Max Payne 3: São Paulo, Panama and Bahia

Max Payne 3 begins with Max retired from the NYPD, spending his days nursing his alcoholism and his addiction to painkillers. After an incident involving the local mob forces him to leave New York, he takes a job in South America. Hoboken, New Jersey, has its own named scene: the Hoboken Graveyard Shootout, which was nominated as a Top Gaming Moment.

Location precision: The game's named Hoboken scene is not tied to a real cemetery in the sources, so the pin marks the city of Hoboken.

The game is set in São Paulo, Brazil, several years after the end of the second game. Max now works in executive protection for the wealthy Rodrigo Branco and his family. Despite his job, a gang manages to kidnap Rodrigo's wife Fabiana at a nightclub while Max is overseeing her protection. Rockstar's research team visited São Paulo several times while making the game.

Location precision: The sources don't tie these scenes to named venues, so the pin marks central São Paulo.

Max goes looking for Serrano and Fabiana in the Nova Esperança favela, and the UFE raids the favela while he is there. Nova Esperança is invented, but it felt real: one Brazilian reviewer wrote that players will believe there is a slum called Nova Esperança. Some of the game's levels do take place in the favelas of São Paulo.

Location precision: Nova Esperança exists only in the game; the pin marks São Paulo as a whole.

The story reaches back to an attack on Marcelo Branco's private yacht in the Panama Canal a few weeks earlier. The yacht's cargo turns out to be money that Victor Branco needed laundered in Panama. The canal also returns in multiplayer, as a Gang Wars map called Canal de Panama.

Location precision: The sources don't say where on the canal the yacht is attacked; the pin marks the Panama Canal.

The story ends a week after the climax in Bahia, where Max overhears news in a bar that the UFE has been disbanded and that Victor has been found dead in prison. Max then takes a walk along the beach as the sun sets. The game names only the state, so the pin marks Bahia, not a particular beach.

Location precision: The game names only the state of Bahia; the pin marks the state, not a beach.