Finally I've finished Max Payne. It is a very good game, possibly the best action-game of the year. Now is time to write an article here, though my mice buttons are still hot from playing :) Max Payne is an 3rd-person action shooter, developed by Finnish studio called Remedy Entertainment (Death Rally makers). Max Payne's gameplay seems to be inspired more by movies than by games to create something that feels like playable, interactive cinema. The game is based on a story of cop who's family has been brutally slaughtered. As he tries to find out who did it, he's framed for a murder he didn’t commit. Now he is wanted by both the police and the mobsters. You have to prove you are innocent to the cops, while not getting killed by the Mafia. It's time for revenge....The story is good, but I was pretty annoyed with kinda repetitive slide show ala comic book-style panels instead classic rendered story line with the rendered characters. However some dialogs are pretty funny like this one "I HAVE TASTED FLESH OF FALLEN ANGELS..." :P Well, maybe my fingers too much itched to kill enemies :)
The graphics are stunning, well modeled characters, fluid animation, nice lighting-the whole package. Especially some effects like the snow, fire, and explosions are really amazing. Also the environment looks pretty realistic, I immediately recognized old-good New York. Well it may not impress everyone, but I think Max Payne doesn't disappoint with the eye candy. The system requirements on the box are quite high :  recommended is P3-700MHz/128 + 32MB 3D card. Well Max Payne needs fast computer if you want maximum resolution and details, but the game is quite good playable with any PII + good 3D card. The sound won't disappoint you too. The voice acting rocks, the weapon effects sound authentic and music pumping blood. (you can download some Max Payne Soundtracks from MP3.com).
Only thing that disappointed me (I'm Soldier of Fortune maniac) is the lack of gore in Max Payne. Peter Habja (animator&graphics designer of MP) has made his own comments on the VE forum, about the lack of gore in MP, here's his explanation: "Decals on skeletal character meshes is not the same thing as decals on walls. The projection algorithm needed to put decals on deforming entities is very CPU intense. This is why they disappear after a while in Hitman, and this is why Hostile Waters' framerate screeches to a halt when you shoot at the biomechanic aliens. Pain skins by just switching the textures would have used up too much texture memory. I painted a large set of extremely gory pain skins for the game, but they were all dumped after the decision was made to not use them. There was not enough time to develop a segmented, layered pain skin system a la Soldier of Fortune. SoF focused on gore, we focused on other things."
Max Payne gameplay is EXCELLENT and also very intuitive and you should have no trouble getting the movements and how to interact in the world of Max Payne in the 3rd-person perspective. By default, the left mouse button fires your equipped weapons (metal pipe, baseball bat, barretta, dual barettas, Desert Eagle, Pump-action Shotgun, Sawed-off Shotgun, Ingram, dual Ingrams, M-16, Molotov Cocktail, Grenades and Sniper Rifle), while the right mouse button triggers Max's "bullet time" special ability, which temporarily puts everything in slow motion, similarly to The Matrix and Romeo Must Die movies. It's really COOL! Because Max Payne is single player only, most gamers will want know how long gameplay is. Max Payne contains three acts, each with several chapters (9, 5 and 8) that starts at the same point and leading you to a predetermined cut scene. Overall Max Payne offers about 10-15 hours of gameplay. Certainly you can finish the game even faster if you will use cheats or walktrough :) Max Payne is definitely an excellent game, if you like 3D shooters and John Woo movies you must have it!
Note: Playable demo isn't available yet, so be patient. The game also ships with the Max-FX toolset, which players so inclined can use to create Max Payne levels and mods. So we can expect some mods soon!