What. A. Fragfest. It is tied for first as the single most violent game I have EVER played.

Ever.

EVER.

The story is the best yet, though. It kept me glued to the PS3 all weekend. Not as film-noir-ish as MP2 was. Much more reminiscent of movies such as Die Hard With a Vengeance.

I've never been so sucked into a story that I couldn't put it down all weekend and had to finish it. Not once, even in the Dead Space series that I've always enjoyed so much for the story. I play these for the story it tells much more than for the mindless violence. This one's got enough story that it could stand an option to tone down the insanity.

Rockstar's got a major hit here. But, and I never thought I'd say this, they could tone down the crazy violence in the miniboss fights JUST A LITTLE. It's like Diablo III with guns. I'm not kidding. They come at you like the Chinese Army. In waves and waves and waves and waves, and even on the easiest level the bad guys seem to be smarter than in previous shooters I've played.

It's straight linear, though. Once you know where the bad guys are they don't spawn randomly. It's replayable to experience the story again, but the gameplay experience will be the same, for the most part.

Oh, and the game proves the old adage that a handgun is the thing you keep to open the path to your rifle. I'm just saying. The FN-FAL and G-36 are lifesavers in this game, when you can get one. But if you can get your paws on an RPD, which appears in some levels, do it immediately. It, and another LMG that looks like something HK is responsible for, are indispensable firepower.

Final tally: 2,016 bad guys dead. 19,779 rounds fired, so I'm not a good shot. 460 kills with handgun. 143 with shotgun. 444 with SMG. 864 with rifle. 28 with sniper rifle. If that doesn't add up, the rest were environment kills when I blew something up. No, it doesn't keep stats. There are accolades, and this being my first trip through, I can see the progress toward getting the accolades involved.

I'm not sure, but are you saying it's violent?

Not out here on PC until 1 June but it's pre-ordered and looking forward to it. Did you try the MP? I hear it's good.

I don't play these for multiplayer. It's like reading an interactive novel for me, that is my interest.

I've read that the multiplay is very well done, though.

I have the PS3 version. It does have some lockup issues. I had to reboot the PS3 about three times in roughly 26 total hours of play.

Yeah I'm loving it so far. The multiplayer is very very twitchy though.

Just recently played through both 1 and 2, so I will probably get #3, but will wait for the PC version.

Even though I have a PS3, I hardly play any games on it anymore. Every time I get a new game for it,e.g.,Reddead Redemption, Uncharted 1,2,&3, I always play them for a while, but at some point can't help thinking how much better they would both look and play on a PC--not to mention what modders could do with them.

Basically, you are playing a game made today on a limited use PC built with components from 5 years ago. All the games mentioned looked good, but just think how much better they could have looked on a quality PC in something just a tad better than 720p

I also cannot ever get over the feeling that a console controller is absolutely the worst design one could imagine for a shooter. They were initially made for side scrolling platform jumping games and were simply never intended with this purpose in mind.

Sounds like fun, but I'll wait until June.

The 360 controller blows the ps3 controller away. I can actually play FPSs on the xbox but I cant on the ps3. But the ps3 controller is great for side scrolling fighting games.

I agree 100%. The console has nerfed games and I cannot use a controller at all, totally unintuitive.

I actually prefer to play most games with a 360 controller now. Sure you don't get the same precision as a mouse, but I find it to be a lot more comfortable personally. I don't exactly have the greatest PC gaming setup here, which contributes to that. My desk is only a little bigger than a card table, pretty crowded up here.

I'm starting to become a bit more interested in the game now after reading posts here and watching vids on Youtube.

Waiting on the PC version

Same here. I just can't bring myself to enjoy a shooter with a console controller.

I got it for the 360 and am enjoying it. I still have my Max Payne 1 mouse pad.

Yep me too, got them all on pc upto now, but must confess the 360 version keeps calling to me

Just hope my pc will run it ok.

I gots to know......what game was #1? I think Soldier of Fortune II would be mine.

Yeah I think Soldier of Fortune was the first one I played that had gratuitous vilolence. Something that always bothered me about that one though, if you look on the back of the game cd, you see what looks like a rendering of saddam hussein but you never get to take him down in the game.

Just discovered something cool. If when you hit pause you move your camera stick, it will actually allow you to pan around the in-game engine.

Dead Space. The only game that ever gave me post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet I finished it, and Dead Space 2.

I thought the Postal 2 cats had taken the top spot:

NSFW or for 2 year old kids that love animals..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Il-zbiclng

I'm currently half way through the 28Gb, 6 hour download. Yes, 28Gb! I thought SW:TFU was a large download but this tops it.

I live in Sao Paulo, from what I saw in the trailers ... well ... it looks more like what Hollywood thinks Rio de Janeiro looks like in a bad day in the Favelas.

and the Branco family name, Branco (White in Portuguese) is not a name used in Brazil, neither as a first nor as a Family name, it is a Spanish Family name, and Brazil is a Portuguese ex-colony not a Spanish one. I guess they did not want to be sued by someone in Brazil.

Other than that, it looks like a fun game, I am also downloading it.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHH!!!!!

It had 20 minutes to go and then Virgin Media throttles my download and it goes back to 2hrs 30mins!!! This will have taken nearly 10 hours to download.

Virgin Media, FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!

I actually worked on Max Payne 3 for two years... between 2004 and 2006.

The game they shipped is very, very cool, but there's no way that it should have taken nearly 9 years to develop. Rockstar make fantastic games, but their production processes are appallingly wasteful.