Have you found yourself preoccupied with thoughts of diving through windows and shooting men in slow-motion? Don't worry, now that Max Payne 3 has been delayed, that's perfectly natural. Simply watch the new trailer focused on weapons and targeting, and you'll find any itching in your trigger finger will soon subside.
[Update: 09:53] Rockstar has told Shacknews that it has no official comment on why Max Payne 3 is hitting PC a fortnight after consoles.
[Original] Rockstar's Max Payne 3 has dove sideways in slow-motion through its planned March 2012, shattering it, and is now heading towards a May launch, parent company Take-Two has announced. The extra time will be used, naturally, to properly finish the game.
Influential open-world game Grand Theft Auto III is hitting its ten-year anniversary, and Rockstar is answering fan questions as part of a retrospective series. The latest batch of questions have to do with mysteries and rumors surrounding the game, especially the notion of cut content due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Read more: Rockstar calls more extreme theories 'nonsense' »
Both the Android and iOS editions of Grand Theft Auto III support user mods originally made for PC, cunning players have discovered. It's a bit wonky, but people have had luck bringing in new cars, textures, songs, and more.
There's something timeless and magical about driving atop sidewalks through groups of horrified civilians as the song "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)" blasts over the radio of a stolen vehicle.
Grand Theft Auto 3, the Rockstar classic, is now available for iOS and select Android devices. When the game first launched in 2001, it pushed the PlayStation 2 and game design. That tradition continues today, proving mobile platforms can feature wild, expansive worlds I never thought possible.
Rockstar is attempting to make its upcoming "special edition" of Max Payne 3 truly special, by enforcing a pre-order cutoff date. From now until January 15, you'll be able to lay down $100 on a premium bundle that includes the game, a 10" tall Max Payne statue created by TriForce, a series of original art prints, a bullet-shaped keychain, the official soundtrack, and a bundle of multiplayer DLC.
Rockstar Games, like the rest of the industry, has been learning about what makes DLC successful. For example, the sizable expansion packs for Grand Theft Auto IV may have been too big and too expensive for their own good. "Maybe $10 is a more exciting price point," Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser admitted.
Grand Theft Auto IV's two expansion packs--The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony--greatly underperformed, in spite of critical acclaim. "I think the two GTA episodes, from a creative standpoint, were absolutely fantastic. We are very, very, very proud of them."
Rockstar's getting technical in a new series of Max Payne 3 trailers, kicking off with a look at its targeting, bullet time, animation, and AI. You needn't even ask: yes, things do get shot and explode in slow-motion.
Max Payne 3's "extremely detailed" animation system blends thousands of animations, the trailer explains, and uses the Euphoria tech (as seen in Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption) to make things fall over nicely. Make Max twist and follow the crosshair with his movements, and you have a man who looks great shooting other men. Slightly less great when he's bald, mind.
LA Noire received critical praise and a lot of attention for its facial animation tech, but its launch was amid buzz of studio troubles. Now studio head Brendan McNamara has commented on Team Bondi's shuttering, blaming it on poor project timing. He also talked about his relationship with Rockstar, and compared his reputation to a sandwich spread.
If you've spent some time investigating crimes in LA Noire, you know that detective Cole Phelps has the ugly tendency to treat everyone as a hostile witness if you pick the wrong option. Grandmothers, children, the weeping families of deceased victims -- none are safe from Cole's reign of arbitrarily aggressive terror.
So what's the deal? Apparently in the recording sessions, actor Aaron Staton was given slightly different phrasing to describe Phelps' reactions, resulting in the disconnect.
For better or for worse, Max Payne 3 has multiplayer. Little is known about the competitive addition to the franchise, and many fans are concerned about whether Rockstar can deliver a multiplayer experience fitting of the franchise.
Dan Houser, one of Rockstar's co-founders and lead writer of the upcoming game, hasn't revealed much on how the multiplayer will operate, but did promise that it will integrate with the main narrative.
"We wanted to put some elements of single player into the multiplayer so the multiplayer will have a lot more detail and have elements of story in it and have a sort of an immersive quality," he said.
It's been over seven years since Rockstar put San Andreas on the digital map. And like the Hollywood denizens parodied in Rockstar's games, the city only looks better with age. YouTube user CreativityZone has recreated the Grand Theft Auto V debut trailer entirely in the San Andreas engine, and it gives us a good idea of how far technology has come.
Little may be known about the upcoming sequel (you can read our theories here), but one thing is very clear: this is a much, much prettier game.
On Wednesday, we revealed the next MobyGames Classic title was Rockstar's genre-defining Grand Theft Auto 3.
Released in late 2001, Grand Theft Auto 3 was lauded for its sandbox-like environment that continues to help shape games made today. Ten years after launch, the game has undoubtedly left its mark on the industry as one of the best games ever made. After the break, the Shacknews community shares their stories and impressions of Grand Theft Auto 3, and answer why they feel it's deserving of a spot on our list of classics.
After soaking in the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto V from developer Rockstar North, the staff at Shacknews decided to point out some of the locations in the game seemingly inspired by our home state of California.
After the break enjoy a quick video tour of the trailer through the eyes of a Los Angeles native and a few screen grabs of humorous signs. As an added bonus, you can read our wildly speculative theory on Grand Theft Auto V's story and playable character(s).
While yesterday's Grand Theft Auto V debut trailer revealed that the city of Los Santos would return in the open-world murder simulator, it was unclear whether this would be the only city. After all, when the Los Angeles analogue first appeared in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, we also got to visit GTA's versions of San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Rockstar issued the official announcement of GTAV today, confirming that it's in "a re-imagined, present-day Southern California," exploring "the city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches."
"Tony Scott movie I always thought. But yeah, it looks so fucking serious, none of that ..."
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