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Last Wednesday we added 2001's Max Payne to our growing list of video game classics, presented by MobyGames.com.

Max Payne delighted and surprised many gamers and critics alike when it was released back in 2001 for the PC with its blend of solid 3rd-person shooting and gritty noir-style presentation. The introduction of Bullet Time--which allowed players to slow time to a crawl while dodging and returning enemy fire--was brand new, and quite a huge deal at the time. Comic book-style cut-scenes and some appropriately melodramatic voice-over narration blended with the revenge-themed story to create an experience brimming with as much style as gunplay.

Many of us who loved Max Payne when it first came out played through it multiple times, despite its linear storyline and gameplay. Shacknews user friedram echoes this sentiment, stating, "I really loved this game. My girlfriend (now wife) bought it for me, I must have played through it 5+ times."

Max Payne's popularity also spawned some fan-made mods, the best of which was called "Kung Fu 3.0," which empowered Max with some crazy slow-motion martial artistry. Shacknews user Xulu decried our failure to mention the popular mod in our initial post, which you can see in-action, below.

Shacknews user erdstapa recollects the addictive nature of the gunplay, recollecting how he and some friends played the game into the wee hours of the morning. "Two friends came over with the game to check it out just after the release. We played it until 3 A.M., when two of us dozed off," he explains. "In the morning, we found my other friend still in front of the PC barely sitting up and desperately clutching the mouse in his hand and whispering 'Must... play... more...' That's how addictive it is!"

Check out the original Chatty thread for more stories and memories from Max Payne.

Max Payne on MobyGames.com

Max Payne was a police officer of the New York City police. On one terrible day, his wife and newborn daughter were killed by three junkies, who broke into his apartment after having ingested a new designer drug known as Valkyr. After the tragedy, Max quit the police force and joined the Drug Enforcement Administration. Three years later, during a raid on a mafia compound that was reportedly trafficking Valkyr, his best friend and fellow DEA agent Alex is killed, and he becomes the prime suspect in his murder. Now Max is all alone in the cold, snowy night of New York. The mob is out to get him. The police are out to get him. The only way out is with guns blazing, because he has nothing to lose.

Max Payne is a third person shooter stylistically influenced by film noir, "hardboiled" detective stories, and Hong-Kong action cinema. Max can perform rolls and leaps to try and dodge enemy fire. The weapons at his disposal range from baseball bats to Ingram sub-machine guns, grenades, Molotov cocktails, and others. A unique feature of the game is the usage of the so-called Bullet Time - a time-slowing ability that was popularized by the first Matrix movie.

Moby Games Classic is our chance to look back at the games that helped shape the video game industry with the help of our sister site MobyGames.com. It combines a short history lesson on the title and anecdotes from the Shacknews community.

Zynga has launched a closed beta of its upcoming Bingo social game. The game favored by small children and old people alike can be played without having to attend a local fire hall or assisted living center. Zynga is only letting in a limited number of people for the time being, but promises to open the game to a wider audience "very soon."

Zynga touts social features that range from racing against your friends, to getting help from them by filling out spaces on the board for each friend. You can also play with up to six cards at once, and use power-ups to boost your progress. The game sports three settings, including Vegas Lights, Pirate's Paradise, and Farmville Bounty.

Bingo will be part of the Zynga Casino along with Zynga Poker. The company is reportedly interested in moving towards online gambling, which would mean real money on the line in exchange for real prizes. Zynga Casino would probably be at the forefront of that effort.

This Friday! Friday! Friday! Codemasters is offering the first in-game look at Dirt Showdown. Virtual drivers smash! dash! bash! and crash! for your amusement in a trailer and screenshots, giving a gander at how Codemasters is amping up the action in this offshoot of the once-sim-y racing series.

As well as a Demolition Derby mode, Dirt Showdown will pack stuntastic freestyle driving in Hoonigan mode, and full-contact racing on obstacle-strewn tracks. If you're simply looking for a quiet drive in the countryside, you'll have to look elsewhere--doubtless there's a niche German simulator to fulfill your desires.

Dirt Showdown is slated for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in May. Check out the first batch of screenshots here.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a single-player action-RPG, but that hasn't deterred publisher Electronic Arts from locking some of the game's content behind a single-use "online pass." Folks purchasing new copies of Big Huge Game's newest title will find their codes in their boxes, but folks procuring used copies will be in a different boat.

As noted by Destructoid, the "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Online Pass" unlocks the "House of Valor" faction quest, which includes "seven additional single-player quests."

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's online pass revealed

Warner Bros. received some flak for locking Catwoman behind an online pass in last year's single-player Batman: Arkham City. Those without a new code would be able to buy her campaign for an additional $15. EA implemented "online pass" features in Mass Effect 2 as well, locking an extra character and additional missions behind a DLC pay wall.

It's likely (but not confirmed) that the "House of Valor" faction quest will also be available for purchase separately. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning comes out for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on February 7.

We've seen some of the Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer, but a new trailer shows off the combinations of races and classes available as "Special Forces." In it, we see Commander Shepard giving the space-warfare version of the St. Crispen's Day Speech, encouraging the allied alien forces to stop the invasions or die trying.

Taking part in these (seemingly doomed) battles will contribute to your Galactic Readiness as part of the Galaxy at War system. Check out the trailer below.

THQ has laid off an unspecified number of employees today, following the announcement of a new strategic realignment. This round of layoffs impacted the administrative and publishing departments, but didn't touch any of THQ's five internal studios. This latest in THQ's strategy shifts involves shutting down its various child-friendly properties to focus more on "core" games.

Joystiq reports that the unaffected studios are THQ San Diego, Relic, Volition, Vigil, and THQ Montreal -- all studios that focus on core games.

This follows an announcement from earlier this week, in which THQ announced it will focus on core games on existing consoles, emerging platforms, and expand its digital properties. The announcement included the revelation that the company would exit its various licensed kids' properties, while continuing to sell some previously released licensed titles.

"As recently announced, the company is exiting the kids' licensed games category, and is focusing on its core game franchises and developing its digital initiatives," THQ said in a statement. "The company will provide greater financial detail regarding the costs and organizational benefit on its third quarter 2012 conference call scheduled for Thursday, February 2, 2012."

When the publisher began closing studios last year, its silver lining was healthy projections for Saints Row: The Third and the uDraw peripheral game. Saints Row managed to sell through 3.8 million copies, but the uDraw saw weak sales that led to layoffs. Given these results, it's not surprising that now THQ is leaning more on core games, and less on family-friendly titles.

Plenty of game developers publicly expressed their opposition to SOPA and PIPA, but perhaps none quite so fiercely as Red 5 founder Mark Kern. His company pulled the beta in protest, canceled E3 plans, and launched a non-profit protest group called the "League for Gamers." Now that the controversial bills are effectively dead in the water, Kern has shared some thoughts on his motivation for such vocal opposition.

"If you hold an opinion that differs from the gamers, and you think that it will benefit them in the long run, that's okay," Kern said. "But the fact that you're not saying that to them, when you've enlisted their support in the past and are now completely unresponsive, I think that was disingenuous.

"And as the outrage grew - this is conjecture on my part - I think they found themselves between a rock and hard place. 'Oh my gosh, we really do have competing values here.' To me, it looked like they went into paralysis mode, and then afterwards when both bills were shelved, that was kind of damage control, to come out and say, 'Actually, we're withdrawing support.' They were trying to have their cake and eat it too," Kern told GamesIndustry.biz. He says he was "disappointed" that the withdrawal was "wishy-washy."

That withdrawal he's referring to came several hours after major backers of the bills, like Senator Harry Reid and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, publicly stated they were putting the bill on hold.

Kern suggests these pieces of legislation, and others in the future, are the product of old thinking. "What you're seeing is a reaction to try and preserve the old business model, and so you've got big companies lining up on one side and a lot of small studios lining up on the other," he said. "Small studios are tired of being reliant on publishers, for distribution, for finance, for everything else. It doesn't have to be that way any more."

As for the League for Gamers, Kern says that his lobbying group and gamers need to be mindful of future attempts to make similar legislation. He warns that ACTA is being pushed under the guise of "anti-counterfeiting," and that lawmakers might try to split the bills into component parts. "So it's going to be a lot more subtle next time, and we're going to have to be that much more attentive," he said. "It might involve looking at multiple pieces of legislation and figuring out if they're coalescing into something that would be detrimental to the internet and to gaming."

Q-Games' PixelJunk Eden is on its way to Steam next week. The game will cost $9.99, and will include the "Encore" expansion pack for free.

New to the PC release is the ability to warp back to your last resting position, helpful for when you take a one-minute long fall off the top of the level. Plus, you can save your progress within each garden, so you can pick up where you left off rather than restarting from the beginning.

Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert hinted at future Steam releases in the PixelJunk series, citing Eden as merely the first one. He describes why he chose to make Eden the Steam series debut. "When I was thinking through the catalog of PixelJunk games, Eden was the one that stood out to me as perfect for the Steam audience," Cuthbert said. "The beautiful graphics and colors are striking on a PC monitor especially at higher resolutions than the standard 'HDTV' 1080p and the game is perfect for the more point/click style that comes with mouse control."

The game and its soundtrack will be available on February 2. Q-Games teased that early purchases will be available for 20% off.

Having fallen out of vogue for a few years, the 'fast cars, big guns and loud rawk music' racing subgenre may be staging a comeback. lead by the new Carmageddon and Twisted Metal. While Carmageddon is still a while out, Eat Sleep Play's Twisted Metal is speeding towards stores soon, and next week you'll get to give it a bash it with a multiplayer demo.

The revelation came on this week's episode of the PlayStation Blogcast (via Joystiq), but about all we know is that it's a multiplayer demo coming on January 31. More details are promised soon.

Twisted Metal is headed to PlayStation 3 on Valentine's Day, February 14. The first print run comes with a free code to download 2001's Twisted Metal Black, but, unfortunately, the game another code that's far less welcome--an 'online pass,' which creator David Jaffe is not happy about.

Look, here are some real people pretending to be video game characters, and, more importantly, ridiculous vehicles attempting to destroy each other:

If today's Nintendo news has you sweating with anticipation for the Wii U, you won't have to wait much longer. The Japanese games maker promises to showcase the system in its "final format" at E3 later this year. If you want to buy the system, you'll be pleased to know that the Wii U will be on sale "in time for the year-end sales season."

While we will undoubtedly have to wait until E3 to see the system's launch library in action, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says that it will be key to launch the system with key games. He points to the 3DS, which many pointed to as a disappointing follow-up to the DS line. Nintendo blamed the lack of key launch titles as a reason for the handheld's sluggish start. "The company is aiming to firmly complete the development of the entire system and prepare sufficient software so that the Wii U will be at its best at the time of the launch," Nintendo's Satoru Iwata promised. "Needless to say, we have learned a bitter lesson from the launch of the Nintendo 3DS."

3DS sales have surged over the recent months, thanks to a price cut and the launch of two Mario games.