Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Description

Two years have passed since Max Payne first embarked on his desperate quest for revenge. Returning to his former position as a detective in the New York City Police Department, Max is assigned to investigate a series of murders carried out by group of contract killers known as the Cleaners. Unexpectedly, Max encounters the enigmatic Mona Sax, whom he assumed dead. People from his past begin to return one by one, and Max gradually realizes that he did not know everything about the mysterious Circle and those who were involved in the murder of his family. Somebody out there is trying to kill Max, and he must find the answers before they succeed.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a direct sequel to Max Payne. The game is very similar to its predecessor in gameplay concept and presentation, bringing back noir detective atmosphere, cinematic John Woo-style action, and cutscenes shaped like comic book panels.

The game is built on the same engine as the predecessor, with several additional special effects and enhancements, such as dynamic shadows and lighting, cubic mapped reflections, and high resolution textures. The Havok engine with ragdoll physics is used to enhance the interactivity with the game world: objects can be moved and destroyed, physically responding to the actions of the player character and opponents.

A new feature in the sequel is the possibility to use secondary weapons alongside regulars guns, namely melee strikes, grenades and Molotov cocktails. Certain characters will join Max and fight on his side from time to time. The player also controls Mona Sax during a few stages. The Bullet Time feature from the previous game has been upgraded to version 2.0, in which Max's speed in bullet time increases as he gets more kills consecutively.

During the first playthrough the game only offers one difficulty level. If the player struggles to succeed, the game will automatically lower the difficulty, reducing the effectiveness of enemy fire and increasing the amount of painkillers. Additional difficulty levels are unlocked when the player completes the game, as well as two new modes: New York Minute and Dead Man Walking. The first awards the player with a score for completing a level as quickly as possible, while the second has Max fighting endlessly respawning enemies.

Max Payne

Description

Max Payne was a police officer of the New York City police. On one terrible day, his wife and newborn daughter were killed by three junkies, who broke into his apartment after having ingested a new designer drug known as Valkyr. After the tragedy, Max quit the police force and joined the Drug Enforcement Administration. Three years later, during a raid on a mafia compound that was reportedly trafficking Valkyr, his best friend and fellow DEA agent Alex is killed, and he becomes the prime suspect in his murder. Now Max is all alone in the cold, snowy night of New York. The mob is out to get him. The police are out to get him. The only way out is with guns blazing, because he has nothing to lose.

Max Payne is a third person shooter stylistically influenced by film noir, "hardboiled" detective stories, and Hong-Kong action cinema. Max can perform rolls and leaps to try and dodge enemy fire. The weapons at his disposal range from baseball bats to Ingram sub-machine guns, grenades, Molotov cocktails, and others. A unique feature of the game is the usage of the so-called Bullet Time - a time-slowing ability that was popularized by the first Matrix movie. Activating the Bullet Time slows down everything that happens around Max (including his own movements), allowing for slow, but precise performance of moves to take care of his enemies. A special meter indicates how much time the effect will last, and how long Max needs to wait until it can be activated again.

Cutscenes in the game are presented as comic book-style graphical panels accompanied by voice-overs.

25 to Life

Description

25 to Life is set in the urban inner city jungle where you can choose to be either a law enforcer or law-breaker. In single-player mode, you follow the storyline of young Freeze who is trying to survive in the hood and protect his family, or that of Shaun Calderon, a gang leader who had to escape to Mexico. On the other side of the law, you can play the cop Lester Williams whose department is swamped by corruption.

Whatever you choose, the bulk of the game has to walk through the cities, hide behind corners and then bust out and shoot people. As always, you have an arsenal of weapons and moves at your disposal.

You can also play online with several people, fighting against each other in teams.

Juiced

Description

Juiced is a racing game, set in the fictive Angel City, that embraces the lifestyle and culture of street racing and tuning, similar to Need for Speed Underground, with slick, fully customizable cars, fast races, gaining respect and betting. The arcade mode offers quick races and in the custom mode you can set up events with unlocked cars and tracks. There are 52 vehicles from known manufacturers to acquire, and the game boasts a total of 7.5 trillion car customization possibilities. To make available all cars, tracks and parts, you need to progress in the career mode, where you build cars and participate in racing events to earn cash and respect. Aside from the traditional circuit and point-to-point races, there are also drag races (sprints) and show-offs with difficult maneuvers requiring advanced driving techniques.

When you achieve acclaim in the career mode, some of the eight racing crews in Angel City will offer a position on their team. Each crew has specific challenges and crew racing introduces additional gameplay elements. You have to organize events by phone, gamble, and race opponents for their cars (pink slip races). The team leader's respect is controlled by the amount of damage given and sustained (distress, which also affects the car's performance) and your personal car collection. In team races, there is a strategic element as you can control your team members' aggressiveness in-game.

Up to six player can race in the multiplayer mode, in which pink slip races, based on the car collection from the offline career mode, are also available. Statistics are organized on a world ranking server, with record times from singleplayer games and a rating based on your online performance. Ratings can be improved by beating higher-ranked players or multiple drivers in a single race.

Stolen

Description

You play as Anya Romanov, a thief living in a not too distant future. You and your partner in crime, Louie Palmer, have recently landed a job to steal a statue that's been placed in a museum for an exhibition. Once you're in the museum things turn out not to be quite so easy and not quite the way the should be.

The gameplay resembles Thief: The Dark Project but also feels a lot like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid to an extent. Several elements can be recognized from those games, but many of these have been changed slightly or just implemented in an original way. The core of the game is about stealing, without killing.

Vietcong: Purple Haze

Description

Vietcong: Purple Haze is a compilation pack that bundles the original Vietcong game alongside its expansion pack Vietcong: Fist Alpha. For the PlayStation 2 and Xbox version this is the first and only release of the game; the individual game and its expansion were not available separately.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

Description

The perfect hitman, Agent 47, tries to distance himself from his violent past and becomes a humble church gardener. But he is tricked into returning to his trade when his friend, a priest, gets kidnapped by an Italian mafioso. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a third-person stealth game. As a titular hitman, you have to complete a number of missions all over the world. Each mission generally involves assassinating someone, and possibly fulfilling a couple of other objectives. 

Typically, your target will be protected by numerous guards. While there's a large arsenal of weapons available to you - ranging from stealthy weapons such as a garrote or a silenced pistol, up to machine guns and sniper rifles - your main weapon will be stealth. Agent 47 can sneak around to remain undetected, and he can disguise himself in clothes from killed or stunned guards. 

The guards aren't completely stupid, however, as they will investigate suspicious noises, and they'll react if they see you waving around a gun. They'll get suspicious if they see you running around, raise alarm upon finding a corpse, and if you hang in a disguise around them too long, they'll eventually realize you're not one of their buddies. 

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin brings something new to the series: depending on your stealthiness, you are given a rating upon completing a mission. Going trigger-happy on everyone will result in being called a "Mass Murderer", while only the most patient and skilled players will manage to receive the "Silent Assassin" rating, which generally involves stealthily eliminating the target without raising any suspicion.