The playable demo of Max Payne has been released. Couldnt get a mirror going here in time though, sorry guys. At any rate the demo is 130megs and available from a few places which we'll add to the mirror list here as they appear. The demo includes the tutorial as well as the first couple of levels that are in the retail game. You can shoot people and do it in slow motion if you like. I did a Shack preview here if you never really looked at the game for some strange reason. Download locations:

3D Realms
- WorldOnline
- BluesNews
- 3DGamers
- FilePlanet
- Games Radar
- BonusWeb
- GamesWeb

Another .plan update from Joe Siegler at 3DRealms announces that the Max Payne playable demo will be released tomorrow now for sure. Not much in the ways of details on the content but I recall seeing a mention of it including two separate areas from the game.

Folks, the Max Payne demo will be coming out tomorrow. I'm currently in prep for it - talking to several locations where you'll be able to download it from. Full details will be posted tomorrow, but I've already got some lined up overseas, so you folks who aren't in the states should have a better response time when downloading.  The file size will be 137,163,202. Will have another update tomorrow when it's released. You can also keep an eye out on the 3DR main site for the download locations tomorrow. :) If you are willing to mirror the file (especially if you're a non US FTP site), please drop me a line, and I'll email you back with details.

According to this .plan update from Joe Siegler, the Max Payne playable demo is getting ready for a release. It's gonna be pretty hefty at over 100 megs and they are looking for mirrors. I'll attempt to get a Shack mirror ready although I'm not quite sure we are gonna have stuff in place quite yet.

A new official Max Payne editing tutorial has been added to the game's website. This time on the Particle FX tool, which is (very surprising) the particle editing tool.

According to the 3D Realms website, Max Payne has displaced the Lord of Destruction expansion pack for Diablo 2 and is now the best selling game in the US. The game is also still the #1 seller in the UK for the fourth week in a row.

3D Spotlight has posted a tweak guide for Remedy's Max Payne. Max requires a nice system to run with all graphic options enabled, 3D Spotlight explains what all the Advanced options are for and how to set them.

If you are still waiting for the Max Payne demo to be released, according to a post on the 3D Realms forums (down for maintenance again at the time of writing) you will have to wait a little while longer. Here's what one of the Remedy guys had to say

Getting the demo out has taken a lot longer than we expected. This is mostly due to the fact that we all took a break and vent on a brief vacation to recharge batteries. Now we're back and working hard, but I'd estimate that it's still going to take two weeks or so, as there's loads of other high priority stuff that we need work on as well.

If you only recently started playing Max Payne and got stuck or want to see some easter eggs, you might wanna check out the Max Payne guide that Gamespot has posted. It has weapon and bullet-time strategies, a walkthrough for all 3 parts, cheat codes and an overview of easter eggs.

The Reverend's Pulpit has an interview with Markus Mäki, chief technology officer at MadOnion and one of the founders of Remedy. Most questions are about Max Payne and its MaxFX Engine.

3D Realms sent along word that the official Max Payne site has been updated with some tutorials for MaxED, the Max Payne level editor. Today's tutorials deal with getting started with the editor, creating your first simple level, texturing and basic lighting. Later tutorials will explain how to use dynamic lighting and objects, AI scripting and more.

Payne Reactor has the official texture pak for Max Payne available now. You can download individual packs or just a big 43mb one. These can be used to release free levels on the net.

Xezol let us know he's started a walkthrough for Max Payne for if you're stuck in the game. It's mostly screenshots showing you where to go. It's finished up till Chapter 7 of Part 1.

If you are a loser and want to cheat in Max Payne, the cheats are listed here. When you use them everyone here will point and laugh at you.

As expected, the Max Payne patch has been released. This should hopefully fix the problems for those people who are seeing their own desktop instead of the game.

- Exit to desktop stability issues addressed: The issues with the game crashing into Windows' desktop when loading a new map have been addressed.
- Game doesn't start with some CD-Rom drives: A newer version of SafeDisc copy protection is used. If the game still doesn't start up, please contact support@talonsoft.com. Please include detailed hardware configuration information from your PC including CD-ROM model and operating system

You can download the 6.2mb patch from eDome (Finland), 3D Files, Blues News, Gameplex or PC Zone.

The MaxPayne website has been updated with some word on a patch that addresses a couple of issues discovered since the game release. They are already set to release it later today.

Remedy's Petri Järvilehto made a forum post here about the Windows 2000/GeForce 3 problem that Max Payne seems to have for some people. Its most likely a driver issue since, as is often the case, the problem wasn't found during testing.

The 3DRealms website has been updated with a bunch of pics etc of Max Payne shipping and the all-nighter they went through getting all the boxes packed and out to the post office.

Max Payne is arriving in stores around the US today (and has already apparently shown up overseas). Even that goofy klerck guy who works at EB confirmed it. Bum deal about the 3DR direct orders getting detained. Those guys should get their orders on Friday. This is the first game I've previewed in quite a while so I'm anxious to see how many people agree or disagree (you fool!) with what kind of reactions the game will get.

[more pictures of stuff]

If you're just dying for Payne, here's our archive of Max Payne news from Shack Categories.

GeorgeB over at 3D Realms updated his .plan file with the bad news that their copies of Max Payne intended for preorders have taken longer to get to 3DR than intended. This means that instead of today, most people will get the game on Friday. Some stores might get the game today.

Take-Two Interactive has sent out over the biz wire that Max Payne has begun shipping this morning (Meant to post this earlier, forgot!). Assuming you like the game as much as I did it's a recommended purchase or something.