Max Payne 3

[GamerMan316]

A lot of fans of the Max Payne series have been hesitant to get completely excited about Rockstar's third installment in the series, largely due to the unfamiliar setting of San Paolo, Brazil, and the obvious aesthetic changes undergone by the game's titular anti-hero. Perhaps their fears will be abated by a recent Game Informer preview of the title, which analyzes the big differences between the first two installments and the boldly redesigned threequel.

The preview mentions a few intriguing gameplay additions, including improved Bullet Time physics (thanks largely to the implementation of the Euphoria engine), and a cover system, which the game's devs promised would be optional. The article also explains the aforementioned aesthetic shifts. For instance, we learned that this older version of Max Payne isn't actually chubby. His beefier frame can be attributed to muscle, not obesity. That makes sense -- a diet consisting solely of whiskey and painkillers probably isn't loaded with saturated fats.








Game Informer Preview

[GamerMan316]

Max Payne 3 delayed until late 2010

In a new financial earnings and projection report, Take-Two has dished out news of Max Payne 3's release. The game's been pushed back -- we like to imagine in incredibly slow and dramatic fashion -- to the company's fiscal Q4 2010. In real time, that translates to a three-month period spanning August–October, 2010. The game was previously pegged for an unlikely Winter 2009 release.

Based on what we've seen of Max Payne 3 so far, we'd say that bumping back its release is a good move. Max is in serious need of some Jazzercise and a decent dry cleaner, so this extra time will hopefully get him into better shape to handle the countless waves of bad guys he'll be indiscriminately shooting in the face.

[GamerMan316]

Max Payne 3 skips Take-Two's 2011-2012 release schedule
Company says more news on the delayed game will arrive in the coming months

As part of its strong full year financial results, Take-Two has updated its release schedule for 2011-2012, with some promising looking inclusions and one glaring omission - Max Payne 3.

The long-delayed Rockstar title's absence from the release schedule was noticed by Kotaku, which received the following statement from publisher Take-Two.

"We're still working hard on Max, and we'll have more news in the coming months."

Not much to go on there. Could the game have run into even more problems? Max Payne 3 was most recently delayed in June 2010, with Take-Two saying at the time that it wouldn't see the light of day before April 2011.

Thankfully, Take-Two's release schedule for the next two years (below) already includes some brilliant looking games, including LA Noire and BioShock Infinite.

L.A. Noire (Xbox 360, PS3) - Spring 2011
Top Spin 4 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) - Fiscal 4Q 2011
Major League Baseball 2K11 (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) - Fiscal 4Q 2011
Duke Nukem Forever (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) - Calendar Year 2011
Spec Ops: The Line (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) - Fiscal Year 2012
XCOM (Xbox 360, PC) - Fiscal Year 2012
BioShock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) - Calendar Year 2012

[GamerMan316]

Max Payne 3: Can Rockstar deliver without Remedy?
Heading to Brazil for some Marlowe-meets-Macarena...

Since tortured Big Apple dick Max Payne brought The Matrix's 'bullet time' kicking and screaming into gaming in 2001 we've been carpet-bombed by the bastard mechanic.

Tequila time, focus meters - if we see one more goon die in a slow-mo gorestorm of his own viscera it'll send us to (The Big) sleep.

Hard to believe that this slew of imposters all spawned from Payne's tortured belly; meaning our tired antihero's facing his biggest challenge yet: reinventing everything. Himself. His world. His mechanics.

BRAZIL NUTS
He's certainly made an unexpected start. It's off to Brazil we journey, where a down-on his-heels Maximilian is on the rampage in Rio - having chucked in the shield for a private security firm.

Hardboiled B&W in the technicolor land of the carnivale? Believe it.

Rockstar are aware that the shooter envelope needs pushing, so bank on a sophisticated cover system and environs that pack in a level of destructibility unseen since the last Red Faction, for starters.

Now he's also a firm fan of (read: addicted to) painkillers, expect Max's dependency to directly impact upon the blasty bits too. Whether that's some kind of rage mode riff or a more sophisticated flashback-themed formula remains unclear right now, though.

A caveat: this new Max Payne is being helmed by Rockstar Vancouver, who brought Bully to 360 in 2008, rather than Alan Wake coders Remedy, but given Rockstar's propensity for sharing tech and knowledge between internal studios, that shouldn't be a problem.

Remedy might be out, but the brains behind GTA and Red Dead are in. There's nothing sinister about the delay until some time later in the year either.

Rather, after the rip-roaring critical and commercial coup that was Redemption, the smoothest devs in gaming have opted to give other major release L.A. Noire time to breathe on release.

Ergo, expect nothing less than the next generation of third-person blasting... well, until Gears of War 3 turns up, anyway.

[GamerMan316]

Two new screens released by Rockstar

[GamerMan316]

Max Payne 3 returns - New details
Rockstar talks story, slow-mo and blood-splatter

Edge's upcoming issue offers up a shed load of new details on Max Payne 3, after the mag got a first-hand look at Rockstar's take on the gritty, vengeful shooter.

Although headed by Rockstar Vancouver, Max Payne 3 is to be considered a "Rockstar Studios production," says Edge, since it's now a collaborative effort with talent from the entire Rockstar Fleet, including London, Toronto and New England on board,

The mag tells us that number 3 is set eight years after the events of the second game, with our anti-hero being out of the NYPD, now working as a private security contractor in São Paulo.

He also has a full head of hair, as revealed by the first screenshots released last week, though Max later morphs into the bald, booze-soaked hulk we initially expected from Rockstar.

Edge likens the Max Payne 3 experience to Half-Life, describing "a feeling that you're not the hero, you're just one agent making your way through a violent and disordered world."

Bullet-time is again charged by killing enemies. Edge describes "a layer of beauty to match its gameplay impact. As with RDR, the level of graphical detail on offer delivers astonishing action moments - glass smashes, blood spurts, furniture collapses - but here it's fragmented and slowed to show off the fine physical elements."

Original Max Payne voice actor James McCafferty is also confirmed to be reprising his role on the game, and this time he'll be acting out the part in full motion capture.

[GamerMan316]

[sambo]

The Max Payne 3 release date will be 1st December 2011, according to Amazon and GameStop.

Amazon, in an email to customers (caught by RockstarWatch), claimed the game's date had been "changed by the publisher".

RockstarWatch also discovered entries for Max Payne 3 in new Nvidia graphics cards drivers. And why would they be there if the game wasn't close?

Nevertheless, lack of Max Payne 3 press six months from release raises questions.

But there are glimmers of hope: magazine previews of Max Payne 3 surfaced in April, and Take-Two insisted the game was "still in development" in May.

But Max Payne 3 still remains absent from Take-Two schedules and earning calls. And we heard similar shop-related predictions about Max Payne 3's intended 2009 release date back at the time.

Treat this, then, with caution.

[GamerMan316]

Max Payne 3 reveal imminent

Looks like Rockstar is finally preparing to take the wraps off Max Payne 3.

The developer posted two new screenshots on its official site today, which you can check out below, along with a message stating "expect a lot of news in the next few months."

Aside from a few detail-light magazine previews earlier this year, very little has been heard about the follow-up to 2003's Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.

Originally scheduled for release way back in 2009, the delayed title is still without a current date, though a number of big retailers recently pegged it for a December launch.

[nCogNeato]

'bout time   

[zerosum]

If the December rumor turns out to be fact,....this is going to be a hibernating-type holiday season.

[GamerMan316]

[Windedprism]

Max ''Bullet Time'' Payne epic.

The first game is a classic true and true, probably the first true ''next gen'' title I played on pc all those years ago, that story was dark.

[nCogNeato]

I want to see a Grumpy Old Men machinima starring Max Payne, Sam Fisher, and Solid Snake.

[ASYLUM NINJA]

Gravelly voice overload