THE HIGHS

Samuel Roberts: LA redux

I enjoyed reading Tim's piece on LA Noire's upcoming VR offshoot this week, not least because I can empathise with his sweaty chronicles of punching a man in the face using VR controllers. That aside, the way interacting with other characters works in this revamped game sounds effective, and it's nice to hear they've redone hundreds of objects to make the world feel more vivid. The original is starting to show its age, as nice as the faces look. 

LA Noire is one of those games that games journalists love to talk about: it has a rich historical setting, cinematic aspirations and is flawed in a bunch of interesting ways, despite reaching so high. I'm all for another way to experience it. 

Phil Savage: IO, IO, it's off to work they go

Right, yes, fine. With almost tedious inevitability, I am excited about the confirmation of new Hitman.

Seriously, though, while I've written about Hitman so much that I'm almost sick of my own opinions about it, it remains brilliant. And the fact that IO gets to make more of it as an indie studio is a rare and heartwarming thing. I look forward to seeing what they come up with, be it a new game or a second season of the existing one. (Although I might get someone else to review it.)

Joe Donnelly: Dressing room dressing down

I spoke about Football Manager 2018 in last week’s high column and here I am at it again. Why? Because I’ve not played anything else this week. In fact I’ve not really done anything in the last seven days, besides reviewing the latest game, chanting football songs at my monitor, and moaning about how my Celtic players don’t respect me as a manager. I’m a bit of a dick, I admit that, but these guys have a serious problem with authority. 

FM 2018’s Dynamics system is what's given my squad its newfound backbone—a new feature that forces you to manage 15+ bodies both on and off the pitch. Upsetting the most authoritative players (by dropping them from the first team, for example) often has knock-on effects and can spill onto the pitch. Despite my new disdain for some of my real life heroes, it’s a really cool addition that I’ve enjoying messing around with. 

Tyler Wilde: Rocket surfing

Goofiness has retreated from a lot of multiplayer games. We don't get to stand on the wings of flying planes in Battlefield anymore, or fill jeeps with C4. Weird, silly mods like Action Quake 2 are harder to find. The most popular game right now, PUBG, takes place in a grey military sadscape. So although I haven't played much of it yet, I'm excited to see the playfulness of Battlefield 1942 and Team Fortress 2 emerge in Fortnite Battle Royale, where players have been riding on pumpkin rockets and turning themselves into bushes. I want to do that.

Wes Fenlon: Hello Nioh

Hey, Nioh's out on PC! Cool. I haven't played it yet, and I know it's mostly a shameless combination of Dark Souls and a bloated loot system, but dangit, I love my Japanese action games. I'm especially glad to see it arrive on PC because Sony published Nioh on the PS4, which I had assumed meant a PC version was out of the question. I'm glad to be wrong, especially as I've been replaying Team Ninja's incredible Ninja Gaiden Black recently. There may be little left of the team that made that game a decade ago, but I want to believe the action pedigree still lives on in those halls.

Chris Livingston: Hats and dogs 

The Sims 4 has finally gotten pets, and they're fun. Dogs will jump in the pool with you, cats will lick their crotches while sitting on the kitchen counter and ignoring you (and ignoring everything else, including house fires) unless they want something, and you can design them, breed them, and dress them up in little outfits. You can even run a vet clinic, which I have been doing with some success, provided you don't spend too much time in the lobby which is covered with dog pee (and, this being The Sims, possibly some human pee as well).

Realistic? No. Cats will obediently climb onto the examination table without screeching, and taking their temperature involves scanning their ear with a laser instead of sticking a cold thermometer up their butts while they try to claw you to death. But who wants realism? I want to put a hat on my cat and have it stay there, instead of my cat shaking it off immediately and then hating me for the next 72 hours.

THE LOWS

Samuel Roberts: Pricey crystals

Who wants to buy £80/$100 worth of loot crate crystals? Not me. Obviously this is the big issue in blockbuster games right now, and I'm even a little bit tired of passing comment on it. But the idea of spending that amount of money on an in-game currency rather than buying, say, two full games at retail price is completely alien to me and probably always will be.

But hey, I'm sure they wouldn't list it as an option unless they believed someone was going to buy it. 

Phil Savage: Missed Call

I genuinely wish I cared about Call of Duty. Few other releases feel like such an event for the people who truly love them, and it's fun to join in on the Big New Thing. But it's been precisely 10 years since I last enjoyed a game in the series, and nothing I've read about WWII suggests it will be any different. That's a shame: the switch in setting had a chance to recall the heyday of military shooters—both the original Call of Duty games and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Instead, CoD:WWII sounds as if it's more of what CoD's been doing for the last decade. Ultimately, though, it's fine. This is PC gaming, where even if the big new thing isn't to your taste, there'll always be something that is—even if you're looking for a fun World War II shooter.

Joe Donnelly: Nioh more

As Wes notes over the page, Nioh’s Complete Edition came to PC this week. And despite seemingly suffering a bit of a shoddy port, it’s another game that I really want to play. Which means I’ve now got it, Wolfenstein 2, Destiny 2, Divinity: Original Sin 2, the new South Park, and of course Football Manager 2018 on my plate at the moment and I don’t know where I’ll find the time to make a dent in any of them.

I’m normally a bit Scrooge in the run up to Christmas, but the festive period will work wonders on my pile of shame.   

Tyler Wilde: Repeated transactional engagement

Take-Two says it wants 'recurrent consumer spending opportunities' in every new game. Yay.

Wes Fenlon: Hollow Life

Hollow Knight, one of my favorite games of the year, has an absolutely incredible vinyl record soundtrack coming out, and it's not in my hands right now. Even worse, I'll have to pay up if I do want it in my hands next year. My wallet weeps, but my record player will be so happy.

Chris Livingston: Torchlife

I was pretty bummed to hear about Runic Games shutting down. During a very stressful time in my life, Torchlight was my go-to game for decompressing and destressing after long, shitty days. Every night I'd spend an hour hacking, slashing, and gathering colorful loot and wonderfully named weapons. For several months it was a near-daily escape. I sunk plenty of time into Torchlight 2 as well, and I've just begun playing Hob which, while quite different than the Torchlight games, still shows the Runic team's excellent world-crafting and animation skills. "You haven't heard the last of us," said Runic head Marsh Lefler, and I believe it.

Three years ago, with the commercial release of VR headsets looming on the horizon, it was possible to imagine that the world was about to change. And it was about to change, but not in the way that I had imagined. Virtual reality hasn’t had the impact I’d hoped, in other words. No one I know owns a headset, and it hasn’t even caused a moral panic in the mainstream press, which is the true indication that something has arrived.

I’m not cynical about the current state of VR or its software. I think we’re doing ok. I understand baby steps, I understand how risk averse most publishers and developers need to be, and how foolhardy it would be to pour millions into VR development this early in its life. It all makes sense, but that can’t snuff the disappointment I feel in VR’s general lack of presence, its seeming inability to make me forget that I’m wearing a headset, and the industry’s focus on bite-sized experiences that serve as gentle tourist-like excursions rather than, say, an alternate life visited.

L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files isn’t going to change much about that last point: it is, after all, a condensed version of the original game collecting seven missions (or case files) best suited to VR. And yet, it’s easily the most impressive, nay startling, VR experience I’ve had since playing Eve Valkyrie for the first time. It wasn’t because 1940s L.A. was especially impressive, nor was it because punching people in the face with Vive’s motion controllers was cathartic (though it was!). The reason The VR Case Files is amazing is because of the people. 

I played the mission Buyer Beware, which has uppity cop Cole Phelps investigating a murder at a shoe shop. Tim gives a blow-by-blow of how this mission plays out in VR, and it’s engaging enough to investigate the sidewalk murder. But everything changed, for me at least, when I entered the shoe shop to speak to Clovis Galletta, the seemingly shifty store clerk.

This was my first encounter with L.A. Noire’s revamped interrogation system, but whether I should act the bad cop or the good cop weren’t huge concerns for me. Instead, my first thought when listening to Galletta speak was this: am I standing too close to her? (If it was real life, I definitely was). Am I invading her personal space? I immediately stepped back and waited for her to react to my body language—an instinctual, barely registered action that we all probably carry out in real life occasionally. But Galletta didn’t respond of course, because she’s a character in a video game. 

As she spoke, it felt pertinent to monitor both her face and her body language, in the way we do with real people. And that’s the nugget of L.A. Noire’s interrogation system of course, but the fact that it worked so well startled me. I had momentarily behaved like I would in front of a human, and I’ve never done that in VR before. 

The reason it’s so effective in L.A. Noire is due to MotionScan, the motion capture tech used (exclusively, at this stage) in the original game. Galletta’s face was nuanced, her movements subtle and human-like, and most importantly: her dimensions, her height, her width, all felt right. I felt like I was standing next to a person, whereas NPCs in VR can often seem either too small or too large, or else too wooden. 

Maybe this is the kind of experience that VR should chase right now. Instead of virtual Pong or horde mode shooters or racing games, perhaps the element that will win people over are the subtle ones that make virtual worlds feel like real ones. VR software doesn’t need to be realistic, but I think most newcomers want to feel shaken. They want to feel as if they’ve stepped into another world. And what I learned from L.A. Noire is that perhaps the best way to do this is to focus on people, life, conversations. I'm usually one to race through dialogue in games: I like driving, and shooting. But in L.A. Noire, I longed for every human encounter. 

We all knew VR would need to establish its own styles and genres—that what we play on screens couldn’t possibly make a direct leap over—but how many studios are doing this? The VR Case Files arguably isn’t innovative, but it contains the kernel of something VR can do that, crucially, makes for an experience you can't get on a TV.

Of course, The VR Case Files is a game, and like most VR games it can’t hope to maintain this illusion of reality. Movement is great as far as VR games go, but overall, movement isn’t great in any VR game. Meanwhile, VR’s grainy resolution has a long way to go too, as do efforts to eradicate motion sickness. At the moment, the best we can hope for when donning a headset is that we’ll feel, at least occasionally, that dreamlike sensation of being somewhere else. And by leveraging tech designed to make humans more lifelike, The VR Case Files delivers one of the most effective examples of it yet.

Late last week I knocked a guy out in Los Angeles. Two in fact, and my girlfriend was watching, as were a couple of colleagues. I couldn't see their reactions, but I have to assume it was mostly embarrassment on my behalf, because I'm a man the wrong side of 40 and haven't thrown a punch in anger since high school. Still, I can confirm that despite my fire-engine red face and slightly strained shoulder, punching dudes feels good in VR. 

Going into my playtest of LA Noire: The VR Case Files, I assumed that Rockstar would've just stripped out all the action-y stuff and stuck with the interrogation scenes. Not quite so. There's driving, punching, and shooting (though I don't try the gun stuff) in this slimmed down Vive version, which is due out in December following a slight delay. It'll cost $30 via Steam, and there are a couple of new features to ease you into VR and make the interrogations flow a little more naturally. (Or at least how you'd expect an old timey detective grilling a perp to go.)

We begin in the office of Cole Phelps, the cop played by Mad Men's Aaron Staton. This is a new space designed to acclimate you to the VR controls. With a Vive controller in each hand, you use the triggers underneath, or the buttons on the side, to grip objects. Squeezing the triggers also makes Phelps' fingers do a pinching motion. I was easily able to pass objects from one hand to the other, pick up a gun, answer the phone, and throw an ashtray around like my wife had just called to say she'd left me.

Actually, I say easily, but I much preferred using the triggers over the side buttons, and unfortunately once into the actual investigating the game really does want you to use the side buttons. Before hitting the bricks, I try on a couple of suits in front of the mirror. This is done by reaching out and popping on a different hat from one of several on a stand. And holy shit is it eerie staring at yourself and seeing Staton's looking back. Because LA Noire tracks your hand position, it's also possible to make yourself do some pretty weird Mr Tickle-style stuff with his arms. It's probably why Mrs Phelps left.

Having selected a jaunty waistcoat and hat combo, we set off for the patrol tutorial. Here Phelps and his partner chase down some misdemeanor-level wiseguy using one of three possible movement systems. You can either aim the reticle at a spot and beam yourself to it, highlight an object that glows in an obvious yellow and teleport there, or—brace yourself—actually sprint forwards by aiming in a direction and then swinging your arms madly back and forth. That's about as disorientating as it sounds, and I assume even dafter to look at, so I stuck with the yellow highlight option thereafter.

To the scene of the crime

The pursuit culminates in my first punch up. Throwing down works exactly as you'd expect, and I was able to land hooks, jabs and uppercuts, swaying backwards like a fat Neo to avoid his retaliatory blows. Judging the correct distance to swing from takes a little practice, and there's no feedback from the controller when fist meets face, (just as well, considering my baby soft, never-done-a-day's-real-work hands), but I found just whaling on a guy in a realistic 3D environment surprisingly realistic. It probably says something primal about pent-up white collar rage, or just the eternal allure of jamming knuckles into some chump's jaw. Either way: the punching is good.

Somewhat less convincing is the driving. Here you turn the ignition using your right hand, then grip the immaterial wheel as you lurch around the still immaculately recreated streets of 1940s LA. I initially panicked as it felt like the car almost whooshed out from under me (happily I had asked to be seated for this part, so didn't fall on my ass). There's a decent amount of traffic and sure enough I slewed straight into it. Gradually, I got to grips with the feel, and found that if I took the ride grandma-slow it actually felt pretty interesting. The dash-mounted minimap could do with it being a bit more prominent, though, as initially I had no idea what route to follow.

The good news is that even when grappling with the controls I never got nauseous. I think that's partly helped by the fact that if you look down you'll see your feet and legs, which helps anchor you in the world. Once we got into a case proper, the crazy fidelity of Rockstar's six-year old world strikes home. While of course you never truly forget you're in a game, it's still startling how real standing on these streets feels. The developer has up-rezzed 500 in-game objects to help enhance that feeling, and sure enough rummaging through a dead dude's coat for his ID is an uncanny experience.

The crime I'm investigating is a murder outside a jewellery store, and one of seven cases in the game, all of which are culled from the original. The meat of it takes place when I'm interviewing the clerk of the store. It's easy to forget just how astonishingly detailed the faces and expressions in the original LA Noire were, but nothing in the intervening years has come close to replicating the witchcraft that Team Bondi's MotionScan tech delivered. And little wonder, given what a ballache the performance capture was to do, making reshoots prohibitively expensive and impractical. But there's no arguing with the end result, which again is even more impressive when experienced in VR. 

Or to put it more plainly: when speaking to the clerk, much as you know it's not a real person standing in front of you, her height, her little facial tics—eyes darting this way and that, subtle mouth movements—all conspire to make your lizard brain react as if someone is right there. The idea of the uncanny valley is that we're hardwired to reject simulated people the closer they resemble but don't quite replicate reality, but that isn't what I found. I would say that I was fascinated by what I was seeing. So much so that I found it hard to concentrate on the specifics of the police work.

Hunt for the truth

In terms of how you progress these interviews, Rockstar has ditched the old 'Truth', 'Doubt', 'Lie' options on the basis that doubt was a pretty nebulous concept, and you couldn't be sure what Phelps would do if it was selected. Now you pick between 'Good cop', 'Bad cop' and 'Accuse' as the three possible lines of questioning. I still managed to mess up by being too much of a hardass on the poor clerk when she'd already ponied up all the information she had. But overall it seemed a little more intuitive. 

In this instance, there's no doubt. After finding the murder weapon in the trash outside, and taking a trip to a gun shop to trace the serial number, I'm soon confronting the clearly guilty suspect. Sure enough another chase sequence ensues, ending with more fisticuffs. "You can also punch him in the nuts," the Rockstar rep offers helpfully, and she's not wrong. In fact my only lingering disappointment is that your feet aren't tracked, so there's no putting the boot in. And that, ladies and gents, is how police brutality is born.

Shaun has more thoughts on LA Noire's face tech and the implications it has for VR which we'll be publishing soon, but for me this game has gone from something I wasn't sure needed to exist, to one I'll actually dust our Vive off to spend more time with. 

Initially slated for a November 14 release, LA Noire's new VR component will now launch in December, according to Take-Two's most recent earnings report. In case you didn't know, Take-Two is Rockstar's parent company.

After discussing the imminent release of new versions of the base game for PS4, Switch and Xbox One, the statement offers this:

"Following these in December, 2017, comes LA Noire: The VR Case Files, featuring seven select cases from the original game rebuilt specifically for a virtual reality experience on the HTC VIVE system."

A specific date for December wasn't given. But in other, less surprising, news from the earnings report, 2K has a new blockbuster game coming out next year: whether it'll be Bioshock or Borderlands or something entirely else, is yet to be seen.

In a surprise announcement, Rockstar has announced L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files—an incoming virtual reality game for the HTC Vive. 

Due November 14, The VR Case Files marks the Grand Theft Auto developer's "first steps into virtual reality" with seven "select" case from the original game. As you might expect, these have been rebuilt with VR in mind, however Rockstar doesn't detail the specifics in this news wire post. 

Here's Rockstar with the skinny:

"L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files for HTC Vive delivers seven of the original engrossing, self-contained cases from L.A. Noire rebuilt specifically for virtual reality, blending breathtaking action with true detective work to deliver an unprecedented interactive experience."

Alongside The VR Case Files, Rockstar has also revealed enhanced editions of the base game are en route to both Xbox One and PS4. These will come with all additional DLC inclusive, as well as a "range of technical enhancements for greater visual fidelity and authenticity, including enhanced lighting and clouds, new cinematic camera angles, high resolution textures and more." 

PS4 Pro and Xbox One X owners can look forward to 4K support—however there's no mention of anything beyond the HTC Vive exclusive starring on PC.

Every week, we ask our panel of PC Gamer writers a question about PC gaming. This week: what game would you recommend to a complete non-gamer? We also welcome your answers in the comments. 

Samuel Roberts: Rocket League

What if football, but with cars? Rocket League took off precisely because it's so easy to pick up and play, with fast matchmaking, intuitive controls and short matches. Within one game, any player of any skill will get it. 

And then the obsession begins. Cars fly overhead in your dreams. You wander through the streets imagining what would happen if that BMW over there did a backflip to score a goal. You haven't spoken to your parents in weeks because you're trying to climb the ladder in ranked. You started playing in January, but now it's August and you've played nothing else, and you've had Prey sat on your hard-drive for months. Maybe you should stop? "I think we should see other people," your partner says. "No problem." you reply. But did you say that, or were you merely selecting a quick chat option in yet another game of Rocket League? You're 80 years old and dead, and you only ever reached Gold II rank.  

Anyway, yeah, Rocket League. Great game, regardless of skill level. 

Phil Savage: Kerbal Space Program

Technically Kerbal Space Program is a very difficult game. Just ask the many Kerbals who are stuck endlessly orbiting the various moons and planets I have tried to visit. But, while hard, its difficulty isn't abstract. Kerbal Space Program is difficult because going to space is difficult. By basing itself on real-world, observable concepts, its challenge makes sense. That makes it an incredibly effective starter game. Also the fact that, if in doubt, you can usually just add more rockets.

It's also good because its success is scalable. In sandbox mode, you're never punished for failure. Instead, you're given an opportunity to learn, tweak and reassess. It's a great teacher, not just of the physics of rocket science, but also of how games can support experimentation and play on the path to a greater goal.

Andy Kelly: L.A. Noire

Basically prestige TV in game form. A compelling series of mysteries to solve, proper actors bringing the characters to life, and a larger narrative of corruption and scandal to get swept up in. You don't even have to drive anywhere: just get your partner to do it for you. And if you're having trouble with the action sequences—gunfights, car chases, and so on—the game lets you just skip them. It has some problems, sure, but if you don't 'get' games, L.A. Noire will immediately make sense. Everyone loves a good detective mystery, and Rockstar's game presents its varied, mostly well-constructed cases with the lavish feel of a US TV drama.

Tim Clark: Hearthstone

I know, I know, but probably Hearthstone. I've been teaching my nephew on holiday and they've done a ton of work to make the new player experience more friendly. Until you start getting serious about trying to climb ladder, it's also a free-to-play game that you can genuinely have fun goofing around in without having to drop dollars. Tavern Brawls, Arena Runs, even just administering kickings to the Innkeeper AI are all a fine way to spend a few hours on your PC when you're supposed to be working. I should know.

Tom Senior: Her Story

You don't need any knowledge of game genres or complicated control schemes to play through this fascinating mystery. If you can Google, you can play Her Story. The game is a database of videoclips showing police interviews with a woman—is she a suspect, a witness, a victim? You search for key phrases to bring up new clips containing fresh clues to search for. The format is surprisingly good at delivering twists, and the game is particularly fun if you have friends around to help put the pieces together.

Chris Livingston: Plants Vs Zombies

It's bright, it's colorful, it's amusing, and there's just about the most perfect learning curve in a game I can think of, where you're given just enough time to figure how to best use a new plant when a new zombie shows up, and you're just about on the brink of having your home invaded when the final zombie falls. There's also plenty of extra modes and activities that are fun to play around with. It's also addictive as hell, so even if it's their first game it won't be their last.

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.

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

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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.