Max Payne 3, eh?

Interesting. Rockstar Games, and not Remedy, is taking up the third installment of the saga involving the troubled cop who can move like Neo. I've always known the Max Payne franchise as charming, funny, extremely dark and among the shorter single-player experiences I've ever come across. I remember full conversations between mobsters that I refused to interrupt with my gunfire until they were finished. I even remember frickin' "Lords and Ladies."

I see that Rockstar's vision of Max veers away from the rugged but somewhat youthful version in the earlier games. Instead, the pic above reminds me a little of Niko, the Serbian protagonist in the GTAIV. I'm also getting a Ray Stevenson from Punisher: Warzone vibe with this look, but I can't tell if the dude's bald. Because what we need, really, is another bald, scruffled badass.

It would be easy to assume all kinds of things about what Rockstar's going to do with Max. Open world? Tons of missions? Quirky mini-games? Social commentary? Horrible things happening to people in gory fashion? I don't know. However, I've never really had issues with the quality of Rockstar's stuff, whether it's Red Dead Revolver or Table Tennis. So if they screw it up, then by all means, pile on. Let's wait until this game is made, though. And according to Rockstar, we'll see it this winter.