14 DAY TRIAL // Take-Two Interactive suffered quite a blow this morning after it announced a drop in its full-year predictions for earnings. Following the model of the self-fulfilling prophecy, the company already paid the consequences for telling the truth and its stock dropped by 21 percent. Related or not, its fiscal report also revealed that the well-anticipated Max Payne 3 had suffered another delay. First announced for a 2009 winter release and then pushed back into the first half of 2010, the game is now expected to be ready no earlier than August 2010, as its release is now part of the August-October period.
The third installment in the series has moved on from its previous developers, the Finnish team of Remedy that is currently working on Alan Wake. The new developer, Rockstar Games' Vancouver studio, took quite a few liberties with the original concept of the character, and the new Max Payne won't have a lot of things in common anymore with the one we first encountered as Roscoe Street Station.
The new design of Max doesn't fit at all with the noir atmosphere of the previous titles, and, while expectations are running high for the game, it will most likely fail to live up to the standard set by the two titles developed by Remedy.
The few details that were revealed concerning the game, some art concepts and a teaser trailer, depict the former New York detective as an older Max, living in a Rio de Janeiro slum, having gained a few pounds and sporting an eye-blinding, perfectly polished scalp. While the gunfire seems to have remained in the game, the original context and story seem to have been completely butchered.
The title may have moved to a new development team that wants to leave its mark on it and set it apart from the previous ones, but that's mostly a bad sign for us, since we've grown accustomed to and fond of our rebel detective.