Of the three Max Payne games released so far, Max Payne 3 is the odd one out. But that’s only because Remedy is so good at imprinting its games with its own idiosyncratic personality. The third game may share a lot of the same DNA, and may also feature a metaphor-loving ex-cop killing gangsters in slow-motion, but it’s a very different experience. Over the years I’ve developed a greater appreciation for the risks Rockstar took in breaking Remedy’s established, and beloved, mould. 

It’s a Rockstar game through and through, with lavish production values, gorgeous world-building, and confident, cinematic direction. Max is still depressed, still haunted by the death of his family, and still selfmedicating with painkillers and booze. But after a deadly run-in with the hot-headed son of a local mob boss, he leaves the mean streets of New York behind and moves to São Paulo—the largest city in Brazil—to work as private security for the wealthy Branco family. It’s a bold change of scenery. 

The dark, snowbound streets of New York and New Jersey are a big part of Max Payne’s visual identity. And although there are a few flashback chapters in Max Payne 3 that take us back there, replacing that iconic setting with Brazil’s sunshine and palm trees was a brave move. The first two games are set entirely at night, while much of this game takes place during the day, giving it a very different atmosphere. São Paulo is as rough, violent, and run-down as New York in places—particularly the Nova Esperança favela—but the overall tone is much less gloomy. 

It’s a radical departure, but it works. It’s always interesting to see a familiar character thrust into an unfamiliar situation, and Max is hilariously out of place in Brazil. As if being a white American in a favela didn’t draw enough unwanted attention, he makes his life even more difficult by wearing the loudest Hawaiian shirt imaginable. He was comfortable in New York, but here he’s an outsider, and the game plays up to it brilliantly. “Here I was,” he grumbles in one of his monologues. “Some hopped-up gringo a long way from home, causing trouble the only way I know how.”

That way, of course, being balletic slow-motion combat. Max Payne 3 is an incredibly simple, pared-down shooter. All you can do is jump and shoot, using bullet-time to slow the action down for a limited period. Kill the last guy in a group and the camera will zoom-in on his bloody, bullet-peppered body, and you can keep firing you if like, you sicko. It’s an extremely limited toolset for a ten-hour game, but the good variety of locations and situations manages to keep things varied and interesting. 

Highlights include a rooftop nightclub where throbbing music and flashing lights provide an intense backdrop for a firefight. Nova Esperança is a narrow, twisting meat-grinder with gunmen emerging suddenly from blind spots and firing at you from rooftops. And the airport is host to a series of brilliantly frenetic, challenging battles with a small army of heavily-armed, and heavily-armoured, corrupt cops. The set-pieces are all wonderfully constructed and choreographed, but occasionally you do wish there was more variation and depth.

I love the way it transitions seamlessly between locations and times of day by artfully hiding the loading screens with stylish, hyperactive cutscenes.

The pace is breakneck, and I love the way it transitions seamlessly between locations and times of day by artfully hiding the loading screens with stylish, hyperactive cutscenes. There are far too many of them, though. Approach a door and instead of just opening it yourself, a shaky, over-stylised cutscene will play showing Max opening it. It wrestles the controls away from you far too often, for stuff you could easily have done yourself. 

Much of the game’s power lies in its soundtrack. In a genius move, Rockstar hired Los Angeles noiserock band Health to write the score. It’s an unusual and inspired choice that sets the music apart from pretty much every other game. It’s all pounding percussion, distorted, reverby guitars, and icy synths, and nothing else sounds like it. It’s dynamic too, with musical elements fading in and out to mirror the action. I get goosebumps every time I play the airport level and “Tears” starts thundering on the soundtrack. More developers should recruit bands to compose their scores.

Flashback chapters give us a taste of what happened before. These are set in Hoboken, New Jersey, and the wintry streets stand in stark contrast to sun-soaked São Paulo. An altercation in a bar leads to Max and Passos, his contact in Brazil, being chased by an army of camel-coatwearing wiseguy mobsters straight out of Goodfellas. Through the bullet trails of a rooftop gunfight you see the Manhattan skyline in the distance, lit up against the night sky, which is a wonderful moment of scene-setting. These visits to New Jersey are brief, but they feature some of the game’s best shootouts.

One of the strongest pieces of connective tissue between Max Payne 3 and its predecessors is the presence of James McCaffrey, who’s been the voice of Max since the first game in 2001. His performance is a highlight, delivering the ex-cop’s tortured metaphors and hard-boiled film noir monologues with a likeable weariness. And his face is even in there too. In the first Max Payne it was Remedy’s Sam Lake; in the sequel it was actor Timothy Gibbs; and in the third game it’s McCaffrey. I’m glad Rockstar didn’t recast, because I can’t imagine anyone else playing Max. 

My biggest gripe with Max Payne 3 is its lack of humour. Sam Lake’s writing in the first two games is a lot more colourful and tongue-in-cheek—especially in the heavily selfreferential second game. Rockstar’s writers, however, play it much straighter, and there’s nothing to compare to the surreal Address Unknown theme park or the absurd Dick Justice TV show. It’s a pretty dry revenge story and, for the most part, grimly self-serious. The first two games also had an esoteric, mythical quality, with their references to Norse paganism, and there’s none of that here either. Remedy’s off-key quirkiness is a big part of Max Payne’s success, and I wish Rockstar had gone more in that direction. 

That aside, Max Payne 3 is a worthy, if overly earnest, sequel. I admire Rockstar for taking a chance with a new setting, because while I’d love another Max Payne game set in New York City, it’s been done twice before. It’s a pretty basic third-person shooter, but one constructed with an enormous budget, keen attention to detail, a flair for the cinematic, and a lot of talent. And, honestly, it doesn’t matter where in the world Max is. If he has a gun, a bottle of whisky, and a few dozen metaphors, he can do his thing anywhere, the only way he knows how.   

Using licensed music in a game is a risky maneuver. A song made for the radio or the club won't wasn't built to convey exactly what a game might be going for. It can be awkward and hokey beyond repair. But when deployed during a specific narrative beat or used on an in-game radio station, the right licensed song can date and detail the setting, set mood and reveal character, or provide a pitch perfect backing track for a dramatic or action-heavy scene. They might be the first thing we remember about some games, for better or worse.

So we decided to look back licensed game music we still can't quit, and found plenty of great (and horrifying) tunes that introduced us to a new genre we didn't know we could love or underlined a particular moment in our lives.

If there's an ear worm a game introduced to you missing here, be sure to share it in the comments.

When Worlds Collide by Powerman 5000

Tony Hawk s Pro Skater 2Good lord, being 13 wasn t fun. Tony Hawk s Pro Skater 2 didn t help much either. It s during those formative years that we truly start to carve out an identity for ourselves, and THPS2 s eclectic, almost satirical snapshot of early 00s cool culture had a huge influence on me. Because of THPS2, I took up skateboarding in a rural Montana town with craggy sidewalks that would kill a horse. Despite terrible conditions, our skater crew found a way, and music was our fuel. So of course we pulled from our Teen Bible (THPS2) for inspiration and the one song that I can still recite from memory today, as much as it hurts, is When Worlds Collide by Powerman 5000.The music video really speaks for itself, but When Worlds Collide has it all: spiked yellow hair, abusive fisheye lens, and a bunch of nondescript leather and demon shit. But despite the mischievous, gravelly vocals and hokey fuzzed-out guitar riffs, it s a pretty catchy tune. Whenever I pulled off a 900 on the moon or a Darkslide as Spider-Man to When Worlds Collide, I felt cool. I definitely wasn t cool, but as a 13-year-old hormonal mess, it was enough. James Davenport

Late Goodbye by Poets of the Fall 

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max PayneI'm very fond of Remedy's two Max Payne games, and I love that the second used this melodramatic Finnish rock track as a motif throughout the story. At various points, you hear a cleaner singing Late Goodbye, Mona humming it in the shower and even a gangster playing it on a piano before Max dives into a room and kills everyone. Then, of course, it memorably plays over the end credits as well. It's a very cinematic touch, and unconsciously I started to really like Poets of the Fall, possibly as an extension of how much I enjoy Remedy's games generally. Who else would think of doing something like that in a game? Quantum Break was meant to have a song from the band too, but contractual issues apparently got in the way.The band's lead singer Marko Saaresto is a friend of Remedy's Sam Lake, hence why Alan Wake uses music by the same band as the Old Gods of Asgard as well (Balance Slays The Demon is another favourite). I find the band's music pleasingly melodramatic and I think they helped define the personality of these particular games by Remedy that its players are fond of. Samuel Roberts

Bloodlines by Ministry

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines"What is it like to be created inside a world where life is a crime?" I don't know, Al, but I'm glad you asked, because Bloodlines, the title track of the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG of the same name, is one hell of a song. The whole soundtrack is great Lacuna Coil, Tiamat, Darling Violetta, and Chiasm all turn in spectacular efforts but Bloodlines is the one that really knocks it out of the park. Technically it probably doesn't count as a "licensed" song since it was written specifically for the game, and it stands separate from the rest of the soundtrack, which is licensed and far more gothic than Ministry's howling industrial rage. But it's ripping good stuff, shifting smoothly back and forth from a shadowy, Bela Lugosi beat to the kind of all-out thrash that makes a man want to mosh until his eyes bleed. That's good enough for me.

The Bloodlines soundtrack was responsible for turning me onto goth rock at a point in my life when I really should've been too old for such things. Bauhaus, Joy Division, Gene Loves Jezebel, Flesh for Lulu: Nothing too extreme or exotic (although in hindsight I suppose that the sight of a man of a certain age in a sensible American-made sedan driving down the street with Lecher Bitch screaming out the windows may not have made the best possible impression on my parents' neighbors), but it was a definite departure from my usual fare, and one that's stuck over the years since. The irony is that even though Ministry is the high point on one of the best videogame soundtracks ever (and Activision really deserves credit for so perfectly nailing it), I never became a fan of the band. Just wasn't my thing. But it helped me discover a lot of other things that are and I will never hear that track, or any of the others, without immediately being transported back to the dance floors of Confession or The Asylum. That's a nice bonus. Andy Chalk

Sometimes by Miami Horror 

Grand Theft Auto 5The single biggest influence on my music tastes over the last ten years is Rockstar Games. Clearly, the publisher has a strong background in the music industry, and that's benefited everything from GTA 3's esoteric and exciting soundtrack of mostly unknown artists, to Vice City's snapshot of the '80s, to Max Payne 3's left field use of noise rockets HEALTH to create that game's intense action themes. GTA 5 is the culmination of that: an all-encompassing, generous slab of music where each station hits the right note. Licensing this music is what Rockstar money is for, and it's a real education if your exposure to new music or genres is as limited as mine.At first, Non-Stop Pop was my go-to station, with its familiar mix of music that was in the charts when I was a teenager (The Time Is Now by Moloko is a particular favourite). Then over time, that turned to chillwave/electropop station Radio Mirror Park Sometimes by Australian indietronica band Miami Horror is the real standout for me. That encouraged me to track down their first album, the brilliant Illumination, and that basically ignited my interest in that entire genre. Their second album, All Possible Futures, is even better. It's basically like someone blasted the concept of summer into your ears, which is a relief when you live somewhere as gloomy as the United Kingdom. Samuel Roberts

Max Payne 3 - The Original Sound Track by HEALTH

Max Payne 3More Max, and I m cheating here slightly, because I was already a big fan of LA noiseniks HEALTH when Rockstar announced they were doing the entire soundtrack for the third game. Despite the band s let s say, uh, anarchic reputation follow their Twitter for a few days to see what I mean it was clear they took the job crazy seriously, spending so long in the studio on the project that their own LP got delayed as a result. The result was, for my money, the single greatest music/games crossover. (Bear in mind I don t actually have any money.)The single released from the record is embedded above, and is a signature HEALTH banger in the same vein as songs like USA Boys and Die Slow. It works superbly when it arrives for the game s climactic shootout, but also isn t really representative of the rest of the music which is darker, more droney, and unusually consistent compared with HEALTH s explosively scattershot other LPs. What s most impressive is how hard the band clearly considered the source material. (Arguably more than it deserved.) The wash of melancholy synths and menacing ambient scree combines perfectly to channel Max s paranoid, druggy, Favela nightmare. This is also one of those soundtracks you can stick on whilst in the supermarket and instantly transform browsing for broccoli into a significant life moment. Tim Clark

Friday I'm In Love by The Cure 

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom PainHow many people did you kill to steal the one cassette of Kids In America by Kim Wilde in Afghanistan? It was three in my case. There's a great chunk of '80s pop music hidden in Metal Gear Solid 5 that you can have blasting out of your helicopter as it comes to pick you up, or back you up in battle plus you can drop your own into the local files, which is neat. But the choice that left the greatest impression is this track by The Cure, a band I'm not sure I ever thought much about before playing MGS 5, since their heyday was slightly before my time. Plus my mum likes them, which is always a bit of barrier to believing something is cool.Now I forever associate Friday I'm In Love with sprinting across deserts alongside D-Dog and sniping dudes in watchtowers. MGS 5 basically encouraged me to pick up the band's seminal Disintegration album, which I now have to admit is a better late '80s electro rock album than Violator by Depeche Mode. Samuel Roberts

Pruit Igoe by Philip Glass 

Grand Theft Auto 4I can't say I listen to Philip Glass that much recreationally his music is a bit intense for say, a few beers and a game of Mount Your Friends but I will forever associate the dense streets and towering structures of GTA 4's Liberty City with Pruit Igoe (as much as I do with Koyaanisqatsi, anyway). It ran alongside the game's memorable first trailer almost ten years ago, and then features on trippy radio station 'The Journey' as well. Other than one episode of Battlestar Galactica, it was pretty much the first time I heard his music.There's something about the concentrated vision of New York in GTA 4 that's a little bit mythical. The golden skies, the very clean look of Star Junction, the way skyscrapers are lit at night an ever-so-slightly idealised interpretation of the real thing that still has some magic to it. When Pruit Igoe comes on the radio, it all comes together in a powerful way, particularly for a time when GTA 4 was years ahead of other open world games in fidelity. It's some weird pop culture capsule of New York.Hey, I don't want to get too flowery (or wanky) about this, but if there's something I love about the way games and music speak to each other, it's that a piece of music can make you remember in detail a place you've never really been to, like you would recall a place in real life. I personally find it has a more profound effect than music from a film. Rockstar's games, and their use of music, frequently generate this response. Samuel Roberts

Ingrid Is A Hybrid by Dusky 

Forza Horizon 3Forza Horizon 3 s gorgeous open world rendition of Australia may represent the car enthusiast s dream, a map with every sort of terrain and over 300 vehicles to romp around in, but in truth and it pains me to say it Horizon 3 is an EDM prison. Sure, there s a hip-hop, some alternative rock, and classical music to listen to instead, but somehow the station always ends rolling back to drum and bass or house music. I don t remember touching the dial, but through restarting the game or event-specific music, EDM finds a way inside.One track in particular is impossible to avoid. As soon as the game boots, Ingrid Is A Hybrid opens with some light, glassy synth an ambient musical cue that ramps into the meditation exercise that is Forza Horizon 3. And then the lyrics kick in, a chant that cuts to the core of Car Life: Take me away / give me a sanctuary. Please, please take me away. Give me a car sanctuary. It s an act of psychological warfare, one that chips away at my resistance to EDM every time I start up Forza. I don t know what s real anymore. Maybe I ve been switching the stations back to electronic music this whole time. I mean, sometimes I catch myself thinking about going to a music festival. When I close my eyes I see glow-in-the-dark bracelets. Maybe I ve been into EDM this whole time. James Davenport

Atomic by Blondie 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice CityMake no mistake about this, Vice City is the alpha and omega of all gaming soundtracks. Even Rockstar s other GTA games cower in its shadow. As a man of a certain age who was raised by a father with a big time crush on Debbie Harry, I was already aware of Blondie, and had definitely heard Atomic a few times before. But some songs don t reveal their true kaleidoscopic pop perfection until you ve heard them whilst speeding around a neon-soaked Miami on a moped, mowing down anyone who looks at you side-eyed with an Uzi. Atomic is one of those.Honestly, I could have chosen half a dozen tracks off Vice City s drawling, fizzy, lipsticked Wave 103 station alone. Kim Wilde s Kids In America (which is also used to amazing effect in Metal Gear Solid V), Spandau Ballet s Gold, Nena s 99 Luftballons these are songs which you wouldn t normally associate with startling violence, but as Kubrick showed with A Clockwork Orange, and Tarantino later made an entire career from, terrifying action sequences mesh amazingly with a sugary soundtrack. The first couple of bars of Atomic are so insanely cool that you immediately have to commit to doing something ridiculous to be worthy of the music. If you aren t at five stars wanted by the time the first chorus kicks in, you re playing wrong. Tim Clark

There are so many games! We ve reviewed over 25 since the year started, and we can hardly be comprehensive--hundreds more have already released. It s a downpour, which isn t a complaint, but while we talk about Firewatch and XCOM 2 and one of our new favorite metroidvanias, it s easy to lose track of games that are further off. What s been delayed? Who s doing episodic games now? Which lead writer went where?

As we approach the big spring releases and summer announcements, we ve revisited the news from the past year to give you status reports on the PC s most popular series. We left out series we don t expect regular releases from—no one s clamoring for Team Fortress 3—to focus on confirmed, or at least expected, new games coming within the next few years. Here s where they all stand as of now.

Action and stealth

---

Assassin s Creed

Starting with Assassin s Creed II in 2009, there s been a new one every year—until now. Ubisoft is finally taking a year off (from the main series, at least) while it works on 2017 s Assassin s Creed game, which we don t know much about just yet.

We ve heard rumors, though. A few years ago there were rumblings that Assassin s Creed 3 would head to Egypt, and that claim has reemerged for AC 2017. Kotaku reports that internet rumors and its own sources have said we re heading to Africa, which would be unsurprising—we ve done Jerusalem, Florence, Rome, Boston, and Paris, and that isn t even the full list. Why not Cairo? It wasn t true last time, but we d bet on it this time (though maybe only a dollar).

In the meantime, Ubisoft may be releasing Watch Dogs 2 this year, and we ve heard rumors that it will be set in San Francisco. Get ready to hack some cable cars and disrupt the tourist transportation industry.

Arkham series

With Arkham Knight behind us (and surrounded by smouldering debris), the Arkham trilogy is over. But Batman games are not. Of course they re not. It s Batman. Speaking with the PlayStation Blog, Warner Bros Ames Kirshen said, We don t have anything to talk about at this time, but the possibilities are endless with a character as dynamic and beloved as Batman. Batman games forever.

Far Cry

Far Cry is sticking with the yearly release schedule for now, and next up is Far Cry Primal, which came as a surprise: now we re a cave dude speaking a made-up prehistoric language and throwing spears instead of shooting bullets. With some concerns about the combat, but a general sense of optimism, we ve written and voiced a few takes on what we ve played so far: first Sam gave it a go, then Tim and Shaun went clubbing. As for next year s Far Cry, assuming another is coming, we haven t heard anything just yet.

Grand Theft Auto

Rockstar is notoriously tight-lipped, but we have to imagine that Grand Theft Auto VI is being made. It was five years between GTAIV s release in 2008 and GTAV s console release in 2013, so we don t expect to hear anything until around 2018, or even later. There are some rumors floating around, but they re pretty thin, like that it ll have a bigger map. What a scoop!

Hopefully this time we won t have to wait two more years for the PC version. While we wait, though, we expect to hear about something else from Rockstar. We're certain they haven't simply forgotten that Red Dead Redemption was their biggest hit next to GTA—not that we d mind playing Bully 2, either.

Hitman

The hitman is going to be hitting men once again on March 11. Surprisingly, the new Hitman (just called Hitman) will be episodic, starting with a Paris location. Later, in April, we ll jet to Italy, and then Morocco in May, followed by Japan closer to the end of the year. It ll be $60 for the whole deal, or $15 for the prologue mission and Paris location and $10 each for subsequent additions.

The unusual release plan notwithstanding, we re pretty into new Hitman so far. Ben Griffin said it was a return to old Hitman values in our last preview—basically, you re thrown into a location and given the tools sneak or murder your way through it how you please, which is just what we hoped. We re going to be trying out the beta soon, so we ll have more impressions from that, followed by our review of the first location in March.

Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider was made with help from an Xbox One exclusivity deal, and then released up against Fallout 4—two facts that don t make it look like a priority series for Square Enix. We quite liked the PC version, though, and Crystal Dynamics has spent the past 10 years making Tomb Raider games, so it d be surprising if Lara rose now only to fall off a ledge.

A few years ago we also heard that Crystal Dynamics was also working on something new, though. What ever happened to that? We might find out this year, and either way, count on another Tomb Raider game in our not-so-distant future.

RPGs

---

Dark Souls

With the impending release of Dark Souls 3 in April, it seems we re about to run out of bonfires for good. Wes says it looks on track to be as dense and interconnected as the original, but the familiarity of the formula meant the magic was beginning to wane. There are still plenty of changes to look forward to in Dark Souls 3; combat feels quicker and more varied thanks to the addition of Battlearts, a step towards the aggressive Souls cousin, Bloodborne. Enemies change stances and behaviors on the fly. The visuals are a huge step up, and if it s optimized well for the PC, it ll look extra dark and soulsy.

But even FromSoftware President Hidetaka Miyazaki knows the Souls series is running out of steam. He told GameSpot "I don't think it'd be the right choice to continue indefinitely creating Souls and Bloodborne games. I'm considering Dark Souls 3 to be the big closure on the series. It may be a hard truth to swallow for fans, but at least Dark Souls comics are on the way before Dark Souls 3 hits. Sit close to the fire, friends. This may be it.

Deus Ex

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is out August 23, and it s got us in a cheerful mood. Tom Senior said it could be the best Deus Ex yet, and he isn t one for hyperbole. We also had a nice chat with lead writer Mary DeMarle, who talked about her views on transhumanism and how the end of Human Revolution leads into the new story.

As for the future of the series, there s little doubt we ll see more. While also pitching in with whatever Crystal Dynamics is up to next—Eidos Montreal helped with Rise of the Tomb Raider—we expect it ll be working on more Deus Ex for the foreseeable future. It s a prestigious series for Square Enix, and Mankind Divided is also a showcase for the new Dawn Engine, which they ll want to get lots of use out of.

Diablo

Last year we noticed that Blizzard was hiring an art director for an unannounced project—except, directly under unannounced project, the job listing said DIABLO. So that s a bit of a hint, but no guarantee that Blizzard is working on a new Diablo. We don t see why they wouldn t be, though—it s been almost four years since Diablo 3 released, and while Blizzard plugs away at Hearthstone and Overwatch it could very well be dungeon designing as well. That s unfortunately all we know for now, but it wouldn t be a big surprise to see an announcement this year or next.

Dragon Age

Last year, BioWare s Mike Laidlaw said that they re not sure what's next for the Dragon Age series, though they ve probably got some idea by now, as we speculate that the next Dragon Age is scheduled to fill the gap between the next two Mass Effect games—so a 2017 or 2018 release. The last Dragon Age: Inquisition DLC contains some hints about where the story is going, but we won t spoil any of that.

One development of note: The series lead writer, David Gaider, left BioWare last month. Gaider has been at BioWare for a long time, all the way back to Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. It s hard to say what to make of it: a fresh lead may turn out to be a boon for the series as much as we re sure Gaider s experience with the universe will be missed.

The Elder Scrolls

The announcement of the next Elder Scrolls could happen as soon as this year s E3. We haven t heard anything, but it s a reasonable prediction.

Last year, Bethesda surprised us with Fallout 4 seven years after it developed Fallout 3. When we get to E3 this year, it ll have been about six years since Skyrim released. It s about time for a countdown clock and teaser with swelling choral music, isn t it? Seems probable. If not this year, we expect a new single-player Elder Scrolls to be announced before the end of 2017. If Bethesda follows its Fallout strategy, it ll be playable within a few months after being revealed, too.

Fallout

With Fallout 4 DLC still on the way, it s too early to speculate much about a sequel. We do know that, if given the chance, Obsidian would be up for taking another crack at the series. It makes plenty of sense for Bethesda to have Obsidian build another in-between game like New Vegas while it works on whatever Fallout 5 is going to look like, so fingers crossed for that.

Final Fantasy

Square Enix seems set on eventually porting the entire Final Fantasy back catalogue to every platform available, including the PC, which is fine by us (although we d prefer if they didn t make them so ugly. New games aren t quite a sure thing, but we ve seen a few signs that a PC release is likely for Final Fantasy XV. And the Final Fantasy VII remake is coming to PS4 first, but a multi-platform release seems inevitable, especially as Square Enix works more with western technology. Kingdom Hearts 3 is using Unreal Engine 4, after all.

The big question is when these games will come out. We look forward to playing Final Fantasy XV in 2030, and the Final Fantasy VII remake shortly after.

Mass Effect

Mass Effect: Andromeda will supposedly release before the end of the year. We tend toward skepticism when it comes to release dates announced as far out as this one—lots of games announced for the holiday release window get pushed into February of the next year—but EA often hits deadlines. There have been a few exceptions recently, though: Battlefield Hardline was originally meant to release in 2014, but ended up coming out last year, and Need for Speed was recently delayed on PC.

Whether or not it makes it out this year, it s happening, and so far we know that it s taking us to the Andromeda galaxy and may involve settlement building. During last year s E3, we pored over the trailer and rumors to suss out any other details we could, and there s quite a bit there. We expect to see a lot more at this year s E3, followed by a marketing blitz if it s really meant to be out around December.

In other Mass Effect news, a few days ago we got confirmation that Andromeda s lead writer, Chris Schlerf, has left BioWare to work at Bungie. We imagine that much of the story is already in place, so we re not sure it s any cause for concern. We do wonder still what s next after Andromeda, though it d be shocking if it weren t the start of another trilogy, given that save game transfers are such a core part of the original trilogy. The heck are they going to call the sequel, though? Mass Effect: Andromeda 2? Mass Effect: Aquarius Dwarf Galaxy? Andromeda 2: A Mass Effect Story?

The Witcher

Geralt s trilogy is over with The Witcher 3, but that doesn t mean CD Projekt isn t going to return to the universe. The franchise will continue, according to CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kicinski. For the next year, CD Projekt has said it s focusing on support and expansions for The Witcher 3, though we also heard that it has a bigger team working on Cyberpunk. Our guess is that we ll be playing Cyberpunk 2077 in the winter of 2017, a nice round 60 years before it takes place, and then start hearing about The Witcher again in 2018.

On the next page, shooters and strategy games...

Shooters

---

Battlefield

EA has to have at least one big shooter every year. Last year we got Battlefront (and Battlefield Hardline, though that was supposed to release in 2014), and this year it ll be another Battlefield. EA said so during one of those investor calls we all love to listen in on. Presumably BF is going back to DICE (Hardline was primarily developed by Visceral) and may be called Battlefield 5, but we don t know for sure. We expect to see it at E3 this summer and, if it follows tradition, a late October release date. Looks like we re getting Titanfall 2 this year, too.

Borderlands

Back in 2014, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that Borderlands 3 wasn t in the works, but told Polygon that they ve got big ideas. It should be massive, he said. Then, in January of last year, recruiting began for the big one. So, it ll be big. That s what we know, and it sounds like Gearbox has put about a year of work into it so far. It s possible that we ll see what they ve been up to sometime this year, but I d wager that we might not see a trailer until next year.

Meanwhile, we also learned last year that a Borderlands movie is in the works, and then that the series creator, Matthew Armstrong, left Gearbox. The parting sounded amicable, at least.

"I could leave without damaging Borderland or Gearbox too much if I did it at this moment, so now was the time," said Armstrong. "I think Gearbox will do great in the future, and I think Borderlands will stay strong and awesome. I've been thinking about it for a while. I'm not quitting out of anger or getting fired. It's just time for new adventures. I'm an inventor. I'm ready to make something new. Not just new to me, but new to everyone."

Call of Duty

As long as the sun rises in the west there s no worry of Call of Duty missing a year. It was just revealed on an Activision investor s call that this year s CoD will be made by Infinity Ward, which last contributed the somewhat disappointing Ghosts. We expect to hear someone say wait and then instruct us to take the guy on the right. Outside of that, who knows? Maybe they ll surprise us and it won t be a near-future war with terrorists.

Doom

The Doom reboot releases on May 13th, and we know lots about it: movement is emphasized over Doom 3 s horror, it s said to have a 13 hour campaign, and we ll get a map editor but no mod support outside of that. As for the future of the series, it s probably a wait-and-see sort of deal.

Half-Life

......................................................................................

......................................................................................

......................................................................................

......................................................................................

Max Payne

Tough to say what the future holds for ol Max. The Rockstar-developed Max Payne 3 felt a bit like the end of the line—or as Max would say, the final bullet, silhouetted against the thundery sky of everything. We haven t heard anything that suggests Rockstar definitely isn t pursuing another Payne game, but outside of some highly suspect rumor reports, there s equally no sign that the series will continue. If it does, it might not be for some time, when we re really hungry for it. It was nine years between Max Payne 2 and Max Payne 3, after all, and Rockstar has GTA to worry about.

In an ideal world, Remedy ties up Quantum Break and gets to do another Max Payne, maybe ignoring the events Rockstar Studios put in place and spinning off into whatever noir timeline it wants. But Max doesn t live in an ideal world and nor do we.

Strategy

---

Civilization

There s no suggestion of when Civilization VI might be announced, but it seems clear enough that Civ V is in the hands of the modders now, with no more expansions planned—which doesn t necessarily mean we ll be seeing a new game soon. The gap between Civ IV and Civ V was five years, and though five years has passed since Civ V (feels like yesterday, probably because we were playing Civ), with Beyond Earth as a midday snack it s reasonable to assume we ll have another year or two before we hear about the next one. Civ games don t need yearly iteration to stay relevant, though, so there s no rush. We re just curious to find out how Firaxis might further alter the board game—doesn t seem to be much point in releasing a game with Civ V s rules but prettier graphics, so if a new one is in the works we expect a divisive change or two.

StarCraft

Legacy of the Void is the end of this StarCraft story, but surely not the end of StarCraft. Back in August of last year, producer Tim Morten said that Blizzard may consider returning to Warcraft, but that more StarCraft is also possible. Anything is possible.

Also last year, we saw that Blizzard was looking for a "Senior Software Engineer, Classic Games," which might suggest that it s planning to re-release some oldies.

Total War

Total War: Warhammer is next for The Creative Assembly, and it ll be out on April 18. We had some substantial time with it last year: Wes wrote about six observations he made while playing it, and Dan Griliopoulos talked to the devs and penned us a feature about their ambitions.

Meanwhile, Creative Assembly says work on the next historical Total War game has proceeded uninterrupted, though it hasn t been announced yet. The free-to-play Total War Arena is also in development, and is currently in closed beta.

XCOM

We can expect an expansion for XCOM 2, but after that it s anybody s guess. Unlike Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 has all the longevity that modding affords Civilization, so a quick turnaround on a new one feels unnecessary. Enemy Unknown came out in 2012, so even if XCOM 3 is coming, it probably won t be until 2020 or later. And by such a futuristic-sounding date we have to assume we ll be living on cities built of flotsam lashed to tankers and cruise ships.

I ve been to Los Angeles, and I didn t like it much. It s hot, it s crowded, it s filthy, and you can t walk anywhere. But as a setting for a work of fiction, it s one of my favourite places. From Raymond Chandler s Philip Marlowe novels to Ridley Scott s Blade Runner, the City of Angels is a resonant setting for a story. A lot of games are set there, but only one captures the dark, romantic urban sprawl found in the best LA fiction: Rockstar s ambitious, flawed detective adventure L.A. Noire.

Compared to Grand Theft Auto V s dense parody of the city, L.A. Noire s setting doesn t look all that impressive, at least not technically. But what has endured is its almost perverse attention to detail. Developer Team Bondi s reported budget for the game was $50 million, and you can see it in every lovingly detailed street corner, costume, prop, and licensed, period-appropriate vehicle. Playing L.A. Noire is like time travel, and it makes me wish more developers would squander obscene amounts of money creating authentic historical settings like this.

There are dozens of famous landmarks to visit, from Grauman s Chinese Theatre to the Bradbury building, but the impressive detail in L.A. Noire goes much deeper. I spent a good ten minutes just studying a breakfast table in a suspect s house. There are two plates with the remnants of toast and maybe beans. A salt and pepper shaker. A coffee pot. Some unopened mail. I imagined someone at Team Bondi researching, modelling, and texturing this stuff, and realised just how much love was poured into these environments. This kind of absurd, granular realism will be missed by most players, but even if you don t notice it, it s what makes L.A. Noire s settings so convincing.

You visit a lot of people s houses in L.A. Noire, from crummy one-room apartments to the palatial homes of the rich and famous. Every item of furniture, kitchen appliance, and food wrapper has been painstakingly researched and replicated. The interiors are cluttered and lived-in, and environmental clues will often subtly hint at the truth behind a case. Those plates, for example. The woman in the house says she s been alone all morning, so why are there two recently-eaten breakfasts on the table? The game doesn t point this little detail out, but leaves you to discover it for yourself.

Nosing around these cluttered interiors is encouraged as you search for clues and details to grill suspects about. An insurance policy, a photo torn in half, a love letter. But in the city itself, the detail is just there, and you re never forced to look at it. You can even skip the driving sections, forcing your partner to drive between crime scenes. But it s driving around where you really get a feel for the game s vivid urban landscape: the architecture, the cars, the fashion, the light, the mood. You ll drive past a diner and see people inside, eating hamburgers and reading newspapers. Drive to the top end of the map and you ll see the old Hollywoodland sign perched in the hills that loom over the city.

The music only adds to the powerful feeling of stepping into history.

One of my favourite details is the music that leaks through the windows of passing cars. L.A. Noire s radio station, KTI, enforces the period setting, and there s some really great music playing on there: Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters Pistol Packin Mama , T-Bone Walker s Bobby Sox Blues , Hank Williams Move It On Over . Anyone who s finished the game will have these tracks permanently etched into their brains. Combined with the visuals—and other touches such as advertising billboards and radio commercials—the music only adds to the game s powerful feeling of stepping into history.

It s a shame L.A. Noire came out in 2011, because just imagine how its period city would look recreated by today s technology. I really doubt Rockstar will ever return to it, especially now that Team Bondi is no more, but I hope they do. Not only do I want to see a version of 1940s Los Angeles with the visual fidelity of GTA s Los Santos, but I feel that the detective elements could be fl eshed out more. L.A. Noire is an enjoyable police procedural, but it still feels to me like a proof of concept for something much grander. Reviews were mixed, and many people look back on the game as a failed experiment, but I ll always love it and its remarkable city. I won t be returning to the real place any time soon, though.

Chris Livingston has already extolled the virtues of Grand Theft Auto 4's amazing #WatchDogsIV mod. For the uninitiated, it brings Watch Dogs style environment hacking into GTA's Liberty City. For a full round-up of what it enables, head on over to Chris's Mod of the Week post. For a small look into the type of chaos it supports, stay right here.

Being a child, the first thing I did on loading the game was to start a traffic jam:



So far, so Watch Dogs. But the Traffic Lights prompt reappears quickly after. I wonder...



Yup. Multiple prompts means multiple pile-ups, meaning I can stack this thing right up. Time to do that. Everybody, welcome to the jam.



What makes this so funny other than the obvious is that the cars in the crash accelerate every time I hit the prompt, pushing them deeper and deeper into the ultra-jam. Also, as you can see from the picture above, a man has spontaneously combusted.

That's probably not a good sign.



Nope, definitely not a good sign. We have reached peak jam. It is jam-a-geddon.





Perhaps unsurprisingly, this tanked the game's framerate. My rig battled on regardless to bring you this dramatic re-enactment.



You can download #WatchDogsIV from here, and you probably should.

Like me, you've probably spent dozens of hours in Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City, but often wish there was some way to cause a little destruction and mayhem. Finally, there is! The #WatchDogsIV mod summons the sullen Aiden Pearce from Watch Dogs, and more importantly, brings along Aiden's awesome Phone of Hacking +4. Traffic lights, payphones, ATMs, security cameras, and those poles that shoot up out of the street: they're now yours for the hacking! The once utterly peaceful Liberty City is about to get flip-turned upside down.

Just about all the tricks up Aiden's futuristic trenchcoat sleeve are now at your disposal as you prowl the streets of Liberty City. Walk within range of a hackable object, and you'll get a little icon on your screen. Hold down the 'E' key, and the icon will be outlined. It works pretty much exactly as it does in Watch Dogs, right down to the little electrical tendrils that spread from Aiden's phone when he hacks something.

That public phone exploded! Thank god no one was using it for the last 10 years!

Naturally, triggering traffic lights is great fun, and dare I say it, causes even bigger and badder accidents than it does in Watch Dogs. You can also blow things up, though instead of steam fittings and electrical junctions, it's Liberty City's payphones that explode. (I know what you're thinking. Exploding payphones? That's utterly ridiculous: payphones don't even exist.) Those poles that pop out of the street work most of the time, and are great for keeping the cops off your tail when they come to investigate why everything is suddenly exploding.

Oh, LCPD. Will your humiliations ever end?

Speaking of the po-po, it seems like the entire Chicago policing system has been ported over from Watch Dogs. Commit a crime, and a nearby citizen may call the police on you. You'll hear the call taking place, and the eyewitness will be highlighted with an icon, allowing you to interfere before the 9-1-1 call is complete. If the call goes through, the police will be dispatched and your radar will show ctOS scanning for your location. The mod even has options to make the police better drivers and more accurate shooters, if you want to make things harder on yourself.

No more smashing cars yourself. There's an app for that.

There's more phone-foolery! You can now remotely activate car alarms like Aiden, though in Watch Dogs that was used to distract guards, and now it's mainly just useful for startling pedestrians. You can jump into security cameras, and use them to jump into other cameras, and set off other hackable objects while peering through the lens from a safe distance. And, while you can stop the trains, just like in Watch Dogs, there's not much point in doing so, just like in Watch Dogs. But, who needs to have a point? You have some new ways to terrorize the citizens of Liberty City, and that's its own reward.

Stop the train! No reason. Just wanted to see if I could do it. I could.

The mod makes you move like Aiden as well. When you walk, you'll stuff your hands in your pockets and keep your head down, which is the best way to avoid suspicion when you're a famous vigilante the entire city is after. There are new animations for giving you Aiden's awkward sprint, as well as his patented truncheon takedowns which can be performed on anyone you're standing near. There's also a blood-round-the-edges screen effect for when you take damage, which I guess was in Watch Dogs. I'm not sure. I was so good at that game I never took damage.

Beating you up for reasons that are unclear even to me!

I'm told that hacking an ATM will cause money to spray out of it, which will cause citizens to run over to collect it, which will naturally cause a huge fist-fight, which sounds quite amusing. I have to say, though, I drove around for ages and never spotted even a single ATM. You can also cause light fixtures to explode, scaring people, and overload soda machines, spilling cans everywhere. Basically, the mod lets you be a huge, destructive jerk in new and exciting ways, and that's what any good GTA IV mod should do.

Installation: Here's the page to download the mod, with a description of all its features and the control scheme. You'll need to use OpenIV to get the mod working, naturally. And, while the mod makes you run and act like Aiden, it doesn't make you look like Aiden. If you want his goofy trench coat and hat, you'll need to install a separate skin for it (I used this one).

 

The Large Pixel Collider if you haven't already been introduced to it through the faint but ominous humming that now haunts your dreams is the most powerful gaming PC we've ever built. With four Nvidia GTX Titans and an irresponsible surplus of everything else, we're using the LPC to capture gameplay footage of supreme quality, with ambitions to go beyond 4K and into a resolution super-realm populated by beings of pure light energy.

Today, the LPC has instructed us to revisit one of 2012's best-looking games: Max Payne 3. It's Rockstar's best technological achievement on PC, and despite being a little over a year-and-a-half old, Max's unchecked alcoholism is gorgeous at 1440p.

Previously, the LPC has captured video of Arma 3 and Metro: Last Light, and screenshots of Battlefield 4 at a ridiculous 7680x1440.

Other projects in the works include super-modded tours of Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto IV, Crysis 3 at max settings, and more. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments the LPC sees and hears all.

See what's inside the Large Pixel Collider, our own personal demigod of a PC, and find out just how much it cost to build.

Hordes of postmen fill the street, armies of retail staff scurry through their fluorescent aisles, and the world's console-owning population have simultaneously phoned in a variety of minor ailments. Grand Theft Auto V has launched and, by all reports, it's A Big Deal. Unless you own a PC, that is, in which case, it's a Tuesday.

What hope do we have of joining GTA 5's triumvirate of crims and, more importantly, when? Rockstar's sandbox of car chases and petty violence began its life on PC, but without an official announcement, is it safe to assume that we'll ever have a chance to holiday in the latest Los Santos? Let's delve into the murky lake of internet rumour, and fish out any facts we can find.



Leaky Lists

A publisher can use its own roving bands of guerilla PRs to whip employees into a cowed silence. The same isn't true of external partners and retailers. All sorts of GTA 5 info has oozed from the retail counters, from an early look at the map, to copies of the game itself. That may lend credibility to a number of online retail listings for a PC release.

Amazon France kicked things off at the start of the year, by taking taking pre-orders for a boxed PC copy. Then, in May, German retailers sprang to action, with both Amazon Germany and GamesOnly posting their own speculative PC pre-orders. Interestingly, GamesOnly briefly posted early details of the console versions' special edition. They were right on the money.

Does that validate the listings? Not really. Sometimes it's less about responding to information, as it is about anticipating that information. Yes, retailers will often have forewarning of announcements, but that's not the only reason they'd promote an unannounced game. Right now, Amazon UK has a landing page for Grand Theft Auto 5 PC. It quietly exists on their website, collecting the email addresses of potential customers and soaking up lovely SEO points. The need to be in the best position if/when a PC version is announced skews how much we can extrapolate from their actions.



Immoral Code

Here's the most recent piece of 'evidence'. A config file has appeared that, allegedly, was taken from a pirated copy of GTA 5's Xbox 360 version. The XML code makes reference to both PC and Orbis, the PS4's operating system. The full file is up on PasteBin, but here are the relevant PC mentions:

Image source: DualShockers

Config code found within the game? On the surface it seems like a solid lead, but it assumes that every line of every file is created from scratch. It seems more likely that this is a standard template, which would of course contain references to a PC build - along with any other platforms Rockstar might be internally experimenting on. Moreover, the presence of a PC build isn't in and of itself confirmation of a PC release. It's just an indicator that, as with most games, PCs were used as part of the game's development.

That's not to say this discovery is completely without merit. But, as above, there are too many possible caveats for it to be a firm indicator of Rockstar's release strategy.



Unreliable Informant

Last month, Chris Evans, the senior director of investor relations at Nvidia, said the following during an earnings call:

"The PC market is evolving. As entry level laptops face pressure from tablets. Yet sales of specialty PCs like gaming systems and work stations continue to grow. The disparity reflects how consumers use these different classes of PCs. Many consumers look for PC as a general purpose device they can use for browsing, email, social media video. But much of this can be better served by a tablet. In contrast, gamers are preparing their systems for a strong roster of games coming this fall, including blockbuster franchises, such as Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto V and Assassin’s Creed IV."

The need to prepare driver updates and tailor hardware profiles means that GPU manufacturers like Nvidia can forge strong relationships with developers. If GTA 5 is heading to PC, they'd likely know about it. And here we have a senior director directly linking the game's Autumn release with the need to 'prepare systems'. It seemed like solid intel.

Unfortunately, it wasn't. Nvidia's senior PR manager Bryan Del Rizzo later released a statement, clarifying what Evans said:

“Please note, during our Thursday’s earnings call, our investor relations team provided a list of important games that gamers are looking forward to on PC this fall, and included Grand Theft Auto V on that list. This statement was made with the intent of expressing enthusiasm for the games industry in general, and was not intended to represent specific knowledge possessed by NVIDIA. NVIDIA does not have information on any possible PC version release of Grand Theft Auto or its availability. We deeply regret the error.”

Even if you're the suspicious type, and assume the latter statement was the company covering its tracks, the timetable doesn't make sense. It's too close to today's console release, and too soon for the Rockstar marketing train to leave its station. At best, we can anticipate an announcement before the end of the year. But if the game is coming, it'll be 2014 at the earliest.

On the next page: promising leads, historical trends, and direct information from Rockstar. Why GTA 5 is almost certainly coming to PC.




One Last Job

Back in July, Rockstar Leeds advertised for a new Graphic Programmer. The job description should be of particular interest:

"Rockstar Leeds are currently looking for a talented graphics programmer to help bring our latest titles to the PC platform. Working together with the other Rockstar studios, you will be responsible for maintaining the studio’s uncompromising quality bar, delivering the highest quality PC experience possible."

The phrase "help bring our latest titles to the PC platform" sounds pretty unambiguous. While there's an outside chance it refers to new games from existing series, Rockstar Leeds have form in taking on porting duties on older games. Their last project was was the PC version of LA Noire.

GTA 4, incidentally, was ported by Rockstar Toronto, who also collaborated with Rockstar Vancouver on Max Payne 3 before the two studios were merged. If this new plus-sized Toronto has shifted towards development of new games, Leeds would be the natural choice for heading up the company's PC porting duties. What "latest title" will they be working on? GTA 5 seems the only sensible choice.



Strength in Numbers

While we're making assumptions about Rockstar's internal workings, let's talk about its history. One of the strongest indicators of a post-console PC version is that the GTA series keeps doing them. As T.J. methodically charted, the gap between the launch console and PC release has stayed relatively stable, hovering at just over the 6 month mark. The gap between announcements is less consistent: in fact, it's growing. GTA is trending towards keeping PC - and potentially next-gen console owners - in the dark for longer. It's almost as if delaying the reveal of a more powerful version is a good way of maximising profits across multiple platforms... is what a cynic might say.

There's a chance you spent the entirety of that last paragraph shouting "RED DEAD REDEMPTION" at the screen. Fair enough, the outstanding recreation of the last days of the wild west is unusual among Rockstar titles of similar scope and scale in that it never came to PC. It is, however, the exception rather than the rule. Both LA Noire and Max Payne 3 found their way to us, proving that despite RDR's absence, there's no institutional shift away from the platform within Rockstar.

During a 2011 community Q&A post on Rockstar's Newswire, they hinted at why that particular game didn't cross over, and also used their subsequent PC ports as evidence that "we can finally put to rest any misconceptions that we’ve ‘abandoned the PC platform'." The post went on to state:

"We do know that, yes, there is just one title absent from our PC release plans – that game of course being Red Dead Redemption, and of course we’re well aware that some fans have been asking for it. All we can say is that whenever it is viable (technically, developmentally and business-wise) for us to release a game for PC (or any other particular platform) – we will and we usually do; unfortunately, that is just not the case 100% of the time for all platforms."

Layers of corporate obfuscation aside, it suggests that RDR was held back because of a specific issue with the Rockstar San Diego game. Whether it was technical, developmental, or business-wise-al, none of those factors are likely to apply to the publisher's most successful series from their flagship development team.



Lasting Infamy

While I'm quoting Rockstar, let's take a look at an understated line from CVG's giant interview with Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies on the subject of GTA Online. When asked if there was a definitive end to the game's online portion, he said, "probably not. Because we want it to last forever."

"We'll stop when we've simulated life - and then that will be the end! No, people have to keep going. There should never be an, "Oh, I've reached the end." We've got to have goals, and we've got to have stepping stones, but there should never really be an end."



GTA Online is a persistent, updating, 16-player version of GTA 5. Given that, and Rockstar's stated commitment to make it a lasting experience, why would you restrict it to the tail-end of a console's life-cycle? It seems natural that Rockstar are going to want it to live on in a more stable, long-term environment. Yes, that could apply to next-gen consoles, too. But it's a description that fits the PC like a glove.

Later on in the interview, Benzies states, "we'll get the current gen version out first and see what happens in the future." Which, if nothing else, proves that you don't get to be the president of a major developer without being able to coyly dodge questions about an unannounced release.

There's the evidence, all that remains is how you interpret it. What do you think of GTA 5's PC release chances?