Max Payne 3 Uses Individually Modeled Bullets

The new Max Payne video game, which is being developed by Rockstar, is changing a lot about the franchise, from the location of the story to how the hero himself looks, but it seems that one main gameplay mechanics will see little change, apart from update tech.

Rob Nelson, who is the art director at Rockstar working on Max Payne 3, told IGN that, “A massive part of this in all three games is the concept of Bullet Time: the choreography of shooting and manipulating time to create the most precise, action-packed gunplay possible. We want players to get a sensation of placing and reacting to every single bullet with precision and style and getting to savor the results.”

It seems that the core of the Bullet Time experience is the same as in the first two titles in the series, but with modern technology used in order to make it more engaging for the player and with more details included.

Nelson added, “A combination of our RAGE engine, blended animations and Natural Motion’s Euphoria system control Max’s movements, making him react to the world around him realistically, bracing for impact from a diving shoot-dodge or transferring his weight from foot-to-foot while in Bullet Time – the player has an amazing amount of control over the player when running and targeting.”

The art director added that each of the bullets fired by a gun in Max Payne 3 has been individually modeled, meaning that each impact on an enemy or on Max himself is realistic and dynamically generated.

The developers at Rockstar are also adding some small twists to Bullet Time that will be revealed closer to the actual release date for the game.

Max Payne 3 will be launched during March 2012 on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.