вЂњThose early games were quite groundbreaking in their cinematic approach, had excellent sound design and had a very unique style to them, so we had a really great starting point.вЂќ вЂњWe also set the bar really high for ourselves with some of the other ideas we had, listing out a bunch of things we wanted to take to the next level and checking stuff off as the project progressed. вЂњWe wrote notes on the things we felt they did really well, and the things that we felt were iconic sounds that we would like to expand upon and bring over to the new game,вЂќ says Steve Donohoe, lead audio designer at Rockstar Toronto. The team initially spent extensive time playing the original Max Payne, and Max Payne 2, as they wanted to keep the spirit of these games intact while adding a modern layer of quality. For such an atmospheric game, packed with ballistic sounds and iconic music cues and steeped in noir tropes like MaxвЂ™s regular narration, the audio in Max Payne 3 was obviously a hugely important part of the equation. Max Payne 3 is an incredible example of audio done right. So when you're creating the most immersive experience possible, the most important thing is that it looks as close to reality, or what reality would be if you were in a spaceship, because if it doesn't look right it's not going to suck you in.вЂќ If you look in a mirror or in a puddle and there's no reflection, it's a lot more jarring than if a sound doesn't have quite the right reverb on it, or a low-res texture versus a highly compressed audio asset. вЂњPeople play games to take a dip in another reality because it's fun to escape for a bit.вЂќ вЂњI think that graphics and visuals are the talked about the most because people are much better attuned to seeing if something in the game world is correct or not than hearing if something sounds off. Is audio underappreciated? вЂњI think that the depth of the immersion in a game is what players are looking for,вЂќ says Nick Warseck, audio lead at Rockstar New England. ItвЂ™s empty, isnвЂ™t it? Given how crucial audio is to a truly great game, itвЂ™s interesting the bulk of mainstream video game discourse tends to gravitate towards graphics and visuals. Play your favourite game with your television muted. The effect sound has on a video game, and on players themselves, cannot be understated. But thereвЂ™s a lot more to a video game than just how good it looks. It always has been and it doesnвЂ™t appear to be changing. The video game arms race is a visual one.

Max payne audio fix