Rockstar using new Payne voice actor

More details have spilt out of the Game Informer first-look feature on Max Payne 3, revealing that Rockstar Vancouver is ditching James McCaffrey, who voiced our hero in the first two games.

According to the piece, Rockstar believes it needs someone older, but doesn't intend to replace him with an established star, VP of development Jeronimo Barrera pointing out, "We're good at [casting]."

The game will, however, retain a lot of the series' calling cards, despite this being the first Max Payne game developed in-house at Rockstar (the first two were by Remedy), and despite the switch of location to Sao Paolo, Brazil.

"All the Max Payne themes will remain intact - manipulation, betrayal, and the stuff that really made Max Payne," said art director Rob Nelson. And yes, the internal monologue will be coming back, like a serpent coiling around the soul of an egg-yolk pregnant with nauseating uncertainty.

"Will there be night-time levels in the rain? Probably, but level after level of that stuff would get old, so we thought it would be interesting to put him in this environment. You have the very rich living next to the very poor, and that creates a lot of tension," added Nelson.

There's not a whole lot more detail available on the game than that yet, except the previous revelations that it has a cover system, Bullet Time returns, Max is bald and addicted to meds, and there's unspecified multiplayer on the way.

Max will be able to take human shields, and will be able to recover from near-death with a last-minute bullet to his murderer restoring some adrenaline. You can also expect the slow-motion gunplay to expand out into more elaborate set-pieces.

For now though, that's roughly your lot, give or take. Watch out for our own preview, hopefully, in the next few months.