atmospheric song plays over the end credits, but has always felt like the game’s theme to me. When I think about Max Payne 2, I think of that acoustic guitar and those low, swelling strings. But in an example of developer Remedy’s knack for clever world-building, Late Goodbye is more than just a credits song: it’s threaded into the game itself, and deeply connected to the story.
“We have in-game television shows in Max Payne 2 that become a larger part of the world, such as the Address Unknown theme park,” says Sam Lake, creator (and face) of Max Payne, lead writer at Remedy, and co-writer of Late Goodbye. “In the same way, I didn’t want this song to just play over the end credits. I wanted it to exist in, and be a part of, the world we created."
You overhear snippets of Late Goodbye throughout Max Payne 2. A janitor sings it as he scrubs graffiti from a wall, and you can hear the song blaring loudly from his headphones. Later, a contract killer plays a beautiful rendition of it on a piano, over which the body of one of his victims lies slumped and bloodied. And after making his way through the Address Unknown funhouse, Max hears his love interest, Mona Sax, singing it to herself in the shower.
“It all comes down to world-building,” says Lake. “How do you create an imaginary world that feels like a real place? In a contemporary setting, things like music, television, and movies are very much present in our daily lives. And when you’re building a world, these details become opportunities to bring colour to it and add to and comment on the story’s themes.”
While studying screenwriting at the Theatre Academy of Finland, Lake wrote a treatment for a movie script that would eventually become Max Payne 2. “Coming up with these stories is a winding road,” he says. “You try something, it doesn’t work, and then you go a different way. Early on, the idea was that Max would be involved in some kind of traumatic event and forget all about it—except for a snippet of a song called Late Goodbye.”
Lake worked on the script for a month before deciding to take it to Remedy and turn it into Max Payne 2. In the earliest version of the script the song would awaken Max’s memories of this traumatic incident, and he would realise that it was playing on a car radio while it happened. But in the end, it didn’t play such a pivotal role in the storyline—an example of that winding road.
Now Lake needed someone to write the song. Luckily he was close friends with a songwriter, Marko Saaresto, who had just formed a new band. “Sam and I have been friends since childhood, so the connection was already in place,” says Saaresto, co-founder, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter in Poets of the Fall. “Then one night while driving we started talking about the possibility of the band writing a song for his new game, Max Payne 2. In the end we wrote three songs, one of which would eventually become Late Goodbye.”
“At the time, Poets had just formed,” says Lake. “Marko and I go way back, and he’s interested in writing too. He writes the lyrics for all the band’s songs, but he has written other stuff too. And we started talking about this idea of writing a custom song for the game. I had never written lyrics before, but I had this poem that contained elements that I wanted to be in the song. I sent it to Marko and gave him permission to modify it to make it work as lyrics."
I'd never written any lyrics before, but had a poem with elements I wanted in the song
Sam Lake
“Sam sent me one of his train of thought-style poems to illustrate the mood of the game,” says Saaresto. “Then I took the overall atmosphere of the piece and the phrase ‘late goodbye’ and wrote the lyrics around those themes. Working with a writer like Sam is a relief in many ways, because he’s someone who can really understand what you go through as an artist during the creative process. With him it was especially fun because we’ve been best friends since forever and know each other really well. The process was very free and open-minded.”
As well as capturing the dark, downbeat tone of Max Payne 2, Late Goodbye also contains some direct, if subtle, references: namely the line about staring at yourself in the ‘john mirror’, which anyone who followed the story of Address Unknown will understand. But Saaresto prefers people to interpret the lyrics for themselves. “That’s how humans operate,” he says. “We experience the world through our own lens. So even though I sometimes shed light on what our songs mean, I like people to have their own theories.”
Late Goodbye became a huge hit for Poets of Fall, and put the young Finnish band, suddenly, in front of an international audience. “We’re very grateful for that,” says Saaresto. “It was a great stepping stone for us to get that kind of worldwide exposure. It was also a really tough test for our music. If people hated the song I don’t know what would have happened. But they seemed to love it, and that gave us a nice confidence boost early in our career."
“It was great to get the band’s music out there, and I love what we’ve done together throughout the years,” says Lake. “They had an even bigger role in Alan Wake. There was a Poets of the Fall song, but the band also assumed the role of a fictional band called Old Gods of Asgard, which was really a logical progression of using music as an element that’s inside the world. We just went a lot further with it in Alan Wake than we did in Max Payne 2.”
Almost 15 years later, Poets of the Fall still plays Late Goodbye at their live shows. “It definitely has a special vibe to it, since it was our first single release,” says Saaresto. “We played it so much in the early days of our career that, for a time, we didn’t really want to perform it live anymore. But it’s been back on the setlist for some time now and it’s a fun song to play.”
“I’m always looking for ways to get Poets of the Fall into our games,” says Lake. “The band wrote a song for Quantum Break called The Labyrinth, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to put it in because of some contractual issues. But we’ll see what we end up doing in Control.”
Control being, of course, Remedy’s next game—a supernatural shooter where you play as a member of the Federal Bureau of Control, an organisation that investigates unexplained phenomena. As for Poets of the Fall, the band is currently working on a new album, Ultraviolet, which is due for release on October 5, which they’ll also be touring. You can find the dates here, and who knows, maybe they’ll even play Late Goodbye.
With videogames so full of long-running series it's inevitable that even the ones we enjoy will cough up the occasional dud. Whether you didn't like the combat focus of Fallout 4, or the sci-fi setting of Grand Theft Auto 2, or the underwhelming aliens of Mass Effect: Andromeda,
With videogames so full of long-running series it's inevitable that even the ones we enjoy will cough up the occasional dud. Whether you didn't like the combat focus of Fallout 4, or the sci-fi setting of Grand Theft Auto 2, or the underwhelming aliens of Mass Effect: Andromeda, or pretty much anything about the first Witcher game, it's easy enough to think of examples. So that's our PCG Q&A this weekend, where we ask both you and our team members: What's your least favorite entry in an otherwise good series? Give us your hot takes in the comments below.
Samuel Roberts: Assassin's Creed 3
Assassin's Creed's quality has been pretty variable over the years, but most of the main entries are worth playing for one reason or another—usually the environments. But Assassin's Creed 3 oversimplified every interaction so that I barely felt like I was doing anything, even when my character was performing rad shit like fighting a bear or climbing through a forest outside Boston.
It soured me on the series for five entire years. Then I finally came back to give Origins a proper go, which is a much better game that I actually managed to get passionate about. AC3 was a complete waste given its choice of setting.
Andy Kelly: Resident Evil 0
This is a frustrating game. The idea of a Resident Evil prequel, revealing the events leading up to the outbreak in the original, could have been something pretty special. Instead we get this miserable, plodding, obtuse game featuring one of the most maddening inventory systems in history. You spend most of the game shuffling items back and forth between the two characters, or trying to remember which room you left something in an hour ago that you suddenly need. The locations are all rehashes of places we've been in Resi games a dozen times before, but less interesting. And the two-character puzzles aren't as clever as they think they are. There are almost certainly worse entries in the sprawling, inconsistent Resident Evil series, but the wasted potential of this one makes it extra bad.
Tom Senior: Final Fantasy 13
After being consumed by Final Fantasy 12's deep squad combat systems I was bitterly disappointed by the 13th game's stifling corridors, endless dungeons, and a combat system that didn't get interesting for about 20 hours. It's technically a good-looking game, but its characters look like they wandered in from different universes. Plus the story, even by Final Fantasy standards, was turbo-bollocks, full of nonsense concepts you need a wiki to decipher. I hear it opens up after about 30 hours, but screw the effort it would take to get there. I'll go back on the road with my FF15 boyos instead, thank you very much.
Wes Fenlon: Max Payne 3
Max Payne 3 is not a bad game. It's pretty amazing, in a lot of ways: the physics and shooting feel fantastic, the way it transitions from cutscenes to action is Rockstar's Hollywood obsession at its finest, and that soundtrack sets the mood. But I played the entirety of Max Payne 3 disappointed that it didn't feel like Max Payne. It's supposedly the same character from the first two, but without Sam Lake's writing, it just isn't Max. Max Payne 1 and 2 are bleak and cynical but temper that darkness with pulpy dialogue and inner monologues. They're more surreal, and more fun, and give Max more personality. Rockstar's writers totally missed the spirit of the first two games, turning Max Payne 3's story into pure bleak nihilism. Max just says the most depressing shit over and over again for 15 hours. It's repetitive and never really goes anywhere. Max is just never quite right.
Jody Macgregor: Silent Hill: Homecoming
Some people might disagree with "otherwise good" when it comes to the later Silent Hill games, but I thought Downpour was a solid six-out-of-ten thing with a handful of good ideas (that sidequest where you follow the trail of ribbons in search of a missing child, for instance) and Shattered Memories was genuinely great.
It's just a shame those are console exclusives and the only thing that shows up if you type Silent Hill into Steam is a terrible port of the worst game of the lot. Homecoming had way too much fighting, never a strong point with Silent Hill, and recycled the series' imagery like rusting walkways and faceless booby nurses in a weirdly joyless way. It's a bummer.
I'm not sure if there's another game I feel more conflicted about than Max Payne 3. The first two games rank amongst my personal favourites - particularly the second, which I think is one of the finest action shooters going. Max Payne 3 is at once better and worse than its predec
I'm not sure if there's another game I feel more conflicted about than Max Payne 3. The first two games rank amongst my personal favourites - particularly the second, which I think is one of the finest action shooters going. Max Payne 3 is at once better and worse than its predecessors. It has more intense shootouts, far superior visual effects, and production values to rival any Hollywood blockbuster - all of which were exactly what Max Payne strived to achieve back in 1999.
I also think it's Rockstar's most revealing creation. Rockstar has built a reputation as an architect of worlds, unparalleled not just in scope but in the nitty gritty of life simulation. No studio has taken a genre and made it their own quite like Rockstar North has with Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar may not have invented the open-city genre, but the Housers' signature is so deeply inscribed upon it they may as well have.
Max Payne is another developer's IP, and one which Rockstar sought to imprint its own personality upon. But Max already has his own personality, one constructed from wry cynicism, verbose monologues, and overwrought similes. The snow-lined streets, grotty tenements and endless nights of Noo Yoik Siddy are as much a part of his character as his tragic back-story and superhuman reflexes. Moreover, as a game Max Payne is the antithesis of everything Rockstar had built up to that point - a fast and furious action shooter that runs almost entirely on a highly specific style, whose substance only appears when time slows to a gelatinous crawl.
