I bought Max Payne 3 expecting to play a fun game. Instead I was ended up with a badly written, third rate movie with a few interactive action sequences inserted.
To begin with, the writing is simply horrible--Max Payne just complains the whole time. Film Noire is about ambiance and minimalism, not losers moping around. I quickly didn't care about Max Payne. Why would anyone?
The relatively few action sequences were tedious, uninspired and on rails. The developers might as well done all the shooting for me as well. Oh wait, they often did; I'd be about to do something very cool and the game would took over and do it all for me. What's the point?
Then there are the graphics. Some of the drama scenes were well done, but it got quickly tiresome. The interactive portions were entirely unimpressive and even a bit stilted. The whole thing felt very clunky and not very modern.
Then there is the DRM, which used the Rockstar "Social Club", which you are required to join. I thought Microsoft Live was awful, this is worse.
This game was an absolute waste of money and my time. It's not worth getting, even for free.
(PS. I orginally wrote this for the PC version, but during their recent changes, Gamespot recategorized this as XBox 360)