Max Payne 3 resurfaces with new details
Time-jumping story shows young and old.
Update: Max Payne 3 will feature online multiplayer. How wasn't detailed. I skipped over this fact earlier.
Original story: MIA Rockstar game Max Payne 3 is firmly back on the radar. And Max has sprouted hair for the occasion.
A pair of screenshots released late last week preceded a new round of previews - the first tumbling from Edge magazine (scanned by Rockstarspy), the front cover of which shows a hairy Payne with a crazed expression holding his head in his hands.
The newly-spotted hair signifies a time-jumping story that begins with a kidnapping in Brazil. The heavier, older, balding Max we've seen previously comes later, perhaps in other locations.
Hours of motion-captured performances spruced up by the Euphoria engine - as well as showy set pieces and comic-style collages of gameplay - will lend the story a cinematic edge.
Original Max Payne actor James McCafferty will play a part, but not the main part. Who will be Max Payne is a question that remains unanswered.
Max Payne 3 has a radial menu for weapons in addition to cover mechanics and expendable scenery. Signature Max Payne abilities shoot-dodge and Bullet Time return, with the latter charged by killing enemies.
Payne can dual-wield weapons and carry up to three small firearms at once.
Four Rockstar studios - London, Toronto, Vancouver and New England - are collaborating on Max Payne 3.
Crucially, however, we still don't know when Max Payne 3 will be released. The Edge preview suggests a "done when it's done" approach.
Max Payne 3 was suspiciously absent from Take-Two's most recent financial discussions. The game was once pencilled for a late 2010 arrival, but slipped before disappearing entirely.
