Max Payne 3 Emerges From Development Hell

Rockstar Games is known for taking its sweet time developing video games, and Max Payne 3 has been no exception. The game dropped of publisher Take-Two Interactive's release schedule for a while there, and like most Rockstar Games releases, no one was willing to say much about it. All Rockstar Games would promise is that the game wasn't dead.

If the Houser brothers are to be believed, we'll be playing Rockstar Games' interpretation of Remedy Entertainment's gaming noir next March. That's conveniently just before Take-Two's scheduled to reveal its fiscal results for the year. Dropping a highly anticipated Rockstar Games release might help!

Max Payne 3 does take place after the events of Max Payne 2. The first two games were developed by Remedy Entertainment, who spent the better part of the last decade working on Alan Wake for Microsoft. Max has left New York behind, and finds himself acting as private security for a "wealthy industrialist" in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Gangs begin targeting the family he's protecting, forcing Max into action. Something tells me he might have to make a trip back to New York at some point, too.

We don't know much about the gameplay, except that it's third-person again and maintains the series' trademark Bullet-Time mechanics. Bullet-time was a nifty trick in 2001 that's been exploited to hell since. I'm curious to see how Rockstar goes about properly updating it for 2012.

Max Payne 3 will introduce the series to multiplayer, with a teased feature that will somehow "dynamically alter maps," and as per industry standard, a leveling system. Clans are also in the mix.

Rockstar Games keeps teasing that we'll see more of Max Payne 3 soon. I'm looking forward to it.

Payne to the Max! <=== this means i commented without reading

Edit: Now that I've read it, I realize that I don't know how I feel about MP3

I have a lot of love for Max Payne, so I'm very much looking forward to this one =)

Awesomesauce...

When this thing sells insanely well I wonder if Remedy is going to look at Alan Wake like a redheaded stepchild.

Favelas are the new black...... 
 
I'm just sayin. 

Payne to the Max! <=== this means i commented without reading

I hope they don't rip off Man on Fire too much since the plot sounds exactly like it. I'll give it a chance but I doubt it could top Max Payne 2 which is one of the best games ever made.

OH SHI-

Can't wait!

Also, Max Payne 1 is getting ported to iOS, among other handheld devices.

This isn't Max Payne and I'l continue to pretend it doesn't exist.

So the only available information on gameplay is multiplayer? Clans? Whoopdee fuckin doo!! Fat, bald Max in sunny South America and multiplayer...yeah it really sounds like they know what made the previous games so great.

After they've shown screenshots of Max in NY, before landing in Sao Paulo, I've regained some faith in this game.

So is he not bald anymore?

I think if anyone can produce a story with writing and dialogue absurd enough to do Max Payne justice it's Rockstar.

I really liked the look of the old bald version, hopefully elements of that will still be in there

Rockstar practically shits greatness these day so the games going to be outstanding. 

I have an idea in my head of what I want this game to be. A very up close and personal camera on Max, some visceral (yes that word!) feedback when shooting enemies. I really mean VISCERAL, as in you can see the bullets going through and HURTING them, like PAIN, or should I say PAYNE, MAX PAYNE.

Super excited. I love Max Payne.

I think this game should just say MP3 on the box. That would be the my favourite thing about it.

This is awesome and I wish I heard (read) more excitement, 'cause Max Payne deserves it, especially for the fact that Remedy left Rockstar Games of all companies to get it out the doors. I can imagine this'll play almost exactly like Red Dead Redemption though. I just hope it's the same voice actor for Max Payne, if it wasn't it may ruin what is an otherwise recognizable character.  

After they released screenshots last week my guess was the with Rockstar's style of PR they would be launching around March, good to see I was right on the money.

The original Max Payne was in development for 5 years so considering that Rockstar Vancouver shipped Bully in 2006 this would end up being roughly the same amount of time. Bullet time has been overdone since 2001 but nobody has done it better than the Max Payne series, I mean Dead to Rights was the first one that really tried and they were pretty sloppy, the original FEAR got close but it didn't feel quite as tight as Max Payne 2.

Its is stupid and nit-picky but I am really hoping they implement the pause button from the previous games. I loved hitting that right in the middle of a firefight and having a scene of Max diving as he's shooting while a thug is being blown back into a shelving unit and all the little objects on the shelves have just started to fly off and the muzzle flashes from the guns are frozen as the camera pans around Matrix-style. It just always looked so damn cool and no one did muzzle flashes like Remedy did.

Can't wait I love this series it's going to be so great to get back in the Max Payne world again it's been way to damn long.
 
"It was colder than the devil's heart, raining ice pitchforks as if the heavens were ready to fall"

I'm really excited, especially after Rockstar scaled back a little from the extreme change of a bald Max Payne in another land. Can't wait for March!

Finally!

Let's hope they keep the wonderful Max Payne theme melody in MP3

Hopefully this will be the first Max Payne game I'll finish.

Was this game in development hell? Just seemed to me that Rockstar kept it behind the curtains differently than their other games. Not that I was enjoying seeing 2 screenshots with poor lighting every few months.

Also, DAT BOX ART.

Do not fuck this up Rockstar.

Hmmm, Bullet Time hasn't been run into the ground quite as badly as vanilla Stop 'n Pop though, so moving too far in that direction would be a boring choice. Maybe going into cover could sap your time slowing down potion (because you're acting like a pussy, instead of getting all adrenalined up).

I guess there's room for slick looking active reloads, brutal point blank executions, facial animation etc.

This was never in development hell. It was just under Rockstar's schedule and PR cycles. One would expect a professional to realize this, but hey... this is exactly the type of mistake Kotaku Klepek makes.

Whatever Rockstar, just hurry it up and take my money. Everyone knows this will be great.

I'm really worried that this is not what I want it to be. Max Payne is one of those cases where I need it simply prettier and more. I hope they got Max's voice actor back ..that's really important!

Cant knock it till you try it but its kinda hard to top maxpayne 2 which was outstanding.
 
interested to see how the bullet mechanics work out

I'm willing to possibly give this game a shot when it comes out but I still don't see how it's supposed to be anything than a cash-in on what Max Payne might still be worth to some fans. I love both Max Payne games but this just seems to be some sort of generic shooter. First the weird designs and screenshots that have been out for a while and now these multiplayer teases. It doesn't make any sense. Maybe there just shouldn't be another one of these...

Thank God Max has hair in at least some of the game. I was terrified he was going to be looking like Bruce Willis throughout the entire game. So glad that James McCaffrey is still going to be voicing Max (and no mo-capping Max). He's done a fantastic job in the past.

That was kind of hard to read. I think it was Patrick's instance on using "Rockstar games" instead of just calling them rockstar

It'll probably be a good game but just like with Fallout 3 this will not be a Max Payne game.

Patrick, I'm confused. Did they ditch a lot of the stuff that they showed before such as old bald Max? Or is that still in there?

I hope he becomes fat, bald, painkiller-addicted Max at some point.  That was a really interesting take on him.

Finally!

Let's hope they keep the wonderful Max Payne theme melody in MP3

Patrick, I'm confused. Did they ditch a lot of the stuff that they showed before such as old bald Max? Or is that still in there?

Well, here's hoping Rockstar can actually make a decent feeling shooter. Every game that has been on RAGE this generation tends to feel like shit when you're actually shooting and there is no open world in Max Payne to cover that fact up. I have a bad feeling bout' this one.

Don't care that much about what they're doing with bullettime. What I worry about is the story and the storytelling. Max Payne 2 is one of the few games that have really moved me. I'm a sucker for this depressing noir voice-over comic book style.

Oh, multiplayer? Thanks Rockstar, you just single-handedly unsold me.

@dk3691 said:

I hope he becomes fat, bald, painkiller-addicted Max at some point. That was a really interesting take on him.

Agreed. It was the first realistic step the series took.

@Zabant said:

That was kind of hard to read. I think it was Patrick's instance on using "Rockstar games" instead of just calling them rockstar

Yeah, I can see that. But the problem with just using "Rockstar" is it's too vague since every studio the publisher owns is also called Rockstar. Remember all the bullshit about how LA Noire was not developed by a studio named Rockstar, therefore it didn't qualify as a Rockstar game, to the ignorant? The lack of distinction between Rockstar Games (the publisher) and Rockstar [location] (the studios owned by Rockstar Games) was definitely part of the confusion.

I love Max Payne. I just wonder how much they'll change since games have changed so much since 2004 (Max Payne 2?)

I love Max Payne, its in my top 3 favorite games of all time, I want to see this game BUT I'm really skeptical on how they are going to pull off the whole Brazil thing, it could be cool or completely ruin the game, to early to tell...