Okay, NOW I'm excited for E3.

I loved the first and second game for their gritty, noir feel. And from the looks of it, most of this new chapter in Max's life is like that.

My biggest beef however, and why I can't say I'm as interested in the game, are the cutscenes. In the original games, we had these moments done in the style of a graphic novel. It just added to the uniqueness. Now, they're replaced by your standard cutscenes, so the game just looks generic in comparison.

Plus, some of the best levels in the original games were the - for lack of a better term - dream sequences. There were some especially trippy moments, like following a bloody trail of your dead baby while its cries echo.

The bullet time and action seems dead-on, but those two missing elements are what made the Max Payne games great to me. I'm really, really hesitant to bother with this one as a result.

@PodXCOM How about the Batman games? They certainly did new things. And most of the major innovations done in gaming these days have been through downloadable games, like Journey and I Am Alive. Or even as recent as Lone Survivor. Some of my favourite games in the past year or two have been almost entirely downloadable.

@PodXCOM Sure, some of those are impressive, I'll grant you. And I do agree with @Spartan_418 that we can have both kinds. And you're right, I do want the games to be capable of doing more things.

That said, I'm also not the type of person who wants bigger worlds. Most games that promise big, sprawling worlds wind up with not very interesting details upon closer inspection. It just gives you more time to get from Point A to Point B. Saints Row 3, for example, or GTA IV, both have impressively large worlds, but each and every part of the game isn't unique like the real world. I'd be more impressed with a game that took place in a small town, with a LOT of interesting little details and a reason for each and every building or site.

Also, just because a game has that capability doesn't mean it's going to be a great game. It' all comes down to a game developer's use of the technology. There are still tricks from the 16-bit era (SNES) that are only know being utilized. Why not see what this current generation of games IS capable of rather than pushing to another generation so soon? It's sort of like buying the latest model of a car. Sure, it's nicer and runs smoother, but that doesn't mean you need to immediately trade up from last year's model.

@PodXCOM I'm in the group that doesn't want photo-realistic graphics. The more real they attempt to make video games look, the more chances of there being an uncanny valley effect.

I prefer great aesthetics over great graphics. And you can have some amazing aesthetics without being "realistic" or "top of the line" graphics. Take Journey, for example.

Wow, i read that title totally wrong.

I thought it was "New Xbox hardware already malfunctioning."

@Kastigador I never said it was worth $30 or worth anything. Don't put words in my mouth. I'm saying that my definition of a paint job is purely aesthetics (costumes, literally paint jobs, etc), not gameplay.

And are you suggesting that flying around unassisted would NOT be fun? I may be biased, though, as my icon will indicate.

See, what bothers me isn't the lack of Half-Life 3. It's the lack of communication with Valve to its fans who just want to know if there is ANY progress on the game. The more they remain silent, the more we start to assume they're not even working on it.

@Kastigador How is something like implementing super-powers a paint job? If it were just new outfits, I would agree. But it's more than that.

To be honest, aside from maybe Nintendo (for HD and better online) and Microsoft (for Blu-Ray), I don't see the need for another console jump. Video games, in terms of graphics and presentation, haven't really been evolving in leaps and bounds like they used to. They're gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but they've kind of hit a plateau. I think now, developers will need to think about their games more than just about the graphics and start focusing on gameplay again. Plus, I honestly believe that smaller studio games are going to rise more and more. They're not as dangerous financially to develop and can be distributed online, which takes away the idea of used games (something that many game studios seem to want). Not to mention they cut down production costs substantially.