Best Gears 4 Review.

[CaitSeith]

WOW I just watched it... and then removed it from my history. Damn that bell! My ears still keep ringing.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

The first Gears was fun because it felt different for its time, but overall the series is really a glorified gallery shooter IMO. Sure there's the roadie run and some melee, but 90% of the game is take cover/shoot in place.



As a side note: I'm also enjoying Tomb Raider (reboot) more than I thought I would. It has a nice little upgrade system that you don't have to grind for, logically placed/spaced out collectibles, and aside from the somewhat tedious cinematic viewpoint areas that slow things down between more open locations, the pacing is pretty decent. After playing a couple locations so far, it feels like a pretty nice blend of what I think good third person action/adventuring should be. So far not much of the complaining ("EHAAOOOOOWWWW" / "This is SOOOOO HAAAAHRRD" / etc) that B-Cell seems to have hated so much either.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Black-Cell, you finally prompted me to write my Max Payne 3 review. I'll probably edit it like thirty times, but at least I got it out of the way. Thank you.

Spoiler

Ever since Resident Evil 4, most third-person shooters have had zoomed in over-the-shoulder cameras that needed to be initiated (with the right mouse button or the left bumper/L1 on the controller) before the player could shoot accurately or at all. This camera system greatly limits what can be seen, due to the huge character standing on the left (or right) of the screen, and usually foot movement is slowed to make the zoomed in camera more manageable. There is a place for that, but I long for combat that is less restrictive. In Max Payne 3, the camera is at a fair distance and the character will shoot regardless of which way he is turned. He holds his guns ready, making shooting instantaneous and accurate. When you lie on the ground and turn the camera, watching the character aim the gun, you will hopefully start to appreciate how fluid and harmonious the animations and targeting system are. The combat has a flow that you rarely find in today's ADS (iron sight) and zoomed in over-the-shoulder shooters. Running won't reduce your accuracy, which is essential, because the enemies will rush and flank you for remaining still. Thankfully, the cover system is quite functional, whether you press key Q (or whatever you have it set to) against a wall or low object. In some of the other third-person shooters I played, my bullets would hit walls or objects that I was standing near, but here the bullet always hits what is behind the reticle/dot in the center of the picture. The action is accentuated by occasional slow motion scripted sequences, which I feel befit Max Payne and are at times exhilarating. They are not distractingly long or abundant. There is also "shoot dodge", a feature from the previous games that allows you to dive through the air in slow motion like Neo from The Matrix.

The carry system is efficiently animated and realistic. Max can hold three weapons at a time, two different types in his holsters and a rifle or shotgun in his hands. If you press key 1, he will aim one pistol or sub-machine gun. If you press key 2, the he will pull out the other. He will continue to hold the rifle in the opposite hand, but you will not be able to use it unless you press key 4, which will cause him to holster both pistols/SMGs and take the rifle or shotgun in both hands. Pressing key 3 will cause him to drop the large weapon and dual wield the pistols and SMGs. You can also manually drop large weapons, an action which I chose to assign to the side button of my mouse. Some players will miss the carry system of the previous games, where you could carry a dozen guns at a time, but I appreciate the risk of picking up guns during combat and how it keeps the player moving. If you run whilst pressing the pick up key (the default being F), Max will roll over the weapon as he picks it up, expediting the action.

Like the previous games in the series, Max Payne 3 uses a manual healing system. You press the Tab key (or whichever key you choose to assign healing to) to consume painkillers that you pick up in the environments. This means that you don't need to stay behind a wall and wait for your health to regenerate, like in Call of Duty, Uncharted and countless other modern games.

As with Rockstar's other games, there is an impressive attention to detail, such as gory bullet holes, highly detailed models, weighty animations, debris, smoke and some destruction. But, since this is a linear game with closed environments, the developers were able to add more of these little details than in Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. The art direction is equally impressive, featuring beautifully rendered, often dreary urban settings in Sao Paulo, nighttime New Jersey, as well as jungles and offices full of glass and papers to blast.

Unlike GTA and RDR, this is not a satire. The humor is much more retrained and sparse. It's a dark, cynical story of moral ambiguity, depression, corruption and human trafficking. After losing his career with the NYPD, Max wastes his days away with painkillers and alcohol, lamenting the past and destroying his body, until an old friend approaches him in a New Jersey bar and offers him work in Sao Paulo. It's a chance to once again do something with his life, to redeem himself. But in Sao Paulo, he once again fails to save those he is supposed to protect (paid to protect) and finds new evils. Sardonic narrations pull you into his mindset as you see the graphic violence, poverty and greed. Some people call him depressing, but I prefer to think of him as a realist, who sees his world and himself as they really are. Whereas many globetrotting games have enemies speaking English with foreign accents, here most of it is in Portuguese without subtitles. You're as much a stranger as Max.

The music is a moody, stylish combination of synth, echoing noise, post-rock and drums, some standout tracks being "The Girl", "Max: Panama" and "Future".

The game is not without its faults, though. Cutscenes are too frequent and often unskippable (which has nothing to do with loading times, as some fans would have you believe). The worst thing about them is that they're compressed videos (.bik format) rather than rendered in real time. Not all of them, but many. Their resolution is 1920x1080 and their framerate 30 fps. Crouching is worthless and some of the areas, especially offices, are more open than others. The vertical sync doesn't completely remove screen tearing for me and the Social Club updates have on rare occasions prevented me from playing the game.

Max Payne 3 is one of my favorite action games and an impressive achievement in interactive storytelling. I hope it's not the last of its kind.

Quantum break is better than Max payne 3.

 

[Pseudonym]

So it's lineair and more focussed on spectacle then depth of gameplay. So? Might not be your cup of tea but I enjoy that from time to time. No reason to freak out to this extend.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

So it's lineair and more focussed on spectacle then depth of gameplay. So? Might not be your cup of tea but I enjoy that from time to time. No reason to freak out to this extend.

Pretty much like any game Gears game ever since the first, really. And that's fine. Sometimes you just want a hamburger instead of haute cuisine, and Gears is a big, fat juicy one.

But the threadstarter has some rather narrow, black-and-white ideas of what is or isn't a good game, which he tends to state as objective fact, unhindered by things such as reason or proof. Which he has a right to, I guess.

Best thing is to just roll with it and get some entertainment out of it.

 

[McElroy]

Sometimes you just want a hamburger instead of haute cuisine, and Gears is a big, fat juicy one.

We should make a whole thread dedicated to food metaphors. To me GoW 4 looks like a big sloppy burger sold at a premium price.

 

[sageoftruth]

Oh, I'm not even talking about his persona. I'm talking about when he...

Complained about the inclusion of the cardboard box in a Metal Gear game.

Complained about the inclusion of a metal gear in a Metal Gear game.

Gave Witcher 3 a Not Worth a Buy because the combat whilst stating that the story was really good "...but who cares about that in an RPG?"

Criticized Witcher 3 for having a small open world based on White Orchard, the tutorial zone.

Posted his Withcer 3 review before getting out of White Orchard, the tutorial zone.

I could go on, but that's all I remember off the top of my head.

I'm impressed you managed to watch all of those. I could barely make it through this one alone. The guy just won't get to the point.

 

[sageoftruth]

Sometimes you just want a hamburger instead of haute cuisine, and Gears is a big, fat juicy one.

We should make a whole thread dedicated to food metaphors. To me GoW 4 looks like a big sloppy burger sold at a premium price.

Well, I once saw a reviewer describe Transformers Devastation as a big bowl of extra-sugary kids cereal, praising it for being fun, while also serving as a warning to anyone going in and expecting fine cuisine.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Quantum break is better than Max payne 3.

He never even mentions Quantum Break in his review. Did you read it? (Probably not, too much text to be arsed I'm sure)

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Quantum break is better than Max payne 3.

He never even mentions Quantum Break in his review. Did you read it? (Probably not, too much text to be arsed I'm sure)

He doesn't care, he purposely says things to annoy/anger people, I think there's a definition for people who do that...

 

[Poetic Nova]

Wow. This train barely made it out of the station before falling off the rails.

That's implying there even was some sort of rail to begin with.
These kind of threads all boil down to the same thing: if it isn't generic gruff manly man dude it's not worth it.
Would fit in with a certain group of people best described as "being stuck in their childhood, lockign themselves up in their treehut with a sign 'no girls allowed'". As if they are evil or something.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Oh, I'm not even talking about his persona. I'm talking about when he...

Complained about the inclusion of the cardboard box in a Metal Gear game.

Complained about the inclusion of a metal gear in a Metal Gear game.

Gave Witcher 3 a Not Worth a Buy because the combat whilst stating that the story was really good "...but who cares about that in an RPG?"

Criticized Witcher 3 for having a small open world based on White Orchard, the tutorial zone.

Posted his Withcer 3 review before getting out of White Orchard, the tutorial zone.

I could go on, but that's all I remember off the top of my head.

Holy fuckin' shit. I can hardly wrap my head around so much stupidity. How can he exist? How is he able to turn on his gaming system, record the gameplay and upload it to YouTube when he's so massively moronic?

Quantum break is better than Max payne 3.

He never even mentions Quantum Break in his review. Did you read it? (Probably not, too much text to be arsed I'm sure)

He doesn't care, he purposely says things to annoy/anger people, I think there's a definition for people who do that...

Yes. If it wasn't obvious before it sure as shit is obvious now. Anyways, he just became the first person that I've put on my ignore list. Why bother with him?

 

[josemlopes]

Play on insane and you will see that the games goes from "whack a mole" to flanking untill the enemy cant hide anymore.

When the game is on an easier difficulty you dont need to do much other then wait untill the enemy shows, shoot and wait again for your health to regen, on harder difficulties you cant do that and you need to give all your damage in a single attack while the enemy has much more health then the player, therefore you need to get into a position where you can shoot the exposed enemy while taking the minimum amount of damage.

So there you go, opinion discarded.