james-mccaffrey
Latest
Max Payne 3 re-emerges in Edge cover story
Last week's Max Payne 3 teaser from Rockstar has turned out to be a surprisingly timely lead-in for Edge Magazine's latest cover story. Edge posted the cover art for its new issue today, featuring Payne (back to a full head of hair), and noted that the magazine would hit UK newsstands on April 12. Of course, it's already in the hands of some subscribers -- and you know what that means. While few details can be gleaned from the short excerpt that Edge itself posted online, full scans and article summaries have emerged across forums and gaming sites, spilling all the beans. The Edge preview gives no indication that, even during all this time laying low, MP3 has undergone any starts and stops -- it's still set in São Paulo, Brazil, and Payne will still be all bald and brutish during points in the chronologically nonlinear plot (the game's missions are going to bounce around). Instead, the article suggests that Rockstar's meticulous pursuit of perfection has slowed development to a crawl (the release date is still noted as "to be confirmed"). Lead development studio Rockstar Vancouver has labored over delivering "a more fully realized cinematic experience," according to art director Rob Nelson (in Edge's excerpt), using NaturalMotion's Euphoria animation engine to blend the cinematic and interactive elements of the game into a seamless experience -- and Edge marvels at the result in the level demonstrated to the magazine.
Max Payne 3 gets different, older voice actor
We've already seen the new, grizzled face of Max Payne in upcoming sequel Max Payne 3, and found out a few details on the game from Game Informer's preview of the title. More news coming out of July's GI today (via Eurogamer) says that the game's titular character will lose the first two games' voice actor, James McCaffrey, and be replaced by, well, we're not quite sure yet. "We're good at casting," Jeronimo Barrera of the game's developer, Rockstar Games, points out. "All the Max Payne themes will remain intact - manipulation, betrayal, and the stuff that really made Max Payne," art director Rob Nelson backs the decision up with. And so it seems that, while the various themes may stay intact, the main character's look and sound have absolutely changed. Here's hoping Rockstar doesn't change the title to "Minimum Pleasure!"
