Rockstar Games announced today that Max Payne 3 has been delayed from March to May. You may commence weeping.

Console owners (X360 and PS3, anyway) will get their grubby little hands on Max Payne 3 on May 15th, while PC players must wait until May 29th. This puts the game in the month that fans have come to identify as belonging exclusively to Rockstar’s biggest releases. (Both Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire released in the month of May.)

As frustrating as this may be for fans, it’s a far bigger deal for publisher Take Two Interactive, because it moves Max out of Take Two’s fiscal year. Their fiscal calendar begins in April and run through March. Accordingly, Take Two is now expecting to post a loss for the current fiscal year.

Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says of the delay, “We do not take changes to our release schedule lightly, and this short delay will ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience that is expected from our company.”

There are any number of possible reasons why the game was delayed. Maybe Rockstar simply wanted to put it into its favorite month of the year, as I mentioned above. Maybe the game needs a final polish and just won’t be ready by March. Maybe Rockstar wanted to clear out of March to avoid conflict with other big-name brands; already scheduled for March of 2012 are expected hits like Mass Effect 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Street Fighter x Tekken, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, and Ninja Gaiden 3.

Until today, it was widely believed throughout the industry that Rockstar might release Grand Theft Auto V this May, but now that seems unlikely.

Max Payne 3 screenshot

…But I don’t. Not yet.

I just don’t get the idea of taking a series that’s built on hard-boiled, noir-y darkness, and moving it to exotic, sun-soaked Brazil. What is Rockstar Games thinking with Max Payne 3?

The first Max Payne was a revelation, immersing players in an emotional story of righteous revenge in highly original ways. It was a tightly-woven tale wrapped in a game that pushed the medium forward with John Woo-style gun play and bullet time physics — long before Woo or The Matrix came to video games. The second game was pretty much “more of the same,” but at least the developers were smart enough to know not to screw up a smart formula that worked.

Max Payne 3 picks up the story and the character eight long years after the events of the second game, and rather inexplicably changes the formula in very drastic ways. And no matter how many trailers and developer videos that Rockstar releases showcasing how they’re using the latest technology to create a Max that’s more gee-whiz eye-popping than ever — and the tech does look impressive, I’m not disputing that — I just can’t get my head around this new setting. No matter how much research Rockstar conducts to ensure serious realism. Not to mention the screenshots that show this older Max going all John McClane, sporting a newly bald head and wife-beater.

Call it a classic case of cognitive dissonance if you want. And maybe I’ll feel differently if/when I get the chance to play the game for myself. I’m all for bold choices in game design; we need all of the envelope-pushing we can get. But from the outside looking in, Max Payne 3 — which was written by Dan Houser, the writer behind several of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto games as well as Red Dead Redemption — feels like an unnecessary course change that sends Max into the familiar “blistering sunset” aesthetic of Rockstar’s other games.

I hope I’m wrong. Max deserves better. In the meantime, check out the latest game video and screens.

Rockstar Games today made it official with the very first teaser trailer for Grand Theft Auto V. And here it is. The game introduces a brand new protagonist, set in “Vinewood,” which GTA fans will recognize as an version of an alternate Hollywood.

From what can be gleaned from the trailer, the new main character is some kind of career criminal, but he moves to L.A. — sorry, Vinewood — to settle down and be “a family man.” But this is Grand Theft Auto, so it ain’t about cuddle time with the wife or tucking the kiddies into bed. We don’t even get so much as a name for this new protagonist, but I’m sure those kinds of details will trickle out over the months to come.

The trailer shows off a new game engine capable of some impressive-looking graphics and effects, and what appears to be the kind of sprawling, open-world sandbox that GTA players have come to expect. (I’ll be surprised if this game world isn’t the biggest the series has ever done.) But the focus of the trailer is on showing off how well Rockstar has captured the L.A. lifestyle and culture. All the little details — the beautiful beach, the exercise-obsessed residents, the sunny, smog-filled metropolis — ooze L.A. atmosphere.

If you’re hoping for a release date, you can keep dreaming. This is an announcement trailer and nothing more, a first step of what’s no doubt planned as a carefully orchestrated publicity campaign.

Reactions?

Max Payne 3 cover art

After several bouts of extreme media blackout, Max Payne 3 is finally emerging from the shadows, and Rockstar Games is even ready to reveal a release date. Oh, and Max is defying his bullet-time roots this time by adding something previously unthinkable: multiplayer.

It’s been a long time since we last saw Max Payne. The first two games were the creation of Finish developer Remedy Entertainment, who handed over the keys to the franchise to Rockstar Games for future installments after 2003′s Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Now we fast forward 9 years to March 2012, when Max’s third story will finally be told.

Max Payne 3 (which apparently has no subtitle), finds Max having left behind the NYPD to take a job as a private security consultant in Sao Paulo, Brazil. There, he’s hired to protect a wealthy industrialist and his family, but then there’s the inevitable double-cross by local gangs, which sends this older, more cynical and world-weary Max on a quest for the truth. And this is Max Payne, so he is of course still haunted by the losses of his past.

Rockstar intends this to be the beginning of a new series of adventures for Max, which I imagine is probably the reason for the drastic change in locale. The sunny, tropical look of the new game is an odd choice for a series that’s always been so strongly identified with nighttime noir. I’m still not sold on the bald-and-grimy John McClain look that the character’s been given for this new entry either, though I am heartened by the fact that actor James McCaffrey, who gave Max his voice in the first two games, has returned for the third installment, lending not only his voice but a motion capture performance as well. Bullet time remains a staple of the action, along with cinematic gun fights, realistic weapons, and an intelligent cover system.

Along with the release date, Rockstar revealed today that the third game will introduce multiplayer to the saga, with a brand new take on PvP gameplay. Details are scarce, but the developer describes multiplayer as “a compelling experience that dynamically alters maps and mode progression for all players in a match.” I have no idea what that means, but it sounds impressive. You’ll also have leveling and rewards, clans, and strategic load-outs.

Rockstar is expected to release Max Payne 3 next March for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Take a gander at the cover art and a pair of new screenshots that were released today.

Max Payne 3 screenshot

Max Payne 3 screenshot

L.A. Noire, arriving May 17th, is raising the bar for storytelling in video games to an entirely new level. We’ve heard that kind of hyperbole before, but this time the hype matches the product. Because you have never, ever played a game like this before. I guarantee it.

Developed by Team Bondi in association with Rockstar Games, L.A. Noire is blurring the lines between video games and movies like never before. The biggest buzz about the game is over the advanced motion capture technology being employed to bring the enormous cast of characters to life. Using methods similar to what James Cameron used for Avatar, Team Bondi not only put the actor’s voices and likenesses into the game but also their movements, capturing detailed facial expressions at a level never before employed in a video game.

The result is a video game that features acting on par with the best movies Hollywood has to offer, even though every human you’ll see on screen was made inside the computer. Over 400 real actors — many of them character actors you may recognize, such as Fringe‘s John Noble — appear in L.A. Noire, an 8-square mile free-roaming version of 1947 L.A. that’s teeming with opulence and corruption.

You play as L.A.P.D. Detective Cole Phelps, fighting through the ranks of organized drug trade, murder, racketeering, and arson to uncover a dangerous secret hidden somewhere in the city. You’ll hunt for clues, find suspects, interrogate witnesses, and solve 20 high-profile crimes. It’s a game that took five years to develop and create, but coming from Rockstar Games — the masters of free-roaming realism (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Bully) — I expect nothing less than a finely-tuned masterpiece.

Last year, Rockstar Games revealed that they were working on a return to the Max Payne franchise with an entirely new game engine and “many years later” approach to Max’s story. Max Payne 3 was shown off with some screenshots that showed Max having aged a eight years or so since the last game; he’d put on a little weight, shaved his head bald, and moved to Brazil, where he couldn’t find a decent laundromat. Fans weren’t enthused by what they saw, and Rockstar went radio silent on the game.

Now, Rockstar is ready to talk about Max Payne 3 again, in the new issue of Edge (see the cover below), and while the Brazilian setting remains, Max is looking like a more appealing protagonist. There’s no actual evidence that Rockstar changed its plans regarding Max 3 after the fans’ comments, since all of the previous elements are still there — including one new screenshot of a bald Max (apparently the game shifts back and forth in time). But now that Rockstar is revealing some actual details about the game, it’s starting to make more sense.

Perhaps most interesting is that the game is being built on the same technology that Rockstar used to make Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption, which is being used to bring the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil to life. In the game, Max has been forced out of New York City (we’ll have to play the game to find out why), and relocated to Brazil, where he works security for high profile clients. The storyline itself is under wraps for now, but Rockstar has revealed a pair of new screenshots from the game, which you can see above.

Rockstar is using a load of scripted events and their trademark interactive environments to create a cinematic gaming experience that’s at the next level that Max Payne fans are expecting. Bullet time will be back, as well as voice actor James McCafferty, who starred as Max in the first two games. The developers say that Sao Paulo was chosen because of its strikingly different culture and visuals. This will be Rockstar’s first time at bat for the Max Payne series, since Remedy Entertainment built the first two games.

There’s also a multiplayer component, yet no one’s saying how that’s going to work. Bullet time is such an integral part of any Max Payne game, yet the realtime needs of multiplayer would seem to negate any chance of multiplayer gameplay, so it will be interesting to see how Rockstar addresses that disconnect.

Which was a good thing in a way because Rockstar Games has announced that it will be patching GTAIV to include trophies. The new patch will include 51 trophies, which is one more than the Xbox 360 gamer achievements for the same game.

Bad news for people who’ve played the game before though. The trophies are not retroactive so if you want to get the trophies you’ll have to play the game all over again.