Pre-order Max Payne 3 if you want to stand a chance

Max Payne 3 is the third game in the Max Payne series, and as a Rockstar game, is deserving of some attention already. The game runs on the engine that the future Grand Theft Auto V will be appearing on, and so will provide an exciting glimpse into things for fans of Rockstar's most famous franchise.

This might not be to your satisfaction though: a timed upgrade giving you a distinct advantage over your opponents. Yes, you are reading that correctly. You'll have more damage from your gun than Joe Public if you do some pre-ordering. Joe will get the ability in the future since it is a timed upgrade, but in the mean time you can pretty much stomp him into the ground. This is similar to the perk system in Call of Duty 4, with nobody settling on anything other than the perks with the 'always-on' advantage of more damage, or more health. Rockstar might want to be very careful with this move, since it could quickly annoy the people who intend to buy their next release as well.

After being posted earlier today on Reddit, the thread in r/Gaming has managed to gain quite a lot of attention in a short space of time, rocketing onto the frontpage. It's not false though; Amazon.co.uk seriously does list this as a bonus. Opposition to this has been brought up in the thread, with people saying they intend to avoid purchasing the game now. Others say that they'll still buy it, but their interest was only ever for the single-player campaign. As typical for Reddit though, the contents for the comments could change and become unsafe for work.

Regardless of your stance towards pre-order DLC, whether it is a timed exclusive or not, you can't really say increasing someone's overall damage online is going to be fair. Other pre-order bonuses for games typically provide one more powerful weapon, which tends to be outclassed later on again by what can be unlocked through normal playing. Since this is a timed exclusive it could be a redeem code, in which case the content could be made publicly available in the future, or the functionality could be unlocked by reaching a certain online rank. However it works, it's going to do a good job of frustrating those who don't have the same weapon damage.