Sometimes the things that really grab you about an experience are its flaws. The design-hipster term for this is “wabi-sabi”. I found Max Payne 3 to genuinely elevate itself above the intended gameplay through a badly glitched environment. As I navigated the area, it just got more and more broken and surreal, and suddenly I was drawn back in to the “floating blood trail” dream sequences from the first game, which I never expected to recall fondly. As Max plodded through the disintegrating favela, I began to imagine his voice narrating…
“Brazil. Can’t get the hang of this place. The walls don’t touch the ground… wherever the ground is. I need a drink.”
“The pain flashes bright in my eyes as I turn my back on the cartel’s sky-buckets. Wonderland will have to wait. I have to find Fabiana.”
“First the floor, now the walls are missing. I don’t think I’m ever going to understand South America.”
Fine work. I don’t regard this as a flaw, but rather an Easter egg. Normally you have to play a Bethesda game to get profoundly transformative errors like this.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi
CRAFTMIKE 