Max Payne 3 Was There

My playthrough of Red Dead Revolver was a result of wanting to go back in time and see what Rockstar was cooking after playing Max Payne 3 for the first time in nearly a decade.

What I found there was partly the reason for reviving this site to write about games. There are many impressive mechanics in the game that are easy to see in what may be the pinnacle of gaming (for me) - Red Dead Redemption.

Something I think about often is how the developers at Rockstar get the visual language right in ways that not many gamers might notice. Namely, light. More specifically; natural light.

That's not all, though. I don't know the industry name for it, but so much of what we see going about our lives in the natural world is obscured, blurred, dark, washed out, colorless, blinding, etc. Lighting, of course, is a massive part of this, but so is feeling and emotion.

Max Payne 3 played around with this, I think. The game is littered with flickers and blurred screens related to the addiction issues of the main character, but looking deeper, that also means his feelings. It works incredibly well.

These blips become moments of disorientation before you come back to the regular gameplay. I think about this when I'm playing games like EA's FIFA or 2K's NBA game. Sports are such an emotional experience. Messy, violent, scary, exhilarating, and the way the game is presented is so, so plain Jane and mechanical.

Anyway, more on this as time goes on.